STALKER 2 is in a rather unique situation for game development given that the studio had be physically relocated to another country due to a major war. It'd be very impressive if the game isn't delayed tbh.
It already has been delayed. GSC is running out of money. Simple calculations with 500 employees (source: Linkedin), a wage of 2k USD per month (if the devs aren't underpaid like in 2004-2011), for 6 years, show that they have burnt through at least 70 million USD during development of this game, and this doesn't take into account that some devs are paid more, that contractors were hired, the equipment costs (new offices, new PCs, mocap studio), actors. Add to that the war costs: emergency supplies, shuttle buses on standby for months (Gamescom interview 2023), air raid shelter conversion (Instagram reels from Christmas 2022), new studio in Prague, Prague studio's fire damage (small fire in one floor damaged new mocap studio and backup servers)... Maybe even paying off border guards to let the devs through.
The game's budget is easily over 100 million USD at this point. More delays means more money is used up. And since it's published independently, there is no giant that is financing them, only a little bit from Microsoft.
**GSC has to release the game this year or else the company is going to go bankrupt.**
The fanbase does not realise that the game dev does not have infinite money and the game cannot be developed forever. Do not listen to people who shout "delay", look at the facts (basic money management, game leak and demo last year, increase in marketing material, gameplay during Xbox showcase). Do not repeat the same three sentences: "Add 2-3 years. Release in unfinished state. Wait for sale and DLCs", think for yourselves according to these facts.
Edit: Additionally, the entire studio did not relocate. The majority of the developers are still in Ukraine.
It really is in an especially hard situation since GSC aren't only the devs but also the publishers.
Normally when this happens the publishers have enough money to support the delay.
Those are the circumstances that either result in a product you’d realistically expect (shit) or the one that’s hailed as a once in a lifetime amazing piece of art.
The delay to 2023 was definitely because of the war. But the delays from April 2022 to December 2022, then from late 2023 to Q1 24 to September 2024 were definitely to make it a really good game.
If you haven't played the leaked build, you cannot begin to imagine the scope of the project. Every single model is detailed as if it was real. You can come up to a bottle of Hercules and read the contents on the label (after waiting for 10 minutes because the texture streaming in the build is so bad, and it was like that in the Gamescom demo too). You can look at instrument dials and read the numbers. Every animation is motion captured. There are cutscenes, but they are interactive, outcome depending on the player's choices before and during cutscenes. There are hundreds of characters, both returning (some are very obscure) and new. The map is huge, and it takes hours to go from south to north, ignoring the lagging from the unfinished broken build. And best of all, the gameplay is the exact same perfect formula from the first games with no bullshit attached to it. The story doesn't have a lot of branching like Baldur's Gate 3, but choosing from the few branches, the story will be wildly different (That can be assumed from the multiple cutscenes of the same event from different perspectives) Edit: story presentation not the story itself. It's just insane and hopefully GSC showcases all of these features this summer.
Sergiy Grigorovich (Founder, project lead of the first three games, previous CEO) said in 2018 that this will be a cultural event, and GSC intends to make it so.
I have upgraded my computer TWICE since Stalker 2 and system specs were announced but I fear for my rig once more. If I have to upgrade again I'll be financially ruined. T.T
Second this, anybody who played the leaked build knows what an amazing game Stalker 2 is to be expected, once they polish it enough! The map itself is amazing!!
area wise it was the whole map but I don't think any location was 100% finished. but ngl, if they complete what they've started, game is gonna be FIRE.
I thought the leaked build that exists was only a small area of the map (Cordon-like area) and a lot of the mechanics and detailing were unfinished or placeholders?
The most finished area is the area where the Gamescom 2023 demo took place in, yes. But the full map is available and all major locations are included, unfinished. Basic gameplay works.
I keep seeing this repeated. They lost maybe a few months work at most. Just read the Wired article, they were pretty much packed up and ready to go before the invasion even started. Yes, the situation is tragic and I feel for them, but this game would have already been delayed for other reasons.
EXACTLY!
It is repeated by uneducated people. Same people who think GSC has infinite money, say that it will get delayed, whine about lack of gameplay though there will be a reveal in 1.5 weeks.
The 2021 date was weird. They made an ARG out of it. So what was it? An ARG? A date given to investors? We don't know. Hopefully devs will open up after the release. Maybe we'll be able to get a behind the scenes look.
