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What we know so far on Days Gone

Days-Gone-E3-Key-Art-051916-02.jpg

So I thought it would be a good way to maybe have a general thread on days gone. I know alot of people think its just another zombie killing game, which is fair since the e3 demo only showed the basics. I'll explain key details In bullet points

*Days gone has been in development since 2012, full production in 2015,the studio's last game was uncharted golden abyss. They haven't released a console game since 2010

*Game will be open world(set in the Pacific Northwest) and focuses on survival as well as telling an engaging story.

*The environment and weather(dynamic weather and day/night cycle) playing a big part in how you tackle your enemies. Something as simple as planting a bomb on a stack of logs to slow down your foes, shooting red barrels for explosions and so on.
tumblr_o8svahFZQf1s05hv8o7_250.gif


*They are not zombies they're freakers and alive they need food to survive like you or me, which in turn means you'll be most likely to find them wear wildlife roams around

*So far we know of two types of freakers the newts and the horde. The horde obviously as the name implies travel in packs and are usually seen where a food source is available the horde doesn't have to be as big as the e3 demo as well and also the horde is not a scripted thing and it consists of each individual freaker, second the newts adolescents when turned are stealthy freakers mostly attacking at night or when an opportunity presents itself.
https://68.media.tumblr.com/73422f9556264e493bf83779ae42b235/tumblr_o8svahFZQf1s05hv8o8_250.gif

*You play as deacon st John two years after the whatever event has occurred to turn society upside down and humans into freakers.

*Deacon was once In a biker gang so naturally he cares about his motorcycle, it's said to be thought of as its own character, it can brake down if youre not keeping tabs on its state which can be a detriment when trying to escape from your enemies, the bike will be your transportation for the entire game, you can also store items on your bike
tumblr_o8svahFZQf1s05hv8o1_250.gif


*Deacon is a bounty hunter so naturally you'll get missions to take out certain people, how you tackle these missions will be up to you do you scour the land in the cover of night before hand to get a lay of the environment,do you park your bike a distance away and go in guns a blazing, do you handle the situation from a distance with your trusty steed near for a quick getaway. Knowing the land and knowing your resources will play a big part

*Should be worth noting the e3 demo was indeed on god mode, no damage,AI turned down and the amount of ammo was not a normal thing.

Well that's about what we know for now hope it helped sorry of the thread is alil sloppy i don't make many. What do you think did you get interested in days gone alil more, is there something you'd like to see more of in detail at e3.

Edit: Thx to SolidSnakex
* Weapons crafting system, they call a "MacGuyver Mentality" where the you figure out clever ways to build tools to get out of situations.
* Wildlife is in the game, they have a "huge" wildlife system they aren't going to talk much about right now. But the event didn't wipe out all wildlife.
Featuring fully explorable environments and dynamic AI enemies, players will rely on their own abilities to strategize, craft weapons and tools, explore the world, and engage in combat. With almost every car, building and environment searchable, Days Gone delivers emergent gameplay possibilities, making a player’s approach to combat and discovery a vital part of the experience.

*Using the power of PlayStation 4 and Unreal Engine 4, Bend Studio has developed a high volume of rendering and gameplay technology to deliver an incredibly realistic open world experience. Realistic weather effects, such as rain, wind, snow and day-night cycles impact the gameplay. The game’s lighting is all real-time and reacts dynamically, the way the human iris does, as players move from one location to the next.

*Yes, this is an open world game. Bend called it a “dynamic open world,” and it’s being built with Unreal Engine 4...Take, for instance, the hordes of freakers seen in the demo...That horde will follow you indefinitely if you keep the right distance between it and yourself. Say you want to take out another human gang’s camp. Have that horde follow you and drag them all the way to your rival’s camp. The horde seeks the bigger target and does your work for you.

*“You can go anywhere,” says Pape. “There’ll be waypoint on the map you can set, you can set your own waypoints, you can fast travel for some of the areas because it is such an expansive map”. And, while the demo showed a forrest location Pape says the north west American setting has been chosen specifically for the extreme environments it can provide. “You’ve for the mountains, snow, hail, rain wind, high dessert. City wise you’ll encounter abandoned suburbs, towns, it’s not just going to be in the woods”.
 

Salex_

Member
Post in the Horizon thread that put this game on my radar. I hope they demonstrate most of this when we see new footage.

