stalker-call-of-pripyat posts

Last summer developer GSC Game World announced plans for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, the first real sequel to the company's post-apocalyptic first person shooter that later spawned two stand alone follow up games. Now the official S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Facebook page has posted up a Q&A which gives a little more info on what we can expect from the sequel.

While the Q&A dodges some questions such as if the game will take place in one single zone, how many weapons will there be or if the series' popular character Sidorovich will appear in the sequel it does answer other. The game will have old characters returning while some new characters will pop up and new mutants will show up. The sequel will take place "in the triangle of CNPP, the cities of Chernobyl and Chernobyl 2 (where the huge antenna is located)". It will also have new X-Labs and secret underground complexes to explore and there will be more of a survival aspect to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. The PC port will use DirectX 11 for graphical features and the Q&A states, "Since we develop primarily on PC, you won't see any compromises in the PC version."

[Via VG247.com]

The X-Ray SDK 0.7 allows users to create custom content for the X-Ray 1.6 Engine, used in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.

Please, note the following key features of the SDK 0.7:

* For the first time the SDK contains full set of instruments allowing you to create both single- and multiplayer levels.
* The tools are partially documented (in Russian only).

Note: The tools are offered 'as is' and GSC Game World is unable to provide any technical support on this SDK. All the tools questions must be discussed on the official forum.

Download S.T.A.L.K.E.R. X-Ray SDK 0.7 (446 MB)
Check all S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat downloads

You now have less that 24 hours before the third annual Steam holiday sale ends. That means you will have less than a day to take advantage of the price cuts that are available on nearly all PC games on the service. It also means that you have until 1 pm Eastern time until these extra-special price cuts (all repeats of previous one-day sales) expire:

Neverwinter Nights 2 Platinum - $9.99
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl/Call of Pripyat bundle - $4.99
Left 4 Dead 2 - $6.80
Grand Theft Auto IV + Episodes from Liberty City - $9.99
Empire/Napoleon Total War Game of the Year Edition - $24.99
The Hitman Collection - $7.49 for three-game bundle (Hitman: Codename 47, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman Blood Money)
Mafia 2 - $12.49
Dead Space - $6.80
Plants Vs Zombies Game of the Year Edition - $3.99
Amnesia The Dark Descent - $6.80
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit - $29.99
Killing Floor Complete Pack - $4.99

The Steam PC game download site still has a few more days before its annual holiday sales event ends. In addition to all of the deals that have been active since the sale began on December 20 it has some one-day price cuts that are in effect from now until 1 pm Eastern time on Saturday.

Far Cry 2 Fortune's Edition - $4.99
Command and Conquer games - Save 75 percent off all games in series
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl/Call of Pripyat bundle - $4.99
Star Wars Dark Forces/Jedi Knight collection - $5 for all five games in series
Empire/Napoleon Total War Game of the Year Edition - $24.99 or $19.99 if you own Medieval Total War or Rome Total War
Dawn of Discovery Gold Edition - $14.99
Supreme Commander 2 - $3.74
Flight Control HD - $1.70
Theatre of War - Save 75 percent off all games in series
Team Fortress 2 - $5
The Hitman Collection - $5 for three-game bundle (Hitman: Codename 47, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman Blood Money)
Guardians of Graxia - $2.49

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. first person shooter game franchise has spanned three PC game installments and a fourth is in the works. Now word has hit the internet that the game series about a post-apocalypse Chernobyl could become a TV series in its native Russia.

A teaser site and trailer for the show, which is appropriately grim and gritty, are already online (you can check out the trailer after the jump). Kotaku reports that the pilot for the show has been self-funded by the game's developer GSC Game World. Talks are underway with Russian and Ukrainian TV networks to turn the pilot into a full TV series. If that happens and if it is successful we might even see the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. TV series show up here in the US (legally, that is).

It's Tuesday which means some PC games are getting some price cuts for one or two days. Steam now has both the regular and limited edition of 2009's city sim game Cities XL on sale from now until Thursday. The regular edition is priced at just $4.99 while the limited edition has a $6.24 price tag on the PC game download service.

Over at Direct2Drive they have three games on sale from now until 1 pm Eastern time on Sunday. The recent racing game Split Second has a 50 percent price cut to $19.95. In addition, two of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. first person shooters (Shadows of Chernobyl and Call of Pirpyat) are being sold in a bundle for just $9.95.

The Steam download site always has some kinds of special sales and/or pre-order offers. This weekend the PC game download site has put two of GSC Game World's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. first person shooter games on sale. The titles, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl and the most recent game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat, can be purchased together for just $9.99, a 75 percent savings, until Monday.

Steam also has Arcania: Gothic 4, available for pre-order. The fantasy RPG sequel from publisher JoWood will let people download and play the previous game in the series, Gothic 3, for free if they pay in advance for Gothic 4. Finally a number of European countries can now purchase games on Steam via the Paysafecard system. People who use the system to purchase either 20 pounds or 20 euros of games on Steam will be able to get a free game, Portal, from now until August 26.

The announcements and reveals of new games and release dates continue to come in a flood today with the announcement of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, the full-fledged sequel to the post-apocalyse first person shooter series from developer GSC Game World. In a brief post on the developer's web site the company announced that the game would be due out in 2012.

Little info on the game itself was announced with GSC Game World saying only that, "A completely new multi-platform technology developed by GSC will make the core of the game." The original S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl was first released in 2007 after several years of development. Two stand alone follow-ups to the original game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, were released in September 2008 and February 2010, respectively. All three were PC exclusive games. GSC Game World stated today that the series has so far sold a total of four million copies.

[Via Blue's News]

A new multiplayer map for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, called 'Close Combat,' is available for download. To install the map, download it, run the .exe file and follow the instructions.

"The map, named 'close combat' is a compact game location featuring a warehouse of containers in the Jupiter factory locale. The map is designed for dynamic play with use of close- and medium-range weapons. An interesting touch about the map is availability of one store per two teams for selling picked-up items in TDM (team deathmatch) mode."

Download S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat 'Close Combat' Multiplayer Map (6 MB)
Check out all S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat downloads

The world of STALKER has gone through some precarious ups and downs since its original release. The original game was though to be vaporware for quite a long time. When released, bugs crippled people's enjoyment of the game and the game lacked promised features from the previews of years before. Still, the atmosphere drew players in like crazy, and despite its flaws, STALKER was a hit. Clear Sky expanded the game in some areas, such as the A-life system or the factions, but was definitely worse in others. It lacked the atmosphere that made STALKER so great, and only about half the areas were new. Call of Pripyat is the latest in the series, and its goal was to merge Shadow of Chernobyl's environment with Clear Sky's improved gameplay. The result is a game that is vastly better than its two predecessors, and a fantastic stand-alone game as well.