New S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Expansion Confirmed

@DocSeuss: Well, GSC themselves say CoP and CS are expansions. Maybe they're talking storywise?

I'd love a 360 version since my pc sucks as a gaming rig.

JSPOOLE

I have the original, but it runs horribly on my PC. I would be insanely happy if they ported it to consoles. You don't even know how excited I would be.

Mystilas

the Stalker games are among my all time favorites. However it's somewhat unfortunate that it's the mod community that had to fix them up.

Great news I was a tad disappointed that Clear sky felt like a remake of the original and though an improvement visually and less glitchy it was still not different enough....hopefully this is completely new areas.

@DukeOfPwn: GSC hasn't had an entire decade to ruin this intellectual property and its associated hardware.

interim has his cake and is eating it too

@ShaggE got that Mango Sentinel. SCOOPS!: Ohhhh boy.

interim has his cake and is eating it too

Stalker is an amazing series of games. Very underrated.

If it wasn't so buggy I'd love this series :(

GreyFoxV1

@CANADIANSILV3R: What games before Shadow of Chernobyl took place in the Pripyat area? Off the top of my head, the only game that took place anywhere near there was Call of Duty 4, and that came out months later.

DocSeuss

wait... a expansion? When Clear Sky is still a buggy piece of crap?

Oh i see, its a expansion for the first Stalker. Ya know the game that actually plays decently once you install a few mods. Huh.

Why do people insist on calling Clear Sky an expansion?!

It. Is. A. Prequel.

I mean, everything's been reskinned, it uses v1.5 of the engine, all of the original areas within the game were remapped, and unfortunately, my two favorite locations were removed. It's not an expansion, because so much of the game was completely remade.

I love it so much I bought two copies.

DocSeuss

@InstinctSage: In general in gaming circles the term "Western" seems to be used to mean "Not Japanese" more than anything else, I've noticed. I would much rather we discussed things in terms of Japan/North America/West Europe/East Europe but there doesn't seem to be that much desire to make those distinctions.

justinslot

@Luke Plunkett: Isn't that what everyone kept saying about the Sonic series? Sorry, but after two games of broken dreams, I don't expect a stellar 3rd entry.

DukeOfPwn

@CANADIANSILV3R: How many games can be set on Earth? Don't get me wrong, the Earth makes for great games, but let's try something new...

interim has his cake and is eating it too

@AssassinXaero: I guess that means that Luke was wrong in posting this entire thing! Sorry guys, no news here. Don't read newspapers either, go to the Steam forums for your information!

interim has his cake and is eating it too

@Luke Plunkett: Absolutely agree, hopefully this time they get it right. If you ever want to give STALKER another shot, I can hook you up with the proper mods to make it an excellent game. Again, it's too bad that GSC needed the mod community just to make the game good.

Luke, to your knowledge, has a game from a well-known developer ever used large amounts of user-generated or user-specified content to increase the availability and or quality of in-game material prior to a game's launch? I think it would be very interesting if there were a developer that were logistically able to create a contest for large amounts of in-game content to be created by players or small, outside developer studios (rights to the IP released to the producer, of course).

I guess what I'm getting at, is that it would be cool to have a Phantasy Star Universe-like game, with actually-good graphics, physics, and base engine as defined by the developer, and large amounts of content that was filtered and refined by another team within the development studio.

interim has his cake and is eating it too

How many games can be set in Pripyat, Ukraine? Don't get me wrong, abandoned cities make for great games, but lets try something new...

@WolfmanWalt: There are marked differences in the games developed in Eastern European countries and games made anywhere else. It think it's worth making the distinction greater than just Eastern = Asia and Western = Everywhere else.

Personally, I can't get enough of the stuff that comes out of Europe. Both Eastern and Western Europe. I do hope this Stalker is a bit more stable than previous ones though.

InstinctSage

@fnool: Wrong. Welcome to the world of PC gaming. "Standalone expansion" means spinoff. Means it's not big enough an upgrade to warrant being called a sequel, but it does stand on its own, with no requirement of owning the previous game. The phrase has been around for quite a while. And really, it's a phrase that evocates pleasant feelings for me, because it's honest. It's the devs saying, "look, we KNOW this isn't a proper sequel, so we won't pretend". It is, in short, a phrase that lets you know that these guys are okay guys.

Es Tee Eh El Kay Ee Ar has already gotten one standalone expansion, and it's time for another.

I don't think I've played an fps as engrossing as the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R., personally. Talk about a world that sucks you in! Bring on more S.T.A.L.K.E.R.!!!!!!

Spaced33

Great games, the only major downside is the free beta testing players are doing for a fully priced game. So many game ending/crashing bugs.

EDALBNUG

@interim has his cake and is eating it too:

Ghostbusters!

