S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - eye candy deluxe

[Intrepid Homoludens]

http://www.gengamers.com/assets/images/stalker-th171.JPG (http://www.gengamers.com/html/stal171.html) http://www.gengamers.com/assets/images/stalker-th170.JPG (http://www.gengamers.com/html/stal170.html) http://www.gengamers.com/assets/images/stalker-th161.JPG (http://www.gengamers.com/html/stal161.html) http://www.gengamers.com/assets/images/stalker-th167.JPG (http://www.gengamers.com/html/stal167.html)

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. site has just been updated with some new screenshots (http://www.stalker-game.com/index.php?t=gallery&rnd=6514), 4 of which are above (from GenGamers.com). This game is being talked of as the 'other' Half-Life 2, and will be released in Spring 2004. For those of you unfamiliar with this game, it is a science fiction RPG/FPS hybrid thematically inspired by the events of Chernobyl, loosely based on the novel The Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. You play as a stalker, a scavenger who makes his living by scouring extremely dangerous environments filled with radioactivity and mutated creatures. Whatever things of value you find can be sold for money to buy better weapons and protective gear, allowing access to even more dangerous areas filled with valuables. Much of the challenge emerges from other stalkers (A.I. controlled), whom you compete with for resources and missions, they have their own agendas. The gameplay style and the gameworld itself is open ended, covering roughly 30 kilometers and you can go anywhere, anywhere at all by foot or driveable vehicles. It is possible for you to lose the game if another stalker completes his overall objectives before you do yours.

However you feel about how the game looks and plays, you can't not acknowledge the fact that S.T.A.L.K.E.R., along with Half-Life 2 and Doom3, represents the next logical step in gaming for deep immersiveness through the in-game visuals. And along with Half-Life 2 and the upcoming Deus Ex: Invisible War, it will set the next paradigm for unhindered player freedom and open ended playing style and vast exploration.

[twifkak]

3-D geek.

*runs*

[Fum]

However you feel about how the game looks and plays, you can't not acknowledge the fact that S.T.A.L.K.E.R., along with Half-Life 2 and Doom3, represents the next logical step in gaming for deep immersiveness through the in-game visuals. And along with Half-Life 2 and the upcoming Deus Ex: Invisible War, it will set the next paradigm for unhindered player freedom and open ended playing style and vast exploration.

Might I point out that in this text you forgot to mention Far Cry twice :P. I find the game's high level of scalability in models and textures just as impressive as S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Half-Life 2, and Doom3's raw polygon count, and because of this Far Cry can have mile-long draw distances, and accordingly, mile-wide landscapes. That’s what I call unhindered player freedom :D.

But yeah, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. does look damn good :).

[Erkki]

... Far Cry can have mile-long draw distances, and accordingly, mile-wide landscapes. That’s what I call unhindered player freedom :D.

How far the player can see hasn't got much to do with player freedom.

[remixor]

Gadzooks! What on earth does S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stand for?? That's a pretty absurd acronym!

[Fum]

How far the player can see hasn't got much to do with player freedom.

It doesn't necessarily, but it wouldn't make much sense to create miles of viewable, but inaccessible, land, would it? Plus I added the line, "and accordingly, mile-wide landscapes," for those of you who didn't make that assumption automatically.

I've been wondering the same thing for awhile, remixor...

[Intrepid Homoludens]

3-D geek.

*runs*

[sticks foot out and trips kakzilla as he tries to get away]

Actually, it was the premise of the gameplay that got me intrigued with it, kakmouth, so you're quite off. The graphics in this case are the icing on the cake.

Might I point out that in this text you forgot to mention Far Cry twice :P.

http://www.gamespy.com/e32003/screens/PC/xenus/13s.jpg http://www.gamespy.com/e32003/screens/PC/xenus/18s.jpg

:P Might I point out that you (and I) have forgotten Xenus (http://www.gamespy.com/e32003/preview/pc/1002948/) as well? Same thing, fully explorable huge map, freedom of movement and choices. But this time you play "...Kevin Myers, a former French Foreign Legionnaire. His sister [a journalist] has disappeared, and he's tracked her down to the jungles of Colombia. Russobit-M has created a game that's heavy in plot and yet is totally non-linear."

[Wajus]

Yes... STALKER. "Isn't she beautiful?"
It reminded me twice of Fallout atmosphere ;)

My only concern is that this game's world may be a little bit to desolated.