I think DG's issue is that it was shown early, so it came across as somewhat tech demo-ish. As in the focus seemed to be on the number of zombies and the way they were handling, which were rather unique. But I think it becomes a lot more interesting once you read about what they're doing with it

* Weapons crafting system, they call a "MacGuyver Mentality" where the you figure out clever ways to build tools to get out of situations.
* Wildlife is in the game, they have a "huge" wildlife system they aren't going to talk much about right now. But the event didn't wipe out all wildlife.
Featuring fully explorable environments and dynamic AI enemies, players will rely on their own abilities to strategize, craft weapons and tools, explore the world, and engage in combat. With almost every car, building and environment searchable, Days Gone delivers emergent gameplay possibilities, making a player's approach to combat and discovery a vital part of the experience.
Using the power of PlayStation 4 and Unreal Engine 4, Bend Studio has developed a high volume of rendering and gameplay technology to deliver an incredibly realistic open world experience. Realistic weather effects, such as rain, wind, snow and day-night cycles impact the gameplay. The game's lighting is all real-time and reacts dynamically, the way the human iris does, as players move from one location to the next.
Yes, this is an open world game. Bend called it a ”dynamic open world," and it's being built with Unreal Engine 4...Take, for instance, the hordes of freakers seen in the demo...That horde will follow you indefinitely if you keep the right distance between it and yourself. Say you want to take out another human gang's camp. Have that horde follow you and drag them all the way to your rival's camp. The horde seeks the bigger target and does your work for you.
”You can go anywhere," says Pape. ”There'll be waypoint on the map you can set, you can set your own waypoints, you can fast travel for some of the areas because it is such an expansive map". And, while the demo showed a forrest location Pape says the north west American setting has been chosen specifically for the extreme environments it can provide. ”You've for the mountains, snow, hail, rain wind, high dessert. City wise you'll encounter abandoned suburbs, towns, it's not just going to be in the woods".
 

ArmGunar

Member
Thanks for the thread !
Hope we'll see more at E3 and a release date for this holiday with Detroit

Glad to see Bend Studios making a new IP, like Guerrilla with Horizon
They deserve it, rather than making a spin-off on VITA
 

SomTervo

Member
Some cool stuff here.

Balancing is going to be difficult to design for this game. If it's as emergent as they hope.
 
Thanks for the thread !
Hope we'll see more at E3 and a release date for this holiday with Detroit

Glad to see Bend Studios making a new IP, like Guerrilla with Horizon
They deserve it, rather than making a spin-off on VITA
The fact they got to make a brand new ambitious ip after coming off a spin off for vita is mind boggling
 
I hope it has a survival element where you have to siphon fuel from abandoned vehicles or other means to keep using your bike. An open world road trip survival game would be very cool.
 

ArmGunar

Member
The fact they got to make a brand new ambitious ip after coming off a spin off for vita is mind boggling

Sony isn't risk-adverse (at least for that), it's cool to see that mentality


I hope it has a survival element where you have to siphon fuel from abandoned vehicles or other means to keep using your bike. An open world road trip survival game would be very cool.

You'll have to, it's confirmed that you'll have to manage your fuel level
 

MCD250

Member
Nice thread.

It's interesting to me that they're using Unreal Engine 4 instead of an internal engine or one from Sony's other studios. Wonder what the decision process behind that was.
 

ArmGunar

Member
There’s definitely resource management. Yes, he does have an absurd amount of ammo here, but we made this a little easy, so we wouldn’t die all over the place in the demo. We’ll be tuning the difficulty settings in all kinds of ways. But resource management is a huge element of the game.

There is fuel management. The bike can also take damage. The bike plays a huge, huge role in the game. I can’t go into too much detail, but you can look forward to learning more about that.

From Ron Allen, Tech Art Director at Bend Studios
http://wccftech.com/days-gone-dev-game-unlike-extreme-weather-comes-full-intensity/
 

ArmGunar

Member
Nice thread.

It's interesting to me that they're using Unreal Engine 4 instead of an internal engine or one from Sony's other studios. Wonder what the decision process behind that was.

A beginning of explanation here

More interestingly, we also learn that the game uses Unreal Engine 4- a modified variant of the game, but still. Apparently, the engine was a big help to Sony Bend during development, because Reese explains that it helped the studio during the prototyping phase to try out lots of things with minimal resources expended, until they found the direction for the game that they wanted. The engine also allows the team to iterate easily, allowing them a lot of flexibility in generating assets of the desired quality, and translating them in game.

http://gamingbolt.com/days-gone-uses-a-modified-unreal-engine-4-features-a-very-strong-narrative
 
They did a really poor job showing off what this game really is.

It seems like a major portion of this is scavenging and resource management, and just showed everything off like a tech demo to get major body counts and such.

While I was excited, it really soured the game because of what I saw, only to read that the game really isn't anything like that combat wise.

They have a second chance coming up soon to really show what this game is about, so I hope they take advantage of it.
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
I watched the 10 minute gameplay demo again. That is simply not a good demo. No idea why they chose to show that.

