STALKER pushed to 2007

[CptStern]

if it's true it's a really sad day for Stalker as any of it's promised innovations will be all but forgotten as gamers will focus intead on how it's overtaken DNF as the industry joke. Out of spite I'll probably get the game when it hits the bargin bins ..ya it's stupid but what you gonna do?


"During THQ's financial conference call to discuss their latest results, company execs revealed that two of their main PC titles, the Gas Powered Games RTS title Supreme Commander and the long-in-development GSC Gameworld first person shooter STALKER, will now be released during THQ's 2007 fiscal fourth quarter which means they are now targeted for release between January and March of 2007."


http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=3323

[Gorgon]

Excellent..... Stalker with DX10

[CptStern]

does X-ray even support dx10?

[Boogymanx]

Gay. D:

[Vigilante]

Oh noes, I'm surprised.

I guess this contradicts the article somebody else posted saying that THQ is going to force a 2006 release.

[clarky003]

shite, I was looking forward to seeing it soon :(. It seems like it could be financial. The question now is .. will it be at E3 this year?

[VictimOfScience]

Well, its a good thing that everything else that has released and will be releasing in the next year will keep us very happy and busy in the meantime and when (and if) STALKER ever drops, we can be happy about that too (hopefully).

[Garfield_]

Not even looking forward to this anymore. STALKER goes off my "games-to-look-forward-to-list" :(

[Icarusintel]

just more evidence that DNF will in fact come out first....


wtf has the STALKER team been doing? sitting around on their asses watching TV? I thought this game was in beta.... they either really suck as developers or this whole thing was a nice, big, elaborate joke, and they're justr laughing it up

either way, f*ck this game, i'm tired of the bullshit

[mortiz]

If this is true S.T.A.L.K.E.R. must be no where near beta testing, a year from the beginning of beta testing to the end is a huge testing cycle for a game, the only type of games that get anywhere near that length are MMOG's. GSC is either lying about being in the beta testing stage or THQ is holding back the release date.

[jimbo118]

jesus christ 2007!!!!?how long has this game been in dev now? since 2002 or something? this was one of the games that got me interested in pc gaming again when i saw the 1st screens before there was a buzz with the game at all, ugh lame..

[Dalamari]

lololol
Stalker is the new DNF

[Shadow-warrior]

Even if it comes out in 2009 it'll still probably have more innovative features than the majority of games.

[Asuka]

Still looking forward to it. Whenever its out, ill be buying it.

[DeusExMachina]

How many times was Half-Life 2 delayed :|.

I don't care how long it takes, as long as it comes out.

[Gargantou]

Edit:
Okay, it seems to be true, http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/stalker/news.html?sid=6143644.

I do NOT believe this to be the fault of GSC, but rather a stupid decision by THQ, according to several people the latest code is apparently highly playable.

If this is true, I can see the entire STALKER community boycotting the game, and STALKER going largely unnoticed, even if it does have good gameplay...

Hopefully someone at GSC will get the guts to somehow get their hands on the latest beta+source and leak it out so some other people can continue work on it in secrecy..*Dreams*

[Ren.182]

Wheyy another delay!
Meh, not really bothered. Don't have time to play much right now anyway. I'll buy it whenever its released if it has good gameplay, or maybe just for the graphics.

[Jack_Karverboy]

Will Smith- "Aww man that buuuuuulshit!"

JK, Will Smith is awesome

[Samon]

Wow, didn't see this coming!!!!!!!!!!!

:|

[Eg.]

I would just like to say for all Ukrainians, that these people do not in anyway represent the character, work ethic, or model, of Ukraine. They are more likely from the eastern half, if you must argue.

[Krabjuice]

Speak for yourself.
------------------
Thank god, gives me time to save up.

[kupocake]

lololol
Stalker is the new DNF
Problem is, it's 2006 and DNF still hasn't been released, and is surely unlikely to show up before Stalker, which it had a 3-4 year head-start on. And then there's Team Fortress 2.

A year of delays for STALKER. That's great. At E32005, it looked like it had a year and a half worth of crapness left to iron out. It may just have a chance. Course, it's less likely to be particuarly groundbreaking, but a good game is good enough...

[Lemonking]

hahahahahaha, this game is gonna suck :D

[Krynn72]

A: Nobody will boycott the game, dont be dumb. People will say they will, people will lose interest in it, people will be angry... but in 1+ yrs from now, when release is close... there will be a lot of hype for stalker.

B: The game probably wont suck. More time means more work will be done on it. Dont be dumb

[Gargantou]

Krynn, I know for a fact tho that the biggest STALKER community site might shut down if this is true, and that will undoubtedly cause atleast some damage to their fanbase.:)

[mortiz]

it depends what it looks like. Unless they do a complete overhaul of the X-Ray engine, STALKER's graphics (as they were last time we saw anything from the game) just won't cut it. It'll be competing with UE3 powered games. Now I'm not really one for graphics, I'm a gameplay kind of guy, but I'm in the minority and graphics sell games.