[Royal Fool]

Yes... STALKER. "Isn't she beautiful?"
It reminded me twice of Fallout atmosphere ;)

My only concern is that this game's world may be a little bit to desolated.
There's probably some sort of 'hub' to gear up and get missions and somesuch. It also reminded me of Fallout... *sigh*

Btw, here's a screenshot I feel like sharing:

http://www.stalker-game.com/download/gallery/screenshots/sb_xray_42.jpg

That one must push quite a few polygons. And it's also damned ******* pretty!

[zarathustrian]

The screenshots that have been released thus far are all very well and good, but have we seen any actual gameplay yet? Almost every shot has been utterly empty of characters or animals--one of the shots Intrepid just posted shows a boar-like animal, and it's the first time I've seen anything other than the main character in a shot (and I know one or two shots show more than one character onscreen, but the other ones off in the distance could easily just be copies of the main character).

All I'm saying is I think it's a little premature to be comparing the game to Half-Life 2--which I'm not alone in expecting to be great.

[twifkak]

you're quite off.
..........

[Intrepid Homoludens]

The screenshots that have been released thus far are all very well and good, but have we seen any actual gameplay yet?

.....

All I'm saying is I think it's a little premature to be comparing the game to Half-Life 2--which I'm not alone in expecting to be great.

There are at least a couple of gameplay footage available. However, they're engineered more to show off the lighting and physics. The game doesn't come out until spring next year, so you just wait, leave them be, sunshine. :P

I'm comparing it to HL2 in terms of technological scope and ambition. Besides, you or anyone else haven't seen enough gameplay footage of HL2 either, to truly warrant it as some kind of benchmark (I have every confidence it will be, but part of me remains empirical). And as it stands, if you consider the overarching structure of STALKER's gameplay respective of its storyline and mission goals, it would be rather difficult to gauge its full scope from a few short movies. HL2's overarching structure is pretty clear and can easily be gleaned by watching a brief footage: run, shoot, get stuff, talk to NPC, etc.

STALKER's structure is more subtle, though: get mission, find and retrieve valuable items in the Zone, watch out for anomalies, radioactive areas, scout square mile radius for rival stalkers to either compete with or team up with, sell found items for money to upgrade equipment, report back to handlers for more missions, etc. You also have to remember that your choices during gameplay all contribute to the reputation you are building with other stalkers and handlers throughout the course of the entire game. HL2 doesn't do that. Therefore, it would be hard to show this in a few gameplay movies.

[jjacob]

I thought I'd bring this ol' topic back to life with this link (http://files.filefront.com/957922) of a 30mb, 2 minute gameplay movie! It's not that new I think but as I've been following this game's progress and totally missed it I thought other people might've missed it too. Plus here's (http://www.3dgamers.com/dl/games/stalker/stalker_engine_large.avi.html) a more recent one showing off lots of terrain, verhicles and gameplay (and driving!)

I'm surprised everyone's focusing so much on the graphical side of things, or how far the horizon stretches ('cept you trep). I'd consider that a bonus, because what makes this game unique is the concept and its potential: This "dead zone (http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/)" is one of the more brilliant settings we'll see come to life in a game of this magnitude. This will really add to the gameplay experience, knowing that the game world is loosely yet geographicly accuracte. I mean, if you've read about the dead zone, you'll know about the petrified forest (not the underworldly Fandango one) of red wood, the reported mutated animals and weird social behaviour of wolfs and boars, the ghost town cementary which is in itself one of the radiation hotspots. I can go on with this but to me it's clear that there is more than enough reality they can put in this game's story. I surely hope they will take much effort in creating their story-system. It looks as though they're definately not forgetting this element though; they have a story contest on their website (http://www.stalker-game.com) with some very interesting and 'scary'/action-packed entries (the top ones got the highest rating). This game will no doubt be full of eerie atmosphere such as this chernobylian house (http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/image5.3.JPG) :P
Comparing this game with half-life 2 is wrong. This game could very well be dubbed survival rpg-fps, whereas that cannot be said at all about half life 2. I've played my fair share of HL2 beta, hours on end actually (the game didn't crash more than twice an hour! :)), and although it's not the final version, I definately got the idea: All hell breaks loose constantly and it's up to you if you react to the situation well: for example in the urban map, where it's far better to try and block off the giant robot spiders than to try and kill them, or in the physics map, where you're outgunned most of the time and have to use the physics to your advantage (shooting a support beam, blocking a door, heck you can even use an enemy as a shield with the grav gun). It would be a bit like comparing the linear Broken Sword 3 (HL2) with the Last Express (S.T.A.L.K.E.R); In BS3, you've got to figure out the story in a very specific way, and in a specific sequence of events (which you trigger). In the last express however, you drive the story in specific ways, there is actual choice being presented, which influences the rest of the story. S.T.A.L.K.E.R will emphasise total freedom of movement and choice in very much the same way, very much like Deus Ex 1 (and to a lesser degree IW), but with a real-time elements (day-night, 'calendar', weather etc.)

