FPS General

In the next line of the heart rending, soft-rock ballad that is The War Z, we learned this morning that the official forums for the game have been completely taken offline as a precaution due to malicious hackers gaining access to forum and game data.

A quick visit to http://forums.playwarz.com/ can confirm that the entire forum has been taken offline, although this was done by the publisher as a safety precaution and not directly caused by an attack.

We are sorry to report that we have discovered that hackers gained access to our forum and game databases and the player data in those databases. We have launched a thorough investigation covering our entire system to determine the scope of the intrusion. This investigation is ongoing and is our top priority. As part of the remediation and security enhancement process we will be taking the game and forums down temporarily.

We are issuing this Security Alert to all Survivors as a precaution so you can take some precautionary measures on your own. We have already taken a number of steps to increase security and are continuing to work with external advisors and investigators to identify and implement measures to minimize the chance of this happening in the future.

Clearly, the biggest concern here is financial information that players may have used to purchase the game through the website that hosts the forums. Thankfully, those payments were all handled by a third party and none of that information was compromised in this security breach.

What you need to know is that the hackers now have access to your email address. While all passwords stored in the player database were encrypted, there is always the chance of this encryption being broken so you would be well advised to change your password - particularly if you use the same or similar password for other institutions. You can change your War Z password from the War Z launcher.

Stay tuned to http://forums.playwarz.com/ as they continue to update players on the situation.

The end of 2012 was anything but kind to Hammerpoint Interactive and their zombie survival game The War Z. After a pretty dramatic few weeks, Hammerpoint was feeling the angst of the community in a fiasco that culminated in the removal of the game from Steam.

It was at that point that we decided to take a calculated step backwards from covering The War Z. Well, it's been a few months now so we decided it's high time we take a look at what Hammerpoint has been doing in 2013 when it comes to The War Z and how the game is faring after all that negative press.

The biggest news, perhaps, is the re-launching of The War Z on Steam. On February 26th, Hammerpoint re-released the game on Steam to very little fanfare. No major press releases went out and the forum announcement contained little more than a paragraph and a link to the games Steam page. Noticeably, the game had an updated information section that was more accurate to the content of the actual game than the original listing.

It seems like the major focus these past months has been anti-cheat and dealing with hackers. The War Z became a place riddled with hackers, but this is not unique to the game. Anytime a game gets a decent following, you get a group of hackers that come out of the woodwork to do their level best to ruin the game for everyone else.

There is a special circle in hell for these players. 

Update: The War Z has since been removed from Steam due to complaints from the community that not all of the features being listed are available. We will keep you updated as we learn more! The original story is available below.

Big news today from the Hammerpoint Interactive camp as The War Z foundation release has officially been made available on Steam! This is a step above beta testing and below final release, with a wealth of new features and tweaks.

Hammerpoint Interactive's zombie MMO already sees more than 150,000 daily players, but the Steam release is sure to increase that number exponentially. The foundation release is available now and has been described by Hammerpoint as including:

• Entirety of world map, all areas unlocked
• Tweaked spawn points for loot and players
• Clan support
• Gold Coin shop
• More zombies

On releasing The War Z through Steam, Sergey Titov - Executive Producer at Hammerpoint - said:

“The Steam platform gives us the ability to reach a huge audience of PC gamers and working with their team has been great. Now that we’ve reached the Foundation Release milestone we will continue to work, as promised, to add features and content that will satisfy our community and keep them playing.”

Check out The War Z on Steam at http://store.steampowered.com/app/226700/, where it is currently available for $13.49 - 10% off the normal price of $14.99.

For more information on The War Z, including complete guides on the game world, weapons, zombies, characters, loot and so much more, visit The War Z Wiki at http://www.warzwiki.com/.

I've been re-learning some really good lessons lately while playing games, ways to do better; to suck less, to die less often, to have more fun. Stuff like that. Most recently, I rediscovered one really important thing in my previous play session of The War Z.

Lesson One: Be patient.

Take your time, scan your surroundings. Take it down a notch and play smart. When you don’t play patient you can easily put yourself in situations that aren't safe, and will most likely get you killed. You’ll see what I mean soon.

I find myself running from building to building and only briefly looking out through binoculars from time to time. If you truly want to survive in the War Z, it’s smart to find yourself a nice vantage point; pay attention to where people might be coming from, read chat and sit tight for a little bit. People can spend abnormally long times in buildings picking up loot and rearranging their inventory.

