Sunday, August 27th 2023
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Delayed Again - Launch Shifted to Q1 2024
GSC Game World has been busy showing of a preview build of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl at this week's Gamescom trade fair, and non-attendees have been treated to a new trailer—Bolts & Bullets—but the Ukrainian development (now primarily operating out of Prague, Czech Republic) has quietly shifted the release of their highly anticipated survival shooter from December 2023 to some point within the first quarter of next year. This was spotted by a couple of news outlets when perusing the latest press kit—this small detail is buried right at the bottom of the document (under "distribution"). The game's official website has also been revised with a Q1 2024 launch window.
The development team touts the sequel's: "unique combination of first-person shooter, immersive sim, and horror is back. Immerse yourself in the intricately detailed open world, accompanied by next-gen graphics (courtesy of the Unreal 5 engine) and a rich narrative, all enveloped within the intense atmosphere of a deadly adventure." The game seems to be getting a positive reception at Gamescom, although players were limited to only 15-minute long hands-on sessions with the demo. A few folks were already familiar with aspects of this preview version—a hacker group acquired an older build of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 earlier this year, and leaked it onto the internet.
Take a look around! Looks like the same old Zone, at a first glance… Freezed at the time and always transforming, primed to struck at the unforeseeable moment. But don't let her trick you: She has changed from the last time you were here. And to let the stalker survive, she'll demand the same!
Pre-order now: www.stalker2.com/
Sources:
Kit Guru News, Yahoo News, Stalker 2 Press Kit
The development team touts the sequel's: "unique combination of first-person shooter, immersive sim, and horror is back. Immerse yourself in the intricately detailed open world, accompanied by next-gen graphics (courtesy of the Unreal 5 engine) and a rich narrative, all enveloped within the intense atmosphere of a deadly adventure." The game seems to be getting a positive reception at Gamescom, although players were limited to only 15-minute long hands-on sessions with the demo. A few folks were already familiar with aspects of this preview version—a hacker group acquired an older build of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 earlier this year, and leaked it onto the internet.
Pre-order now: www.stalker2.com/
23 Comments on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Delayed Again - Launch Shifted to Q1 2024
Shame they ditched their X-ray engine but Im sure that its pretty long in the teeth by now and UE-5 is straight up easier to use and doesnt look like garbage.
I wouldn't mind being wrong (right being that they haven't done jack shit for a long time and the initial Stalkers weren't exactly masterpieces of code either. Setting nice, game clunky)
The problem with its sequel is that it's going to have to break the mould again to avoid being unforgettable, since we've have so many good games of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s genre in the last 15 years.
The plot will be more interesting
If they can nail a sweet open world with vastly updated mechanics of what they already had I think its a winner... more sandbox, overarching story/developments, etc.
More depth in survival is another option they can push. Misery mod has given us some fine preview options...
Even changed the name(s) of my Retail-copy STALKER games on steam.What's invert-'messed up',
is that a marine-centric STALKER set in the pacific, sounds absurdly good.
EditYou're not wrong.
However, I personally believe that was partially game balance, and partially early attempts at 'realistic' hit boxes and damage models. "The Poison Bullet" not doing much to a mutant's body; makes sense.
In every mod that 'fixes' that, the player character is *also* a waif. (Which, is infuriatingly "fair".)
(I remember OG STALKER on lower difficulties was pretty 'forgiving' on player damage.)
Regardless of OG/Vanilla STALKER or Modded, just treat every gun like a DMR. Headshot's are king in The Zone.
(Given the revelatory themes of 'Psy-tech' and 'Consciousness's Influence on Reality' in STALKER... " 'braining' enemies being the 'choice method', just fits)
Example:
the way doors work in X-Ray engine, they can be 'forced open' by colliding objects.
'Glitched doors' kill the player on contact; preventing the player from 'exploiting' the door mechanic.
Can't say if that's a feature or a bug but, I swear early-patch SoC 'let you' exploit this.
Then I bought a Q6600 and got another 10/15 fps which made it playable. Went through and clocked it. Wasn't a bad game.
Was very good the see a game take advantage of all 4 cores back then which was hard to find :)
This 'new' game is unique, for me. I know there's going to be problems and legitimate controversies. Yet, this is the only franchise that I legitimately don't care about that.
Ex. I accept that this game is going to have some major 'issues' come up from it being a multi-platform release, alone.
As long as I can actually play the game (even if it requires 'community efforts'), and any nonsense is fixable by UE-experienced modders...
I will be a very happy STALKER.
Another hilarious aspect of Call of Pripyat was the AMAZING grenade throwing abilities of the AI. I was once behind a bus and a car w/no sight line to the AI and they threw a granate right in front of my face. How they got the angle on that throw I'll never know, unless they bounced it off the building behind me or they can throw a curveball better than any pitcher in the history of MLB.
they tend to ''polish'' it until rtx 7000 and next next next gen cpu's come out
long live the brute force...:toast:
You have one very important point wrapped up in your statement unaddressed: "A-Life". Nothing like it has quite been done since, AFAIK.
From what I remember A-Life was both an extremely dev-labor intensive creation, and a long-time limitation + source of massive glitching w/ mod devs.
Thankfully It's been worked out pretty well now, with the latest Community Developed 64-bit X-Ray engine and (over) a decade of dedicated community modding.
To your point, just how good is GSC Game World's work in Unreal Engine? It'd be all-to-easy to 'Bethesda' it, with band-aids and 'fake life'. A-Life was something else...