S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Preview, interview and(blurry) MP footage

[SAJ]

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From the preview :

Anton enters a dev code and shows us a map of every living element in the game. He waves the hand of God and kills everything in one major area, then speeds up time. The level begins to fill with dots representing S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s, soldiers, and so on, which migrate from other areas. Dropping into 3D, he flies around the level as the various elements begin to clash. Hulking wolves eat a corpse, a remnant of a firefight. In another area, rebels and soldiers shoot it out. Levels never stay empty for long, says Bolshakov, and the whole A-Life premise adds massively to the replayability factor, he claims. He starts talking about "smart terrain," but we're cut short. In essence, GSC's ambition has been to create a living, breathing world to surround the overarching storyline. "Oblivion with guns" is a simplistic description, but you get the idea.

 

[Uriel]

"Oblivion with guns"
These means 2 things:
1 - It will look nice
2 - I will need a new PC

 

[<RJMC>]

all I know about oblivion is that is a rpg and a rpg was suposed to be the genre of this game from the begining,so this is good news to me

 

[CptStern]

good to see that they seem to have kept most of the gameplay intact (although no more blowouts?) ...however this statement could be a deal breaker for many gamers:

There's no disguising it: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. does looks dated.

not a big deal imo but for some that will be the final straw

 

[SAJ]

mmm..... but that was first impressions though. He then goes on to say ;

Kill the soldiers, someone shouts in my ear. I do, and they're not so easy going on me. Ammo becomes a precious resource. Graphically, the indoors areas look far more advanced than those outside, flashlights picking up bump-mapped walls and showing some lovely real-time shadowing.

Which goes with what Ive seen regarding the differences between indoor and outdoor graphics. Given that the whole game got a facelift last year you can imagine how much harder it would be to give all the wide open spaces the full dx9 treatment. Whereas you can do all the indoor levels in small chunks and give it the full whack as you go.

Anyways, we shall see....

 

[Jintor]

I'm not going to get hyped about this until it comes out and everybody gets really excited or starts swearing.

 

[<RJMC>]

if is dated is better for me and the thousands of people whitout super PC

 

[cadaver]

can`t wait! that multiplayermap looks great...

 

[Gargantou]

The whole selling point of STALKER is the SP really, and ofcourse the Bolshakov(Anton) loves to hype it, considering what I've heard from other people like Dean Sharpe, I won't believe anything about how much is left in the game until the actual final version is out with a few reviews.

Also, STALKER isn't all that much of an RPG, it does in no way use a statsystem/skillsystem with numbers etc ala say Boiling Point, it's still a open-ended -FPS-..

It sounds nice and all but I'm still a bit saddened that one doesn't have to eat and sleep anymore, I'm not sure if the NPCs have to either.. But I'm hoping.. But the original premise was that it'd be as closely simulating a REAL world as possible, i.e. you had the exact same demands etc as the NPC, and the NPC could do everything you could(Including finishing the game), I still don't get why they couldn't just include a difficulty toggle when starting a game for having the NPC finishing the game.. I mean they didn't say they removed that feature because it was too hard, they removed it because it WAS not fun for players, suggesting they had gotten it into the game functionally..

 

[VictimOfScience]

Sounds pretty promising, but certainly not the incredible experience that it would have been pre-HL2. Still, looks pretty good and sounds like it plays pretty well.

I am glad that NPCs can't win only because in an open-ended world, I don't want to have to worry about someone else advancing toward the goal while I stop and smell the roses or grind enemies and such. I want to do it at my own pace--that's one of the things I love about Oblivion.

 

[Gargantou]

VictimOfScience, alot of the original fans liked the whole the NPC can do whatever you can, this is the 'real' world, so I still think that if they got it into a fully functional state, why not include it as an difficulty toggle?

 

[Cerpin]

If I wanted to eat and sleep, I'd eat and sleep. I want to do stuff in games that I can't do in real life.

While the realistic simulation aspects seemed good on paper, I'm sure they would have been very annoying.

