Managed to finally get some time and get some Day Z done. My mate had been hassling about this for a while. Since I had Arma 2 on Steam already I just went and bought the Operation Arrowhead on Steam as well. Bit more expensive than other stores, but at least the versions are always up to date and don't have any other cross version problems. This made the install easier as well.

Quite pleased with the first effort. Managed to stay alive for couple of hours. In the end run out of bullets and got killed by two zombies, after a lengthy run through the forest. Before this, I got to kill quite few zombies. Unfortunately did found hardly any loot, so could not have really survived much longer anyway. Didn't run across to any bandits and didn't have any tempting moments to shoot other players. Although I did see few survivors crawling towards farm. In couple of instances actually. Was following/hoping for these quys a while incase they got killed by the zombies. Which I would then have looted on clear conscience. That is much better, right? You wouldn't think, but keeping an eye on other players who are dodging zombies is surprisingly interesting.

Lessons learned:

• Black screen doesn't mean that the textures are messed up. It is just night, doh.
• Sound, super important. Really makes me appreciate the surround headset.
• Also, footsteps. Zombies make lot of sound, but they aren't really a trouble if you keep down and quiet. And you can't hear their footsteps.
• You can not out run zombies in open environment.
• Zombies don't like stairs.
• UI, had to do some offline reading for this. Understand now how the inventory and which chat channel to use. Most likely missed some loot because I didn't know how to use inventory.

Time survived:

~2h

Zombies killed:

Eight. Of which seven are headshots according to the stats. Only one of these would count as a real headshot. The last priest zombie getting a perfect single bullet between his eyes and going down instantly.

Things to improve for the next time:

• Preserve the ammo better. Zombies die from one shot, even with the Makarov pistol.
• Find a way to enter the buildings. And/or read which types can be entered.
• Map, not really concerned about this since I do soloing atm. But might be good to see abit where I am going and where I should be going.