no, it's called a clever marketing strategy! After reading the BANC pdf, I agree that this game would have got mauled when put next to HL2 and Doom3, it will probably sell far more copies after xmas, when people are wanting to test their new systems.
January sales are going to be great this time round!
That's too bad. Wasn't the game originally supposed to be release at the beginning of summer? I feel bad for the fans of STALKER, almost a year long delay must be hard...no, wait