You will get to explore the 30 square kilometres surrounding ground zero with no limitations; only that of your own inexperience. The deeper you go in, the crazier shit gets. Therefor you must first learn enough, collect enough equipment (a geiger counter might come in handy), get assignments, earn people's trust (or rather: earn employers'/faction's trust) etc. On top of all that you have to eat and sleep every day (or night), this will mean you'll have to collect/trade for food, find shelter, and hope the game won't wake the player before breakfast, because you don't want to be woken up by a mutated beast (http://www.stalker-game.com/download/gallery/screenshots/middle/sb_xray_50.jpg)/rival stalker/soldier/etc. (now why hadn't that been done before?). The game world around you moves indepently, and other stalkers can get assignments instead of you. What I'm trying to say is that this game will present us with more threats than any other game; Aside from wild (mutated) animals, enemies, radiaton and anomalies there are also many military patrols, (which has its bright side though, since you get to steal their equipment (http://www.stalker-game.com/download/gallery/screenshots/middle/sb_xray_17.jpg) and vehicles (http://www.stalker-game.com/download/gallery/screenshots/middle/sb_xray_04.jpg)), that's alot of hostility for ya :devil:

Ah hell, I'll quote some stuff from the website:

Gameplay
The player travels over immense world of the Zone, its all locations joined into one global map. He can choose any route and will not be limited in his traversing the Zone. The player will be offered free exploration full of generated and scenario-imposed tasks, participation in the eerie events of a murky world.

The player will become a stalker, a guy who earns money from shoveling embers out of infernal oven of Chernobyl Zone. Returning from the radioactivity-blazing Zone, he will sell anomalous formations to underground dealers and scientists in research camps on the Zone border.

With the money procured, the player will purchase equipment, weapons and protective suits allowing him to reach previously inaccessible areas.

This is a role-playing game without growing experience of your character, without changing characteristics and levels. We want the player to develop his real mastery, moreover Stalker is an FPS/RPG game and much depends on his ability to fight. Changing characteristics, levels and player's experience, to our mind, would destroy the realism we try to create. As far as the rest is concerned, this is almost a normal PRG game where players travel the Zone, collect artifacts, weapons, reveal anomalous zones, communicate and trade with NPCs etc.

Communication with NPCs

The Player's communication with the game characters will serve an essential part of the gameplay. By means of communication the player will find out important information, acquire tasks, trade or make deals to accomplish a task co-operatively. Apart from humans, the player will also be able to communicate with sapient mutant creatures.

The game will be strongly influenced by communication and NPCs' attitude towards the player. For example, under a bad attitude, trader will refuse to trade or will charge an exorbitant price, and stalkers will open fire as soon as they recognise the player.


Trade

Trade will be realistic, as you are given a chance to purchase, exchange or sell everything: ammunition, equipment or artifacts. You can trade with the army, dealers, stalkers and scientists. To give you an idea how this will look in the game: the player comes across with a veteran stalker in the Zone, they greet each other, agree to remove weapons, then come closer to each other and start trading. They exchange phrases through a communication system. Soviet roubles will go in the game as the currency.

Artificial Intelligence

We see AI in our game as a system of realistic character behaviour. Game characters live in a world the player can only drop into, they have their own joys and sorrows. We thoroughly work out artificial intelligence for the player never to feel artificiality of the happening. This principle basically refers to our approach in general, and not only to efforts on AI. We work out all the possible actions of the player and prepare natural reaction of characters to them. As character would react in life, so as he should react in the game. If the player attacks and kills one of the guards, the rest will go to seek hiding, radio their headquarters, and won't stand still, or what's worse, run out towards the player.

World

The world of the Zone is a huge derelict territory of half-ruined buildings unruffled for 20 years, woodlands and anomalous greenery. The Zone world features neglected underground and ground laboratories, dead military bases and proving grounds for new technologies. Radioactive land is covered with ulcers of scorched earth, poisonous fogs, deadly gravitational anomalies. This is the world of a disastrous industrial and ecological catastrophe. And in the hub of this man-caused hell the wreckage of Chernobyl atomic facility rests.

