CVG has reported that the latest edition of PC Zone revealed that GSC Game World is developing a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. prequel, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. Set to be released during the first half of 2008, the game takes place a year before the events of the original game.<blockquote>Without giving away too many plot for fear of spouting spoilers, it fleshes out the origins of one of the main characters in the first game who, stepping into the boots of a stalker from a rival faction this time around, you're out to kill.
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PC Zone explains that Clear Sky's game world consists for 50 percent new territory and 50 percent twisted renditions of what you've played before.
Sitting comfortably with the main storyline is an AI-driven stalker war. Players will be able to ally themselves with any of eight factions and work with them to seize control of important locations and ultimately assault enemy faction bases.</blockquote>The article also reports that the developers are working on improving the AI, new monsters, creating a more hostile and dark game environment, improving the interface, new "spatial bubble" anomalies, and possibly creating a DirectX 10 version of the game.
Awesome. Although not my favorite, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was a pretty interesting game and could easily be improved. I hope they can actually reach their goals this time.
After the sales of their last title I would think this one won't be delayed near as long as the last one. Also from "50 percent new and 50 percent reworked old stuff" it sounds like it will be the same engine, perhaps slightly modified, so that will cut the development time down vastly as those maps are made already, they just need to clean them up a little, and probably populate them a bit more, etc etc etc. Perhaps this time it will be a fully translated English version so we know what they are saying behind our backs without looking it up
What I would like to know is when that patch they were talking about will be coming out. The one that is suposed to introduce free-play mode to the current STALKER game. I keep checking their websites on and off but see no news about them.
I'd play them release-lined. I have a "feeling" that the second one will be better, basically because it'd be kind of hard to mess it up. The first one, with the addition of some user-made mods, can make for a good open-ended FPS.
Did anyone see the news story posted on NMA about how someone went through the time to look at the graphics and compared them to Doom 3 and Half-Life 2? Who takes the time to do that? I think the guy wanted to be the hero of the day, but instead it ended up being graphics from a 3rd-party package. What a D-bag.
and now they shall fix the old game and make it like it should have been instead of making another title which probably is just for the $$ (publisher) and even less innovative...
if they would have had another 2 years to finish S.T.A.L.K.E.R. it would have been an A++ title changing all forthcoming titles...
I am sure they will, but I think they are waiting for E3 to finish before releasing the patch. This way it is good hype for E3, and if it sucks then it is that much less bad hype for them. I would imagine it will come from next week till the end of the summer.
The new screens look great and the new content they are talking about sounds really good. I hope it all works out the way it is planned.
