'H1Z1 Big Damn Patch' Arrives: Adds Weapons, New Character Skins, Improved Zombie Spawning And More

Zombie survival sandbox game “H1Z1” received an update on Thursday. Also known as the Big Damn Patch, the content delivered a slew of new features, including new male character models, updates to the dam area, Battle Royale updates, improvements to the pickup truck's first-person interior, repairs to terrain errors, decreased damage done by the 12GA shotgun, server optimizations and more.

“H1Z1” is technically still in its Early Access stage and is currently being developed by Daybreak Game Company (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) for the PC and eventually Sony’s PlayStation 4 sometime this year.

Daybreak also made a number of alterations to the game’s zombies. The number of undead is now based on the population of in-game players, not including the wandering hordes themselves. Biased zombies will now spawn toward areas with more player heat and more items. Cities, camps and player firefights will have the largest number of zombie spawns, while wild, open, uninhabited areas will have less.

For the entire list of updates, click here.

The size of the game is currently around 64,000 square kilometers, but Sony promises to grow the world quickly. The open world post-apocalyptic title will have a number of cool features, including a dynamic weather system that randomly changes, a night-to-day cycle and drivable vehicles.

As with most games, you start "H1Z1" with the few objects and resources. Items you collect in the game can be combined with others to create new useful items. Players use “recipes,” of which there are more than 100, to craft items like clothing, food, shelters and more.

“H1Z1” is the name of a virus that has spread throughout the U.S., a plague that originally wasn’t taken seriously and infects people quickly -- causing a zombie apocalypse scenario that devastates the entire country.