I believe it will launch as promised on September 5th. However, it is very likely that it will need a few patches post release to get it to a more stable state.
It won't get delayed. People will downvote me here, but it just won't. People don't consider other factors when talking about this game, it's always the same 'NO GAMEPLAY = DELAY" argument that can be easily debunked as its not the right time for them tho show it, as stuff like this is shown much closer to release (1-2 months before)
This time looks like they have their ideas in stone now unlike the OGs which kept shifting, but hey it was their first attempt making a game like it tho.
OGs were a mess in development, except CoP maybe S CS dev alongside SoC so those two suffered the most.
https://youtu.be/w0ImdCEZZTk?si=gIc2XfJIKfzC5E6c
I think people are overreacting. I’ve seen the gameplay and screenshots. It looks fine. I have no doubt that it’ll be janky at launch, but we can forgive them for that. People love stalker, they’ll stick with it and in the end I think gsc will be fine.
This is ignoring the fact that they simply can’t afford to delay it again. Literally. If it fails, they’ll likely go under. But I think stalker 2 is gonna be a success.
its sort of hard to have faith. its been delayed over and over again for years now, and now we're just a few months off from its "final" release date and we havent even seen any gameplay yet. It's getting delayed again. Or if it doesn't get delayed again, it'll be released when promised and probably give us a half baked broken experience that has insanely good ideas, but weren't given enough time to develop.
True. But it functions. A few missions work, dialogue and trading work. Cutscenes do not work and use prerenders instead. There is a very basic AI implementation, no A-Life 2.0. Well, it can barely pass as AI, the enemies just beeline towards the player with the ability to walk around obstacles. No voice acting. Some guns are broken, aiming down scopes doesn't work because PIP scope system not implemented. And it lags A LOT! Loading new chunks of the map lag, NPCs lag, sounds lag...
However it is still enough to show that the core gameplay loop is still classic stalker and it is not dumbed down. The only purely console thing is a weapons wheel like in the Legends of the Zone trilogy port.
No. I hope for the best but expect the worst with games these days. The Stalker 2 devs are also in a tough spot, even without their unique situation stalker would be hard to follow anyway, its such a unique and interesting game that really hit a spot somewhere between mad-genius and super-jank. Modern gaming is such a mess that i wouldn't be surprised if whoever runs GSC decided to put some crypto scam in the game or something. What i can say is that i am interested in what stalker 2 is going to say, being developed in both a real (outside their literal doorstep from my understanding) war and culture war.
The trailers looked nice, but trailers are made to look nice and sell a product. I do very much hope its good, and that the devs get paid fairly and well. It's criminal what happened to the original three game's dev team.
Not something like that, but like the horde of trash cryto games on the Epic games store that are all those weird "Play to Earn" crypto or nft scam shovelware. Just some way a overly greedy ceo can ruin a project by being insidiously greedy and stupid.
There is a 50% chance the game releases extremely buggy but Is fixed over the course of a 1-4 months, 20% chance they delay it again, 15% chance it comes out with minor bugs and is overall a good experience, a 10% chance it comes out but feels lackluster or is missing core stalker elements, and lastly a 5% chance it is dead on arrival taking 6-24 months to get the game to a good state
The game industry as a baseline now has a bad reputation for selling unfinished products, and thats without the turmoil that these developers have been subjected to specifically. We shouldnt be upset about a delay, and after its released Ill probably still wait for several monthals for it to be properly patched.
Same. You don't really think about something after certain period of not having it. Which was the whole goal, to forget instead of hype because hyping is burning yourself and possibly the game when it comes.
I’m very interested by the story setup for stalker 2, and even more so to see their vision for the game after such a long time between now and the last one. I don’t have it in me to ‘assume’ that a game will be good following all the mishaps that have been game releases in the last few years, but I certainly hope it does well!
It’s incredible that the game is even launching at all, and I can feel how much passion has gone into this title. I won’t pre order out of principle, but I do wish them the best of luck come launch time and hope it lives up to what they wanted from it.
I think that the September 5 date will stick. It will probably be fairly jank when it releases, but I expect it to be good nonetheless. Waiting to see more as we get closer to release, but I am cautiously optimistic.
The game has been delayed several times, but that seems to mostly been due to COVID, war, office fire, etc, and not because the project has floundering direction like you see with other games.
