Some of you may not know, but long before we were slaying zombies in the fictional realms of Haran and Villedor in Techland's Dying Light series, the studio also released a first-person Western titled Call of Juarez. That was also a series unto itself and was pretty damn good. (Maybe bring it back, Techland.)

This year marks 10 years since the last entry in that franchise, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, and to celebrate the fine folk at Techers are preparing an in-game event in Dying Light 2 Stay Human later this month you won't want to miss.




Here's all the official details:

10 years have passed since the legendary Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, Techland’s flagship Wild West series of yore. This epic adventure of a ruthless bounty hunter on the trail of the West’s most notorious outlaws captured the attention of millions of gamers worldwide.

To celebrate, Techland is bringing the western style to Dying Light 2 Stay Human. During the Undead or Alive event, running from Wednesday, May 31, 7 am PT / 10 am ET until Wednesday, June 7, 7 am PT / 10 am ET, players will need to keep their aim sharp and nerves cool to dispense legendary justice with the help of a Gunslinger-themed Boomstick, AKA Mean-ass gun.

The aforementioned Boomstick can only be discovered during the event, when players will have a chance to come across it around Special Infected (except Virals), Postal Vans, Ambulances, and Military Trucks.

Players who channel their inner Billy the Kid can complete certain goals during the week-long event and get the opportunity to unlock exclusive items that hark back to Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, including the likes of Ray McCall’s charm, Dynamite, machete-like Bowie Knife (both weapon and blueprint), along with 25 Pilgrim Tokens to exchange for gear at the Pilgrim Outpost website.

Techland is also releasing more select items such as Silas Greaves Outfit, the Gunslinger Paraglider, and Dynamite blueprint along with Bowie Knife weapon and blueprint mentioned above in the Gunslinger Bundle ($6.99USD or around) $10.00AUD), the West’s finest addition to a notorious outlaw’s inventory.

Techland continues to support its open-world game well and truly beyond its release date, as promised, but it is, of course, the community who helps drive stuff like this.

Now, Techers... about that fresh look at Call of Juarez...

Today Techland is teasing the first bit of story-based DLC for Dying Light 2 Stay Human. It's called Bloody Ties and as per the short clip we get to see a rather menacing helmet, which the developers state "offers a glimpse at the brutal dangers of Carnage Hall".

Check it out.

It's time to unveil Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Bloody Ties—the first DLC coming to the City.

What dangers await? How can you beat them? What will you get in return? One thing is certain… it will be brutal!

The full reveal is coming next week as part of the Gamescom Opening Night Live stream that's set to kick of on Wednesday August 24 at 4:00am AEST. Which is, yeah, bright and early.

It'll be interesting to see how this ties into the choice-driven campaign. As per our interview with Techland's Tymon Smektała from earlier this year, "The first DLC is more like a [standalone] story that you will be able to start no matter where you are in the main story. And then enjoy it as it is, without really thinking too much about the consequences of your choices in the base game.”

In Techland terms "a couple of weeks" could be the next thing we peer at through the James Webb telescope, or it could just be some time in August, or very early September given the studio has actually been pretty busy post-launch for the game with its content and patch work.



So, as the headline suggests, the second seasonal chapter, complete with a new agent and new missions and gear, will launch in a couple of weeks accompanied by the game's next major patch in 1.5 which will come with a number of quality of life fixes while also addressing community feedback, as the video above highlights.

But for those who can't spare the 10-odd minutes needed for the video, here's the official skinny:

Meet Shen Xiu, AKA The Huntress — our newest Chapter Agent! Who is she? Where does she come from? What is her business in the City? For now, just know this extremely proficient tracker and archery expert has a very special task for Nightrunners. Will you become the hunter… or the prey? Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks as we reveal more information about new missions, bounties, enemies, and weapons that the second Chapter will introduce.

Stay tuned as more arrives in our inbox as to what you'll be looking forward to in "a couple of weeks".

