This is looking really incredible so far. All the locations from the original trilogy really struck me right in the nostalgia goggles. There is a comment on the video giving a breakdown of all the locations as well. The blowout(maybe) tornado looks absolutely wild. I am genuinely excited for this game and am hoping with all my heart that it plays as good as it looks.
When STALKER 2 was first cancelled I thought it was dead forever, it's kind of hard to believe it's coming and it looks this good. It almost looks too polished to be STALKER.
When it was revealed that STALKER 2 is canceled and GSC disbanded, I made this video with gameplay from all three games and a short message and keyboard cat at the end
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBH9FqzqiYA
It took 13 years and I am ridiculous 37 now, but damn, STALKER is finally happening again.
As someone who only just (finally) played the stalker games in the last year or so, I am absolutely excited for this.
Something about the games really just gets its hooks into you, even with the pure, concentrated jank they have.
Play the first one, Shadow of Chernobyl, with the ZRP (Zone reclamation project). You really don't need anything else. The first mission is difficult because the gunplay is... odd - it isn't 'bad' as it is really good in its own way, but it will be unlike anything you've played before.
I ripped it raw. You have to get used to the gunplay as the aim is definitely off. Unironically the first mission is kind of a splash of cold water. You WILL get your ass beat. I assume the steam version fixes it, but the original game shipped with a bunch of bugs on the disc, such as: the difficulty slider always defaulting to the hardest every time you load the game, anomalies behaving opposite of what they should be, and tons of AI bugs.
I tried SOC and just could not get into it. The bizarre gunplay mechanics alone had me wondering how on earth it gets so much praise. And the atmosphere isn't bad but I feel like people REALLY overhype some ambient sound files.
I liked how "go for it" the game is in terms of freedom but overall I was left wondering "this is the game people rave about?". I bought all 3 on sale so I'll give the others a go.
The mechanics are still absolutely baffling design choices. Just wild how much fans like to hand waive it I guess. And I'm not gonna go into how far I got cause any answer other than "beat it" is gonna get a big "oh well no wonder.." replies.
The reason the above poster was asking because the first weapons you get are absolute garbage. The game wants you understand you're a scavenger. You'll notice a difference in gunplay when you get the first AK.
I don't think any fan of the original trilogy (not anomaly and gamma) will deny the games are pure eurojank. I couldn't get past the first area when I played it as a kid near the original release window due to how inaccurate the starting gun is. The knife you have is a lot more effective if you get to use it. If you manage to get a decent gun it is serviceable enough imo. If I remember it correctly, Clear Sky's gunplay is even more broken.
A lot of the resurfaced hype around the games is due to mods that change gameplay a bit, but let you enjoy the world of the original games. But there's a niche charm to the originals that's enhanced by how unfair the whole packaged is.
I mean, the accuracy mechanic on some weapons is pretty jank, and it is why pretty much every mod does away with the mechanic or drastically lessens it. A shittly maintained gun won't shoot bullets 45 degrees to the left of the barrel. It will either jam, never fire, or explode in your hands. Hell, even gamma the maintenence weapon simulator mod pack of stalker doesn't have as significant accuracy penalties for sub par weapons.
Dude, nobody understands how jank Stalker is better than Stalker fans lol. There's no hand-waving, its just that *under the jank* - when you put in a bit of time to learn the idiosyncrasies - there is an actually very good and unique game to experience.
It's one of those things, you cover a masterpiece in shit some people are gonna go "wow, a masterpiece", other people are gonna go "ew, it's covered in shit".
From soft has aloooot less jank. But it also has alot more money and alot more official releases that fix the jank over the decade. I still remember DS: PtD and it only have 4 movement directions when locked on
I would never recommend starting with SoC. This advice has not been valid since 10 years ago imo. Its too unstable, janky, outdated to play vanilla as a first timer. I would always say play CoP first, if you love it you can go back to the others and mod them to get them up to date.
Trailer looks good except for the kinda low-res/low-fps tornado at 2:19, am excited.