Taking this just a bit further, one way to get your heart pumping is to lie in wait. Stalk your prey and find the perfect opportunity to pounce. I used the Nord Military Base as my hunting ground, its a fairly popular location simply because it’s new and everyone knows military locations can drop some pretty nice loot. I got myself a nice vantage point but with only a shotgun I had to play it safe. I simply waited for some people to get close or I ignored them. No sense in running out in the open for a chance to dying.

By playing patiently I got to set the terms for our engagement, and I chose to give them very little chance to retaliate.

There had been some chatter long before I started the recording the last clip, I cut it out simply because it would have slowed the whole thing down and would have been less interesting. There were 4 or 5 in proximity chat trying to find each other, it seemed to be two groups who had spotted one another and were searching for the other. When I saw one of the guys lead with a hammer I figured it was my chance to act.

Keep reading for a visual look on how you can learn to be more patient in The War Z, helping you ultimately take your game to the next level.

We're not one for the drama here at FPS General, but when the integrity of a developer - one that we know to be passionate and dedicated to their game - is called into question, we feel it's only right to deliver the full story.

A couple weeks back, a former War Z forum moderator took to the Internet to rage a little bit about Hammerpoint Interactive. Devin Hutchinson, alias DevinH, was recently relieved of duties on The War Z forums after his account was compromised by a malicious user. Hammerpoint allegedly made the decision to remove him from moderating after his account was breached and posts on the forum were deleted and tampered with.

This didn't bode well with Devin.

He took to 4Chan and Rhinocrunch.com to share his frustrations, and air what he claimed were some little-known truths about The War Z and Hammerpoint Interactive.

"Everything I stated in that post was actually a lie."

Among his allegations and statements, Devin revealed that Hammerpoint Interactive was going to halt production on The War Z completely if the game did not make them enough of a profit. If players didn't start investing in virtual currency and if new users didn't start buying the game, Hammerpoint was going to throw in the towel. You can imagine that this didn't sit well with players, some of whom have invested their hard-earned money into the game and hundreds of hours playing.

The problem? All of Devin's statements were false.

The former moderator has come out on YouTube today, completely refuting his former claims and revealing that everything he said was not true in any way, shape or form. "Everything that I stated in that post," he said. "Was actually a lie. Nothing in that post was factual or had any real backing to it. I made all of that up, and the reason being is that, at the time, I felt betrayed by the company."

Devin goes on to say that he was simply seeking revenge on Hammerpoint for what he felt was a wrong done to him. He systematically was choosing things that would be feasible enough that the community wouldn't ask questions in the hopes that they would take him at his word. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened with many members of The War Z community.

None the less, Devin has come clean now and we're glad that he has cleared the air on the matter. We firmly believe that games should be judged solely upon their merits as a game. Hearsay and drama in the community has no place in whether or not a game is worth your time, so make sure you visit places like http://www.warzwiki.com/ and our own War Z news hub to see what the game is all about for yourself.

Remember stories like this before you take the word of strangers online.

In just over an hour from now, we are going to be joined by Hammerpoint Interactive for some live streaming of The War Z and a little developer Q&A.

If you're unfamiliar or just getting into the genre, The War Z is a zombie survival MMO, currently in development at Hammerpoint Interactive. The game is available in closed beta right now and making rapid progress to what Hammerpoint Interactive is calling, 'Foundation Release'. Basically, Foundation Release is going to be one final iteration before the game is released in full.

In The War Z, players are tasked with surviving in a post-apocalyptic world, ravaged by the undead. But it's not just zombies that players will have to watch out for, but fellow survivors as well. If you are moving about in the game world, you are under constant threat of being taken out and having whatever goods you may have on your person looted by your killer. It's a harsh world, but that's what makes games like these so much fun.

We're going to be streaming the action live from Colorado, the game world that is, and we're bringing Hammerpoint Interactive along for the action. Join us at http://www.own3d.tv/ at 3:00PM (Pacific Time) today! Check back here at FPS General, as well, where we'll have the live stream embedded for your convenience.

See you in Colorado!

Hammerpoint Interactive has released some more information on the upcoming Foundation Release for The War Z, including some details on the features that will be implemented in Foundation.

Posting on the War Z forums last night, Executive Producer Sergey Titov announced that not only would the Foundation Release be coming in the very near future, but also that The War Z will be released on Steam at the same time. This is great news for users who prefer to do as much of their gaming through Valve's digital delivery and community platform as possible.