If you're seein' things runnin' thru your head. Who can you call? (Ghostbusters)
An' invisible man sleepin' in your bed. Oh who ya gonna call? (Ghostbusters)
I ain't afraid a no ghost. I ain't afraid a no ghost. Who ya gonna call? (Ghostbusters)
If you're all alone pick up the phone and call (Ghostbusters)

CustomFirmware

@devinpadgett: STALKER games aren't considered "Western"? I...guess I never really thought of where Ukraine was placed on the whole global scale of game making, but I kinda proposed that anything that wasn't Asian was Western. I dunno?

@interim has his cake and is eating it too: It's Mahvel, baybee!

+ Watch video

May be one of my favorite videos ever.

@interim has his cake and is eating it too: I did!

I admired the idea, but it was just too rough. Too many bugs, too many glitches in the mission structure.

One day, though, after enough money and enough practice, they'll get it right, and it will be spectacular.

@nworobes: Okay, where the HECK is that from, and why is everyone saying it? I feel like I've got to start quoting Mega64 just to stay relevant, and no, that's not a good thing.

interim has his cake and is eating it too

@ShaggE got that Mango Sentinel. SCOOPS!: And don't forget "the Wild, by Jack London"...yeah, you really did cover all of the main calls that one encounters.

Also, SCOOPS! SCOOPS Haagen-Dazs!

nworobes

the visuals look amazing...

this is close to crysis although its a PC game too

Peter Pinto

Yh, bt lrdy hrd bt ths wks g n Stm frms...

@sentroshi: They had the first one on Steam 75% off (only $5 for the game) the weekend before Christmas. With this coming out, they might do it again closer to the release date.

they should release the original bug free with expansions on consoles.

There's no such thing as a "standalone expansion". This is a sequel.

@dslsd64: Well, for one thing definitely pick up one of the shading and weather mods. ABSOLUTELY changes the game, no question about it. It will make the atmosphere a hundred times better. Then pick up some of the quest-fixing mods, the real gun names mod, and anything else that strikes your fancy. I'm a minimalist, so I didn't pick up much-- though, I did edit the context file for the Browning Hi-Power pistol to make it nearly as damaging as the Desert Eagle (which it is, in real life).

interim has his cake and is eating it too

@ShaggE got that Mango Sentinel. SCOOPS!: I don't who. Who ya gonna call?

interim has his cake and is eating it too

@Thassodar: Yeah, what my homey Thassodar said. Pay full price or you ain't gangsta.

interim has his cake and is eating it too

@interim has his cake and is eating it too: What kind of mods specifically? I bought the damn game but it runs horribly. The potential is there, though.

@sentroshi: NO BARGAIN BIN FOR YOU!
FULL PRICE! NOW!

@ShaggE got that Mango Sentinel. SCOOPS!: Good old call screening it's?

cool, to bad i haven't gotten Clear Sky yet.

I hope this one won't need force me to visit [stalker.filefront.com] just to make the game enjoyable. But man. Let me tell you, the original, after a few basic mods, became THE genre-defining open-world FPS. It is an AMAZING game once you slap some mods on there. It looks like GSCGW have been paying attention to the mod community, though how far that will allow them to go on their own steam is beyond my current ability to estimate.

Did you ever play Stalker, Luke?

interim has his cake and is eating it too

I look towards this eS Tee Aay eL Kay Eee aRr expansion with glee.

slyeye

Between "Duty", "Cthulu", "Juarez", and now "Pripyat", I'm utterly flummoxed as to which call to answer.

Never tried any of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, but I'd love to. Hopefully they'll make a three pack in a year or two. :D Pleeease! (for 20$ in the bargain bin! :D)

sentroshi

Come on GSC.... polish it up as best as possible this time around...

Awesome! Although they always seem to be riddled with glitches at launch, I love the STALKER games. They have an atmosphere that I haven't seen in any Western games to date. Bring on Call of Pripyat!

Can't wait to be told to get out of here again. :)

sweet. love stalker and clear sky, can't wait for this!

nothing better than getting high and playing some stalker.

The STALKER series is the only that has ever made me upgrade my computer. I bought a new rig specifically for Shadow of Chernobyl, installed Vista for Clear Sky and will probably buy a new graphics card for Call of Pripyat if the game is properly released.

After all the money I put into them (used to play other games, of course), I really hope the developers/publishers make it all worth this time. No more Tages giving problems to honest players, no more limited on-line activations, no more bugs forcing you to restart the adventure several times, no more fear of random crashes.
Even with those, the STALKER experience has such depth that it could easily be the best FPS of the decade, provided GSC cared a bit more about its testing process.

Looks nice - shame the Stalker games are unplayable and bug ridden! Maybe they should fix their existing games first... I have Clear Skies but I can't play it. The game doesn't flow - there's no direction! Like 1 mission says go and wait at this place - so I stood there for half an hour - nothing happened. Standing around waiting with no indication of anything is not my idea of a "fun" game!

SutapaHornet

FIX THE BUGS FIRST FFS. you release another half finished game and people will be angry. Such a shame when the game is a potential milestone.

Jeff Read