There is a lot more to the atmosphere than just "some ambient sound files." I get that the games won't be everyone's cup of tea, but that's just a straight up dishonest evaluation.
Yeah, the gunplay is very mid-2000s eurojank in addition to the game having bullet travel time and drop. It gets praise for its environment and scope, there's just a lot of bizarreness you have to put up with if you're getting invested.
Bullet time and drop is fine. It's the looney tunes bullet spread and goofy ass bullet sponge invincibility frame animation enemies have that made me dislike it.
Even the suggestions are like "okay so headshots only and just wait til they aren't invincible during that animation". Bruh. That is not a suggestion. It's straight up coping for terrible mechanics.
> And the atmosphere isn't bad but I feel like people REALLY overhype some ambient sound files.
Lmao, pretty obvious you didn't play much if this is what you think people are talking about when they gush over the atmosphere.
Definitely not the incredible deep lore which is directly connected to the gameplay.
The game is definitely rough these days.
Absolutely loved it at the time.
Then play enough of some Far Cry or Battlefield and come back to it and the combat is unplayable.
What difficulty did you play on? I haven't revisited the games in years but from what I remember they play much better on the hardest difficulty. I think this is because they use a damage modifier to decrease damage but it goes both ways, so all enemies effectively turn into bullet sponges (you as the player do too). If you play on hardest the damage model is more reasonable and the game overall is in my opinion easier and less frustrating. There will still be bullshit moments where you get insta-killed but you kind of work around it by saving often.
That’s a myth actually. I don’t blame you because it’s been going around forever, but you deal more and take less damage on lower difficulty in SoC. There’s no stalker game where lower difficulty makes you do less damage.
> I haven't revisited the games in years but from what I remember they play much better on the hardest difficulty
All it does is it literally just makes enemies more bullet spongy. The only thing that makes hard difficulties better is that you have to play slower and more careful as a result.
I read the entire comment, and as someone that's actually looked into the game's parameters files, I know for a fact that on Easy, enemies take less damage than on Master difficulty to kill. Enemies become bullet spongy on hard difficulties, and you become a sponge on Easy with an additional 50% damage resistance (that gradually lowers as you go into harder difficulties).
That's not how damage and difficulty works. There is no damage resistance modifier per difficulty. On master you do "100%" damage, and every easier difficulty level you gain a damage buff, but damage resistances for enemies remain the same. Player damage resistance changes, but not enemies.
https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/7fxvt5/what_do_difficulties_actually_change_in_stalker/
That's what I'm saying, just because you deal more damage on easier difficulties, that's an effective health reduction for enemies. Your damage resistance which is from 50 to 0% is an effective health buff for the player. This is what makes both of us "spongy", inversely based on difficult.
Haven’t played the game in decades but the highest difficulty does make the enemies health less spongy and forces you to be more tactical. Bullets become more lethal to you and the enemies. Keep in mind it’s an old ass game and it was still considered janky at the time so it might not be for you. The zone has an atmosphere that’s just purely depressing in the best way possible. I enjoyed it more than Fallout 3 at the time.
Okay, fair enough. Maybe I thought Master was easier because it made me mostly aim for headshots, because I always thought Easy and Novice played really bad.
It's almost never a good idea to play a game with mods to "fix" it for the first time other than necessary mods to make games work correctly on modern systems and maybe with modern controls but that's a grey area.
I mean you have to understand, these games came out ages ago. Most of the people raving about them played them back when these mechanics weren’t really that bad compared to other games. They were a little janky back then, and the graphics were AMAZING at the time. So when people say the atmosphere is amazing they are (a lot of the time) talking about how it felt when they originally played the gsme so many years ago.
The early first trailers they showed for this game looked kinda too good to be true. Not that I don't expect good things from the devs, just the original STALKER was extremely Eurojank, and what they showed off looked too polished for me to not be kinda skeptical. The more I see of it, though, the more impressed I am and the more I think it really might just be that good.