As for the Foundation Release, the following features will be ready to go live with this release:

• Clans
• Friends
• Leaderboards
• Server rentals
• New set of building blocks ( aka barricades and USABLE objects like hydroponics systems )
• Call for help functionality
• Accessing your inventory from Safe Settlement without logging out of the game
• New weapons
• Crosshair option in third-person view

Additionally, Titov announced that before the Foundation Release goes live, Hammerpoint will be issuing a full character wipe for one last time. Any credits you have used will be returned to your account, plus some additional as a thank you for playing from Hammerpoint.

There are a ton of new features, updates and tweaks coming in the future in addition to the Foundation Release and Steam arrival. Check out the link below to read Sergey Titov's full forum post for information!

Source: The War Z Forums

Hammerpoint Interactive has announced that The War Z will be launching in 'Foundation Release' later this year, a launch that resides somewhere between final release and beta testing.

As announced by Sergey Titov, Executive Producer on The War Z:

We also spend lots of [resources] preparing to what we call "Foundation Release" - basically state of the game, where we're feel very comfortable about balancing, game features, etc and ready to do final wipe and make game "released". 

Yet we wanted to highlight fact that Release doesn't mean that game development is done and finished. This is why we put word FOUNDATION next to RELEASE. With game being not a product but service to our customers, we're continue to add more features, fixing bugs, adding more content. 

As base release, Foundation Release will include map with all areas unlocked and spawn points, loot, etc tweaked based on feedback we got over last month. We're adding features like a Clans, GC shop ( until now you weren't able to buy GC), adding tons of new small features requested by community. 

After that late December or early 2013 we'll turn on Stronghold servers hosting and it will means that [completely] new metagameplay begins.

Sergey continues, saying that we can expect some more information on the Foundation Release in the coming weeks! Make sure you are following FPS General on Facebook and Twitter to stay connected to the latest War Z updates as they come rolling in.

Source: War Z Forums

 Submit your questions for Hammerpoint right here!

Earlier this week, we attempted to stream The War Z with special guests Hammerpoint Interactive, but due to a handful of technical difficulties - not the least of which included a full server crash in the game - we ended up having to postpone the event. Well, we're happy to say that the rescheduled live stream will be going down today at 3:00PM Pacific Time.

We are going to be streaming The War Z again, but this time we're bringing Hammerpoint Interactive, the studio working on the game, along for the action. We will be exploring Colorado, looting gear and killing zombies to our hearts content.

During the stream, Hammerpoint will be answering player-submitted questions about The War Z. These can range from the current state of The War Z to future plans for content and updates. Our conversation will be entirely dictated by our readers and the stream viewers.

Do you have any pressing concerns regarding The War Z? Post your questions in the forums and we'll do our best to have Hammerpoint Interactive answer them during the stream. Make sure you are following us on Facebook and Twitter, as we'll also be accepting questions through those outlets. The stream itself will be going down at http://www.own3d.tv/FPSGeneral and at the top of this page.

Are you looking for more information on The War Z before you jump into the game? Check out The War Z Wiki at http://www.warzwiki.com/, your complete resource for all things War Z related.

As always, see you in Colorado!

 Submit your questions for Hammerpoint right here!

Happy Voting Day everyone! Today, we're proud to present the first episode in a brand new video series, dedicated to debunking or confirming some of the most popular myths in The War Z.

War Z Mythbusters is debuting today with some of the most commonly discussed myths in The War Z. Some of the topics we investigated for this episode include: 

• Is it true that zombies cannot catch up to you and hit you if you are walking backwards?
• Are zombies attracted to flashlights?
• Can zombies spawn in walls? 

All of these questions, and several more besides, are being answered in the first episode of War Z Mythbusters which you can watch by clicking the image above.

Do you have a myth that you would like us to investigate for a future episode of War Z Mythbusters? Visit http://www.youtube.com/user/FPSGeneral and submit your suggestions! We'll be sorting through all of the suggested myths before we start working investigating our next episode.

Enjoy!

As more and more players begin to play The War Z, there has been a notable increase in malicious players, making use of unsupported software to give themselves an edge in the game. Hackers, in other words. While Hammerpoint is dedicated to putting a halt to their malicious activity, it's tough to balance everything on the menu while providing timely content updates for The War Z.

With that being said, Hammerpoint is shifting their focus slightly, pushing back the integration of clan support in The War Z until the hacking issue has been taken care of. It doesn't matter how many new features are introduced, if the you don't have a game environment that fosters fair, balanced gameplay and Hammerpoint Interactive definitely seems to respect this concept.