 

[CptStern]

mmm..... but that was first impressions though. He then goes on to say ;
Which goes with what Ive seen regarding the differences between indoor and outdoor graphics. Given that the whole game got a facelift last year you can imagine how much harder it would be to give all the wide open spaces the full dx9 treatment. Whereas you can do all the indoor levels in small chunks and give it the full whack as you go.

Anyways, we shall see....

I thought the video looked great, the enviroment looked believable ...I'm by no means a graphics whore ..some gamers may not be so forgiving

 

[Asuka]

This is starting to look promising again.

 

[VictimOfScience]

VictimOfScience, alot of the original fans liked the whole the NPC can do whatever you can, this is the 'real' world, so I still think that if they got it into a fully functional state, why not include it as an difficulty toggle?

Oh I suppose, if it is put on a toggle...:E

 

[Gargantou]

If I wanted to eat and sleep, I'd eat and sleep. I want to do stuff in games that I can't do in real life.

While the realistic simulation aspects seemed good on paper, I'm sure they would have been very annoying.

I've played computer games that have incorporated the need to eat and sleep pretty decently, with things such as a fatigue meter that slowly goes up, if it becomes max your vision gets blurry and it becomes hard to kill stuff etc.. Eat, they don't have to overdo it, you need to eat and drink something like once a day.

All I'm saying is that it's sad that they screwed over their original fanbase a bit by removing it, but I guess I shouldn't complain because the guys who are working on this game are leaving after it's completion to make a new game that is what this game was supposed to be, so hopefully I'll have my dream game anyway

 

[VictimOfScience]

the guys who are working on this game are leaving after it's completion to make a new game that is what this game was supposed to be, so hopefully I'll have my dream game anyway

Indeed. Now that is one to keep an eye on. :bounce:

 

[Gargantou]

Yeah, I'm just hoping they find a good publisher, that puts demands on them but not that much that they remove main aspects of the game, so we don't have to take delay after delay again, otherwise it probably won't be out until 2009/2010!

 

[CptStern]

if they couldnt pull it off with stalker they wont with metro 2033 ..their track record of delivering on what they promise is miserable at best ..and next time they probably wont have a publisher like THQ keeping them afloat while they struggle with all the features they promised ..I fear they'll quietly disappear never to be heard of again accept when gamespy runs another "games that were never finished" feature, publishers will take less of a chance on open ended rpg shooters and EA will continue to churn out souless rehashed cookie cutter games that gamers will line up in droves to buy

 

[Gargantou]

CptStern, thing is, this is a new company, apparently GSC is an AWFUL company to be working for, they treat their employees like horseshit, which is the reason many guys are leaving to form a new company where they're hopefully treated better by themselves.. I mean, the fact that they work in pisspoor conditions certainly can't have been a GOOD motivation for'em to work on the game.

 

[CptStern]

ya but that happened before when some GSC guys left to make boiling point ..that game had good concepts but terrible execution ..I wish them the best of luck but I wont hold my breath for metro 2033 ..I'm not all that hopeful it will ever see the light of day

 

[Flyingdebris]

where did they say they had cut the blowouts? I was really looking forward to having to dodge those.

Oh and for the literary uninformed. I'd suggest you read the story that the game stalker was originally based on. Also titled Stalker.

The main difference here being that the game added weapons, creatures, and set it around chernobyl where in the original story it was more about blowouts and artefacts.

 

[SAJ]

.....Oh and for the literary uninformed. I'd suggest you read the story that the game stalker was originally based on. Also titled Stalker.

Not quite, the book is called "Roadside picnic" , but it was made into a film called "Stalker".
The film appears to have contributed enormously to the look and feel of the game, but was made (and set) in communist Russia prior to Chernobyl.
Both are highly recommended, the film especially.

 

[Gargantou]

Flyingdebris, in an interview quite a while back, a blowout only occurs once now, and it's hard-scripted into a main story mission iirc.

 

[<RJMC>]

whats a blowout?

 

[ailevation]

a blowout is like getting pwned.

