GSC Shines Some Light on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2

[Thedutchjelle]

Evil double post.

 

[archvile93]

If this one proves itself to be less buggy than an Obsidian game, and my character's hands aren't constantly coated in a radiation that causes rifle barrels to near instantly corrode when touched, and I get some armor that's worth something I'll take interest.

 

[wildpeaks]

Multiplatform? Uh oh. This could either go one of two ways:
1. The game is a lot easier and you don't die as fast (bad).
2. The game won't go over very well on consoles because it isn't like Halo or Call of Duty where you can take a hundred bullets to the head and live while the enemies only take a 9mm round to the toe to die (good).

I wouldn't worry, they promised that the console is just a secondary port (they're probably just testing the waters, seeing if consoles is even interesting at all for bringing money).

 

[wildpeaks]

Isn't the A4 Engine what they used for Metro 2033? if it is, it looks sort of ok on the Xbox but not great...

No it's not the same engine: some of the guys* from GSC left after Soc and did Metro, but they made a new engine. I wish they would merge back together however: Metro definitely could benefit from the stalker spirit and length of gameplay, and [my beloved] s.t.a.l.k.e.r. could benefit from some more intense cinematic.

*are there no kickass female developer in Ukraine btw ? It's only guys in the dev teams as far as I could tell

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Multiplatform? Uh oh. This could either go one of two ways:
1. The game is a lot easier and you don't die as fast (bad).
2. The game won't go over very well on consoles because it isn't like Halo or Call of Duty where you can take a hundred bullets to the head and live while the enemies only take a 9mm round to the toe to die (good).

Half the fun of the game was that you couldn't go running in guns blazing...

Why is it doing bad on consoles a good thing? Surely if they do well on consoles they get more money, and more money = more good games.

Also, BOO FACTION WARS BEING OUT

How would dumbing it down to the generic style of Halo/Call of Duty, instead of staying true to its difficulty be a good thing? Like I said, half the fun of the game was because it it wasn't like those other generic shooters were you could survive being shot a billion times. I'm just saying it probably wouldn't go over well because it isn't as easy as most shooters. Hopefully Demon's Souls proved that games can be difficult and still survive, but if they make this another generic shit shooter, I'm done with STALKER, and probably FPS games in general.

As a side note, these fucking captcha things are really getting on my nerves. If they are going to stay forever, at least get ones that are legible.

 

[Jumplion]

I've played bits and pieces of Shadow of Chernobyl and some of Call of Pripyat, and I mainly prefer Chernobyl simply because the gunplay wasn't as jumpy and fucking recoiling everywhere like Pripyat was. I feel like I'm a complete newbie in the STALKER world, I never felt like I was playing it "right", you know?

I hope they refine some of the gameplay aspects with it. While I know that it's based somewhat on realism with the weapon degrading and recoil and stuff, it'd still be good if they refined the gunplay aspect to it.

Friggin' AK47, jumping all over the goddamn place.

 

[Dogstile]

Multiplatform? Uh oh. This could either go one of two ways:
1. The game is a lot easier and you don't die as fast (bad).
2. The game won't go over very well on consoles because it isn't like Halo or Call of Duty where you can take a hundred bullets to the head and live while the enemies only take a 9mm round to the toe to die (good).

Half the fun of the game was that you couldn't go running in guns blazing...

Why is it doing bad on consoles a good thing? Surely if they do well on consoles they get more money, and more money = more good games.

Also, BOO FACTION WARS BEING OUT

How would dumbing it down to the generic style of Halo/Call of Duty, instead of staying true to its difficulty be a good thing? Like I said, half the fun of the game was because it it wasn't like those other generic shooters were you could survive being shot a billion times. I'm just saying it probably wouldn't go over well because it isn't as easy as most shooters. Hopefully Demon's Souls proved that games can be difficult and still survive, but if they make this another generic shit shooter, I'm done with STALKER, and probably FPS games in general.

As a side note, these fucking captcha things are really getting on my nerves. If they are going to stay forever, at least get ones that are legible.

No, you're reading my words wrong sir.

How would it doing bad on consoles be a good thing. I personally still think it won't be dumbed down.

 

[Cyberjester]

A PC game ported for the consoles?! 'hyperventilates'

THE WORLD IS ENDING!! The Mayans were right!
Hope they keep it a PC game though. Easy, bouncy console ports are disappointingly common.