The statement from Hammerpoint reads:

"What we're working on, a quick update Hello all, your friendly neighborhood SP here!

I just wanted to drop everyone a line on what's going on over here.

As I'm sure all of you are aware, there's been a lot of discussion lately surrounding the hackers. Over here we've been working round the clock on a solution - however, that's meant we've had to push back Clans a bit, so its looking more like next week. We're also investigating a number of bugs, such as the ability to glitch onto roofs, and item duplication.

In the mean time our design and art teams have been kicking some serious tail getting some polish work in and pushing towards full map completion.

Also - we've fixed the mossberg spawns, and item spawns in general should start rounding out soon (as in a cleaner balance of food to water to weaponry). As always, we love reading your feedback, so keep it coming!"

Just about nobody likes hackers or malicious users, and we'll be happy to see the end of malicious users taking advantage of honest, legitimate players.

For more on The War Z, join us in the forums at http://fpsgeneral.com/forums!

Source: Reddit

Hammerpoint Interactive released some brand new Halloween content in The War Z, but in addition to that content update, the team also released a bugfix yesterday. The patch squashes some pesky bugs as The War Z continues on the road to beta.

Bugs eliminated in yesterday's patch include:

• Zombies AI has been improved. They are also more dangerous now.
• Fixed some crouch/prone issues going over objects. 
• Fixed a bug that would make some players invisible.
• Grass is now visible on all quality settings
• Fixed bug with some items spawning in the air.
• Fixed bug with changing backpack in game.

The patch had some issues rolling out but servers are online and running at capacity. Make your way to Colorado and enjoy that visible grass and lack of floating objects before you are ultimately killed and eaten by Zombies.

Happy Halloween!

Hammerpoint Interactive is celebrating Halloween in The War Z with a huge content update, introducing brand new items, characters and more into the popular zombie survival MMO.

The update - which should go live tomorrow - includes a lot of great new content, including:

• New Characters – new playable characters
• New Zombies – new zombie models
• New Playable Area – entirely new section of game world opened up, including new large cities – effectively doubling the current map size
• Special Themed Items – players will have access to special, Halloween-themed items in the game marketplace

The War Z now has a userbase of over 200,000 players, so there's never been a better time to get into the game. If you're thinking about purchasing The War Z, Hammerpoint is re-introducing the Legend package for a very limited time. This package, which was previously sold out, includes the full game (accessible immediately after purchase), $30 of in-game currency and six months of 'stronghold' server hosting.

The Legend package is available for $54.99 between now and November 4th, 2012. Check out all the purchase options at http://www.thewarz.com/buy.

Don't forget! The team here at FPS General is going to be streaming The War Z today, between the hours of 2:00PM and 5:00PM Pacific Time. Join us at http://www.own3d.tv/FPSGeneral!

Thanks for watching!

Update: the stream has begun! Check it out above and at http://www.own3d.tv/FPSGeneral.

The War Z has been shambling along in closed alpha testing for the last month or so, with Hammerpoint releasing regular bugfixes and server updates to prepare the game for a larger audience. If you've been hoping to see the game in action, you're in luck; FPS General will be streaming The War Z tomorrow - October 30th, 2012 - between 2:00PM and 5:00PM Pacific Time.

We will be exploring Colorado, hunting for loot and dealing death to any zombies in our way and we'd love for you to join us.

The War Z is still in closed beta, so if you're looking to check out the game in action, you won't get many better opportunities than this. You're invited to join us over at http://www.own3d.tv/FPSGeneral where we will be streaming all of the action.

Incidentally, we're also going to be streaming The War Z again in the very near future but next time around, we're bringing some of the good people at Hammerpoint along to answer some of your questions and chat about the game. Follow FPS General on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on when we're going to do that stream.

We'll update this post with a stream embed tomorrow when we go live. See you in Colorado!

*This article previously stated that The War Z was in closed beta. The game, however, is in closed alpha testing. Thanks to JohnHeatz for the correction.*

Getting killed in The War Z can be a breeze. Simply engage zombies equipped with little more than your flashlight, and you should be dinner in no time. Staying alive, however, now that's the challenge!

To help you maximize your life span in The War Z, Small Kiwi has put together a list of tips and tricks that you can employ in-game. Zombies rely on their senses just like you and I, using sight and sound to track you and ultimately eat your delicious brains. By keeping that in mind, you can control your engagements and give yourself a better chance of survival.

Kiwi is a veritable treasure trove of tips and tricks, so if you're in the War Z alpha test and find yourself struggling, this video is a must-watch for you.