Which is to say, Dying Light 2 Stay Human will get its first bout of additional gameplay content as part of the mammoth five year plan the studio revealed in its long term vision for the game. There's also a fan-requested Photo Mode in tow, and all of this is part of free update 1.4.0 which drops today-ish.



The new gameplay content is titled "In the Footsteps of a Nightrunner" and comes with a new progression system alongside new recurring quests, the aforementioned Photo Mode and much more.

NEW CHAPTER -- In the Footsteps of a Nightrunner

Your task is to help Harper, a Nightrunner of old, in his efforts to combat the Special Infected that are endangering the City's people in exchange for access to powerful, never-before-seen equipment.

Chapter Agent — Meet Harper, a former Nightrunner that acts as your link to the new adventure. Find him at the Fish Eye Canteen and assist him in taking down the Special Infected.

New Rank System and Unlockables — Strengthen the bond between you and the agent by carrying out his tasks. With enough reputation points, you can rank up to unlock access to high-end weapons, outfits, and consumables.

Daily and Weekly Bounties — Face the Infected head-on in a series of daily and weekly night activities that will earn you reputation points upon completion.

Two New Currencies — To purchase new items, first collect mutation samples off the Special Infected corpses and acquire unique Harper’s Tokens with each new rank.

New Enemies — Meet the deadly and fierce Mutated Infected, the Volatile Tyrant, and the Volatile Hive.

Chapter Mission — Purchase a special Chapter Mission Ticket from the Chapter Agent and test your mettle against punishing time trials that will test your stealth, parkour, or combat skills to their absolute limit.

New Feature: Photo Mode — Our fantastic community asked for it, so we gladly obliged. The Photo Mode feature is here! Take some photos to commemorate your adventures in the City!

In addition to the above video, you can also watch a new episode of "At the Fish Eye" below, which features lead UX/UI designer Marcin Surosz who talks about the new fan-requested feature and more.

This is a bit of a twofer, but in the past week Techland revealed that Dying Light 2 Stay Human has sold around 5 million units globally, while also revealing the original Dying Light has now sold in excess of 20 million copies since launch (2015).

Those numbers are fairly staggering for different reasons, though the OG Dying Light figures are a standout largely because that number is reflective of the level of support that game has received over its lifetime.

"The success of the Dying Light franchise is a great example of the unforgettable experiences we create for our players." - Paweł Marchewka, Techland’s CEO via press release

Techland also notes that the five million units figure touted for Dying Light 2 Stay Human is for sales of the game as of February 28, 2022, but that sales were on a steady incline as of the week in which they shared that news. In addition, new patch notes have been revealed for the game's latest update - PATCH 3 which, among many, includes New Game Plus and an all-new quest line: Something Big Has Been Here.

Here's the full patch notes as shared by the studio:

New Game+
• After finishing it once, the game can be replayed again, only this time with modified game parameters in place to encourage a second playthrough by the implementation of a unique system and experience. The player can now go through the story with revitalized mechanisms. These include new enemy behaviors, more difficult encounters, new objects within the world, namely the newly added inhibitors, and many more changes that will significantly alter the gameplay style and allow the player to develop their character further. All of this is only available in New Game+!

o 30 new inhibitors
o New platinum objectives for parkour challenges
o Updated distribution of the enemies (f.e. Volatiles and Banshee spawn during the night, a wider variety of enemy pools in encounters)
o A new legendary weapon tier added
o Gold encounters added
o Enemy difficulty scales with the player level

Co-op Updates
• Fixed connection and stability issues in co-op

o Fixed connection issues with the players who are further advanced inthe story
o Improved game performance in co-op

• Co-op story blocks

o Fixed an issue that caused blocked progression in a single player game mode after a co-op session
o Fixed few remaining death loops in co-op
o Fixed an issue with a missing NPC during the Missing People quest in a co-op session