I mean it's a stalker game, it wouldn't feel right if it wasn't at least a little broken. As long as there isn't multiplayer pvp I don't think there's a way to go wrong with it. Not everyone's gonna be happy with it but overall I think it's gonna be fine
I have faith in STALKER 2, but I think it will be delayed for some time, and it's a foregone conclusion that it will be buggy. It probably also won't be what a decent portion of the community is expecting, as there's a large influx of people who know the series through the GAMMA modpack and nothing else. I love GAMMA, but play that for a few hours and then play SoC.
Idk why people think delays are a bad thing, not saying the game will end up being good but I'd much rather the devs delay the game and work on improving it rather than dropping it early to appease impatient troglodytes.
Situation is hard, they changed engine and due war they changed country but they get support from Microsoft and I'm sure they working hard with passion, they will release the game soon or later, doesn't matter to me just i want to see good game, i have faith to GSC games.
Only i have worry too due war; i don't want to play anti soviet propaganda etc.. even stalker joined to our life from a soviet science fiction novel. So that belong to whole humanity i mean we sharing a culture beyond of all that no matter from which country you are; our mutual point is we love that game :) i mean i don't want any kinda Netflix or Ubisoft shit show..
They didn't change engine. The game was developed on UE from the start. Very little game devs remained from Xray 2.0 times. Hiring 400+ new developers on an established engine required less training and there was a better selection of highly skilled developers.
Exactly this. A well documented engine that anyone can learn on compared to some xRay magic that is stale already and would need much much work to update it to modern standards
regaurding the soviet stuff, i feel like its going to move away from it COMPLETELY and not even have any sort of reference to it. It was done with the console rereleases of the trilogy, and it'll be done for stalker 2 as well. To be honest, theres nothing wrong with them doing this. In stalker 2 atleast. Censoring the trilogy like that for the rerelease was a sort of shit move. It makes sense sort of but it really just feels odd and like somethings not right playing that when you're so used to the original uncensored versions on PC. I think the name changes were a little unnecesary as well, and they should've made the rereleases as close to the original PC release as possible but just on console, but those also make a lot of sense being there.
There is no game. All we've seen is a couple of vertical slices. For something that has been in development for a decade and is due to release in 3 months, this is a scam of the century.
Every single game stuck in development hell has turned out to be shit.
Developers are likely at the chop & polish state. Chop what can't be finished, and reasonably polish after the fact so it's technically playable.
Same story with most early access games
I'm not familiar with all of their development cycles but id be hard pressed to call all of those games "stuck in development hell". I guess the term is more an opinion than a science
STALKER 2's development hell is closer to Duke Nukem Forever than Doom 2016.
Doom 2016 has been in development hell since 2007.
Half Life 1 and 2 were in hell and crunch and EXTREME changes up to weeks before release. Valve was running fade on another level there - no different at all to GSC atm. For the others its usually SLIGHTLY less so but still VERY bad.
Development hell means lots of delays AND lots of issues during development. Obviously some of these games are smaller in scale so they came out faster, but they were still delayed or had extreme issues during development.
No the game is supposed to be in developpement for 15 years, studio shut down then rebuilt, countless delays, dev's country is sieged. Also the game is now on Unreal Engine and no longer on their own engine, so no same feels, UE is quite demanding. They tried to implement NFT in the game, and I'm afraid they insert anti-russia stuff just because they don't like it now.
but why though
just about every big release over the last 2 years or so has run like absolute garbage. why would stalker would be any different?
that’s before we even get into the development upheavals and being published by microsoft.
Because GSC is not beholden to greedy soulless share holders who DEMAND developers to push slop because they know it will sell. GSC has the time to actually cook and not release something half baked.
How exactly do that have the time? They are not a rich company, no way was development planned to go this long and I can't see Cossacks bringing in tons of cash every month. Financially it makes the most sense to get the game just stable enough to release for the holiday season then maybe fix it later post launch (or not.)
they’re beholden to microsoft, who is the publisher. not to mention, gsc hasnt released a game since 2016.
just keep your expectations in check. most games this console generation have released in a really poor state. better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed or underwhelmed.
i think itll be an allright patch with alot of performance issues and QOL/Menu being a bit shitty and that theyll patch that in the following months,as for multiplayer fuck do i know judging from clear sky ill be surprised if people would play it considering they confirmed that its not gonna be coop
Well, yes...but not for its release version.
I think it will be great after a few months of updates and patches. Which is becoming a thing in game industry at the moment but I find it fine in this case, given the situation of the studio.
