gsc-gameworld posts

The folks running Steam knows a good sale idea when it sees one. After Direct2Drive put a number of its games on sale for just $5 each recently, Steam put the same price tag on Assassin's Creed for a few days last week. This week the $5 sale is on again, this time for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

GSC GameWorld's 2007 post-apocalyptic shooter is now on sale for a mere $5 on Steam until November 2, That's 75 percent off its normal price. If you buy and like the game keep in mind that the next game in the series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Prypiat, is due for release with DirectX11 graphics goodness in the first quarter of 2010.

Fans of GSC Game World's S.TA.L.K.E.R. series of first person shooters will be happy to know that the third game, S.T.A.K.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat, has now been declared as "gone gold" by the developer on its Russian language web site (we checked out a Babel Fish translation for the heads up). The site also states that the game will ship to stores on October 2.

Of course, that's the release date for the Russian version of the game. So far there's been no word at all on a US release date or even a US distributor for the sequel.German-based bitComposer Games announced a little while ago that they had secured the worldwide publishing rights to the title. We do know that the game will be one of the first to support DirectX11-based graphics.

Gallery: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

It's rare that the general public gets to play a version of a game that's actually older than what the finished product turned out to be. GSC Game World has given gamers that chance by releasing an alpha build of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Oblivion Lost. That's not a typo; that's the original name for their post-apocalyptic shooter before they changed it into S.T.A.LK.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl.

The final game was years in the making before it was released in 2007. The release of this earlier build of the game comes from 2004 and contains all of the levels plus many that were cut along with other features that didn't make it into the final version. As you might expect there's no official support for this build; it was released just for fun so don't cry if your system crashes.

If you need to know the system requirements for a PC game chances are you might need a new PC to run it. So it goes with S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky, the latest game in GSC GameWorld's post apocalyptic first person shooter series. Publisher Deep Silver just published the PC hardware requirements (minimal and recommended) for the game so you can see for yourself if your rig is up to snuff:

MINIMAL

• Microsoft Windows 2000(SP4)/XP/Vista (SP1)
• Intel Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz / AMD XP 2200+
• 512 MB RAM
• 10 GB free hard disc space
• 128 MB DirectX 8.0 compatible card / nVIDIA GeForce 5700 / ATI Radeon 9600
• Keyboard, Mouse
• LAN / Internet for Multiplayer

RECOMMENDED

• Microsoft Windows XP/Vista (SP1)
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 / AMD 64 X2 4200+
• 1.5 GB RAM
• 10 GB free hard disc space
• 256 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible card / nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT / ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT
• Keyboard, Mouse
• LAN / Internet for Multiplayer

According to Oleg Yavorsky, GSC GameWorld's PR director, that's exactly the case. Yavorsky said in a recent interview with Eurogamer that while they try to appeal to a broad audience, their games (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) appeal to Europeans more than players in North America and Asia. Yavorksy noted that aside from basic cultural mindset differences, little things like the colors used to create the game world makes a difference. It would seem Americans tend to like flashy, bright games whereas European developers make dark ones.

What's more, Yavorsky mentioned that their games have always been aimed at hardcore players who don't need to be handheld, something they have struggled with with publishers about. From their perspective "big companies always want you to make your game as easy as possible, so that any really non-intellectual person can play it." That means all kinds of tutorials that guide the player through the game, something GSC has always been resistant to. So Mr. Yavorksy... to use a phrase from Redd Foxx (Sanford and Son): Are you calling us Americans a bunch of big dummies?

Just kidding! Personally, we loved S.T.A.L.K.E.R. here at the Big D, and can't wait to get our hands on Clear Sky. A great many of us enjoyed the dark, post-apocalyptic atmosphere that was created. We weren't so much turned off by the palate as we were the technical bugs, especially for a game in development for six years. And forget playing it on a rig running the Vista OS. Let's hope this next installment clears all that up.