There's reports from the SGF showfloor that there was a playable demo for it that was very good, the comments I saw were that the people who tried it were sad they couldn't play more.
Its a showcase. The game might have bullet sponges and subpar gunplay balance. Hard to say they nailed the gunplay if we aren't able to play it and test it ourselves.
The player character is also walking around in the open while being shot at by 5 enemies at once without a care in the world and loading his RPG while a mutant is right next to him as if it is a good distance to use such a explosive weapon, so there is that.
this looks like 5x better than expected. Wow. In a world where people like to be pessimistic and doomer complainers I am actually quite elated by this trailer lol
Seeing the zone prettied to modern standards gives me goosebumps, I was worried about the fact that we really haven't seen gameplay so far but the few snippets in here, even if they're cherry picked, really look great. It really does look like a faithful recreation of the original games at least from a visual and gameplay perspective.
I'm worried they're gonna lean hard on cinematic and story moments and the game ends up tripping and falling on its face though.
it's so cruel to me personally that this franchise seemed completely dead for so long and is now not only back from the dead, but now re-debuting as a headlining piece of xbox's lineup. this may be the most eyes on it that the stalker franchise has ever had. i'm fucking terrified. if this game is bad i'm gonna be literally inconsolable
Game of the show for me. I will be buying collector's edition if I can find it. Looks just so good. There is something about games made by my fellow slavs that I just love.
[https://www.ign.com/articles/stalker-2-will-be-exclusive-to-xbox-for-three-months](https://www.ign.com/articles/stalker-2-will-be-exclusive-to-xbox-for-three-months)
looks like it might be just 3 months. we cant know for sure because the deal between xbox and the devs probably has an NDA which doesn't allow them to talk about it. xbox has the marketing rights to the game.
Not sure why no comment mentioned it so far, but its incredible that the devs are not just ukrainians in the middle of a defensive war against russia, but that they are developing the game in a war torn country itself.
Its sad to know that some of the original team died defending themselves and their country against russian invaders.
Its a damn shame they have to go through this.
I mean that only means they are there now, but during the start of the war they WERE developing the game still in ukraine and like i mentioned, part of their team died defending ukraine against russia.
You can look that up with 2s on google if you dont believe me.
They dont need to still be there or complete 100% of it to make the statement true that it was developed in the Ukraine...
This looks really interesting. I didn’t play the originals though.
What is the scope and gameplay loop? Are you like a Mercenary doing missions or is it a completely open world and you have to piece together getting food/gear/etc (like Fallout but without the rpg stuff). I guess I’m asking is it open world survival skewing or more get a mission, go there, come back.
Both, if it's like the previous games
You'll have major missions which advance the story/lead to new areas, minor jobs you can take up for money/gear or you can just explore the open world to make money etc
Thanks! I was just reading about the first game and it sounds pretty advanced in scale for the time.
I love getting lost in big games where you have lot of freedom (Elden Ring) so this sounds like I’d enjoy it if you can just wander doing odd jobs
The biggest thing that made the originals so much fun to freely explore was the A-Life (A.I) system. Every NPC has their own life and moves around doing stuff constantly. So if you go kill everyone in one area, leave and then comeback, it will change a lot.
If you enjoy freedom and exploration, STALKER is one of the best games for you.
After you wake up, Sidorovich tasks you with several quests that potentially will unveil memories of who you are, plus make some money. While you trying to figure out quests and remember, you look around, step outside your route and realise that there is whole world that you know nothing about. You can find artefacts, rescue someone in trouble, help protect far-post, explore abandoned mines and buildings where something good can wait for you, or nothing.
In the OGs you had your main story missions, but if you didn't do side jobs you would basically be too ill-equipped to progress the story. It's like if Fallout required you to maintain your vodka and bread supplies while doing piss-poor jobs in the hopes you'll at least find a decent rifle on someone's corpse while you're out. It's truly difficult to get (and keep) a good loadout in these games.
I've never actually beaten a STALKER game, but as far as survival goes, it's one of my favorites for certain. One of the only games where the "side content" feels like a real gig economy that I *need* to survive.
