Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl

[one-armed dwarf]

You know, it's such a bizarre candidate for a game to have that stuff. I'm playing the old one and like, these guns break and jam all the time and I constantly miss my target. Why would I want to pay real money for this garbage lol

[radiofloyd]

Game has been renamed to reflect the Ukrainian spelling:

 

 https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/stalker-2-renamed-heart-of-chornobyl-to-reflect-ukrainian-spelling/

[one-armed dwarf]

Wow, they actually managed to put out a trailer with all that's happening to them

 

 

Not everyone on the team left Ukraine, some of the team members are still working on the game in a warzone. Some are in the army. It's rough viewing

 

 

[DANGERMAN]

good luck to them. I'm sure they want to get the game done and out, but honestly, I think the whole world will accept a delay

[one-armed dwarf]

 

I didn't return to SoC yet, I'm not sure when or if I will. This looks pretty interesting tho, yet at the same time paints a picture like it's just a shooting game but presumably there is a lot more going on here than that. Weird, euro-jank immersive sim elements. They don't really show a ton of that here tho other than some brief inventory stuff, and I guess testing the environment for anomalies. 

 

Considering all that's happening I wonder if an early access release could serve the game well.

 

(Also downloaded Tarkovsky's Stalker earlier today, did not realise that the book it's based off is also an inspiration for elements of the video game)

[one-armed dwarf]

This is getting a vague Q1 2024 release date for PC and Xbox

 

https://www.resetera.com/threads/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-heart-of-chornobyl-scheduled-to-release-q1-2024.756589/

 

There's rumours in that thread that the playable demo at gamescom is very rough, but then so is the original game I suppose. Depends on how the overall game design comes together I guess. But if any project should be given infinite latitude to push a release further back, it's this

 

Pretty positive writeup by PC Gamer though

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/stalker-2-hands-on-gamescome/

[one-armed dwarf]

 

Sticking to Q1 2024 for now

 

 

[radiofloyd]

New release date of September 5th.

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/stalker-2-heart-of-chornobyl-delayed-until-september

[mmmark]

Oh here we go ffs

[Nag]

With the extraordinary amount of trouble this game has gone through I really hope for the devs sake that they're able to knock it out of the park once it releases... unfortunately I think that all the upheaval will have had a severely detrimental affect on it.

 

Fingers crossed I'm wrong.

[one-armed dwarf]

The gamescom impressions weren't good but imo the potential with games like this is you get some really cool systemic stuff and in return you put up with a level of jank, which I'm fine with

 

Tho I don't know if this game is that either, necessarily

 

Of all the games coming out this deserves all the latitude that can be given to these guys, delays don't really matter to me at this point with it

[mmmark]

I should point out I was only annoyed because it’s on my fantasy list. 

[one-armed dwarf]

November 20 release date now

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxeGyXSM5Pc

 

August 12 deep dive

[one-armed dwarf]

Previews for this are really positive now

 

This year seemed slow for releases imo but seems to have really stepped up in the back half. Not quite 2023 tier but probably 2nd best of the decade

[one-armed dwarf]

New trailer for 2024's goty darkhorse

 

The stuff about physics and ballistics affecting weapons differently is really interesting

 

 

 

[DANGERMAN]

The original Stalker games were nuts. Hard to enjoy if I'm being honest but I had a lot of time for them in terms of atmosphere 

[one-armed dwarf]

Yeah tbh I couldn't stick with it when I was playing it a few years ago. I was kinda surprised that they aren't open world games, or at least SoC wasn't. It was more like wide open areas but otherwise a pretty 'traditional' stage based game.

 

There's a gameplay section in the video here which looks just like the original. Makes me feel like it's maybe a psuedo remake or something.

 

I do kinda wish the enemy AI in that video was a bit more reactive, but then again maybe the Zone makes people enjoy getting shot at.

[radiofloyd]

Requires 150GB SSD space:

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/holy-cow-stalker-2-needs-150gb-of-ssd-space-and-youve-got-9-days-to-figure-out-where-youre-going-to-put-it/

[one-armed dwarf]

So this is out on Wednesday, haven't heard anything about a review embargo. You would think that reviews would come in today, timing wise. But maybe they're on release day instead 👀

 

No steam preload either for that 150GB

[Nag]

Already downloaded on the paupers choice.😁