Isn't the A4 Engine what they used for Metro 2033? if it is, it looks sort of ok on the Xbox but not great...

No it's not the same engine: some of the guys* from GSC left after Soc and did Metro, but they made a new engine. I wish they would merge back together however: Metro definitely could benefit from the stalker spirit and length of gameplay, and [my beloved] s.t.a.l.k.e.r. could benefit from some more intense cinematic.

*are there no kickass female developer in Ukraine btw ? It's only guys in the dev teams as far as I could tell

On the one side, it's an ex Soviet Union state where communism was preached, which is another word for "equality". On the other hand, you don't have militant feminists demanding to be appointed CEO of a company on the basis that the company would be sexist if they didn't have a female. I wouldn't say there's none in the business, but given the lack of political correctness where Thou Shalt Hire A Female Regardless Of Skill isn't as common, on a percentage basis you'd expect to not see many at all. Given first the amount of females in the industry, and secondly how many Ukraine developers make it to the world stage. I know of.. Two? GSC and 4A Games. And 4A Games is ex GSC, with no female devs. So out of the 20 Ukraine devs I have heard of, none of them are female.

I guess the point of that was, video games is an emerging industry, so the amount of sexy female devs will be low enough to pretend there is none. Russia might have some though. And Russians are as hot as Ukrainians

 

[Kunzer]

Best thing in the entire post is "Faction Wars are out"

Buggy as hell in Clear Sky not what stalker is about. If I wanted to deal with factions and all that bullshit I would play something else.

 

[Poopster]

There wasn't any faction wars in COP so i'm not worried about that.
I want to know if they will they still keep the loading times when transferring from one map to another...isn't it better to make the zone into one big awesome place like in fallout 3? but still i'm loving the small details they're giving bout the game!!

 

[Daedalus1942]

More survival elements? Oh dear god... this game will be impossible to finish!
-tabs<3-

 

[RuralGamer]

Faction wars are out, new mutants are in and there will be more "X-Labs" and other underground complexes to explore and be terrified by.

Yay, so once again I can POO MY PANTS (metaphorically) - personally I found the mutants and locations in SoC and CoP scary enough, but if GSC can do better, bravo to them; I'm waiting to jump out my skin again, because the two aforementioned games were brilliant. I always felt the X-labs were the worst (scariest that is) bits in the game and if they can outdo them and add more of them, then that will make a REALLY scary game*. So already I have something to look forward to in 2012 and this year has only just begun, wait, actually we're already 24th of the way in (aieee!). All I can hope is they beef the AI up a bit and this could become a very influential series.

MORE X LABS YOU SAY?!

I admit I have never done X-18, but now that I have the game again, I will and I bet that it will scare me more than any "horror" game such as the Resident Evil games (personally, they were a let down - I had expected a bit more atmosphere).


*I know people complain that any game where you can riddle the enemy with bullets isn't scary, but I think STALKER bucks that trend; psychic enemies attack you from hidden locations and Bloodsuckers are still rather menacing with their speed and invisibility, even when you have the best stuff. I do hope though that new mutants are more of that sort of brand; unnatural and unsettling.

Edit: Lol that is a brilliant cartoon by the way - watched someone doing X-18 up to that bit and thinking "ohhhhhhh that looks bad..."

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Multiplatform? Uh oh. This could either go one of two ways:
1. The game is a lot easier and you don't die as fast (bad).
2. The game won't go over very well on consoles because it isn't like Halo or Call of Duty where you can take a hundred bullets to the head and live while the enemies only take a 9mm round to the toe to die (good).

Half the fun of the game was that you couldn't go running in guns blazing...

Why is it doing bad on consoles a good thing? Surely if they do well on consoles they get more money, and more money = more good games.

Also, BOO FACTION WARS BEING OUT

How would dumbing it down to the generic style of Halo/Call of Duty, instead of staying true to its difficulty be a good thing? Like I said, half the fun of the game was because it it wasn't like those other generic shooters were you could survive being shot a billion times. I'm just saying it probably wouldn't go over well because it isn't as easy as most shooters. Hopefully Demon's Souls proved that games can be difficult and still survive, but if they make this another generic shit shooter, I'm done with STALKER, and probably FPS games in general.

As a side note, these fucking captcha things are really getting on my nerves. If they are going to stay forever, at least get ones that are legible.