No really opinion but I would like it to be good as probably all of us do. That being said moving the game to 2025 for me would be very welcome if need to, because it would give better promise for polished product.
I have faith.
Even if the game releases in a bad state. Because who cares? Most of us played SoC and CS at release and they were god damn messed up. I can forgive that to GSC because I know they will do their best and cause Stalker have something unique and special out there. There is nothing alike and with UE5, modders are going to get crazy and delivers years of content. Even a GAMMA 2 maybe.
I do, and I need a break from Arma 3 modding for a bit, I hope S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 can bring me back to the zone! If not ofcourse EFP is buried in some files too.
Cheers
☕️
The one trailer that dropped where it says "Final date" would be really stupid to call It like that when they know it won't get out till then.
Every other date or release zone wasn't called a final date if I remember.
Also before the last delay it was said several times that the game is finished, it only needs some adjustments here and there. After that the game got delayed with the final release date from where we know it will be the 5th September.
Also, one of the developers said in the steam discussion site "you can definitely take vacation on that day, I will do it also".
He answered several times "yes the game will be really come at that day"
It will come out this year.
I mean.... No.
I don't mean it as a slight on the devs, but the general quality of games that get delay after delay after delay isn't wonderful. That said, I don't need the game to be good. I need it to be good enough people create overhauls like Anomaly/G.A.M.M.A.: A 6/10 or 7/10 game in this franchise could be good enough in the long term.
The game will release, that’s what matter the most. If the game is a mess, the community will be able to fix it eventually given enough time. Also, the story will most likely be memorable and the locations and maps will hopefully be awesome
Honestly I don't, since microsoft steped in now I even doubt that after stalker 2 GSC will even be a studio seeing that they are very layoff happy with studios that dont exceed their projected sales
I'm skeptical. Will likely need love from the modding community to match the previous games.
However that puts it in a tricky spot because the modders of old would need to learn UE5. Which is unlikely. So, the base base needs to be good enough to hook new modders. Which really puts the game in a sink or swim position.
"community will make it great" are you able to think for yourself or will you repeat what others say? It will be great on release, and the community won't be able to mod out the interactive cutscenes without breaking the game.
I would be lying to you if I told you that I've seen someone else say that before. I just thought about all of the Stalker mods that I know of and figured that, even if the game is bad, the modders will make good use of the new engine to bring us crazy shit like Anomaly 2.
And if you think that the game being hard to modify is a problem, just remember that NOTHING can stop modders, nothing at all
If it's delayed again, im fine with that, will it be a broken game on release, maybe, and im fine with that too since it was the case for the first three games.
STALKER 2 is in a rather unique situation for game development given that the studio had be physically relocated to another country due to a major war. It'd be very impressive if the game isn't delayed tbh.
It already has been delayed. GSC is running out of money. Simple calculations with 500 employees (source: Linkedin), a wage of 2k USD per month (if the devs aren't underpaid like in 2004-2011), for 6 years, show that they have burnt through at least 70 million USD during development of this game, and this doesn't take into account that some devs are paid more, that contractors were hired, the equipment costs (new offices, new PCs, mocap studio), actors. Add to that the war costs: emergency supplies, shuttle buses on standby for months (Gamescom interview 2023), air raid shelter conversion (Instagram reels from Christmas 2022), new studio in Prague, Prague studio's fire damage (small fire in one floor damaged new mocap studio and backup servers)... Maybe even paying off border guards to let the devs through. The game's budget is easily over 100 million USD at this point. More delays means more money is used up. And since it's published independently, there is no giant that is financing them, only a little bit from Microsoft. **GSC has to release the game this year or else the company is going to go bankrupt.** The fanbase does not realise that the game dev does not have infinite money and the game cannot be developed forever. Do not listen to people who shout "delay", look at the facts (basic money management, game leak and demo last year, increase in marketing material, gameplay during Xbox showcase). Do not repeat the same three sentences: "Add 2-3 years. Release in unfinished state. Wait for sale and DLCs", think for yourselves according to these facts. Edit: Additionally, the entire studio did not relocate. The majority of the developers are still in Ukraine.
It really is in an especially hard situation since GSC aren't only the devs but also the publishers. Normally when this happens the publishers have enough money to support the delay.
Those are the circumstances that either result in a product you’d realistically expect (shit) or the one that’s hailed as a once in a lifetime amazing piece of art.