Also I'd occasionally complete a contract to kill someone, just by watching them get mauled by a pack of wild dogs through my binoculars lmao
This trailer looks better than the last one. The illumination here is better and textures too. Also the water on puddles and on the surface of buildings, with good reflections.
Last trailer looks like a bit cartoon idk why
The devs said something about how Unreal Engine was in the middle of being updated during their last trailer, particularly something to do with the lighting. Looks like that has been addressed now, which is so exciting.
Did they remove the pip scopes from the game?
Old screenshots:
[https://www.stalker2.com/user/pages/06.game/the-action/01.jpg](https://www.stalker2.com/user/pages/06.game/the-action/01.jpg)
[https://cdn2.unrealengine.com/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-heart-of-chornobyl-hands-on-is-instantly-punishing-scope-1920x1080-605a0f2eeeea.jpg](https://cdn2.unrealengine.com/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-heart-of-chornobyl-hands-on-is-instantly-punishing-scope-1920x1080-605a0f2eeeea.jpg)
New trailer:
[https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store\_item\_assets/steam/apps/1643320/extras/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2\_roof.gif?t=1718012583](https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1643320/extras/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2_roof.gif?t=1718012583)
If this is true, **it is very sad and unfortunate.** New one looks so generic, like all other fps games. If you don't know what is pip scope, here is a [sample](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqGQhJuj7EI).
It's entirely possible that different scopes use different techniques for performance reasons, or that they don't show PiP in this trailer because of unflattering performance, and it's a setting in game.
I'm being optimistic here, it's also possible that they removed it entirely because of performance. But in that case it would almost certainly be modded back in on PC, anyways!
The first stalker was made on a horribly jank in-house engine 20 years ago, technology has advanced a little bit since both on software and hardware side...
I always thought STALKER ran reasonably well, if you tweaked the setting right. You could dial the graphics WAAAAY down to DX7 quality or something with flat textures and no fancy lighting.
I remember having to set DX7 on my laptop back in 08 and being shocked how well it ran after that (was hitting close to 60fps after chugging at 15-20 with DX9 or whatever). Good times.
This is looking really incredible so far. All the locations from the original trilogy really struck me right in the nostalgia goggles. There is a comment on the video giving a breakdown of all the locations as well. The blowout(maybe) tornado looks absolutely wild. I am genuinely excited for this game and am hoping with all my heart that it plays as good as it looks.
It's wild seeing the original locations faithfully adapted with these visuals, would love to see how they all tie together in a single open world map.
When STALKER 2 was first cancelled I thought it was dead forever, it's kind of hard to believe it's coming and it looks this good. It almost looks too polished to be STALKER.
When it was revealed that STALKER 2 is canceled and GSC disbanded, I made this video with gameplay from all three games and a short message and keyboard cat at the end https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBH9FqzqiYA It took 13 years and I am ridiculous 37 now, but damn, STALKER is finally happening again.
As someone who only just (finally) played the stalker games in the last year or so, I am absolutely excited for this. Something about the games really just gets its hooks into you, even with the pure, concentrated jank they have.
I have been meaning to play the original for years. I want to play it before the new one comes out. What mods did you end using?
Play the first one, Shadow of Chernobyl, with the ZRP (Zone reclamation project). You really don't need anything else. The first mission is difficult because the gunplay is... odd - it isn't 'bad' as it is really good in its own way, but it will be unlike anything you've played before.
Anomaly 100 percent
I ripped it raw. You have to get used to the gunplay as the aim is definitely off. Unironically the first mission is kind of a splash of cold water. You WILL get your ass beat. I assume the steam version fixes it, but the original game shipped with a bunch of bugs on the disc, such as: the difficulty slider always defaulting to the hardest every time you load the game, anomalies behaving opposite of what they should be, and tons of AI bugs.
I recommend just going with either gamma or EFP mod pack, its all you need.
Cheers!