• Co-op quality

o Improved weapon visualization in online menu and inventory
o Improved handling of challenges requirements in co-op
o Fixed random bandit respawns while players are still in the bandit camp
o Fixed issues with the player being unable to access inventory or map after dying several times in co-op
o Fixed blocked story progression with "enemies nearby" notification
o Fixed rare issue when a player can't move after a revive
o Fixes for far away peer respawn from the host and respawning in geometry
o Fixed AI jitter in random cases
o Improved various animations in co-op - f.e. crouching, throwing, using the bow, and more
o Fixed sound duplication in co-op
o Fixed rare cases of unresponsive quest radio dialog in co-op, causing story blocks
o Fixed the display of incorrect icons on the map after a co-op party
o Fixed “call for help” when the player is being summoned during a gather in co-op
o Fixed black screens in certain situations that could cause progression blockers during co-op progression
o Fixed unnecessary “skill requirement” text-glitch in the description of a challenge in a co-op session
o Updated the time of tutorial windows to 30 seconds during the co-op sessions
o Fixed a bug that allows player to have multiple story quests active

Content Update

• Mutated Infected - New quest added Something Big Has Been Here, which included special elemental Goon variants

Gameplay Updates

• Enemies with bows are less annoying — decreased damage output
• Completed achievements are correctly awarded upon completion. This works for the achievements that were obtained before the update as well
• Fixed a bug that was causing Howlers and Screamers to become invulnerable to damage
• Fixed a possibility to fast travel between map regions after completing various quests
• Fixed a random AI bug of Human encounters
• Fixed infected invulnerability to arrows
• Fixed missing rewards after Bandit encounters
• Fixed the Virals patrol movement in GRE facilities

Quest Updates

• Fixed a bug related to wall-clipping during the Let’s Waltz quest
• Fixed a bug of the player getting stuck after using an inhibitor, or opening inventory after obtaining inhibitor in the Markers of Plague quest
• Fixed the map display bug in The Only Way Out quest
• Fixed the disappearance of Hakon in the Into The Darkness quest after playing in co-op
• Fixed Sophie’s inaccessible position in The Raid quest

UI/UX Updates

• Added FOV slider on PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X
• Improved UI textures optimization
• Fixed issues related to switching between keyboard and controller
• Fixed inhibitor pop-up message in Markers of Plague quest
• Fixed quest display in journal
• Fixed tutorial window display
• Fixed weapon durability display, quest tracking, and inventory management on ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo second display
• Aiden should no longer T-pose in the main menu
• Fixed crashes related to launching the game in 5760x1080 resolution
• Fixed display of incorrect numbers on Immunity Bar
• Minor changes to PC key bindings

Technical Updates

• Improved game stability
• Several crash sources fixed
• Improved the stability of frame rate in various places on the map
• Fixed multiple bugs that allowed players to see and fall outside map texture
• Fixed occasional texture glitches in various places on the map
• Fixed various audio glitches
• …and numerous additional bug fixes and quality improvements.

In case you missed it, we recently shared a full Q&A we did with Techland's Tymon Smektała which revealed some of the above, but also highlights many plans for the future of both Dying Light 2 Stay Human and Techland.

As part of a massive, in-depth interview with us here at AusGamers, Dying Light 2 Stay Human's creative director, Tymon Smektała, revealed that the independently-run studio has a long-term vision for its zombie sequel, telling us that Techland has "Dying Light 2 Stay Human in 2027 envisioned already”.

"We announced five years (of content) because we have plans for five years," Tymon told us. "As you can imagine, how precise those plans are and how detailed they are depends on if we are talking about the next year, or what will happen in the fifth year. The first two years are quite detailed; the first year is basically all planned out at this point. The second year too, but there's still some space. The fifth year is broader, but we have a clear idea of where we want to take the game."

Given the sheer size of the game-world, as well as the depth of its now clearly established roots and lore, it's not difficult to see the game supported in the content stakes beyond the more traditional year-to-two-years of other AAA properties. Moreover, the studio only just recently released an update for the first game, itself now more than seven-years-old.