[Krynn72]

Krynn, I know for a fact tho that the biggest STALKER community site might shut down if this is true, and that will undoubtedly cause atleast some damage to their fanbase.:)

Even if thats true (did hl2.net shut down when we found out it was delayed another year?) then the next biggest will step up... and believe me, in 2007, people will come back to the game.

[JoeCLawrence]

Well, I just hope its actually good. I they pull a Daikatana and delay all that time just for a shitty game, then so much for GSC's reputation.

[kirovman]

STALKER pushed to 2007
<Kirovman> lol

it's overtaken DNF as the industry joke
I don't think that's possible until DNF is either released or cancelled.

[CptStern]

Even if thats true (did hl2.net shut down when we found out it was delayed another year?) then the next biggest will step up... and believe me, in 2007, people will come back to the game.


cant compare valve to some unproven company that may or may not have the resources to complete stalker ..6 years development cycle is pretty long especially a game that's hype is centered mostly on graphics capabilities ...Valve came off the tail end of creating arguably the most successful pc game ever ..it was a guarenteed hit, it could have suffered delay after dealy and it still would of been a hit .......GSC missed their brass ring, they'll be lucky if they get mediocre sales instead of being the next HL or FEAR like they planned

[Gargantou]

Krynn, the reason I know this is because I've seen the host who've been hosting this site who's probably THE oldest STALKER fansite say it himself.
Also I'll rather not believe you, you see generally people are jerks, and that means that generally people'll go meh just because it's DX9(I doubt they'll rewrite the entire engine..)

I'm hoping tho that it will NOT become an underdog that only a few people notice now and it is forgotten by the larger community, because it has so much potential.

Believe me, I do not want anything more than for it to succeed, I've been following it for 5 bloody ****ing years.:)

[Krynn72]

Stalker had become too well known for it to just fall off the face of the earth. I would still expect them to have good sales. And just because they arnt well known doesnt mean its going to suck. 6 yrs is enough time to build experience and pull off a spectacular game. Just because hype will die down for now doesnt mean it wont ressurect itself later.

Also I doubt people will blow it off because it uses dx9 instead of 10. There arnt THAT many games being developed for dx10 yet.

And dont think that just because it may not have the "omg #1game evaarrR!!" kind of hype at release, that it wont sell well. If it is a good game people will buy it. World of Warcraft doesnt have crazy graphics, but because everyone says its an awesome game, even graphic whores play it. And before you say it... I know they are two different genres. Its the same idea, a good game gets good word of mouth. People are still playing deus ex for the first time because others say its an awesome game... and that came out in 2000 with shit technology in comparison with today.

[StardogChampion]

Why are THQ still paying the teams wages?

[Krynn72]

Why are THQ still paying the teams wages?

Another reason why I would suspect it will turn out good. THQ has to see something in continuing the development. If their people believe it will be shit and not sell... then they wont spend any more money on it.

[mortiz]

Another reason why I would suspect it will turn out good. THQ has to see something in continuing the development. If their people believe it will be shit and not sell... then they wont spend any more money on it.

Or they've already made too bigger investment.

A) They close down development and lose everything they've pumped into it.
B) They allow GSC to continue the game in hopes that they can salvage some of their investment.
C) They pass over the development to another development house, the main problem with this option would mean that it'd cost a lot more money and a lot more time since the new development team would need to get to grips with what's already been done.

[Gorgon]

does X-ray even support dx10?

yeah I read on the stalker 1fan site, they are planning a patch soon after stalker releases...upgrade the engine to dx10

[Gargantou]

Hmm, then I'm assuming they're already working on this patch, I mean, DX10 works in such a different way from DX9 that it ain't something you can pump out after release in just a few weeks it seems..

[dream431ca]

What the hell is with this game..by the time it's come out, it will be obselite.

[JNightshade]

Originally Posted by dream431ca
it will be obselite.

Just like good spelling, I suppose :rolleyes:

[The Brick]

This one better be good when/if it comes out.

[MiccyNarc]

Still looking forward to it. Whenever its out, ill be buying it.
QFMFT.

[Ennui]

well, i'd already decided in my head that stalker will never be released so this does not come as a huge suprise.

[bam23]

Wow, this is getting silly.

[oldagerocker]

I dont give a shit about this game anymore.

[Evo]

......

*walks away*

[Eg.]

