wikipedia wrote:4A Games was founded by members of the core team behind S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. After the game was finished, in 2006, one the developers, Andrew Prokhorov, quarrelled with Grygorovych about wages, and subsequently left the company, alongside Oles Shyshkovtsov and Alexander Maximchuk, to form 4A Games. 4A Games has since developed the Metro game series.
For a moment I thought you were having fun with the name of Chernobylite . It looks like a Stalker game with the setting, the artifact scanner, and the anomalies and all..even people are called stalkers. But I guess this really is a new Stalker after all.
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I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
When in doubt, skewer it out...I don't know.
If they don't have a new set of stalker campfire jokes, I'll be sorely disappointed.
A stalker gets captured by bandits, who torture him trying to get the location of artifacts they think he's hiding on them. They start by dipping him into a well, upside down.
Bandits: "Any artifacts?"
Stalker: "Nope."
They dip him again, pull him up.
Bandits: "Artifacts?"
Stalker: "Nope."
They dip him at third time, pull him back up.
Bandits: "Goddammit, where are the artifacts?"
Stalker: "Look, either lower me further or hold me down there longer, the water's getting really cloudy."
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I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
When in doubt, skewer it out...I don't know.
I would assume to recognize that it's a new engine. Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat used the same engine, I believe, as the first game. They were more along the lines of DLCs with some updated features.
Or maybe simply because they couldn't think of an interesting name this time?
Black Lives Matter
Isgrimnur - Facebook makes you hate your friends and family. LinkedIn makes you hate you co-workers. NextDoor makes you hate your neighbors.
A new video from GSC Game World offers some developer highlights for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, dedicated to the 14th anniversary of the original release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. This comes along with the promise of a gameplay demonstration later this year.
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I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
When in doubt, skewer it out...I don't know.
A ultimate edition is only worth anything to me in physical form.
This digital stuff...
Extended Campfire Content: more guitar tunes and tales that you can hear in the game around the stalkers' campfires
'Early bird' Weapon Skin
'Early bird' Costume Skin
'Early Bird' Multiplayer Badge
Steam Pack: Animated Avatar, Animated Avatar Frame & Animated Profile Background
Ultimate Edition
Ultimate Edition includes:
Season Pass With Access to All Future DLCs, Including 2 Story Expansions
Additional Story-Based Side Quest
Single Player: 1 Costume Skin & 3 Weapon Skins
Multiplayer: 2 Costume Skins & 3 Weapon Skins
Digital Artbook
Digital Soundtrack
Worth exactly ZILCH.
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I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
When in doubt, skewer it out...I don't know.
I'd argue that the season pass is worthwhile. They usually are, unless the developer phones it in. As for the rest... I'll get it if it's a throw-in, like when you get a free (whatever) depending on where you preorder, but only if I was planning to preorder anyway. I won't go out of my way or pay extra for them.
Stalker is a game about desperately scrounging through the shattered remains of a ruined world in search of elusive, ethereal artifacts that can be sold to sketchy traders for a quick buck. In that context, I guess it makes sense that Stalker 2, coming in April next year, will incorporate NFTs that enable players to "own" unique items in the game, or even become an NPC.
Starting later this month, players will be able to register for "item drops" that will begin in January 2022—not a drop in the usual videogame sense but an online auction. Among the NFT items up for grabs will be what GSC Game World describes as "the first-ever metahuman," which sounds cool but is in fact just an NPC with the owner's face scanned onto it. Echoes of Tyler Wilde as the world's worst basketball player, I suppose, except you won't actually be able to play the game as this character: Instead, it will appear as "a bartender, a comrade, or an enemy... there for everyone to see."
"Considering the global trends in gaming, we can do more than just offer an immersive game experience," GSC Game World CEO Evgeniy Grygorovych said. "Our players can get a deeper presence in the game, and we will give them this opportunity by presenting the first AAA game with a unique meta experience."
The second round of drops will take place in February and feature "highly secretive genesis packs." Details on that will be announced via Twitter and Discord, but whatever they are, GSC Game World said they and other such drops won't influence gameplay or provide any kind of advantage over other players.
Unless they can swap out the NPCs on the fly as ownership of the NFTs changes, I'm not sure why they need to use a blockchain for a feature that has been offered as a Kickerstarter backer reward for people with deep pockets since forever, but ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Max Peck wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 6:10 pm
...a feature that has been offered as a Kickerstarter backer reward for people with deep pockets since forever...
That was my first thought. I guess if they aren't going the KS route, then this is the next logical choice? Or something.
Black Lives Matter
Isgrimnur - Facebook makes you hate your friends and family. LinkedIn makes you hate you co-workers. NextDoor makes you hate your neighbors.
On Wednesday, Stalker 2 developer GSC Game World announced it would be auctioning off NFTs—also known as 'expensive receipts'—that granted owners a presence in the game, which really just meant their faces would be pasted onto the heads of NPCs. Now the studio has announced it has cancelled all plans to sell NFTs.
The NFT promo material posted yesterday was full of gibberish about becoming "the first metahumans" in the "Stalker metaverse" which was going to be achieved by way of a "metaversial bridge," a term which sounds like something from a Kojima game. It's actually just face scanning.
GSC clearly expected blowback when it made the announcement, saying right away that Stalker 2 wasn't becoming a "blockchain-based game," that the NFT auction wouldn't affect gameplay (except in the sense that you'd see the faces of NFT owners while playing), and that purchasing NFTs was optional.
