For anyone still playing or planning to play Dead Island on consoles, the long awaited patch is about to finally arrive.

The PlayStation 3 version of Dead Island will be updated first on Wednesday, 9th November, followed a day later on Thursday, 10th November, by the Xbox 360 version. - Euro Gamer

The laundry list of changes includes:

Gameplay improvements

• Level cap raised to 60
• New blueprints for weapon mods added
• Infected damage reduced
• Infected no longer interrupt player attacks
• A series of improvements to subsequent playthroughs implemented:
• quest XP rewards adjusted
• XP rewards for challenges adjusted
• in subsequent playthroughs XP is awarded for all quests completed in co-op
• Purna’s ammo carrying capacity increased by 50%
• Character state from a save game can now be loaded when using the Start from Chapter option
• New balancing option added: enemy levels can now be adjusted independently for each co-op player
• Players respawn with more health
• Picklock skill level required to open a lock is now clearly indicated
• Improved rewards in weapon crates
• All weapon crates now contain rewards
• Kick ability balanced, now requires stamina
• Items can now be picked up instantly; this is reflected in adjusted animations

Fixes and interface improvements

• Fix: players are no longer left without a weapon after dropping the equipped item and healing with a medkit.
• Fix: equipped items no longer swap mysteriously after drinking an energy drink
• Tweak: healing with medkits from inventory works better, makes smarter choices of medkits
• Fix: loot from dead enemies is now always identical for all co-op players
• Fix: Purna no longer finishes her Fury with fists equipped
• Fix: map tracking after death
• Fix: zone info in the quarantine zone (City of Moresby)
• Tweak: respawn point selection is now smarter

General

• Improved stability and network performance in co-op
• Quest and reward fixes implemented

wow, big props to them by increasing the level cap for free. This makes the wait for the arena DLC more reasonable. I'm sure they fixed the duping bug as well but they conveniently didn't mention it.

This also makes the Trophies easier, because with the "start from chapter" option allows you to start in specific areas where certain trophies are easier to attain. GREAT changes!

Seems like some good changes. Will be tougher not being able to spam front kick, but it makes sense.

@Nadafinga said:

Seems like some good changes. Will be tougher not being able to spam front kick, but it makes sense.

really, by level 10 or so I never kicked at all.

and for the record, the game is much less stable in co-op since this patch.

This is awesome! I love seeing developers adding more content (i.e. raising the level cap and blueprints) for free!!! Good on them.

i just want the damn bloodbath DLC allready :(

Yeah, Dead Island got boring for me quite a while back, i don't think i even finished the game i just reached the Jungle area. Even if i still wanted to play Dead Island, SKYRIM! Anyway I'm glad people are still enjoying the game.

I'm looking forward to the new content, but I'm really glad they patched it before Skyrim was released. I was 90% complete the campaign by the 9th but a bug corrupted my save, so I couldn't finish. Luckily after the 1.3 patch on Thursday the issue was solved and I was able to complete the campaign prior to Friday's Skyrim release. It might take a while to get back to Dead Island after starting Skyrim, but I'm sure their DLC will be a worthy addition to the title.