S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - coming September 5th

[cyborgboy95]

 

[Wunderbar]

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/stalker-2

пара-пара-пам. Фьють!

 

[ADL]

Not really surprised since they've already listed campfire stories and shit as deluxe edition bonuses but I'm hoping this is more relevant to some sort of freeplay co-op multiplayer mode. If they monetized that, I'd be okay spending a couple bucks for a tent skin to have it continuously updated. I'd imagine they're looking at all that Tarkov money knowing it could've been theirs.

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/stalker-2



пара-пара-пам. Фьють!

Were you honestly expecting anything else from Grigorovich?

 

[Silva]

Not really surprised since they've already listed campfire stories and shit as deluxe edition bonuses but I'm hoping this is more relevant to some sort of freeplay co-op multiplayer mode. If they monetized that, I'd be okay spending a couple bucks for a tent skin to have it continuously updated. I'd imagine they're looking at all that Tarkov money knowing it could've been theirs.

Yeah, if milking some MP mode for consoletardz is the price to pay for a top notch single-player experience, so be it.



_ _ _

In other news, next PC Gamer issue will bring more details. I hope it means actual gameplay is near.

 

[Terenty]

Pretty sure "the most dangerous open world of 2022" will be Elden Ring.

 

[Silva]

Pretty sure "the most dangerous open world of 2022" will be Elden Ring.

You mean the one with no fall damage?

 

[ADL]

These were just posted in /sg/
The MP being basic shit like Team Deathmatch and not online freeplay is disappointing but I like it overall.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Hunting shotgun is in the game.
Wonder what kind of mechanic is in the game regarding weapon accuracy. Those from vanilla trilogy sounded good on paper but in the game it was awful.

Agroprom Underground controller encounter electric boogaloo?

Those are from GSC Discord.

Those are from VK.com

Monolithians being descendants of Scorpion-SubZero bromance confirmed.

 

[Wunderbar]

damn, nazi dogs throwing roman salute, didn't expect that. But then again, it's a Ukrainian game...

 

[Tacgnol]

These were just posted in /sg/
The MP being basic shit like Team Deathmatch and not online freeplay is disappointing but I like it overall.

This makes me a lot happier. Confirms the game contains proper artefacts/outfits and mechanics close to the originals. Could all be lies of course, this is Sergiy after all.

Ward sounds a bit weird as a faction concept. I hope Duty hasn't been killed off.

 

[Wunderbar]

Confirms the game contains proper artefacts/outfits and mechanics close to the originals. Could all be lies of course, this is Sergiy after all.

zero mentions of A-Life, and a whole paragraph on "narrative design".
AI simulation? Who gives a crap, here are some "non-linear" witcher-esque quests.

 

[Tacgnol]

Confirms the game contains proper artefacts/outfits and mechanics close to the originals. Could all be lies of course, this is Sergiy after all.

zero mentions of A-Life, and a whole paragraph on "narrative design".
AI simulation? Who gives a crap, here are some "non-linear" witcher-esque quests.

They've already hyped up "A-Life 2" massively. There is no way it'll be as good as what they got with X-Ray.

 

[Terenty]

They've already hyped up "A-Life 2" massively.

A-Life 2 - two more songs for stalkers to play at a campfire!

 

[Ivan]

those bullshots

 

[randir14]

Prepare for the downgrade

 

[ADL]

Downgrade for PC users perhaps. Have you seen the state of Steam discussions recently where people bitch about "unoptimized" games? A lot of them are still running their games on hard drives while the current gen uses NVMe.

 

[Silva]

What are your opinions on A-Life and the kind of "free roaming, self-motivated entities in a world" concept as a whole?

I ask because I love it.... but I'm not sure if it adds that much to the game.

 

[Tacgnol]

What are your opinions on A-Life and the kind of "free roaming, self-motivated entities in a world" concept as a whole?

I ask because I love it.... but I'm not sure if it adds that much to the game.

I think it increases the immersion significantly, even if A-Life did occasionally break and cause issues.

I don't know many games like STALKER where the NPCs and world feel so "alive".

You could have the core gameplay without the A-Life system, but it wouldn't be as interesting. You just never know what you'll come across in the STALKER games when you venture into the world.

Dynamic massive unscripted firefights that break out due to different factions bumping into each other for instance, or even just getting lucky when looting a dead bandit and finding one who has looted a ton of other people and acquired a fuckton of loot.

 

[Perkel]

Fucking better speed up you ukrainian fucks. I want to play stalker 2 before Russia nukes you.


On other hand a lot of ukrainians will finally be able to play stalker RL mod.

 

[ADL]

What are your opinions on A-Life and the kind of "free roaming, self-motivated entities in a world" concept as a whole?

I ask because I love it.... but I'm not sure if it adds that much to the game.

Emergent gameplay is king and is easily the most important thing in a "sandbox" game, especially when it's open world.

 

[Silva]

I think it increases the immersion significantly, even if A-Life did occasionally break and cause issues.

I don't know many games like STALKER where the NPCs and world feel so "alive".

You could have the core gameplay without the A-Life system, but it wouldn't be as interesting. You just never know what you'll come across in the STALKER games when you venture into the world.

Dynamic massive unscripted firefights that break out due to different factions bumping into each other for instance, or even just getting lucky when looting a dead bandit and finding one who has looted a ton of other people and acquired a fuckton of loot.

Emergent gameplay is king and is easily the most important thing in a "sandbox" game, especially when it's open world.

Oh yeah, I'm all for emergent gameplay too. But what's the real, concrete impact of it in the case of Stalker? Seeing people loot corpses before you? Having the target of some quest roam around the map? Seeing random stalkers be killed by random mutants? I mean, don't know. I love the feeling, the sense of a living place that this shit entails, but I don't know if it adds that much in gameplay terms.

I think it would be a more justifiable a feature if they went a step further and coupled it with the faction system from CS/CoP or something else that impacted the game more. Say, if the random stalkers could group themselves, create their own faction name, and take/occupy parts of the zone (say, that gas station in Yanov, or the 100 rads Bar, or etc) becoming a mini-faction, all that dynamically. And from there spawned their own quests, people, change the status quo, etc.

 

[robinox]

The zone is the protagonist and your alter ego, no matter how skilled, revolves around it.
If the relationship is reversed, try to imagine it: would stalker still be so special?
To achieve this, the zone must feel like it has a life and a will of its own (A-life that is), careless about the player and his circumstances.

 

[toro]

 

[Starwars]

Stuff like the A-life system is hugely important I think, even though it felt very much reined in (though I admit I completely fell for the hype before the game was released). Having the gameworld and its various bits and pieces "play on" with or without the player's involvement heavily affects the whole experience I think even though it's not always that dramatic and in your face.