Also I really hope that we don't see 80.000 zombies at a random saw mill in the middle of nowhere. That's just...kinda stupid

*They are not zombies they're freakers
Nope.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
They did a really poor job showing off what this game really is.

It seems like a major portion of this is scavenging and resource management, and just showed everything off like a tech demo to get major body counts and such.

While I was excited, it really soured the game because of what I saw, only to read that the game really isn't anything like that combat wise.

They have a second chance coming up soon to really show what this game is about, so I hope they take advantage of it.

The game sounded like it was still in a really early alpha state for the demo, I don't think we see it till late in 2018 at earliest. There probably wasn't much else to show because it wasn't ready to yet. They talked about how long it took them to finally get things feeling right and find a proper focus for the game.

I watched the 10 minute gameplay demo again. That is simply not a good demo. No idea why they chose to show that.

Also I really hope that we don't see 80.000 zombies at a random saw mill in the middle of nowhere. That's just...kinda stupid

They choose to show it because it works for a lot of people. I've shown it to my more casual gamer friends and many of them described in terms like "nail biting" and "edge of your seat". They also mentioned hordes are not common and there are a variety of freaker types and they all have AI routines for finding shelter, finding food, etc.
 
I watched the 10 minute gameplay demo again. That is simply not a good demo. No idea why they chose to show that.

Also I really hope that we don't see 80.000 zombies at a random saw mill in the middle of nowhere. That's just...kinda stupid


Nope.
Are you agreeing here or are saying nope because I classified what they were
 

Elfstruck

Member
I hope it has a survival element where you have to siphon fuel from abandoned vehicles or other means to keep using your bike. An open world road trip survival game would be very cool.

I think it does include this. I can't remember on top of my head who said this, but it's definitely in the game.
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
Are you agreeing here or are saying nope because I classified what they were

I'm saying that they are zombies. They look like zombies, they act like zombies, the game looks and plays a lot like all those zombie games, they are zombies.
I'M not arguing whether the developers call them zombies, obviously. I'm just saying that they are clearly zombies.

I hope it has a survival element where you have to siphon fuel from abandoned vehicles or other means to keep using your bike. An open world road trip survival game would be very cool.

The Dying Light expansion did that and it got really annoying, really fast. It's a thing that sounds cooler than it is.
 
I'm saying that they are zombies. They look like zombies, they act like zombies, the game looks and plays a lot like all those zombie games, they are zombies.
Well they are alive and have to eat to stay alive like normal human beings,which is why I'm made the bullet point that the horde for example will more than likely be near a food source but alright.
 
Wow, hadn't heard about most of that stuff. Sounds like they have some pretty interesting ideas.

I've always wanted a AAA zombie game, especially after the mixed experience at had with the zombie campaign in black ops III. It was pretty half-baked and the "story" was abysmal, but it made me long for a zombie game with a huge scope and a ton of zombies. Last of us was pretty small in scope, but hopefully Days Gone will scratch that itch.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
The Dying Light expansion did that and it got really annoying, really fast. It's a thing that sounds cooler than it is.

This game seems to be based around motorcycles so I'm guessing the implementation of such things will be a bit more pertinent and integral to the gameplay. That goes for scavenging and survival elements in general as the game seems to focus on them in a sandbox open world Pacific Northwest.
 

Dabi

Member
Bikes need gas from what the developers said in an interview and its something you have to be aware of.

Oh man imagine driving away from a horde with your tank on E. In fact for the next demo they should end it off exactly like that lol.
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
Well they are alive and have to eat to stay alive like normal human beings,which is why I'm made the bullet point that the horde for example will more than likely be near a food source but alright.

I didn't try to shit on you or your post, sorry if it came across like that. It's a great OP, I didn't know any of that.

However I do wonder how they manage to stay alive if they wander around in groups of 80.000 at once like in the trailer. (I know that's probably just to show of the tech, things like that just always really bother me in games or movies^^)

This game seems to be based around motorcycles so I'm guessing the implementation of such things will be a bit more pertinent and integral to the gameplay. That goes for scavenging and survival elements in general as the game seems to focus on them in a sandbox open world Pacific Northwest.

The Dying Light expansion was based around a buggy tho. I'm not saying it can't work because one game didn't do a great job, I'm just not sure if you can implement that in an open world game (DL is OP but the map is rather small). Because you can either put so much fuel into the world that it becomes meaningless or so little that it renders the bike useless. I'm obviously no game designer tho, so I hope they can figure a way out!
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Wait, why did it only enter full production in 2015?

The devs said they went through a very long prototype phase and totally scraped a lot of ideas that weren't working out till they finally got to Days Gone. Seems like Sony gave them a lot of leeway to make something they really wanted to make and felt would be something special.
 
