GSC Game World has released a defiant statement, in the face of threats of ransomed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 data. It provides an update about one of its employee's accounts being compromised by hackers, and as a result of this, the studio is now threatened with blackmail. A statement was posted, March 12, on the GSC Game World's official Twitter account. The developer is urging that fans refrain from sharing leaked material and spoilers, and warns that the final product should not be pre-judged in a harsh light, based on any of the leaked work-in-progress material.

It is not unusual for hacker groups to threaten game developers and publishers. Rockstar Games was the victim of a leak in 2022, when videos of its in-development and upcoming video game Grand Theft Auto 6 were uploaded to forums. The in-game footage was spread across social media and the internet, and shortly thereafter, a hacker wanted to "negotiate a deal" with Rockstar Games. Source code for GTA 5 & 6 was used as leverage.

[Editor's Note: We Reviewed Razer DeathStalker V2 Pro Optical Keyboard here.]

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced the return of the acclaimed DeathStalker keyboard in the form of the new DeathStalker V2 Pro, DeathStalker V2 Pro Tenkeyless, and DeathStalker V2.

With a clean, low-profile design language running across the range, the new DeathStalker V2 line is ideal for gamers looking for a clutter-free desktop set-up. Boasting a sleek, low-profile design, the DeathStalker V2 line is all about high-profile performance, featuring both linear and clicky variants of the Razer Low-profile Optical Switches across the range. Adding to the premium experience are a slim-line aluminium top plate for superb durability, and laser-etched keycaps with an ultra-durable coating for even greater longevity.

GSC Gameworld, developers of the highly awaited STALKER 2, have revised their stance on integrating NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) within the game after considerable fan backlash. While a number of companies have already aspired to integrate NFTs into their games (notably Ubisoft with its Quartz platform), it seems that mainstream perception of NFTs is still sorely lacking. Considering the fan backlash, NFTs are currently considered speculative in nature, and seem to be interpreted as nothing more than cash grabs from games development companies, trying to ride the hype of the million-dollar sales that have happened in the NFT space since its inception.

GSC Gameworld shared their thoughts on the matter and rationale behind canceling the NFT integration: "Based on the feedback we received, we've made a decision to cancel anything NFT-related in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2," the company said via Twitter. "The interests of our fans and players are the top priority for the team. We're making this game for you to enjoy - whatever the cost is. If you care, we care too."

AMD released the final iteration of Catalyst 10.4 graphics driver suite. The WHQL-signed drivers keep up with the company's one month update cycle, and introduce a wide range of changes. To begin with, game-specific performance improvements in this release are confined to STALKER - Clear Sky, with up to 6% improvement in frame-rates for the Radeon HD 5970, and up to 3% for HD 5800 and HD 5700 series GPUs. There are changes to the video-decoding features, namely addition of H.264 Level 5.1 support, and a fix that reduces the "mosquito noise" seen in highly-compressed video.

Improvements to the video-transcoding capabilities are also a highlight of this release, with enhanced support for Windows 7 drag-and-drop video converter, namely performance increment, support for new H.264 formats such as MTS and WMV9 Complex profile interlaced content, and the ability to toggle GPU-acceleration from Catalyst Control Center. Support for the ATI Video converter is now available in the advanced view of the ATI Catalyst Control Center.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.4 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

A list of minor fixes follows.

NVIDIA made its latest GeForce driver suite official, version 181.22 WHQL. The driver comes nearly a week after its introduction as a beta. It reportedly brings in PhysX optimizations specific to Mirror's Edge. Attempting not to be merely a vehicle for PhysX system software version 9.09.0010, the driver promises certain fixes specific to Windows XP that include an SLI profile for STALKER: Clear Sky and Windows Vista-specific fixes that include an SLI profile for STALKER: Clear Sky benchmark, along with some stability issues being addressed for Fallout 3 and the GeForce GTX 295 accelerator, where only one of the two GPUs on the card was being recognized as CUDA/PhysX-supportive in some cases. Head over to NVIDIA's driver page for the downloads.