Today, the studio posted another message to Twitter intended to soothe irritation caused by the announcement, saying that the in-game representations of NFT owners wouldn't be disruptive to players who wanted to ignore the whole thing. GSC quickly deleted that tweet, and then about an hour later announced on Twitter that "anything NFT-related" has been canceled.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
The war in Ukraine has been raging for almost a week, with the conflict impacting millions in the Eastern European country. The Ukrainian gaming industry is also suffering from the consequences of the Russian invasion, with the development of STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl being put on hold for the time being, only to be resumed "after the Ukrainian victory," the developer says.
The war in Ukraine has been raging for almost a week, with the conflict impacting millions in the Eastern European country. The Ukrainian gaming industry is also suffering from the consequences of the Russian invasion, with the development of STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl being put on hold for the time being, only to be resumed "after the Ukrainian victory," the developer says.
Well, maybe not till "after the Ukrainian victory,"
The demo starts, and my health is already draining. Welcome to Stalker 2, I guess. This Gamescom, for the first time, GSC Game World's long awaited sequel is available to play on the show floor—albeit just the smallest possible slice. But while the demo may be only 15 minutes long, it manages to pack in all the grim, dystopian misery a Stalker fan could want.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is scheduled to release later this year. You can find it on all the usual PC stores, including Steam and GOG.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
"December 2023" ... ! and it has a Steam page now:
i appreciate you can play with Ukrainian dialog and English subtitles. i am currently studying Russian and i was able to understand parts of the cutscenes (scattered words and some short phrases)
Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine is ongoing, sadly with no end to the conflict in sight, and its impacts continue to be felt globally and most acutely in Ukraine itself. Developer GSC Game World was based in Kyiv and, since the war began, has been facing the direst of circumstances: development of Stalker 2 was temporarily paused while it helped some employees flee the conflict zone, while other staff are volunteering or have signed up for the Ukrainian armed forces.
This has inevitably led to Stalker 2 being delayed, first into 2023, as GSC grapples with not only the practicalities of developing an entertainment product amidst war but constant cyberattacks from Russian elements (the studio has taken a public pro-Ukraine stance that made it a target for both the Russian state, which has essentially banned the game, and Russian cyberattacks resulting in leaked builds).
Now there's good news and bad news. The good news is that our own Phil Savage went hands-on with Stalker 2 at Gamescom, and within three minutes had been chewed up by a dog, blasted by an anomaly, and irradiated. In other words, this sure sounds like the zone, and looks the part too. The bad news is that as part of the Gamescom appearance GSC has released a new fact sheet for the game, which pushes the release date back from late this year into Q1 2024: so anytime from January 1st to March 31st, 2024.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Grifman wrote: Wed Aug 14, 2024 5:30 am
Game looks awesome, well worth the weight.
Is it the lead lining?
its all those hidden pockets for anomalies.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
When in doubt, skewer it out...I don't know.
Its pretty. I just hope it doesn't become another Duke Nukem Forever.
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I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
When in doubt, skewer it out...I don't know.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is out in just over a week, which makes this a good time to remind all you eager Zone hunters out there that if you're hurting for storage space, it might finally be time for a new (and, more to the point, bigger) SSD.
GSC Game World's latest is going to eat up a whopping 150GB of storage space, a big-gig number we were first slapped in the face with when Stalker 2's PC system requirements were originally revealed. But that was more than three years ago, before Russia's unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine threw the country into turmoil and forced multiple delays.
But the developers persevered, and now it's really happening: Stalker 2 has gone gold, and that means you're either going to have to make some space or finally spring for a decently sized SSD. And yes, an SSD, not an old spinning disk: If you're anything like me you might have oodles of free hard drive space kicking around, but you've also discovered that once you've enjoyed the luxurious speed of an SSD, well, there's no going back.
jztemple2 wrote: Mon Nov 11, 2024 6:12 pm
Holy cow, Stalker 2 needs 150GB of SSD space, and you've got 9 days to figure out where you're going to put it
Just checked. I have about 3TB free, 1.2TB of that on an SSD. I think I am good.
This has been a rough year at work, I haven't used any vacation days so far and I have a week of comp time coming for working weekends over the last couple months. Conveniently, my vacation starts 11/20 and goes through the end of the year. I think I may be able to squeeze Stalker 2 in there somewhere...
I've got somewhat less SSD space available, but then it might be time to finally admit I'm not going to play Forza Motorsport anymore, that's 121GB right there. But I don't need to right now since I did some other cleanup first.
I wasn't really sure I was going to get this game, but the more I see the videos from the devs, the more I think it might be worthwhile. I just hope it doesn't turn into a CP2077 situation
Nice that you've got so much time off from work at a good time of year. Me, I've been retired now for over thirteen years. It seems like a lifetime ago that I had to get up to go to work
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
I wanted to buy the ultimate edition both to support them and to get that anomaly lamp. But thats out of my wallet range right now.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
When in doubt, skewer it out...I don't know.
jztemple2 wrote: Mon Nov 11, 2024 6:12 pm
Holy cow, Stalker 2 needs 150GB of SSD space, and you've got 9 days to figure out where you're going to put it
Just checked. I have about 3TB free, 1.2TB of that on an SSD. I think I am good.
This has been a rough year at work, I haven't used any vacation days so far and I have a week of comp time coming for working weekends over the last couple months. Conveniently, my vacation starts 11/20 and goes through the end of the year. I think I may be able to squeeze Stalker 2 in there somewhere...
Don't kid yourself. You'll have beaten the game by 11-22.