No, you're reading my words wrong sir.

How would it doing bad on consoles be a good thing. I personally still think it won't be dumbed down.

Ohhhh... I get it now. I dunno, if they wanted to conform and make more money or something. I didn't think it could happen, but when I saw videos of Crysis it looked like MW2 with nano suits.

 

[Jennacide]

Please, please, please be open world!
If there's one thing that discoraged me, and this is a personal thing, was the real lack of going nuts and anywhere but where I'm meant to be like in the new Fallout games.

But still, more survival elements will be welcomed by me as I <3 hardcore mode in Fallout: New Vegas plus the harshness of the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Did you play Call of Pripyat, the newest one? It had a more open world to it, as the world was only subdivided into three major sections.

Either way I'm psyched for the next game. I really hope they've worked out thier issues with 4A Games and can use the 4A Engine (which was basically a fixed and better looking X-ray) or something of that caliber for STALKER 2. The only thing that worries me is the same thing as always, hope they've learned finally how to make better end segments. The final areas of all three STALKER games so far have been awful. The warzone outside Chernobyl in SoC and the entirity of Pripyat in Call were just beyond bad, when the rest of the games up to those point were amazing.

I enjoyed the hell out of Shadow of Chernobyl.
Isn't the A4 Engine what they used for Metro 2033? if it is, it looks sort of ok on the Xbox but not great...

Yes, 4A is what powers Metro 2033. It looks only okay on the 360, but holy jesus it looks good on the PC. If you go into the ini settings and turn on a few settings you can't normally access like Global Illumination, the graphics become mind blowing. Metro 2033 was actually the first game to use GI, and you wouldn't think it's that big a deal until you see it in action.

 

[Chrono212]

Please, please, please be open world!
If there's one thing that discoraged me, and this is a personal thing, was the real lack of going nuts and anywhere but where I'm meant to be like in the new Fallout games.

But still, more survival elements will be welcomed by me as I <3 hardcore mode in Fallout: New Vegas plus the harshness of the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Did you play Call of Pripyat, the newest one? It had a more open world to it, as the world was only subdivided into three major sections.

Either way I'm psyched for the next game. I really hope they've worked out thier issues with 4A Games and can use the 4A Engine (which was basically a fixed and better looking X-ray) or something of that caliber for STALKER 2. The only thing that worries me is the same thing as always, hope they've learned finally how to make better end segments. The final areas of all three STALKER games so far have been awful. The warzone outside Chernobyl in SoC and the entirity of Pripyat in Call were just beyond bad, when the rest of the games up to those point were amazing.

I enjoyed the hell out of Shadow of Chernobyl.
Isn't the A4 Engine what they used for Metro 2033? if it is, it looks sort of ok on the Xbox but not great...

Yes, 4A is what powers Metro 2033. It looks only okay on the 360, but holy jesus it looks good on the PC. If you go into the ini settings and turn on a few settings you can't normally access like Global Illumination, the graphics become mind blowing. Metro 2033 was actually the first game to use GI, and you wouldn't think it's that big a deal until you see it in action.

Spoiler: o.O

Don't hurt me! I'm only a console gamer!! DX
LoL
Anyway...is that so? Well...I did enjoy Metro 2033 and the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R., like I said, but after two mind blowingly (again) huge Fallout games, I don't know if GSC has the resources to make such a game but I like the dark mood that it gives off.
Although the games have visited Pripyat, it could do with... *thinks* TIME TRAVEL SEQUENCE!!
Sorry, but that has to be in the game, like that short bit in Metro 2033 and you go around trying to warn people about it and they think your some crazy ex-soldier...

Back to OT
The games could do with just a big open world and try to let the anomalies be a little less daunting...unless that's the point X3

 

[Jennacide]

Don't hurt me! I'm only a console gamer!! DX
LoL
Anyway...is that so? Well...I did enjoy Metro 2033 and the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R., like I said, but after two mind blowingly (again) huge Fallout games, I don't know if GSC has the resources to make such a game but I like the dark mood that it gives off.
Although the games have visited Pripyat, it could do with... *thinks* TIME TRAVEL SEQUENCE!!
Sorry, but that has to be in the game, like that short bit in Metro 2033 and you go around trying to warn people about it and they think your some crazy ex-soldier...