DOWNLOAD NVIDIA Forceware 181.22 WHQL for Windows XP 32-bit | Windows Vista 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows Vista 64-bit

AMD updated the graphics driver hotfix titled, 737-38664: Far Cry 2 and Stalker Clear Sky HotFix. The hotfix aims to address issues with the two game titles and improves performance. Highlights include:

• Performance improvement for the DirectX 9 version of Far Cry 2 on CrossFire installations
• Performance improvement for the DirectX 10 version of Far Cry 2 on single GPU and CrossFire installations
• Improves performance for the DirectX 10 and DirectX 10.1 version of STALKER: Clear Sky on both single and CrossFireX configurations at higher resolutions

This hotfix includes STALKER performance enhancements for the DirectX 10 version of the game. Also be sure to download the STALKER Clear Sky DirectX 10.1 patch, which will provide further performance enhancements (up to 10% at higher resolutions) and image quality enhancements over DirectX 10. AMD strongly recommends you download the game patch and test it in conjunction with this Catalyst hotfix. For more information on the hotfix and downloads, please visit this page.

THQ has issued the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl 1.0003 patch, updating US and European releases of the game. There are patches to update the original game, as well as 1.0001 release (if you have that one installed your save games will be preserved). The 1.0003 release offers more bug and crash fixes, plus the 16:9 aspect ratio now works correctly.

A very curious ArsTechnica member (Nivenhbro/jjwalker), as far as I can tell, got very bored one day and decided to start project Float32. The end result of all this concentrated boredom and effort is an extremely well done S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mod. Of course, as we all know, third party add-ons may easily be broken by the makers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with patches.

The modification boasts better bump mapping, adds real time calculated specular effects, improves full reflection vector calculations, and boosts soft shadow quality. At the same time of offering all these improvements and more, the mod improves efficiency of the game, increasing frame-rate by no less than 20%, which is no small feat. Using next generation (and NDA) hardware, The Inquirer claims that they see a 20-25% improvement in frame-rate.

If you want to try this modification for yourself, save a copy of your original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. files, and head over to NGOHQ.

We brought news about a suspicion that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stole from Half life 2 and Doom 3. It now looks like the issue has been resolved, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. did not steal a thing from the two aforementioned games. Half Life 2, as well as S.T.A.L.K.E.R., use textures from Marlin Studios - hence, the similarity. Furthermore, the IMP_Light texture, which also played part in the scandal as being taken from Doom 3, was, in fact, just a standard Impact Light texture, rather than referring to the Doom 3 monster.

All over the interweb, there are intermittent forum posts with a strange topic: how similar S.T.A.L.K.E.R. looks to Half Life 2 and Doom 3. These claims certainly do not go unfounded. Someone, with way too much free time, went through and manually compared the texture directories of Doom 3 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. You'll see the results in the first two pictures below. A particular texture, lights_impflash.dds, has the exact same name of the Doom 3 version, excluding the extension. Half Life 2 has also been allegedly stolen from. Not only are the file names nearly identical (except for the extension), the images are extremely similar as well. Whether or not anything comes out of this depends on what ID Software and Valve decide to do. Do you think S.T.A.L.K.E.R textures are stolen?

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl is a great game, but the developers missed bugs in the initial version and had to rush out a patch. This patch did some good, and some bad, because one could not use the old saved games to carry on the adventures of "The Marked One". For all those people who feared to start all over again there is a solution, in form of a tool, on the horizon that will convert older saved games to make them playable with patched game versions. Though such a converter sounds very promising it remains to be seen if this converter applies for the initial version's saved games, or to already patched ones as details of this tool are really sparse.

Relating to Firingsquad.com, NVIDIA will release a new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. optimized graphics driver for the GeForce 8 series next week. The new optimized driver should increase the performance especially on GeForce 8800GTX cards, because these cards aren't much faster than their "little brother", the 8800GTS, when playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with current available drivers. Additionally the new driver should provide the missing SLI-functionality in the game.

This is the first patch released for the long awaited S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl fixing a list of more than 68 different game issues. There are different versions of the patch for the different SKU's released worldwide and for the Digital Distribution version. Be carefull which one you use. Please note that Saved games from previous versions will NOT work with the patch. Please click here, read the patch description and download it if you want.

The highly anticipated FPS/RPG S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl has gone gold. With over 6 years in development, the game is one of the highly anticipated titles due to come out this year. The game should sport mind blowing visuals and intensive gameplay.

Flock, THQ executive vice president, speaking to a crowd of about 100 journalists, said S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will "ship in March," and online retailers are listing it as having a March 20 release. The game is rated M for Mature (blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, use of alcohol), and will retail for $39.99.

According to a countdown timer on Man-Made-Hell.com, a site that links back to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl website, we're just 66 days away from the release of the so long delayed shooter.