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

[thesecret1]

This has never happened in the history of gaming

I mean, Rance Series by Alicesoft has been going unbroken and strong since 1989...

 

[Israfael]

whereas afaik there isn't a single leaked alpha of any bethesda game on the internet

There's actually the semi-workable remains of AI packages in Oblivion data files (the thing with the lady and the dog, for example), also the Radiant AI is actually present, it's just it's inactive for the tiles that are far away from the player. You can program NPC schedules and it will work as long as you look at them . That's why there's weird "NPCs suddenly stand up / start doing weird shit" when you enter the tile / building all over the game. Not sure what was cut and left in Skyrim, never played it. So in my view, the amount of BS is very comparable. Also, for me as a player it really does not matter whether their tried to implement proper A-life, seamless levels, cars, better weapons ballistics (that I would never believe, though, ) - it was promised (and you had to fork a pretty sum of roubles to see that video in the days it was released) and never delivered. Modders spent several years trying to recreate some of the "lost alpha" which is almost on par with how much time Cleve spent on making the golden baby fly

 

[deuxhero]

I don't understand why people can't seem to let go of the idea that their favorite franchise from 10-15-20 years ago will magically get a repeat installment JUST like the old one but better, and JUST like they want it.

This has never happened in the history of gaming and it never will, both because of how things change in terms of devs, tech and markets and because of nostalgia goggles.

Off the top of my head: Mount and Blade (exactly 10), Donkey Kong Country, Punch Out, classic Mega Man, Alice, Gunstar Heroes, Guardian Heroes.
Not as good but still within reason: Streets of Rage

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

I see the argument constantly being thrown around about how without the original team the game will suck. Taken into account what we know, how is that a bad thing whatsoever?

Yes, the original team in my opinion created a brilliant gameplay loop, with incredible atmosphere, gunplay, etc. But, have you seen what the "original team" has done since leaving GSC?

Survarium - Trash F2P cash grab that they lied about over and over to try to keep the STALKER community engaged, but left promises unfulfilled.
Metro Series - Incredibly atmospheric games but with lackluster gunplay that NEVER seems to evolve. (no lean, floaty movement, etc)

Now I say this as a Metro fan, but aside form larger environments and some incredible art direction Exodus brought nothing worthwhile to the table.

It's time for new blood. I'd PREFER a brand new team that grew up playing the STALKER series take a stab at recapturing the magic of the original trilogy.

The funny thing is Vostok Games is working on a story-driven FPS "based on a world-known IP" (for what it's worth). Also on UE4. I wouldn't be surprised if the studio is co-developing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 (even if only at a support capacity).

 

[Gastrick]

Glad to be getting a sequel, looks like it's going to be great.

 

[prengle]

whereas afaik there isn't a single leaked alpha of any bethesda game on the internet

i remember when this got leaked and dumped and uploaded to youtube and shit and zenimax immediately pulled the video and everything else off the internet like it was a fucking allergic reaction on their part, but after a while they seemed to stop caring? fucking weird. also oblivion psp was developed by climax (which has had god knows how much shit leaked over the years) not bethesda B)

I see the argument constantly being thrown around about how without the original team the game will suck. Taken into account what we know, how is that a bad thing whatsoever?

it stands to reason that a team of new hires with absolutely no prior experience and good intentions will end up producing complete and utter shit, although tbf shadow of chernobyl has always been my favorite game in the series so i've always found it weird that i've never really given a shit about metro - it is true that a team of people that made something great in the past won't automatically make something good in the future, and the games industry has shown time and time again that this is an objective truth

 

[jebsmoker]

part of me believes that the new guard at GSC's dev team is partially composed of modding scene veterans that were regulars at sites like ap-pro.ru and the gamineator forums, but i could be wrong

 

[Cyberarmy]

look at this dude lmao

Lacks trigger discipline, decline

 

[robinox]

please be good.

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

https://vk.com/wall-172977273_97147

 

[ADL]

I don't get why there's such an emphasis on discussing the team here as if there isn't precedent for this. The teams between SoC, Clear Sky and CoP were all wildly different as the original team split up five different ways at once. It's a miracle the original three games ended up being as good as they were.

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

https://vk.com/wall-172977273_97147

Same place, different time of day.

 

[Paul_cz]

Maybe dumb question, but who is actually making this? Is GSC made up of completely new people who didn't work on original trilogy, or are the Vostok people back, or what?

