[DigeBeni]

... jah, uut polnud tõepoolest midagi, kuid eeldatavasti, oleks juba antud intervjuudele raske midagi juurde lisada, see mäng on juba niigi suht inside-out kistud ...

[Auron]

[Mario.]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. play-test

18.02.06 10-00, Kiev. Burning from impatience, we come to the building, on one of the floors of which is based one of the leading East European developer teams - GSC Game World. Oleg Yavorksy met us at the doors.

After tea, we were invited to carry out our main storyline quest - play-test of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl!

After traversing the long corridor of the office, we get to the sacred place - the computer containing a single-player build of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, in DirectX 9.0c, dated February 2006 - the game that is the pinnacle of desires of millions of people.

And so, lets go. After watching the splendidly made trailer that shows the beginning of the plot, we see the main menu. The menu was not bad - everything corresponded to the game's atmosphere. After selecting the difficulty level, we submerged into the game...

We come to senses in the bunker of the trader, who gives us a quest and also a walkthrough of our PDA's features, which will help us in the game.

We won't go into the particulars of the plot, since our goal is to make sure the game really exists and is at the final stages of development, to prove wrong the scandalous rumours and conjectures, as well as to verify that the delay was or was not justified.

After personally touching the game, we can say with full responsibility that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. does exist! (Hello, yellow press.) GSC assures that the first quarter of 2007 is the absolute deadline. It is not worth it to judge the delay too critically - the game needs it. The build that we played was quite stable and fully playable, though there are glitches: shadows do not always display correctly, the compass arrow on the map sometimes points in the wrong direction, the game crashed 3-4 times during the test. As the developers assure, the animation was not always at the necessary level of quality, although we have not noticed any such thing. The balance required much attention - the aspect is, in our opinion, the main problem before completion of the project, since sometimes god_mode is simply necessary.

Overall, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has justified all our hopes. GSC has not left out any of the promised features and distinguishing traits of the game - A-Life and Smart Terrain are 100% functional. The game did not let us relax even for a minute, keeping up constant tension. While flying across the map, we frequently encountered fights between stalkers and bandits, and between animals. In other words, the world around us lives its own life, regardless of our actions. When we loaded the same location several times and flew over a piece of it, the scene changed each time. Impressive, is it not?

The graphics are amazing. All talk of screens been edited in Photoshop can be forgotten as not corresponding to reality.

The AI has deeply impressed us. I assume that everyone remembers the recently released F.E.A.R., wonderful enemy AI of which having been one of its main features. So I will tell you, my friends, it is nothing in comparison to AI in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. NPCs wonderfully find their way about the map, using all its features, covering each other. It is hard to describe this. One must see it with own eyes! It feels like playing multiplayer against live people.

Now we should tell you about the system of monster behaviour. In the very beginning of our journey we have encountered a pack of blind dogs (2-3 individuals). After whining and circling us for a bit, they decided that it would be too dangerous to attack us, and went away, but literally after a couple of minutes we got attacked by a huge pack, against which we were powerless. This fact shows that monsters have some sort of a behavioural model, and base their decisions on many factors, such as hunger and aggression, our ammunition, and decide whether to attack, retreat, or get support.

Sound and voicing are of a high quality. I think, everyone remembers the trailers during which the enemies show deep knowledge of obscene language, which makes the fighting more realistic. Many characters are voiced, including the zombies.

In conclusion, we would like to note that the locations in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are so large that we have spent about an hour traversing an average-size location. And we did this travelling in a straight line, not deviating, only seldomly halting to chat with stalkers or to shoot monsters.

18.02.06 18-59, Kiev. Happy and tired, we loaded ourselves onto the train, and fell asleep immediately upon getting to our places.



-----------Kui testijate sõnu uskuda, tuleb asi väga hea.Kõik pidi siis sees olema, nagu lubatud.-----------


Interview with Oleg Yavorsky (will be expanded in near time):

THQ's perspective on delay of STALKER until 2007. Where there talks with THQ about the delay of the project to the first quarter of 2007? What goals does GSC have in these talks, and what has been achieved?

We are currently talking about the work remaining to be done on the game. As a matter of fact, the publisher is ready to release the game before 2007, if it is ready by mutual agreement.

How many localizations of the game will there be?

For release, 5 or 6 - all the "main" languages.

What are the recommended system requirements at this time? What kind of machine is required for the picture to be like in the last DX9 trailers?

Nothing has changed in this regard. For DX9, a 6800-level card should be sufficient.

Will there be optimizations for dual core processors?

Yes.

When can we expect the SDK?

It will be possible to answer more exactly when the programmers finish their main work on correction of defects in the game itself.

Will there be an open test, at least for multiplayer?

Yes, we are planning to.

What new things does the multiplayer mode have?

Some new elements, like RPG, but more about this later.

More on the Firelake group.

This is my musical collective, my life outside of work. We are currently updating our site, and are planning to record a new quality album in spring. I can keep you informed, if you want to know.

A-Life system. What's new?