"We are very open about it too, and not shy," he asserts. "A part of our methodology is to listen very closely to what players have to say. Even in the plans that I mentioned, we still have milestone checks and key timeframes where we will look at the plans to tweak them and change them if a need arises. Plans for the first year, and maybe the second year as well too, experiment with different themes. More linear, narrative content, gameplay content, cosmetic stuff, things based on challenging players, community events. Very different things mixed together and put on a timeframe. We did that on purpose because we want to listen to what players have to say; what works for them, what doesn't work for them. What kind of content do they prefer?”

In fact, listening to the community has been one of the studio's most standout and upstanding features, and it's the community that will help shape and mold the game amidst the already-laid-out plans the roadmap has markered, and it's happening even now.

"One thing that surprised us was that a lot of people were requesting more brutality, more gore in the game, and we delivered that with the patch," he said.

We'll have more from our interview with Tymon soon, with plenty of great insight into the development of Dying Light 2 Stay Human, its future and also what's next on the Techland radar outside of zombies.

Dying Light 2 on PC is every bit a true next-gen showcase for where in-game visuals are headed. The difference that ray-tracing brings to the world is staggering. Ray-traced shadows, global illumination, reflections, ambient occlusion and more, we break it down. And offer up a nice little 4K video to showcase it all in action.

As we saw with the PC versions of Cyberpunk 2077 and Remedy’s brilliant Control, it’s the combination of multiple ray-tracing effects coming together that creates such a stunning transformation. Reflections allow metallic surfaces to correctly reflect incoming light, not to mention adding proper reflections to, well, reflective surfaces. Ray-traced shadows allow the light coming from the sun to accurately create Dying Light 2’s dense mix of bright and dark. It allows shadows to become softer when they need to be, and sharper too.

Ray-traced shadows also add depth to grass and foliage, which double as gameplay elements when hiding from the world’s many dreads. Ray-traced ambient occlusion ensures that when objects meet the world, they are not fully lit in the way that can give the overall feeling they’re floating and you’re simply looking “at a videogame”. The same can be said about objects that are visible and bright when they shouldn’t be, like the underside of a table or the side of a building facing away from the sun. Ray-tracing makes things look how they do in the real world.

Head Here For Our Full Dying Light 2 Ray-Tracing Deep Dive

And it features gear inspired by the game's PK, or Peacekeepers, and not an obscure gum designed to stave off the allyl methyl sulfide effect of consumption of Allium Sativum.

It's also the very first stop on a lengthy pre-planned roadmap of post-release updates and content the studio has committed the next five years to.


Here's what this first of three initial skin packs offers PK-aligned or leaning punters:

Bring law and order back to The City and enforce the rules with the Authority pack, coming in three parts as free DLC. Collect all three parts to get a full outfit and a unique hammer.

The first part (available from today) contains:

• Intimidating Jacket—Put on this jacket and fight for justice!
  
• Intimidating Cargo Pants—They'll hold everything you'll need to enforce the law.
  
• Intimidating High-tops—Stand up for what's right with these unique high-tops.

The second part (available Feb. 16) will contain:

• Intimidating Gauntlets—These may not restore law and order in a flash, but they'll definitely make it easier.
  
• Intimidating Windbreaker—Bring down the rule breakers with this windbreaker.
  
• Intimidating Leather Guards—Use these leather guards to help you keep the peace.

The third part (available Feb. 18) will bring:

• The two-handed Authority hammer—With this in your arsenal, they'd better follow the rules.

As highlighted, this is just the first of loads of planned content, and skins are just the beginning. A Ronin pack will follow the PK-inspired gear (as something of a Survivor faction tilt).

In case you missed it, here's our definitive review of the base product, where we cite the game's extensive and incredibly in-depth arsenal of parkour moves, coupled alongside the design of the game's massive playspaces, all freerunning-friendly, as reason enough to buy into this latest Z-drama.

"For mine it is an incredibly rewarding game that has the best parkour ever seen or experienced in games, and the playground to match it. Plus the zombies. So many (awesome) zombies.

Of course, as with any massive game of this nature, as we've seen most recently with Cyberpunk 2077, updating, fixing and reinvigorating have become an unfortunate par for the course. Which is to say, Dying Light 2 Stay Human is still ironing out its many kinks and bugs, but with a five year plan, at least know and understand that balance, as Frank would remind you, dear Nightrunner, is the absolute key to success.