I didn't try to shit on you or your post, sorry if it came across like that. It's a great OP, I didn't know any of that.

However I do wonder how they manage to stay alive if they wander around in groups of 80.000 at once like in the trailer. (I know that's probably just to show of the tech, things like that just always really bother me in games or movies^^)
No worries man. Um from what I've understood is that since technically that entire area being in a forest as well as a barn like area they had a good food source. The developers mentioned while strolling the street you can run into a horde but it would be much smaller and spread out

Edit: below post, will do
 
Dang, some of this info makes this game sound more appealing than it initially did. I think this one might, at the very least, be another technical showcase for the PS4 Pro.

Everybody putting my half step thread to shame with more info lol. I tried

Might not be a bad idea to consolidate all the info added into the OP so that newcomers can quickly learn more about the game without having to read through the thread as it expands.
 

Shredderi

Member
The Dying Light expansion did that and it got really annoying, really fast. It's a thing that sounds cooler than it is.

Hah, finally bought the expansion and played through it with a friend, and it was alright but all the vehicle stuff, especially the fuel thing and having to drive for a long ass time to get to a sidequest were detrimental to the experience. It was the parkour movement that sold me on Dying Light and man it remained fun for the whole campaign (well old town wasn't as interesting as the slums area) but I got tired of the vehicle angle in the expansion. I hope Days Gone doesn't have a big empty map to justify the importance of the motorbike.
 

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
Hah, finally bought the expansion and played through it with a friend, and it was alright but all the vehicle stuff, especially the fuel thing and having to drive for a long ass time to get to a sidequest were detrimental to the experience. It was the parkour movement that sold me on Dying Light and man it remained fun for the whole campaign (well old town wasn't as interesting as the slums area) but I got tired of the vehicle angle in the expansion. I hope Days Gone doesn't have a big empty map to justify the importance of the motorbike.

I'm gonna go the other way and say I absolutely loved the Dying Light expansion because of the buggy and how different it was from the main game (though of course there was still a shitton of running and parkouring). Especially with the upgrades the buggy's fun as hell to drive through hordes of zombies.

I am pretty confident though that Sony Bend can do something like that as a core component of their game and design it even better.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Hah, finally bought the expansion and played through it with a friend, and it was alright but all the vehicle stuff, especially the fuel thing and having to drive for a long ass time to get to a sidequest were detrimental to the experience. It was the parkour movement that sold me on Dying Light and man it remained fun for the whole campaign (well old town wasn't as interesting as the slums area) but I got tired of the vehicle angle in the expansion. I hope Days Gone doesn't have a big empty map to justify the importance of the motorbike.

You have to repair the motorbike as well if it gets damaged. Its very important and seems to be a big focus as well as on the biker gangs that ride them as well. This game seems even more survival/scavenger focused than Horizon is turning out to be and that includes things like fuel for your bike.
 

Shredderi

Member
You have to repair the motorbike as well if it gets damaged. Its very important and seems to be a big focus as well as on the biker gangs that ride them as well. This game seems even more survival/scavenger focused than Horizon is turning out to be and that includes things like fuel for your bike.

Will just have to see how it turns out I guess.
 

Raylan

Banned
Nice thread.

It's interesting to me that they're using Unreal Engine 4 instead of an internal engine or one from Sony's other studios. Wonder what the decision process behind that was.
=
A beginning of explanation here:

More interestingly, we also learn that the game uses Unreal Engine 4- a modified variant of the game, but still. Apparently, the engine was a big help to Sony Bend during development, because Reese explains that it helped the studio during the prototyping phase to try out lots of things with minimal resources expended, until they found the direction for the game that they wanted. The engine also allows the team to iterate easily, allowing them a lot of flexibility in generating assets of the desired quality, and translating them in game.

And:

Sony Bend's Technical Director Christopher Reese is on the advisory board for Unreal Engine 4, Bend Studio is working closely with Epic. As Sony Bend's Creative Director John Garvin adds, ”We know that when people see this they're going to be blown away. We can boast that this came from our studio. There's a certain amount of innovation that's coming from the technology side, that just keeps us really buzzing."
 

yurinka

Member
If started full prod in 2015, it's an open world, new IP coming from someone who didn't work in a console game since 2010 or in this genre and has many important technical challenges and aim for supreme visuals... I think that the game is likely to be released in 2019. Holidays 2018 if we are super optimistic.

I'm looking forward for this game. Everything looks great and I think the team is super talented.
 

arigato

Member
Glad to see a return to the Pacific Northwest. Loved exploring that environment in Alan Wake, and this game looks very promising as well.
 
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