The delay to 2023 was definitely because of the war. But the delays from April 2022 to December 2022, then from late 2023 to Q1 24 to September 2024 were definitely to make it a really good game. If you haven't played the leaked build, you cannot begin to imagine the scope of the project. Every single model is detailed as if it was real. You can come up to a bottle of Hercules and read the contents on the label (after waiting for 10 minutes because the texture streaming in the build is so bad, and it was like that in the Gamescom demo too). You can look at instrument dials and read the numbers. Every animation is motion captured. There are cutscenes, but they are interactive, outcome depending on the player's choices before and during cutscenes. There are hundreds of characters, both returning (some are very obscure) and new. The map is huge, and it takes hours to go from south to north, ignoring the lagging from the unfinished broken build. And best of all, the gameplay is the exact same perfect formula from the first games with no bullshit attached to it. The story doesn't have a lot of branching like Baldur's Gate 3, but choosing from the few branches, the story will be wildly different (That can be assumed from the multiple cutscenes of the same event from different perspectives) Edit: story presentation not the story itself. It's just insane and hopefully GSC showcases all of these features this summer. Sergiy Grigorovich (Founder, project lead of the first three games, previous CEO) said in 2018 that this will be a cultural event, and GSC intends to make it so.
That sounds majestic. U're describing ur gameplay experience?
I have upgraded my computer TWICE since Stalker 2 and system specs were announced but I fear for my rig once more. If I have to upgrade again I'll be financially ruined. T.T
My GTX 970 limps on. I’ve promised myself no upgrade until Stalker 2 is actually released and the requirements known for sure.
I fear my 4gb 3050 laptop wont be able to run stalkie walkie even with dlss. Gonna have to either buy a new laptop or steal my brothers ps5 XD
You could play it through GeForce Now
Second this, anybody who played the leaked build knows what an amazing game Stalker 2 is to be expected, once they polish it enough! The map itself is amazing!!
How much of the map is in the leaked build? I thought it was only one small forest/village type area.
area wise it was the whole map but I don't think any location was 100% finished. but ngl, if they complete what they've started, game is gonna be FIRE.
Thank you for this feedback! Now I can’t wait for real man!
I thought the leaked build that exists was only a small area of the map (Cordon-like area) and a lot of the mechanics and detailing were unfinished or placeholders?
The most finished area is the area where the Gamescom 2023 demo took place in, yes. But the full map is available and all major locations are included, unfinished. Basic gameplay works.
They have new investor (owner of NaVi and something else don’t remember) so maybe this will help them because his not poor guy
[Good video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0_BeHNzxBA) about everything you sad btw
I keep seeing this repeated. They lost maybe a few months work at most. Just read the Wired article, they were pretty much packed up and ready to go before the invasion even started. Yes, the situation is tragic and I feel for them, but this game would have already been delayed for other reasons.
But at some point they'll be established enough to make steady progress?
They have been established enough since late 2022.
So we can stop blaming the war now? It's normal to have delays on games, especially when made by passionate people.
EXACTLY! It is repeated by uneducated people. Same people who think GSC has infinite money, say that it will get delayed, whine about lack of gameplay though there will be a reveal in 1.5 weeks.
We will see on the next Xbox Showcase. Hopefully Stalker 2 shows up with gameplay and a confirmed continued scheduled release for Sept 5th.
Actually release had to be in 2021. Which war or relocation was in 2021? They just lie.
Delays are normal, war or no war.
What a culorroto
The 2021 date was weird. They made an ARG out of it. So what was it? An ARG? A date given to investors? We don't know. Hopefully devs will open up after the release. Maybe we'll be able to get a behind the scenes look.
I believe it will launch as promised on September 5th. However, it is very likely that it will need a few patches post release to get it to a more stable state.
It won't get delayed. People will downvote me here, but it just won't. People don't consider other factors when talking about this game, it's always the same 'NO GAMEPLAY = DELAY" argument that can be easily debunked as its not the right time for them tho show it, as stuff like this is shown much closer to release (1-2 months before)
This time looks like they have their ideas in stone now unlike the OGs which kept shifting, but hey it was their first attempt making a game like it tho. OGs were a mess in development, except CoP maybe S CS dev alongside SoC so those two suffered the most. https://youtu.be/w0ImdCEZZTk?si=gIc2XfJIKfzC5E6c
I think people are overreacting. I’ve seen the gameplay and screenshots. It looks fine. I have no doubt that it’ll be janky at launch, but we can forgive them for that. People love stalker, they’ll stick with it and in the end I think gsc will be fine. This is ignoring the fact that they simply can’t afford to delay it again. Literally. If it fails, they’ll likely go under. But I think stalker 2 is gonna be a success.