The new DLC needs to be redeemed via your respective platform's store and not in-game.

With Dying Light 2 Stay Human set to go live at 11am tomorrow, Friday February 4 in Australia (our full review of the game is live), developer Techland has updated the PC hardware requirements for the game. With a new chart we've got full details on what you'll need to get the most out of the game. Which, turns out to be a GeForce RTX graphics card that supports DLSS.

As the game features a huge open-world to explore and traverse using parkour skills, adding ray-traced global illumination, reflections, and shadows, puts it in a class of games that push next-gen visuals forward. So much so that DLSS rendering is a requirement to see all of that in action.

Here are the updated PC requirements.

Recommended - Ray-Tracing OFF

---

Performance: 1080p 60 FPS
Quality Setting: High
CPU: Intel Core i5-8600K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD RX Vega 56 8GB
OS: Windows 10
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 60GB SSD

Minimum - Ray-Tracing ON

---

Performance: 1080p 60 FPS
Quality Setting: RT
CPU: Intel Core i5-8600K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 with DLSS
OS: Windows 10
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 60GB SSD

Recommended - Ray-Tracing ON

---

Performance: 1080p 60 FPS
Quality Setting: High RT
CPU: Intel Core i5-8600K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with DLSS
OS: Windows 10
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 60GB SSD

Ultra - Ray-Tracing ON

---

Performance: 4K 60 FPS
Quality Setting: High RT
CPU: Intel Core i5-8600K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 with DLSS
OS: Windows 10
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 60GB SSD

Having been massive fans of the original game, we've waited with baited breath for Dying Light 2 Stay Human. We've also been tracking the game ever since it was announced, across many E3s and Gamescoms when they were real-life and live activities. And here it is.

So, has the wait been worth it?

In so many ways, yes. Especially from a content perspective and in how deep the world of Stay Human is. But it's not without more than its fair share of shortcomings and frustrations.

Here's a snippet:

At its most fundamental core, at the headiest tine of it all, Dying Light 2 Stay Human’s promise of an open-world with zombies and near limitless freerunning opportunities is delivered to the letter, which is a Guild joke worth many layers you’ll understand once you’ve played the game yourself. But trust me when I say that it’s very funny.

Unfortunately there’s much around those three pillars that simply isn’t delivered to the degree it’s obvious the studio would have liked. Whether it’s in performance, pacing or overall balance, across every system Dying Light 2 has cracks in its seams. And these aren’t helped with the game’s dated sheen, either. In all honesty, while absolutely taking on a far bigger task in the sheer size of the game and its many moving parts, it’s hard not to align it with the 2015 original as far as visuals go. It’s not a bad thing, by any measure, but it’s a stretch to call Dying Light 2 a next-gen showcase. Still, it has many eye-catching things going for it that are easy to lose if you pay too much attention to repetitive assets or flat textures or the like.

Click here for our in-depth Dying Light 2 Stay Human review.

Don't let the silly intro bit fool you (sorry, Jonah and Leah, but it is hokey), the final episode of Techland's Dying Light 2 Stay Human web series, Dying 2 Know is full of just the sort of last-minute info you could want as we march on towards the game's February 4 release date. Info that includes co-op and how narrative works with it, how the game is looking across all of its intended release platforms, and just how the devs are feeling about the six-ish years they've been working on this undead beast.



First, the important stuff. As far as co-op goes, up to four players can play the game in co-op, similarly to the first game, and a co-op session can be played right to the end of the game. The host player is the person's story each participant is interacting with, however, each item and level gained in the session carries over to their own respective saves. Moreover, when it comes to important narrative decisions, the group gets to vote on the choice. That said, the final say is still in the hands of the host. A bit like judging on RuPaul's Drag Race.