We have not added anything new lately. It would be better to tell what new things it introduces into the game. I can say that it is implemented like we initially wanted. It organically introduces into the game an element of randomness and additional interest.

Are GSC and THQ planning to make a DirectX 10 version?

Not yet.

More details on missions, their number, and about the map, or more exactly, the locations, sizes of the maps (map).

Nothing has changed in this respect. The average map size is 2 sq. km.

Will transition between locations be quick, as in GTA, or slow, as in Postal-2?
The system will be like in Postal-2, but the levels are much larger, so it should not be annoying.

More about the situation with micromanagement regarding transportation.

After internal testing we have decided to simplify the driving system, so that the player is not bothered with superfluous micromanagement. Maybe we do not have enough racing fans, or maybe we used to have too complex and tricky a system.



---panin osa teksti siia, keda tõesti mäng huvitab, lugege läbi, kes luges, siis on hea.---

//////The AI is simply marvellous. F.E.A.R. is not even close.//////

//////S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is alive and well.//////

http://stalker.myexp.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3008

[MarekSäde]

Kes olid need testijad? On olemas ju võimalus, et see Oleg kirjutas ise selle testimise jutu. (sorry,aga selle mängu suhtes olen ma küll pessimist)

[Mario.]

GSC Visit

[ahvilõust]

[madness]

No irw..ega see siis esimene test ei pruukind olla
Nad võibolla 2 aastat juba saadavad tagasi parandamisele, ja iga kord leiavad uusi buge

[Scart]

[Magic]

Pigem tundub, et võeti liialt suurt tükk hammustada.

[Mario.]

pigem tundub, et asi on valmis suht
Siiski, kui see jutt seal õige, on kõik lubatud featuured sees ja jääb üle ainult siis 1q 2007 mäng osta...mis pidi olema viimane kuupäev...ärge palun öelge nüüd, et ennegi lubatud välja lasta...seda teavad juba kõik.

[Auron]

Seda, et mingisuguse pooletoobise variandina asi funkab ja olemas on oli ammu teada.Mängu ilusti fullest läbitegmiseks pidi minema umbes 500h, praegu mingid tüübid said väheke paari missiooni näppida ja juba olid bugid ning 3-4 korda viskas mängust välja? Tundub asi väga kaugel nö. "minor bugfixide" prandamisest.

[Mario.]

Muide kuskil pole räägitud 500-st tunnist...räägitakse ~100tundi. :/

[Auron]

100h ju main story läbitegemiseks

[Ho Ho]

Selle suure suutäie juures loodan mina kõige rohkem seda et AI koos muude uute ja huvitavate lahendustega tuleb tulevikus ka teistesse mängudesse. Ma kujutan ette et kui nende AI süsteem oleks piisavalt paindlik siis saaksid nad seda middlewarena RPG'de tegijatele müües üsna rikkaks

[Nitro]

Poisid, PR kampaania hakkas vist peale http://stalker.myexp.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3029
Nimelt toimus täna Gameland Award show kus ka STALKER end näitas ning Oleg oma bändiga Firelake mürtsu tegi. Siit saab kaeda videot: ftp://ftp4.extreme-players.de/stalker/STALKER_GLA_VIDEO_BY_SOKOL.zip . GSC lubas lähipäevil ka ametliku kvaliteetse traileri väljastada .

Eks ootab kuni video all ja näeb siis, mida pakutakse

EDIT: Ega tollest videost eriti aru ei saa mis toimub. Mängu video jookseb taga ekraanipeal ning pole eriti näha. Peab ootama uut trailerit.

[ak47]

Panin endale traileri tõmbama, ootan homset treilerit ka, siis vähemalt olen kindel, et nad midagi uut aretand.

[DigeBeni]

... seda praegust video ei maksa küll tirida, kvaliteet on tõepoolest niivõrd kräpp ja seda nii pildi kui ka heli poolest, rikub kogu fiilingu ära

[eastsider]

http://stalker-portal.ru/index.php?m=single&id=395&PHPSESSID=a07e5cd9179584515f40dc1ebcbdb176
skriine, mis peaks uuemad olema.

[zaG]

[eastsider]

[Nitro]

Kuramus, GSC ei avalda selle traileri high-res versiooni : http://stalker.myexp.de/en/index.php?site=newscomment2.php&id=2021

[Paganarh]

nu parema kvaliteediga kui eelmine näis, korralik trailer (ja mitte seesama) pidi varsti välja tulema

comical valued andsid juurde mingid karuste häältega tüübid kes usinasti "pizdets"'e, "zhopa"'sid ning "blin ja uzhe hochu igrat'!" loopisid

[tanel112]

MP.BETA.BUILLD.2215 sai ära vaadatud. Kuidagi väga igav ja tuim tundus graafiliselt.

[Paganarh]

paluks anda hinnangu valmisproduktile. niisama võssa pole mõtet peksta

[FeZ]

vee shader on küll crap: http://stalker-portal.ru/datas/users/1-sp_new_sshot42.jpg