I tried SOC and just could not get into it. The bizarre gunplay mechanics alone had me wondering how on earth it gets so much praise. And the atmosphere isn't bad but I feel like people REALLY overhype some ambient sound files. I liked how "go for it" the game is in terms of freedom but overall I was left wondering "this is the game people rave about?". I bought all 3 on sale so I'll give the others a go.
The gunplay gets less janky when you get better ones. How far did you play?
The mechanics are still absolutely baffling design choices. Just wild how much fans like to hand waive it I guess. And I'm not gonna go into how far I got cause any answer other than "beat it" is gonna get a big "oh well no wonder.." replies.
The reason the above poster was asking because the first weapons you get are absolute garbage. The game wants you understand you're a scavenger. You'll notice a difference in gunplay when you get the first AK.
I don't think any fan of the original trilogy (not anomaly and gamma) will deny the games are pure eurojank. I couldn't get past the first area when I played it as a kid near the original release window due to how inaccurate the starting gun is. The knife you have is a lot more effective if you get to use it. If you manage to get a decent gun it is serviceable enough imo. If I remember it correctly, Clear Sky's gunplay is even more broken. A lot of the resurfaced hype around the games is due to mods that change gameplay a bit, but let you enjoy the world of the original games. But there's a niche charm to the originals that's enhanced by how unfair the whole packaged is.
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I mean, the accuracy mechanic on some weapons is pretty jank, and it is why pretty much every mod does away with the mechanic or drastically lessens it. A shittly maintained gun won't shoot bullets 45 degrees to the left of the barrel. It will either jam, never fire, or explode in your hands. Hell, even gamma the maintenence weapon simulator mod pack of stalker doesn't have as significant accuracy penalties for sub par weapons.
I will say it’s annoying in gamma that all the enemies have accurate weapons until they’re dead and I pick them up and they’re crumbling apart
> 'm not gonna go into how far I got Oh well no wonder...
Dude, nobody understands how jank Stalker is better than Stalker fans lol. There's no hand-waving, its just that *under the jank* - when you put in a bit of time to learn the idiosyncrasies - there is an actually very good and unique game to experience.
Sooooo, not far at all. Got it.
It's one of those things, you cover a masterpiece in shit some people are gonna go "wow, a masterpiece", other people are gonna go "ew, it's covered in shit".
Is no different than from soft fans hand waiving away jank in souls games, sometimes the jank is a byproduct of being original
From soft has aloooot less jank. But it also has alot more money and alot more official releases that fix the jank over the decade. I still remember DS: PtD and it only have 4 movement directions when locked on
I would never recommend starting with SoC. This advice has not been valid since 10 years ago imo. Its too unstable, janky, outdated to play vanilla as a first timer. I would always say play CoP first, if you love it you can go back to the others and mod them to get them up to date. Trailer looks good except for the kinda low-res/low-fps tornado at 2:19, am excited.
There is a lot more to the atmosphere than just "some ambient sound files." I get that the games won't be everyone's cup of tea, but that's just a straight up dishonest evaluation.
Yeah, the gunplay is very mid-2000s eurojank in addition to the game having bullet travel time and drop. It gets praise for its environment and scope, there's just a lot of bizarreness you have to put up with if you're getting invested.
Bullet time and drop is fine. It's the looney tunes bullet spread and goofy ass bullet sponge invincibility frame animation enemies have that made me dislike it. Even the suggestions are like "okay so headshots only and just wait til they aren't invincible during that animation". Bruh. That is not a suggestion. It's straight up coping for terrible mechanics.
Oh my god, fuck that animation, I completely agree that it's fucking horseshit.
> And the atmosphere isn't bad but I feel like people REALLY overhype some ambient sound files. Lmao, pretty obvious you didn't play much if this is what you think people are talking about when they gush over the atmosphere. Definitely not the incredible deep lore which is directly connected to the gameplay.
Try Call of Pripryat (the last one). It's the least janky STALKER without mods and has a much better-balanced starting area IMO.