Back to OT
The games could do with just a big open world and try to let the anomalies be a little less daunting...unless that's the point X3

I think they could. The big difference between STALKER and Fallout is tension. Only in a few places of Fallout 3 or New Vegas are you ever really worried about where you are. The Dunwich building for instance was nice and creepy and tense because it was one of the few areas the game allowed itself to spawn mobs near you and ignore the perception radar mechanic. STALKER has always been tense, doing things to screw with your head and make you paranoid. The walk through Chernobyl in SoC for instance is creepy as hell. Moreso for anyone that doesn't speak Russian and has NO CLUE what the voice keeps saying. Or wandering around and suddenly being flung into the middle of an anomaly field and now a controller is trying to rip your mind from your body.

I love both series', but STALKER has that beautiful tension that I love so much. Fallout has beauty of it's own in the desolation and ruin of the world, with mystery of some environments. The biggest problem Fallout has against it is no matter how geared you are in STALKER games, enemies are always a threat. In Fallout 3/NV, once you gear up you are a walking death God that nothing can touch.

 

[Chrono212]

Don't hurt me! I'm only a console gamer!! DX
LoL
Anyway...is that so? Well...I did enjoy Metro 2033 and the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R., like I said, but after two mind blowingly (again) huge Fallout games, I don't know if GSC has the resources to make such a game but I like the dark mood that it gives off.
Although the games have visited Pripyat, it could do with... *thinks* TIME TRAVEL SEQUENCE!!
Sorry, but that has to be in the game, like that short bit in Metro 2033 and you go around trying to warn people about it and they think your some crazy ex-soldier...

Back to OT
The games could do with just a big open world and try to let the anomalies be a little less daunting...unless that's the point X3

I think they could. The big difference between STALKER and Fallout is tension. Only in a few places of Fallout 3 or New Vegas are you ever really worried about where you are. The Dunwich building for instance was nice and creepy and tense because it was one of the few areas the game allowed itself to spawn mobs near you and ignore the perception radar mechanic. STALKER has always been tense, doing things to screw with your head and make you paranoid. The walk through Chernobyl in SoC for instance is creepy as hell. Moreso for anyone that doesn't speak Russian and has NO CLUE what the voice keeps saying. Or wandering around and suddenly being flung into the middle of an anomaly field and now a controller is trying to rip your mind from your body.

I love both series', but STALKER has that beautiful tension that I love so much. Fallout has beauty of it's own in the desolation and ruin of the world, with mystery of some environments. The biggest problem Fallout has against it is no matter how geared you are in STALKER games, enemies are always a threat. In Fallout 3/NV, once you gear up you are a walking death God that nothing can touch.

I have to confess the Dunwich Building scared me too much so I left [sub][sub]I was Level 25...[/sub][/sub] X3
But it's true at no point do you become unstoppable in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (except with the G36...that's pretty good). Fallout has always been more 'friendly' as it's the theme, hope at the end of the tunnel coz the Good Ol' US of A will be fine and dandy after Nuclear Armageddon
Seriously, I've seen a 1950s US Public Service Film describing life in a Fallout Shelter and at the end it just seems to be "Well, we got nuked...but now lets rebuild the few things that got destroyed! *yay!*" like what London had to do after the Blitz but without all end-of-the-known-world stuff.
But the Russians, technically Soviets (as GSC is Ukranian), probably never had that outlook. In fact, I don't even have any idea what the feeling was towards mutually assured destruction within the Soviet Union as someone within the NATO side of the Cold War.
But what S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro 2033 does is show what they might feel towards it.
Metro shows that life, kinda, goes on. Not as 'fun' as a Vault, naturally.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is more how just use what you got and make the most of it.

 

[Jennacide]

*snip*

Actually, the Soviets had more foresight than us when it comes to nuclear winter, which is part of what Metro 2033 is about. The entire subway system is designed as a fallout shelter of massive size, that isn't something Metro made up, it really is designed that way.

 

[Chrono212]

*snip*

Actually, the Soviets had more foresight than us when it comes to nuclear winter, which is part of what Metro 2033 is about. The entire subway system is designed as a fallout shelter of massive size, that isn't something Metro made up, it really is designed that way.

*nodnod* I take a particular interest in that peiord of history because of M.A.D. and how people coped with it :3
I would say that the game does a better job of telling the story than the book does in certain respects.
Mushroom Vodka anyone?