The other big reveal is a short comparison video that shows the game running on PS4, Xbox One X, PS5 and finally Xbox Series X. This is actually a really good glimpse at how the game is shaping up from a visual scale perspective, especially when a lot of punters tend to cry over the idea games aren't being developed to their full potential when taking into account last-gen machines. Here, there's a very clear leap between generations, with the current-gen machines holding visual muster, and then some, over the older architecture.

That being said, we'd be remiss to suggest PS4 and Xbox One X players are getting a poor game as it still looks might impressive on those platforms.

The full episode, which comes in at just under 20 minutes, also debuts the above trailer, which focuses a lot on the characters and relationships in the game. And this trailer, titled, "The Reason" is also a clever way to showcase the density that lies in wait weight on February 4, as you can see that density coupled alongside the sheer size and verticality of the world, as well as its monster ecology which, when all combined, is a pretty good idea of the breadth of content waiting for players.

There's also a really good outlay of love from the devs behind the long-gestating product, which rounds out the end of this web series nicely. Check it out embedded below.

Skill trees are an often overlooked part of any dynamic gaming experience. The sort of experience where a player crafts their own power pathway to the proverbial top. Sometimes these types of systems are so deep, they become meta games unto themselves and are almost too hard to explain without just experiencing them. Other times they're as superfluous as a sign with an arrow pointing right in a 2D side-scrolling adventure.

Overnight Dying Light 2 devs, Techland, revealed how the system (and XP) will work in the hotly anticipated sequel, out next month.

Two skill trees will be available for main protagonist Aiden Caldwell’s development, each filled with new parkour and combat skills, and these skill trees can be advanced through a new approach to character progression.

While performing specific in-game actions, players will earn experience points in one of two areas—parkour and combat. Traversal actions like climbing, jumping, or vaulting will be rewarded by progressing a parkour-centric experience bar. The more complex and skillful movements players perform, the more experience will be gained. Likewise, to earn combat-centric experience points, players should take the fight straight to enemies and perform combination attacks to net even more experience points.

Completing quests can quickly fill both experience bars, and players shouldn’t neglect the new abilities they pick up along the way, which can be used in concert for bigger experience gains. For example, with the right timing, the combat skill Grapple can throw enemies to the side using their own momentum. Follow up with Stomp for an opportunity to instantly kill enemies you’ve just thrown to the ground. Many such inventive combinations exist for players to incorporate in their playstyles.

Of course, these combos extend to parkour skills, as well. Dart temporarily increases your running speed, and combined with Double Jump, a Skill that helps you jump higher while vaulting obstacles, all sorts of unreachable places open up.

There's one more episode left of the game's Dying 2 Know web series, which we've been told to let you know about as it'll apparently be a good one.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human is out February 4. Stay tuned for our in-depth review of the game closer to its release date.

At 7AM AEST, no less. So early survivor gets the zombie worm, it seems. The pre-release video hype series from Techland, "Dying 2 Know" is up to its fifth episode, which airs a week from today (Friday, December 3) and will feature 15 minutes of new gameplay content for Dying Light 2 Stay Human, among other new details surrounding its upcoming 2022 release.

In addition, Techland is also jumping on that tonal day savings dealie everyone now presumes is a global event, offering up big savings where the first game is concerned.

Here's the official sales pitch:

Before the next episode arrives, catch the previous episodes of Dying 2 Know on Dying Light’s YouTube channel. And while waiting for Dying Light 2 Stay Human, buy Dying Light Platinum Edition or Dying Light Enhanced Edition during Black Friday promotions. For the first time, the Platinum Edition is available at a special price of $19.99 on Steam, the PlayStation Store, and the Microsoft Store.

Black Friday Sales:

• Steam - Dying Light Platinum Edition and Dying Light Enhanced Edition are 60% off. Multiple bundles and DLCs are available at lower prices (till December 1st)
  
• PS Store - Dying Light Enhanced Edition is 60% off (till November 30th)
  
• Microsoft Store - Dying Light Platinum Edition is 50% off (till December 2nd)

Check out an invitation trailer to the above, embedded below.