We create the Zone based on reconstruction of Chernobyl atomic power plant and the 30-kilometer zone around it. Players, while progressing through the game, will see the Dead Forest, cities of Pripyat' and Chernobyl, sneak inside the Chernobyl atomic facility sarcophagus, go through the memorable areas, really existing in the epicentre of the tragedy to have occurred some 16 years ago.

We do our best to reproduce the atmosphere of industrial and ecological catastrophe of Chernobyl in detail, so, undeniably, all the zone sights will be easily recognizable. Photos and video materials acquired during our trip to Chernobyl provide ample of information to meet this very purpose, ensuring the textures and architecture are of utmost realism.



Having played the Half-Life 2 beta, and having seen these S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video's and screenshots (all of them arrrr!), I am ALOT more excited about this potentially unique game. I know that's not fair since the beta mostly shows incomplete and test levels, but as I said, I'm excited about the game's concept, which has loads more potential than HL2; story-wise, graphics-wise, gameplay-wise n all-wise. Well that's just my 10 cts, sorry for the long post but as I learned more of the game my excitement jumped through the ceiling, and naturally I couldn't leave anything out :D

[jjacob]

Themodfathers have released six new s.t.a.l.k.e.r shots accompanying an http://www.themodfathers.jolt.co.uk/?page=&action=show&id=8968 about the nvidia 6800 or something. There's also a gameplay video below the screenshots (scroll way down), but I can't load it, anyone else can? Is it a new video?

For those eager to see NPCs/robots(?)http://rider-j2004.pochta.ru/alphamod/StalkerNew3.jpg :P

Found it among DOZENS of other totally new screenshots on this ukranian (?) site (http://rider-j.pochta.ru/alphamod.html), looks not so official though, so the screens could be old.

[skalmanxl]

I don't want to rain on any parade here, but the game isn't even even promised this year... A lot of rumors say that it's due out late 2004, but it might as well be 2005 too. As far as gameplay, people that has played it at GSC's offices, they say that it's still pretty much a safari game, with not much to do really. But still, I have high hopes for it.

[jjacob]

I don't want to rain on any parade here, but the game isn't even even promised this year... A lot of rumors say that it's due out late 2004, but it might as well be 2005 too. As far as gameplay, people that has played it at GSC's offices, they say that it's still pretty much a safari game, with not much to do really. But still, I have high hopes for it.

Well considering there's a new pre-final build coming sometime soon (which is supposed to have dozens of playable missions) I'd say things are moving along quite nicely. Also this interview (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=55127) with some GSC guy says they're moving along quite well:Eurogamer: How complete is the game at this stage?

Oleg Yavorsky: The graphics are done 100% and gameplay roughly 70% complete.

And since the official date is still september 2004 (as mentioned in this recent interview), why worry?

This is also an interesting 'rumour', although widely confirmed:
Stalker Pre-alpha leaked (http://www.megagames.com/news/html/pc/stalkerpre-alphaleaked.shtml) (don't worry its an article)
It is however, important to mention that most Megagames readers who have contacted us, claim that the Pre-Alpha plays extremely well, with high frame rates and excellent quality on a wide range of, even the most basic, systems.

[Erkki]

This is also an interesting 'rumour', although widely confirmed:
Stalker Pre-alpha leaked (http://www.megagames.com/news/html/pc/stalkerpre-alphaleaked.shtml) (don't worry its an article) [...]Yeah, I played that and it ran pretty good and didn't seem to have any bugs, but there was no gameplay, you could only run around the place.

Hmm... actually there seemed to be some enemies depending on how you launch the game, but they killed me so quickly every time that I "played" it without them.

That was quite an old build I think though, because it had none of the stuff that has been showed off during the past year or so.