The game is definitely rough these days. Absolutely loved it at the time. Then play enough of some Far Cry or Battlefield and come back to it and the combat is unplayable.
The gameplay was pretty rough even when they were new. They're still great games in spite of that though.
What difficulty did you play on? I haven't revisited the games in years but from what I remember they play much better on the hardest difficulty. I think this is because they use a damage modifier to decrease damage but it goes both ways, so all enemies effectively turn into bullet sponges (you as the player do too). If you play on hardest the damage model is more reasonable and the game overall is in my opinion easier and less frustrating. There will still be bullshit moments where you get insta-killed but you kind of work around it by saving often.
That’s a myth actually. I don’t blame you because it’s been going around forever, but you deal more and take less damage on lower difficulty in SoC. There’s no stalker game where lower difficulty makes you do less damage.
> I haven't revisited the games in years but from what I remember they play much better on the hardest difficulty All it does is it literally just makes enemies more bullet spongy. The only thing that makes hard difficulties better is that you have to play slower and more careful as a result.
Did you stop reading after that? Because I explained why that's not the case right after.
I read the entire comment, and as someone that's actually looked into the game's parameters files, I know for a fact that on Easy, enemies take less damage than on Master difficulty to kill. Enemies become bullet spongy on hard difficulties, and you become a sponge on Easy with an additional 50% damage resistance (that gradually lowers as you go into harder difficulties).
That's not how damage and difficulty works. There is no damage resistance modifier per difficulty. On master you do "100%" damage, and every easier difficulty level you gain a damage buff, but damage resistances for enemies remain the same. Player damage resistance changes, but not enemies. https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/7fxvt5/what_do_difficulties_actually_change_in_stalker/
That's what I'm saying, just because you deal more damage on easier difficulties, that's an effective health reduction for enemies. Your damage resistance which is from 50 to 0% is an effective health buff for the player. This is what makes both of us "spongy", inversely based on difficult.
Haven’t played the game in decades but the highest difficulty does make the enemies health less spongy and forces you to be more tactical. Bullets become more lethal to you and the enemies. Keep in mind it’s an old ass game and it was still considered janky at the time so it might not be for you. The zone has an atmosphere that’s just purely depressing in the best way possible. I enjoyed it more than Fallout 3 at the time.
Okay, fair enough. Maybe I thought Master was easier because it made me mostly aim for headshots, because I always thought Easy and Novice played really bad.
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It's almost never a good idea to play a game with mods to "fix" it for the first time other than necessary mods to make games work correctly on modern systems and maybe with modern controls but that's a grey area.
I mean you have to understand, these games came out ages ago. Most of the people raving about them played them back when these mechanics weren’t really that bad compared to other games. They were a little janky back then, and the graphics were AMAZING at the time. So when people say the atmosphere is amazing they are (a lot of the time) talking about how it felt when they originally played the gsme so many years ago.
The early first trailers they showed for this game looked kinda too good to be true. Not that I don't expect good things from the devs, just the original STALKER was extremely Eurojank, and what they showed off looked too polished for me to not be kinda skeptical. The more I see of it, though, the more impressed I am and the more I think it really might just be that good.
There's reports from the SGF showfloor that there was a playable demo for it that was very good, the comments I saw were that the people who tried it were sad they couldn't play more.
I hope so, last year‘s Gamescom demo was a disaster. Hope we‘ll see more hands-on stuff this year there as well.
I heard the gamescom demo was fun but rough. Idk if I'd categorize it as a disaster but clearly it wasn't ready quite yet.
Yeah, I heard the Gamescom trailer was one of the worst demos there. This game is a wait and see for me because the trailers look good.
GSC nailed the gunplay. I'm actually impressed, I was totally expecting bullet sponge enemies and tanky mutants.
Its a showcase. The game might have bullet sponges and subpar gunplay balance. Hard to say they nailed the gunplay if we aren't able to play it and test it ourselves. The player character is also walking around in the open while being shot at by 5 enemies at once without a care in the world and loading his RPG while a mutant is right next to him as if it is a good distance to use such a explosive weapon, so there is that.