STORROR being a "world-class" video production crew from the UK who also happen to be expert at parkour. So the mind should already be racing as to what you're about to see, but trust us when we say, you might not have expected this level of awesome.

Simply titled "Parkour POV ESCAPE - Dying Light 2", this four-minute-plus 4K video is a wonderfully scripted, choreographed and edited slice of celebration of all things Dying Light and shines as an example of what elevates this series above all other zombie-related outings.

Our hat's off to all who acted in this, because aside from the parkours skills on display from our human 'characters', it's the zombies in this video who are the real stars.

Check it out embedded below, and click here for an interview with the team if that's your jam. Otherwise, the countdown to February 4 can't come soon enough, though we're quietly skeptical about that date, or even month, being the game's final development destination.

Albeit one that makes the "modern Dark Ages" setting look as realistically grim as possible. Dying Light 2 Stay Human is set to hit PC and next-gen consoles in December, and on PC NVIDIA has released a new tech showcase trailer for Gamescom highlighting the ray-traced global illumination, shadows, and reflections the game will feature.

With performance given a AI-powered bump thanks to NVIDIA DLSS. Check it out.

Dying Light 2 Stay Human features a dynamic day-night cycle - using ray tracing, Techland can accurately update the appearance of the world every second, delivering unprecedented image quality. Ray-traced Global Illumination brings incredible bounced lighting to every area of the world, ray-traced shadows with pixel-perfect detail update accordingly, and ray-traced reflections add dynamic detail to suitably-reflective surfaces throughout The City.

As per the video the realistic shadows and reflections add cinematic immersion and give the visuals a photo-real look when compared to 'RTX Off', and this is a pretty great breakdown of what ray-tracing can bring to a game. It's especially impressive here as Dying Light 2 features a large open-world to explore, one that will feature a day-night cycle and dynamic weather.

“Our partnership with NVIDIA has helped us create an immersive, visceral experience for Dying Light 2 players," says Tomasz Szałkowski, Rendering Director, Techland. "Ray tracing enhances the realism of our unforgiving, infected world while NVIDIA DLSS provides a massive performance boost without sacrificing image quality, so you’ll never miss a beat traversing the landscape.”

For a slice of action, Xbox featured a new parkour-focused look at gameplay in the post-apocalyptic setting of Villedor.

While Resident Evil Village has been enjoying life as one of the only big Triple-As out and about at the moment, especially in the zombie space, Techland has popped up from the shadows of the viral-infested streets below, to point us in the parkour-friendly direction of Dying Light 2's 2021 release path, high above the city skyline, with a new trailer and a deep-dive with the devs on how the game has been faring since the last info dump.

Spoilers: it's still looking very good.

With slightly more emphasis on the world, and on Dying Light 2's protagonist, Aiden Caldwell, including a surprise appearance from his voice actor, Jonah Scott, this new studio reveal features roughly 30 minutes (including the new trailer) of info on the game and how things are shaping up.

Survivors!

Welcome to the first episode of Dying 2 Know, where we reveal the big news to the world!

Do you want to see how we've created the world of Dying Light 2 Stay Human? Learn more about Aiden’s goals and motivations? Know the release date?!

Our hosts, Leahviatan and Jonah Scott will answer those questions, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!

As alluded to there, this first episode of a new ongoing series (think of CD Projekt RED's Night City Wire series) shares plenty, but chief among all of it is the game's release date, which will see Dying Light 2: Stay Human hit PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series S|X this December 7.

Watch the full episode of Dying 2 Know embedded below, which features the new gameplay trailer, or skip that and just check the trailer on its own below that.

(Quick aside: through all of the moving image assets in the Dying 2 Know episode, keep an eye out for the game's street art, which is definitely inspired by the street art that adorns myriad spaces in Techland's home of Poland.)

After providing a quick update on the progress of the game earlier this week, Dying Light 2 studio Techland has released a new development "update" video that ends with a little teaser noting that the release window for the highly anticipated game is this year. 2021.

And we put update in quotation marks there because the video below is mostly members of the studio reading out Mean Tweets of fans wanting to know about the game.