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

Maybe dumb question, but who is actually making this? Is GSC made up of completely new people who didn't work on original trilogy, or are the Vostok people back, or what?

They brought back Dmitriy Iassenev, the Lead Programmer of the original trilogy (and also from the cancelled S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, apparently). He's the mind behind the A-Life system, and somehow GSC convinced him to come back and work in the next iteration of the life simulation system, the A-Life 2.0.

The rest of the team is a mix of new blood (including modders) and some old Ukrainian farts (Carnivores, anyone?). I also have motives to believe Alexey Sytyanov (designer on Shadow of Chernobyl, Metro: Exodus, and Chernobylite) is doing, or did, some design consulting work for GSC.

 

[Paul_cz]

They brought back Dmitriy Iassenev, the Lead Programmer of the original trilogy (and also from the cancelled S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, apparently). He's the mind behind the A-Life system, and somehow GSC convinced him to come back and work in the next iteration of the life simulation system, the A-Life 2.0.

The rest of the team is a mix of new blood (including modders) and some old Ukrainian farts (Carnivores, anyone?). I also have motives to believe Alexey Sytyanov (designer on Shadow of Chernobyl, Metro: Exodus, and Chernobylite) is doing, or did, some design consulting work for GSC.

So that does not sound completely hopeless. I wonder what GSC devcount is at the moment.

 

[Terenty]

He's the mind behind the A-Life system

 

[gerey]

Maybe I'm misremembering things, but back when the "original" STALKER 2 got announced weren't they citing Call of Duty was one of the inspirations?

The original STALKER games feel more like a fluke to me, a stroke of good luck cobbled together from the corpse of whatever they hoped Oblivion Lost was going to be. STALKER 2 is going to suffer from the same issue many reboots do, developers misunderstanding what made the original(s) popular and chasing after whatever cancerous trends are currently popular.

Also, we need to take into account the fact that we've suffered through more than a decade of open-world trash games, and that many of the people involved in the project have played them (or even worked on them) and were likely influenced by them to a lesser and greater degree - so there's a big chance that the game is going to be tainted in some way.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Maybe dumb question, but who is actually making this? Is GSC made up of completely new people who didn't work on original trilogy, or are the Vostok people back, or what?

They brought back Dmitriy Iassenev, the Lead Programmer of the original trilogy (and also from the cancelled S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, apparently). He's the mind behind the A-Life system, and somehow GSC convinced him to come back and work in the next iteration of the life simulation system, the A-Life 2.0.

The rest of the team is a mix of new blood (including modders) and some old Ukrainian farts (Carnivores, anyone?). I also have motives to believe Alexey Sytyanov (designer on Shadow of Chernobyl, Metro: Exodus, and Chernobylite) is doing, or did, some design consulting work for GSC.

There's also some former Frogwares staff (mostly narrative guys) who worked on Sherlock Holmes games and The Sinking City.

 

[Tacgnol]

Maybe I'm misremembering things, but back when the "original" STALKER 2 got announced weren't they citing Call of Duty was one of the inspirations?

Not sure about COD, but it was definitely supposed to be a big console release.

The leaked design documents didn't seem very COD like.

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

He's the mind behind the A-Life system

I don't know if you're laughing or crying, but in his own words:

"For the project S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl I introduced and implemented an ALife - life simulation system by the game characters. It became one of the key features of the game and contributed a lot to the popularity and profitability of the project significantly increasing game replayability. Subsequently, the players created a large number of modifications of the game using this system. Non-person characters AI is considered one of the greatest game strengths. The implementation of the animal-like characters is still a reference for other games."

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/03/18/idxbox-twitch-indie-showcase-march-26/

Among other things, the stream will feature "an update on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2".

March 26 at 9:00 am (PDT)

 

[HoboForEternity]

once again my innocent, gullible heart seized by the cruel mistress named hope.

 

[kaiser77_1982]

Among other things, the stream will feature "an update on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2".

If they want to release the game this year, they must show gameplay... I guess.

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

Among other things, the stream will feature "an update on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2".

If they want to release the game this year, they must show gameplay... I guess.

And even then, for all we know, any gameplay shown by them could just be from an internal demo or vertical slice with a few more mirrors and a fog machine added to it (see: Anthem, Cyberpunk, etc).

 

[Spacer's Nugget]