STALKER delayed once more

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Brother None

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The German THQ news page is reporting that STALKER is once again delayed. It cites PR-manager Oleg Yavorsky as stating:<blockquote>We are pleased that THQ has granted us more time for development. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a complex game, that will create new standards in its genre. We wish to be sure that we release the game only when it fulfils our high expectations, which we ourselves and the fans place against it, and not before then.</blockquote>Alrighty then.

Spotted at and translation (with some edits where I felt another translation was in order) taken from DaC
 
Maybe they should just join the two games into one. Who wouldn't want to play a game called D.U.K.E.N.U.K.E.M.: Shadow of Chernobyl?
 
I am starting to think, that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. isn't even in any kind of production. They just keep rendering some beautiful drawings made with 3d max. Hm... Idea...
 
I'm more than a little suspicious about S.T.A.L.K.E.R., particularly after a lot of the feedback about The Fall. Both promised lots of radically new interactivity features. You know, everything would react realistically and intelligently to your actions rather than either being (a) scripted or (b) random and idiotic.

These days, any time I hear that a game will allow you to see beautifully-rendered reflections of the night sky reflecting off your sword that are perfectly refracted as you chop through a water elemental, I believe it. However, if someone tells me that an NPC will respond realistically to more than a few random pre-scripted stimuli, I won't believe a word.

The descriptions of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. just had the sound of a bunch of marketing guys reading out what the A.I. programmers wrote in their first wish-list as if it was all going to be feasible and result in a playable game. I'd like it if it were true, but frankly I'm not holding out too much hope.
 
onanthebarbarian said:
These days, any time I hear that a game will allow you to see beautifully-rendered reflections of the night sky reflecting off your sword that are perfectly refracted as you chop through a water elemental, I believe it. However, if someone tells me that an NPC will respond realistically to more than a few random pre-scripted stimuli, I won't believe a word.
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You have a point...
 
I rather wait for couple of months for them to polish instead of rushing the product...just like what Activision did to Vampire:Bloodline :cry:
 
I'm not so sure using VtM:B as an example of a "rushed" game is particularly accurate. Wasn't Activision forced to sit on Vampire's release date after it was finished due to Vivendi's adamant (and ridiculous) policy on not allowing software using the Source Engine to be released until HL2 was officially available for purchase? (Hooray for run-on sentences!) I also don't think the bugs in Vampire were due to rushing developement, but due to the lack of in-house testing at Troika. Further, doesn't Troika have to clear any potential patches through Acclaim before even starting on them?

I don't remember the exact story, but I'm sure one of the Troika fanbois or some avid googler will be able to correct me if I'm wrong.

For a good instance of a rushed game, I think you'd be well within rights to point a finger at The Fall (joining in with everyone else that's heard of it), Fable (Fable rushed? Haha), or any other number of games.
 
If I remember correctly, many of the bugs in the game had already been patched before release, but for some reason Activision wasn't allowing them to release that patch.
But that's only my memory.
 
zioburosky13 said:
In a nutshell, a rushed game = frustrated and unhappy gamer.. :P
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I think that could describe virtually everyone on this board, before considering the state of gaming. Hence an inconclusive premise. :wink:
 
Yet another dissapointment from another company :-\

Literacy_Hooligan said:
I am starting to think, that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. isn't even in any kind of production. They just keep rendering some beautiful drawings made with 3d max. Hm... Idea...
Click to expand...

^-- Im thinking this may be a case. Thought they've done so many of those wonderful 3d renders that we can just print em all up and make a flip book It'll be like the same game.

And someone said alpha leak? I'd like to get my hands on that...
:: cough, cough, hint, hint ::
 
Well first off, the results of the Chornobyl accident were pretty bad affecting over a million people and 3 countries, but thats not what the game is about. In STALKER the story begins in 2006 and there is also the threat of expanding "disturbances" from the area which continue to grow and increase the threat of the "Zone". In the "Zone" the enviroment is certainly post apocalyptic, even if it doesn't apply to the world as a whole. Yet.
 
Literacy_Hooligan said:
No, it is only action RPG shooter. Unless you call the disaster of Chernobyl an apocalypse.
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Yes, thank you for so cleverly dissecting my quip about the bullshit multiple-genre thing that waves around through games these days.

"Action RPG shooter" Bite the bullet
 
Multi-Genre games aren't neccessarily bad. The "eco-sim" aspects of Syndicate was great and fit. It's just annoying when the fact a game contains elements of other genres is promoted as innovative and whatnot before the game is anywhere close to public release. Usually that means that the aspects will be absolutely crappy or won't fit the rest (or both, if the rest isn't crappy as well).

Deus Ex had RPG elements, yes, but I'd still rather call it an FPS because that's what the basis of the game is. You can play it without "shooting" a lot, but it's still an FPS (if you got a problem just call it "First Person Sneaker" like some weirdos do).
Making up new names just to get the point accross that your game isn't entirely stereotype is like explaining that water is wet. It doesn't really make the game any better.

If you know a little about AI you also know that no game that aims for a mass market today will use "free" AI (or "AL") and that the claim that it doesn't use scripting is bullshit.
It is true that there can be games without pre-scripted "scenes", but in that case the scripting is simply moved from a global "controller" to the individual entitities. That doesn't make much of a difference for the player tho and scripted scenes can more easily create interesting situations (for the player) than scripted individuals.

You don't WANT to play a game with entirely autonomous entities which can actually evolve their abilities beyond a limited set of prescripted actions.
Also I don't know any game dev on their right mind who'd want to code such a nightmare.
 
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