After being removed by Valve following many, many, many complaints, The War Z has returned to Steam to try its luck a second time. Looking through the game's listed features we can see where the work has gone to avoid a repeat of the last fiasco. It seems to have been largely a cover-up job.
Sucker for punishment Dean ‘Rocket’ Hall has taken yet again to Reddit to answer harder, more pointed questions about DayZ and, inevitably, The War Z. One Redditor took the chance to find out exactly what Hall means when he pleads with gamers to “behave like rational consumers". Not only did he receive a characteristically frank reply from Hall, but the developer also opened up about the on the personal pain DayZ's nominal similarity to The War Z has caused him.
Despite dousing the fires of controversy in bucketfuls of contrition, The War Z is now facing a range of attacks aiming at shutting down the game's servers, according to a post by community manager Kewk over on The War Z forum.In a lengthy open letter to The War Z community, Hammerpoint Interactive's executive producer Sergey Titov personally apologised for the series of unfortunate events that led to the removal of the zombie survival FPS from Steam. It's a frank listing of errors, a self-flagellating missive in which Titov claims total responsibility for his own "arrogance", which brought about a "perfect storm that affected all of [The War Z's] community members". The War Z has been mired in controversy since launching on Steam on December 17, after promising missing features, accusing players of misreading the game's store page, coming up short on their advertised map size and mistreating critical forum members. Our Spotlight units plug content our journalists have made, that our advertisers want to promote. Sometimes the promotion is paid for, but the content they go to is always independent with no client oversight or approval.
Open-world survival horror game The War Z arrived on Steam this Monday, it's just had the option to purchase the game removed.
So we now know that The War Z only has one map, despite Hammerpoint having initially advertised multiple maps of between 100 and 400 square kilometres each. That's fine, a misunderstanding that's been corrected. The store page now correctly lists just one map, Colorado, though Hammerpoint still claim that it's 100 square kilometres in area. It certainly doesn't feel that big, so it's probably wise to check.Valve are now investigating The War Z's Steam forum following multiple complaints from players claiming to have been unfairly banned for criticising Hammerpoint's zombie shooter. This follows yesterday's news that The War Z's Steam store page contained inaccurate claims about non-existent features amounting to false advertising. Hammerpoint have now edited the game's product description to more clearly delineate between upcoming and existing content. They've also issued an apology to gamers who "misread" the Steam Store page.The War Z has just launched on Steam. Actually, "launched" is probably the wrong word to use, given that the game hasn't even reached the metaphorical launch pad, and is still being ferried along by one of those giant, slow moving platforms they use to bring the games out of the giant warehouses they're developed in. Whatever's happening, The War Z has just appeared on Steam in some strange prototype form. It's not finished — Hammerpoint are calling it a 'Foundation Release', which means that it's missing a whole bunch of features — but you are invited to spend your cash today on the promise of updates tomorrow.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Hammerpoint Interactive have all but constructed a shrine to Dean Hall. When I first sat down to play The War Z I resolved to not draw lazy comparisons between it and Hall’s DayZ. That didn’t last. The similarities are so striking that they’re impossible to ignore. 
Sergey Titov, The War Z’s executive producer, has responded to the Mexican wave of raised eyebrows that met footage of his apocalypse survival sim and its apparent similarity to DayZ.
The War Z has received flack for being very similar to Day Z, some calling it a simple clone. Whether or not that's the case, it looks like they've been copying Riot, makers of League of Legends. The War Z's Terms of Service make explicit references to League of Legends' currency system and there's evidence suggesting Hammerpoint have redacted even more explicit mentions of the game since their copy/paste job was discovered.DayZ hinted at the zombie game we always wanted, a pervasive world where we could starve, become ill, and, of course, face off against hordes of the walking dead - all while under threat from your fellow player. Well, The War Z is taking a run at the same idea with slightly different emphasises, the space between spawning to armed survivor is shorter. And the guns, once you have them, are more customisable.