OK well here my hypothesis:
The dev team has just given the near-finished prodcut to THQ for beta testing. This is true. Now the game STALKER is one of the most unique and complex games to come out yet. I would not be surprised if THQ is concerned about any bugs, how ever small they may be. As the game is sooo complex, and large, THQ is probably thinking that it will take a LONG time to stamp out all the bugs. Soooo they set a totally arbitrary date, ONE YEAR from the time they recieved the beta( only happened in Jan). While this 2007 date does not look good, it is probably a terribly rough and padded estimate for how long it would take to review the entire coding, and then to start actualy material production.

If we werent lucky, and STALKER had the original russian developement publisher, we would have seen the game out in 2004, yet just as gimped as a red army cavalry man vs a panzer tank.

[Gargantou]

Complex in the FPS genre perhaps, but there are incredibly more complex games out there, only that they're fairly unknown due to the limited market appeal(I.e. hardcore strategy games and the most hardcore flight sims on the markets are incredibly complex)

I do hope your hypothesis is true, but anyway, I think we'll see rather soon, I'm pretty sure the admins at Oblivion-Lost.com will contact Oleg about this, if they don't I might aswell do it myself(I've been in contact with him a few times before, nice fella' and it's nice that they reply to fan-emails.:))

[Pi Mu Rho]

OK well here my hypothesis:
The dev team has just given the near-finished prodcut to THQ for beta testing. This is true. Now the game STALKER is one of the most unique and complex games to come out yet. I would not be surprised if THQ is concerned about any bugs, how ever small they may be. As the game is sooo complex, and large, THQ is probably thinking that it will take a LONG time to stamp out all the bugs. Soooo they set a totally arbitrary date, ONE YEAR from the time they recieved the beta( only happened in Jan). While this 2007 date does not look good, it is probably a terribly rough and padded estimate for how long it would take to review the entire coding, and then to start actualy material production.

If we werent lucky, and STALKER had the original russian developement publisher, we would have seen the game out in 2004, yet just as gimped as a red army cavalry man vs a panzer tank.


If your game has a year's worth of bugfixing to be done, it's nothing like "near-finished"

[Eg.]

Im saying THQ is bening overly cautious

[Shadow-warrior]

I actually think the time is being spent dumbing it down for the majority.

[TheAmazingRando]

I actually think the time is being spent dumbing it down for the majority.
You're assuming you are not part of the majority.

[MiccyNarc]

For goodness sake, folks. Stalker has a MASSIVE world, if the previews are true, with multiple storylines and endings. I'm glad they are taking the time to fix everything. Again, the game is in beta. Just calm down and wait. And if you don't like the game anymore? No one really cares -_-

[Gargantou]

MiccyNarc, I'm a faithful STALKER fan and I'm HOPING these delays come to good use..
It's pretty funny imo, how during the entire delay period that's been going on since like 2k3, they've never reported adding NEW features, but instead REMOVING promised ones, such as the vehicles being destructible, co-op etc..

I would be TOTALLY fine with a new delay if they announced it was to IMPLEMENT those features they decide to remove..

They said they removed fuel and car damage because "People don't want to manage these things", i.e. they dumbed it down for the majority..
Why couldn't they've had it as an option when you started a game?
Also, I believed that the AI STALKERs would be given pretty much exactly the same opportunities as you, but alas, they apparently do all lack the proper driver licenses to be able to use motorvehicles in the Zone!:p

Oh well, hopefully it'll turn out good, but I really wanna see them use some of this time to add features they removed..

[TwwIX]

I poop on it!
Next!

[TollBooth Willie]

I poop on it!
Next!Ah. boy you better wipe that shit up!

Hopefully they will be putting this time to good use. :|

[JNightshade]

Like wiping off TwwIX's poop?

[dream431ca]

Just like good spelling, I suppose :rolleyes:

LOL!! Ya me not good at spelling. But still it's been delayed too many times.

[<RJMC>]

MiccyNarc, I'm a faithful STALKER fan and I'm HOPING these delays come to good use..
It's pretty funny imo, how during the entire delay period that's been going on since like 2k3, they've never reported adding NEW features, but instead REMOVING promised ones, such as the vehicles being destructible, co-op etc..

I would be TOTALLY fine with a new delay if they announced it was to IMPLEMENT those features they decide to remove..

They said they removed fuel and car damage because "People don't want to manage these things", i.e. they dumbed it down for the majority..
Why couldn't they've had it as an option when you started a game?
Also, I believed that the AI STALKERs would be given pretty much exactly the same opportunities as you, but alas, they apparently do all lack the proper driver licenses to be able to use motorvehicles in the Zone!:p

Oh well, hopefully it'll turn out good, but I really wanna see them use some of this time to add features they removed..

I hope they dont remove more and turn the game into a mindless shoot run just cuz "people dont want to use the brain"