Last week we reported that STALKER developer GSC Game World had shut down and let go of its 50 strong workforce. Now according to a Tweet from the developer, “there is cause for hope”, as they put it. It went on, saying that there won’t be any official news until January 2012 regarding the state of the company. The Tweet said:
Dear Stalkers: We will not be releasing any official news until around mid January. However there is cause for hope! Good hunting!
It looks now that GSC GameWorld is at least somewhat-alive, although we don’t know how many employees the company employs or what state it’s in. We’ll have to wait until next month to find out.
GSC Game World, developers of the STALKER shooter series, have shut down, according to a report from RockPaperShotgun. GSC came to fame when they released the original STALKER, a very atmospheric first person shooter, in 2007, followed by a couple of expansions. At the time of shutting down, GSC employed some 50 developer working on STALKER 2, which was scheduled for release in 2012. Now it appears we’ll never see the sequel… Unless GSC manages to sell off the assets of the game during a bankruptcy sale.
A great Steam sale this weekend: Stalker and Stalker: Call of Pripyat have been bundled up and lowered by 75% this weekend only. This means you can grab the radioactive bundle for just $10. Get it on Steam here.
The STALKER franchise has been somewhat a two edged sword. On one hand, it’s an amazingly atmospheric game and one of the creepiest out there. On the other hand, it’s always been lacking on the technical side, from bugs and glitches, to gameplay issues. Developer GSC GameWorld tries to rectify much of what was wrong with the previous games, and while it does that to some extent, it doesn’t leave room for many new features. In most aspects, it’s still STALKER, it’s still tough and relentless, and the margin for error is very small — but that’s what always made STALKER stand out.
But besides that, STALKER fans won’t be disappointed — Call of Pripyat is still creepy as the other STALKER games. In fact, on the technical side, it might be the most polished STALKER game yet, and while it’s not perfect, the flaws won’t ruin your game like they did before. Read the rest of the review
GSC Gameworld, the Ukrainian developers of the STALKER series and publisher bitComposer Games, have confirmed that the game will hit the store shelves in February 2010 worldwide. The game is already available in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a few eastern European countries as well.
If you’re up for some post-apocalyptic Chernobyl-horror FPS action, STALKER is the game to get, and especially now, since it’s 75% off on Steam all week, making it only $5. It’s definitely a great deal if you haven’t tried the game yet. Get it on Steam right here.
Plenty of games have been delayed for a few months this year, in order to escape the holiday season, where so many game will be released, including highly anticipated titles like Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin’s Creed 2. It now appears that GSC Gameworld’s third Stalker game is being delayed as well.
Stalker: Call of Pripyat was supposed to be released this year on PC, and it was to be one of the first to support DirectX 11, the new DX update that will ship with Windows 7. According to publisher BitComposer, the game will now be released during the first quarter of 2010.
Developer GSC Games has released system requirements for the upcoming second expansion to Stalker; Call of Pripyat.
Minimum System Requirements
Intel Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz / AMD XP 2200+
512 MB RAM
128 MB DirectX 8.0 compatible card / nVIDIA GeForce 5700 / ATI Radeon 9600
Recommended System Requirements
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 / AMD 64 X2 5600+
2 GB RAM
512 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible card / nVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX / ATI Radeon HD 4850
In addition, the official site of the game has launched, which you can find here.
GSG Gameworld, developers of the STALKER games, have announced a new expansion, STALKER: Call of Pripyat. This is the third standalone expansion for STALKER, while the title, Call of Pripyat, is a working title and subject to change.
The game takes place right after the ending of the original game, Shadow of Chernobyl, and will include the Pripyat town, Yanov railway station, Jupiter factory, Kopachi village and more, recreated by their true-to-life prototypes. The game will also feature the new X-ray engine 1.6, which should give overall better visuals than the previous installments.
GSC Game World is reported to be developing a second stand-alone S.T.A.L.K.E.R. expansion as well as a full-fledged sequel.
This comes from Clanbase and TTLG, both of whom cite the same Russian language interview with studio president Sergey Grigorovitch.
The expansion is subtitled “Call of Pripyat” and is due out later this year. While S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was mentioned, no details were given.
The post-apocalyptic first-person shooter/RPG was released back in 2007, with “Clear Sky”, the expansion prequel, out the next year.
