Game News

This is an archive of all major changes to the game in its history, chiefly those which would leave players at a significant disadvantage if they weren't aware of the change in game behaviour. Minor changes are not listed.

17th December 2008

• Survivors are once again looting the long-abandoned seasonal storerooms of the city's shopping malls, to find lights and trees for their safehouses. Lights are now clearly visible from neighbouring blocks; while this may attract unwanted attention, it could also catch the eye of military air traffic, over the next few weeks.

31st October 2008

• Limited edition halloween masks are back in the mall costume stores, and there's enough stale candy for twenty-four hours of trick or treating, for anyone or anything that wants to thump on safehouse doors today.

28th October 2008

• With the launch of Charlie Brooker's Dead Set on E4 and 4DVD, the Borehamwood outbreak is now open to Urban Dead players, with permanent zombification, fast zombies and a battle for the Big Brother house. The map will remain open for four weeks.

14th October 2008

• A disturbing Flesh Rot is creeping across the bone and muscle of the older, decaying zombies, making them more resilient to attack. (This is the equivalent of having died with the Body Building skill and a flak jacket, and doesn't stack.)
• Zombies able to digest raw meat have been seen picking at the fresh bodies that litter the city, to recover strength.
• With survivors on edge for the slightest sound or disturbance, the crash of a transmitter being destroyed can now be picked out on a radio channel, and a building restoring or losing power will be noticed from adjacent blocks.
• The scenes of battles and murders are looking a lot bloodier than they used to.
• Mall drug stores are beginning to run low on useful pharmaceutical supplies.

6th August 2008

• With Monroeville in ruins and the zombie hordes unstoppable, the military will be initiating a permanent quarantine on Friday the 15th, closing the borders and leaving the city for the dead. Monroeville characters can transfer their donation flags to characters in Malton via their settings page.

13th June 2008

• The quarantine in Monroeville has been lifted for another four weeks, to coincide with the DVD release of Romero's Diary of the Dead on June 30th. The dead are rising again, even the long-headshot zombies out in the streets and fields, and new military units are being dropped in to stem the tide. You can create a new character there, and meet or eat the survivors who made it through the lockdown.

28th May 2008

• Decay spreads through the ruined buildings of the city. The longer that a building stands ruined, from today onwards, the harder it will be to repair. And as the moss and lichens spread across the final few skylights, several types of buildings are now dark without a generator hooked up, reducing search and attack rates until power can be restored.
• A few existing household items now double as impromptu weapons.
• Monroeville will be reopening its borders for a short while during June. Any survivors and zombies that make it as far as the end of May will have the fact noted in their profile.

28th March 2008

• Monroeville is now locked down in full quarantine - no new characters can be created there, characters will no longer idle out, all idle characters have been reactivated, and zombies in the city can now be killed permanently by removing the head or destroying the brain using the "Headshot" skill.

25th March 2008

• The quarantine is tightening around Monroeville. From Friday the 28th, new account creation will be disabled for Monroeville, the city's inhabitants will no longer idle out after five days, and they'll be left to fend for themselves. If you want to get in before the border closes, create a Monroeville character now.
• The game's main city of Malton will be unaffected, and will continue to operate as usual.

25th February 2008

• To celebrate the launch of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, we've opened a temporary second map in the city of Monroeville. Create a new character there and you can loot a video camera to edit together your own video diary of the zombie apocalypse, with Romero box-set prizes available for UK players.

23rd January 2008

• The dead are learning the priorities of besieged survivors, and are keeping near the doorways once inside a safehouse. While zombies are inside a building, they will lurchingly attempt to block anyone dragging barricade materials to its entrance, with variable success.
• Survivors should watch their step when free running across the icy rubble of the city - falling from a ruined building now carries a risk of injury.
• In the thin, cold air, the drifting miasma of rot and decay grows sharper and clearer. Zombies taking the deep breath of scent death are now given a visual representation of the surrounding city.

(News from 2005-2007 has been archived.)