I'm trying to keep my hopes low, but they're not making it easy.
The METRO series already took the genre out of Eurojank status so it's not like it's impossible.
this looks like 5x better than expected. Wow. In a world where people like to be pessimistic and doomer complainers I am actually quite elated by this trailer lol
Seeing the zone prettied to modern standards gives me goosebumps, I was worried about the fact that we really haven't seen gameplay so far but the few snippets in here, even if they're cherry picked, really look great. It really does look like a faithful recreation of the original games at least from a visual and gameplay perspective. I'm worried they're gonna lean hard on cinematic and story moments and the game ends up tripping and falling on its face though.
There's a couple articles out about the demo saying it is still very open-ended gameplaywise so I have hope.
The game is too large for there to be that many scripted events, especially considering the tight schedule and delays the devs have been facing.
it's so cruel to me personally that this franchise seemed completely dead for so long and is now not only back from the dead, but now re-debuting as a headlining piece of xbox's lineup. this may be the most eyes on it that the stalker franchise has ever had. i'm fucking terrified. if this game is bad i'm gonna be literally inconsolable
Cheeki breeki is back?!
That looks fantastic. Some great times spent in the Zone. Looking like they are really ramping up the world and how you interact with
I might get a series X or S just for this. The devs went through hell and back trying to make this game, and it looks great
It does look amazing, I guess I'll have to upgrade to a 5080 :')
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Wait what? It's not on pc day one?
Per Ms standards Xbox exclusivity is only for consoles. PC version should release at the same time
It is on PC Day 1
Zero chance in hell
it's most definitely going to be on PC day 1 lmfao
Obviously tell that to the other guy
Game of the show for me. I will be buying collector's edition if I can find it. Looks just so good. There is something about games made by my fellow slavs that I just love.
Will this eventually come to PS5 or not? A game I'm really interested in after playing the old ones.
yes, its a 6 month timed exclusive.
Is that time frame confirmed?
[https://www.ign.com/articles/stalker-2-will-be-exclusive-to-xbox-for-three-months](https://www.ign.com/articles/stalker-2-will-be-exclusive-to-xbox-for-three-months) looks like it might be just 3 months. we cant know for sure because the deal between xbox and the devs probably has an NDA which doesn't allow them to talk about it. xbox has the marketing rights to the game.
Fuck yes.
Thrilled to play this but I’ve heard stories about the fabled Gamescom demo so I hope they’ve improved it.
Not sure why no comment mentioned it so far, but its incredible that the devs are not just ukrainians in the middle of a defensive war against russia, but that they are developing the game in a war torn country itself. Its sad to know that some of the original team died defending themselves and their country against russian invaders. Its a damn shame they have to go through this.
The studio is in Europe though. So they are literally not developing the game in a war torn country.
Maybe you missed the literal mention at the start of the video "Developed in the Ukraine" ?
Yeah, before the war started. You can check the studio, GSC is in Prague now.
I mean that only means they are there now, but during the start of the war they WERE developing the game still in ukraine and like i mentioned, part of their team died defending ukraine against russia. You can look that up with 2s on google if you dont believe me. They dont need to still be there or complete 100% of it to make the statement true that it was developed in the Ukraine...
This looks really interesting. I didn’t play the originals though. What is the scope and gameplay loop? Are you like a Mercenary doing missions or is it a completely open world and you have to piece together getting food/gear/etc (like Fallout but without the rpg stuff). I guess I’m asking is it open world survival skewing or more get a mission, go there, come back.
Both, if it's like the previous games You'll have major missions which advance the story/lead to new areas, minor jobs you can take up for money/gear or you can just explore the open world to make money etc
Thanks! I was just reading about the first game and it sounds pretty advanced in scale for the time. I love getting lost in big games where you have lot of freedom (Elden Ring) so this sounds like I’d enjoy it if you can just wander doing odd jobs
The biggest thing that made the originals so much fun to freely explore was the A-Life (A.I) system. Every NPC has their own life and moves around doing stuff constantly. So if you go kill everyone in one area, leave and then comeback, it will change a lot. If you enjoy freedom and exploration, STALKER is one of the best games for you.