Check out the video above and make sure you visit FPS General on YouTube for more great shooter content!

Earlier this week, The War Z officially made its public debut in closed alpha testing. If you are one of those who pre-ordered the game, you'll know exactly what we're talking about with this video.

The War Z is full of the bugs and crashes you would expect from The War Z, but when you find yourself in a stable server with no game crashing to speak of, the game is incredibly fun. With such a desolate world around you, there is a certain thrill when you see another player nearby you. Surrounded by zombies and bleak emptiness, the sight of a fellow human survivor is stirring.

Should you announce yourself as friendly and try to work together? Or would it be better to just kill them outright before they know you're even there? What if they announce themselves as friendly, can you trust them?

In the video above, we show you that sometimes it's a hell of a lot more fun to just kill them with a flashlight.

Are you one of the many who pre-ordered the Pioneer version of The War Z?As you undoubtedly know, closed alpha testing kicked off this afternoon and we're here to keep you up to speed.  If you aren't totally familiar with The War Z, but find yourself in closed alpha testing, chances are you are running around Colorado like a zombie chicken with its head blown cut off.

If that sounds like you, we invite you to check out The War Z Wiki, our one-stop resource for everything you need to make it in Hammerpoint Interactive's zombie survival MMO. We've got sections on everything from the world map to weapons, equipment to currency and from vehicles to characters.

The War Z Wiki has been in production for some time now and with The War Z finally out in alpha test format, we are going to be stepping up content flow. This means daily updates on new weapons, equipment items, vehicles...you name it, we are going to be covering it on the wiki.

If you're new to The War Z, this is hands-down the best resource for the game that you will find online. Call us biased, but after you've spent a few hours browsing our content, we think you'll agree. 

Check it out at http://www.warzwiki.com/, follow along @WarZwiki on Twitter for updates on the wiki straight to your Twitter feed. Share your thoughts on The War Z Wiki in the replies!

Hot off the presses and ripped from the cold dead hands of the undead, we're bringing you another exclusive look at Hammerpoint Interactive's zombie MMO The War Z.

In this video, we spend some time exploring throughout the city in The War Z. As we've mentioned before, Colorado is the world map in The War Z and is actually only the first official map that Hammerpoint is set to release. More maps will follow, but in the meantime, we're happy with Colorado.

This is just raw gameplay, with a few transitions to give you a larger idea of what the city areas in The War Z will hold. We'll give you a clue, there's no shortage of zombies and loot.

If you're looking for more exclusive content from The War Z, you can subscribe to our channel on YouTube.

As The War Z gets closer to expand its audience to include pre-order purchasers, we bring you a closer look at some of the town areas and world map environments that you will be exploring and struggling to survive in when you finally get your hands on the game.

Colorado serves as The War Z's first full map, although Hammerpoint has already promised us many more after this. We've previewed Colorado before, but this is a brand new flythrough featuring some totally fresh environmental shots and areas to explore.

Don't forget, if you're hoping to get in on The War Z's upcoming alpha test, all you have to do is visit http://www.thewarz.com/.

There are a number of pre-order options at your disposal, so give them a look and see which option is best for you. If you're willing to spend a little more, the rewards are there - particularly in the form of two weeks early access to The War Z.

Hammerpoint Interactive have announced that their highly-anticipated zombie survival MMO, The War Z, will be entering beta on October 31st. If you're looking to get into the testing phase a little earlier, however, Hammerpoint is giving players the option to purchase a special edition that will get you into the alpha testing phase on October 15th.

The War Z will be available with three pre-order editions, Pioneer and Survivor. If you're just looking to purchase the bog standard version of The War Z, you'll want to grab the Survivor edition. This version of the game will get you beta access starting on October 30th - just in time for Halloween, the following day. The Survivor edition of The War Z will run you $19.50 through October 20th, after which it will jump up to $29.99.

The Pioneer edition, however, is where the real fun gets started. This version will get you access to the alpha test on October 15th, a full 15 days earlier than the Survivor edition. In addition to that, you are also getting $15.00 of in-game currency, a special forum badge and one month of Stronghold server hosting. This version of the game will be available for $29.99 until October 20th, when the price will jump up to $49.99.

Finally, Legend will get you $30 of in-game currency, 6 months of Stronghold server hosting and Alpha access on October 15th. This version of The War Z is priced at $49.99 for pre-orders, going up to $49.99 later this month.

For more on The War Z, make sure you check out The War Z Wiki at http://www.warzwiki.com/. We'll see you in Colorado.