A couple of months ago, Techland pushed back the release of first-person zombie kicker Dying Light: The Beast by four weeks “to allow for extra polishing work”. I guess that work took less time than they expected, but only slightly less time. After moving the launch back to September 19, it’s now been moved forward again. To September 18.

“Seeing the excitement from our community for the return of Kyle Crane in Dying Light: The Beast,” said franchise director Tymon Smektała, “and knowing the game is ready, we wanted to do something special for our players. We pushed ourselves to make the impossible possible, and that’s why we’re releasing the game a little earlier. I can’t wait to see players’ reactions when they finally step into the world of The Beast.”

More than a million players have pre-ordered Dying Light: The Beast, and Techland is eager to keep them happy. They and anyone else who pre-orders has been promised “an exclusive new reward”, though what that reward is they haven’t said. It’ll apparently be revealed during launch week.

Our own FPS expert Morgan Park got to play an hour-long demo of The Beast and came away impressed by its size. Though it started life as an expansion for Dying Light 2, and will still be free for anyone who forked out for Dying Light 2: Ultimate Edition, it’s apparently closer to a full new entry in the Dying Light series.

“The Beast is a much larger game than I assumed it’d be based on its non-numbered subtitle”, Morgan said. “It has a completely new map, characters, and story—Smektała said his last playthrough was around 37 hours with the main story and sidequests considered. It’s not a standalone expansion, it’s the next Dying Light game.”

Best MMOs: Most massiveBest strategy games: Number crunchingBest open world games: Unlimited explorationBest survival games: Live craft loveBest horror games: Fight or flight

From PCGamer latest via this RSS feed