[jjacob]

A german gaming mag has some pretty interesting new information on this game! Taken from this (http://www.oblivionlost.deloo.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=304) topic over at a german stalker forum:

The Sovjet Union still exists in the game.
- Andrew Prokhorov: "The explosion is just one of the reasons why animals and humans are mutating, gruesome experiments by the military are also responsible for this."
- The 30 km² Zone is divided into 18 sectors (because of performance issues) each of which varying 0.7 to 2 km².
- There will be 36 main quests and virtually an unlimited number of randomly generated quests.
- A situation GameStar experienced regarding the A.I.: While being chased by two enemies in a building they ran to an upper floor. The two enemies followed them. Reaching the floor, GameStar had to jump from a wall onto the ground because there was no other way out. One of the NPC stalkers noticed this and started to shoot at the editors and distract them while the other NPC stalker ran down the stairs again to the first floor to catch the editors and shoot from that position.
- In main quests there will be a "scripted" path of actions, Andrew explains: "In one of the missions you have to infiltrate the stalker-base. To simulate a regular camp life we use scripts. However, as soon as you trigger the alarm the combat AI appears and your enemies act from now on independently."
- DirectX 9 is to be shown at E3.
- Glass of windows does not only burst, but single shards can be shot out, too. Shooting in closed rooms can be dangerous because of ricochets which can hurt the player. Different types of ammunitions have different effects.
- Currently one day in the game equals to three hours in real life.
- Besides gravitaional anomalies there will be ones with electrostatic discharges and deadly plants (just to name a few of course).
- GSC will make sure that if fuel of your vehicle should be empty, the walk to the next vehicle won't last too long.
- THQ plans a multiplayer beta test with 50,000 people a few months before release.
- Though GSC has still planned Sept. 2004, GameStar estimates the release to be Middle of 2005.

Seems you might be right scalmanxl, at least GameStar thinks so :sad:

[jjacob]

:pan:
on me! for bringing this ol' topic up but this new E3 video has got to be seen. Go over to this (http://www.hardwired.hu/dl.hw?id=2289) page and click on the "Letöltes" image to download the 14 min. 165mb e3 presentation. I'm downloading right now but read it really shows off the dx9 effects, some of the anomalies, possibly some trading and ofcourse all-over goodness..

For the bandwithly challenged there's also this 30meg video (http://www.stalkergaming.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=getit&lid=15), the first 3 and a half minutes are about a game called pariah so just skip to 3:30, but it shows some 2 player deathmatch at e3 and is therefor not that interesting :P edit: Although watching it again, I did notice one VERY slick feature in this video, the weather! One scene where the player is up on the roof (at 7:23) shows the weather suddenly changing, you see the clouds' lining going from light to dark and it starts raining, W.O.W. :crazy:

[Erkki]

Wow! That video looks amazing (the sound is awful though. I can't make out half of what the guy is saying).

[guybrush_guy]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R stand for


Stupid Taticale Adventurer Loves Kollecting Enormus Radation

this game looks great but does'nt sound to appealing, sounds as if you can get lost real eazy


i've only read the first few post so i'm speaking out of ignorance..

[jjacob]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R stand for


Stupid Taticale Adventurer Loves Kollecting Enormus Radation

this game looks great but does'nt sound to appealing, sounds as if you can get lot real eazy
It sounds all the more appealing! Total freedom! :kiss: Plus you're forgetting this game's world is very alive. You won't get lost as you'll have maps and information to guide you, and at no time will you see nothing but forrests on your screen. The 30km² area is divided into like 14 zones (with no noticeable shift between areas) and the whole point of the experience is that you grow (reputation, skill, buddies, etc) towards solving a mystery, which is near the epicentre of the disaster. The radiation levels there are huge so you can't enter without special suits, which you can acquire later on in the game. You pretty much start off at the borders of the accident radius, and through quests and (randomly generated) subquests work your way towards the center of the area. As said, the closer you get to the epicentre, the weirder, freakier and more dangerous the enviroment is; anomalies occur with greater frequency, more nasty creatures live there, and rival stalkers are likely to be there, as dangerous hotspots contain the very artefacts you're getting paid to retrieve. It's not wise buying a car, filling up her tank and driving to the epicentre, you'll die. For each zone you'll need to get information like maps and other useful stuff, which will allow you to proceed deeper. You'll have to be careful most of the time, cause you've got the military, rival stalkers, anomalies of all kinds and dangerous creatures to worry about, so you won't just run around and get lost :P

[guybrush_guy]

well with that said i think i'm going to change my mind. that does sound pritty cool.

[jjacob]

well with that said i think i'm going to change my mind. that does sound pritty cool.
And I'm probably forgetting the coolest features! (Independent AIs, vehicles, weather, day/night cycle, dx9 sick ass effects, non-linear gameplay and so on) Anyhow they also have a story contest going with some very professional entries at their website, so I guess the (main) story won't be half that bad either :D