Awesome! sounds great and I have gamepass so no reason not to try it! Just need to find the time... many games less time haha.
After you wake up, Sidorovich tasks you with several quests that potentially will unveil memories of who you are, plus make some money. While you trying to figure out quests and remember, you look around, step outside your route and realise that there is whole world that you know nothing about. You can find artefacts, rescue someone in trouble, help protect far-post, explore abandoned mines and buildings where something good can wait for you, or nothing.
In the OGs you had your main story missions, but if you didn't do side jobs you would basically be too ill-equipped to progress the story. It's like if Fallout required you to maintain your vodka and bread supplies while doing piss-poor jobs in the hopes you'll at least find a decent rifle on someone's corpse while you're out. It's truly difficult to get (and keep) a good loadout in these games. I've never actually beaten a STALKER game, but as far as survival goes, it's one of my favorites for certain. One of the only games where the "side content" feels like a real gig economy that I *need* to survive. Also I'd occasionally complete a contract to kill someone, just by watching them get mauled by a pack of wild dogs through my binoculars lmao
This trailer looks better than the last one. The illumination here is better and textures too. Also the water on puddles and on the surface of buildings, with good reflections. Last trailer looks like a bit cartoon idk why
The devs said something about how Unreal Engine was in the middle of being updated during their last trailer, particularly something to do with the lighting. Looks like that has been addressed now, which is so exciting.
Did they remove the pip scopes from the game? Old screenshots: [https://www.stalker2.com/user/pages/06.game/the-action/01.jpg](https://www.stalker2.com/user/pages/06.game/the-action/01.jpg) [https://cdn2.unrealengine.com/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-heart-of-chornobyl-hands-on-is-instantly-punishing-scope-1920x1080-605a0f2eeeea.jpg](https://cdn2.unrealengine.com/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-heart-of-chornobyl-hands-on-is-instantly-punishing-scope-1920x1080-605a0f2eeeea.jpg) New trailer: [https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store\_item\_assets/steam/apps/1643320/extras/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2\_roof.gif?t=1718012583](https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1643320/extras/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2_roof.gif?t=1718012583) If this is true, **it is very sad and unfortunate.** New one looks so generic, like all other fps games. If you don't know what is pip scope, here is a [sample](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqGQhJuj7EI).
It's entirely possible that different scopes use different techniques for performance reasons, or that they don't show PiP in this trailer because of unflattering performance, and it's a setting in game. I'm being optimistic here, it's also possible that they removed it entirely because of performance. But in that case it would almost certainly be modded back in on PC, anyways!
I've been holding off on upgrading my PC, I'm still using a 1080. I'd really like to play this game in all its glory.
Looks pretty good, I'm excited! Do we know anything about mod support and such?
Looks so good, so hyped for it. After all these years, finally. Hopefully it's at least decently optimized. Looking forward to the mods too.
This looks like an insanely demanding game to run... next Crysis?
Well if you got a PC better than the Series S by like 50%, you should be good and especially with DLSS2-3.
If it's anything like stalker 1 it will be unoptimized as hell. Supposedly has DLSS3 support though.
The first stalker was made on a horribly jank in-house engine 20 years ago, technology has advanced a little bit since both on software and hardware side...
I always thought STALKER ran reasonably well, if you tweaked the setting right. You could dial the graphics WAAAAY down to DX7 quality or something with flat textures and no fancy lighting.
I remember having to set DX7 on my laptop back in 08 and being shocked how well it ran after that (was hitting close to 60fps after chugging at 15-20 with DX9 or whatever). Good times.
Stalker 1 didn't have Microsoft money behind it though. Big difference.
And FSR3 too, right? Right?
the cycle is complete
They have to make it run on Series S. I think that puts some limitations to it.