 

[Flyingdebris]

oh shit, right, roadside picnic. had a brain fart there

a blowout is basically kind of like an earthquake exept nothing like one. Everything within an area goes freaking nuts and its like a storm concetrated within a relatively small area.

kinda of hard to describe.

 

[<RJMC>]

thats one thing that I remenber was suposed to be in the enviroment

areas where weird stuff happens,like a acid fog or a zone whit gravitational anomalities

is that still keep in the game?

 

[cadaver]

thats one thing that I remenber was suposed to be in the enviroment

areas where weird stuff happens,like a acid fog or a zone whit gravitational anomalities

is that still keep in the game?

yes it is.

 

[CR0M]

Blowouts were a device to 'wipe clean' the gameworld and reset the ai periodically to stop it screwing up, clear corpses, etc. This effect was worked into the storyline to look plausible. As the gameplay has changed it is no longer necessary to do this.

The graphics still look as good as HL2, which is pretty damn good considering that it is of the same time period, so i'm not worried about how dated some say it's going to look. Just look at some of the screenies and you'll see how good it still looks.

Comparing it to oblivion is a little worrying though... if it's what oblivion was originally advertised to be, then great - but the creation of another consolised A to B no-brainer would be a real waste of potential.

 

[Flyingdebris]

blowouts weren't just a device added into the game

blowouts were part of the original story, they were supposed to be one of the most dangerous aspects of the zone

 

[Gargantou]

Indeed, I really liked the aspects of having to find shelter as soon as possible if you see one looming overhead.. I remember one of the old.. E3 trailers maybe it was from several years back, it had a blowout innit, and you could see an AI STALKER drag his knocked out friend into shelter, was pretty cool but it could very well have been a heavily scripted sequence I guess.

 

[Max35]

Well, I'm only judging by the MP footage, but it seems they have nailed the atmosphere perfectly. That's very important, for me anyway. btw, has anyone heard anything about system requirements? Checked their site, but couldn't find anything.

 

[Flyingdebris]

it shouldn't be anything too crazy

 

[SAJ]

You'd think so huh

*Minimum reqs for dx8 - p4 2.0 ghz, 1024mb ram, g-force 6800 ( dx9 minimum not specified). http://forum.v5g.de/showthread.php?t=5006

ps- I owe you half an apology, mr flying. It turns out there was a novel called "Stalker" , it was a semi rewrite of "Roadside picnic" that the brothers wrote after the Tarkovsky film proved a hit.

 

[Max35]

Heh, I recently found it in the FAQ. Me thinks the FAQ might be a little outdated.

 

[CptStern]

what the hell? how can the dx8 minium be a dx9 card? especially one of the higher end ones? ..what the hell is the dx9 minimum? a dx10 card?


on the box:

"this game requires you purchase a nvidia 8900 gtx, the "blow your head clean off your shoulders" Edition"

 

[VictimOfScience]

"this game requires you purchase a nvidia 8900 gtx, the "blow your head clean off your shoulders" Edition"

Hahaha! Well, TigerDirect has one that comes with Dark Messiah of Might and Magic for $659.99. No that bad I don't think....

 

[CptStern]

ya but I hear you can only run Dark Messiah at 640 x 480 with everything set to "low" on the 8900 gtx :naughty:

 

[SAJ]

Heh, I recently found it in the FAQ. Me thinks the FAQ might be a little outdated.

Unfortunately, the specs(optimal, not minimum) that I posted above, came from this interview which is only a week or two old.

what the hell? how can the dx8 minium be a dx9 card? especially one of the higher end ones? ..what the hell is the dx9 minimum? a dx10 card?


on the box:

"this game requires you purchase a nvidia 8900 gtx, the "blow your head clean off your shoulders" Edition"

:rolling: Yeah, it's way over the top for a agme that started development over five years ago. It must be their way of heading off criticism of poor performance, look at NW2, its an updated version of a four year old dx8 engine and people still have to turn off shadows etc, regardless of their hardware.