That said it's reassurance that the game is still in development and that we'll get to see and hear more about it soon. Plus, dropping '2021' at the end there surely means its just about ready for that full curtain-slide reveal.

And that, "we announced the game too early" in reference to the 2018 reveal -- and that the project is not in "development hell". Based on its initial reveal, the ambitious Dying Light 2 was initially due for release in 2020 with a large 26-minute slice of gameplay showcased in 2019. Since then rumours and reports of studio troubles and development issues have emerged with Techland responding that progress on the game has been steady.

On that note we wont have to wait long to get our next glimpse or update on the game, with "a few words to share with you about the Dying Light 2 development process" coming this week.

We've got a few words to share with you about the Dying Light 2 development process.
Be sure to be with us next Wednesday.

Want to see it first? Join our discord server now at https://t.co/Iyivc8uFWx pic.twitter.com/gkfcGLgsdV

— Dying Light (@DyingLightGame) March 12, 2021

Dying Light 2 is still up there in terms of our most anticipated releases, something that hearkens back to that initial reveal where we got to see it in person and speak in-depth with the team at Techland. In terms of when the game, for a lack of a better term, see the light -- that remains to be seen. We wouldn't be surprised if its targeting a 2022 release window, though naturally we'd love to play it sooner rather than later. The good news there is that the studio is committed to releasing the game when its polished, ready, and complete.

Dying Light 2 is currently in development for PC and consoles, and with the PC version already featuring real-time ray-tracing powered by NVIDIA GeForce RTX hardware its safe to assume that at this point it will also take full advantage of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

Which is a round about way of saying "watch this space". Revealed via the all-important Twitter-sphere, Techland dropped the bombshell overnight saying that Dying Light 2 -- the studio's "biggest project to date", would need "more development time to fulfill [its] vision".

Check out the full post in text form:

To our dedicated Community:

It was a busy year for us as we continued working on our biggest project to date. We know you are awaiting the game eagerly, and we want to deliver exactly what we promised.

We were initially aiming for a Spring 2020 release with Dying Light 2, but unfortunately we need more development time to fulfill our vision. We will have more details to share in the coming months, and we will get back to you as soon as we have more information. We apologize for this unwelcome news. Our priority is to deliver an experience that lives up to our own high standards and to the expectations of you, our fans.

Please stay tuned, and thank you to our fans around the world for your continued support, patience, and understanding.

Pawel Marchewka, CEO
Techland

This delay follows news CDPR's push from April to September for Cyberpunk 2077, leaving us to wonder if some of these delays are due to the forthcoming console update across both PS5 and Xbox Series X... the mind doth wonder.

A list that also includes the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, Watch Dogs: Legion, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Remedy’s Control. Which is out next week. No details have been provided on how exactly Dying Light 2 will implement the technology, but we do have confirmation that it will feature “will feature real-time raytracing”. Meaning that one of our most anticipated titles for 2020 just got a whole lot more most anticipated-ier.

Here’s Dying Light 2 without raytracing – i.e. RTX Off.


And here it is – RTX On.


And yeah, the difference is massive. From what we can tell stuff like global illumination applied to direct and indirect light sources and shadows give it all a very different look ala what we found in Metro Exodus. This screenshot is a weird example to use, as it showcases a vastly brighter image. Albeit one with more realistic lighting.

“Dying Light 2 pushes the boundaries of gaming technology with our implementation of ray tracing," said Pawel Rohleder, Techland’s CTO. “Not only will it dramatically enhance the visuals and immersion, it will enhance the player’s experience as they explore the vast open-world.”

More details on how the tech will utilise the tech will be announced at a later date. Regarding Vampire: The Masquerade- Bloodlines 2, another highly anticipated RPG release – it will utilise the technology mainly for reflections.

Here’s how it all looks – in RTX Off and RTX On form via a fancy new trailer.



Both Dying Light 2 and Vampire: The Masquerade- Bloodlines 2 are due for release in the first half of 2020.