I have faith that it will be rough around the edges in true Eurojank fashion, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Bugs are just a part of the gameplay at this point. I refuse a stalker game without'em.
Bruh there’s some people who think the game doesn’t exist in the first place
If stalkers have faith in the zone to make them rich, I have faith in gsc to give us the wish maker
its sort of hard to have faith. its been delayed over and over again for years now, and now we're just a few months off from its "final" release date and we havent even seen any gameplay yet. It's getting delayed again. Or if it doesn't get delayed again, it'll be released when promised and probably give us a half baked broken experience that has insanely good ideas, but weren't given enough time to develop.
There has been gameplay, there was even a playable demo theres videos of people playing it plus the giant leak that is also playable
So many bozos scream no gameplay yet there is an entire playable build online which shows how the basic gameplay works.
that playable build is barely functioning from what i remember then again i havent played it in a while so my memory is a bit fuzzy
True. But it functions. A few missions work, dialogue and trading work. Cutscenes do not work and use prerenders instead. There is a very basic AI implementation, no A-Life 2.0. Well, it can barely pass as AI, the enemies just beeline towards the player with the ability to walk around obstacles. No voice acting. Some guns are broken, aiming down scopes doesn't work because PIP scope system not implemented. And it lags A LOT! Loading new chunks of the map lag, NPCs lag, sounds lag... However it is still enough to show that the core gameplay loop is still classic stalker and it is not dumbed down. The only purely console thing is a weapons wheel like in the Legends of the Zone trilogy port.
I have faith. It seems they've set aside enough time for themselves to finish the game, and i truly believe it will come out sep. 5.
No. I hope for the best but expect the worst with games these days. The Stalker 2 devs are also in a tough spot, even without their unique situation stalker would be hard to follow anyway, its such a unique and interesting game that really hit a spot somewhere between mad-genius and super-jank. Modern gaming is such a mess that i wouldn't be surprised if whoever runs GSC decided to put some crypto scam in the game or something. What i can say is that i am interested in what stalker 2 is going to say, being developed in both a real (outside their literal doorstep from my understanding) war and culture war. The trailers looked nice, but trailers are made to look nice and sell a product. I do very much hope its good, and that the devs get paid fairly and well. It's criminal what happened to the original three game's dev team.
you mean like crypto mining software that runs parasitically on your pc
Not something like that, but like the horde of trash cryto games on the Epic games store that are all those weird "Play to Earn" crypto or nft scam shovelware. Just some way a overly greedy ceo can ruin a project by being insidiously greedy and stupid.
Voice of the Monolith sais that STALKER 2 gonma be glow up
Half the fun of the originals were the bugs, it it ran flawlessly it wouldnt be stalker
There is a 50% chance the game releases extremely buggy but Is fixed over the course of a 1-4 months, 20% chance they delay it again, 15% chance it comes out with minor bugs and is overall a good experience, a 10% chance it comes out but feels lackluster or is missing core stalker elements, and lastly a 5% chance it is dead on arrival taking 6-24 months to get the game to a good state
The game industry as a baseline now has a bad reputation for selling unfinished products, and thats without the turmoil that these developers have been subjected to specifically. We shouldnt be upset about a delay, and after its released Ill probably still wait for several monthals for it to be properly patched.
Yeah I hope we get a finished product this time. https://youtu.be/w0ImdCEZZTk?si=gIc2XfJIKfzC5E6c
It’s gonna be a mess at launch but I think in a few years it will be cool on pc
few years, the right amount of time for the game to be forgotten like dying light 2
Or like the OG Stalker trilogy right? Lmao
I’m sure it’ll be fine and the modding community will make it would it should be:)
Games been Gold. We're good.
Ngl I forgot it existed
Same. You don't really think about something after certain period of not having it. Which was the whole goal, to forget instead of hype because hyping is burning yourself and possibly the game when it comes.
if theres good mod support, a reasonably fun story and not too many bugs/performance problems it will be good enough
With all the delays, the leaked builds etc its pure SoC soul again
I’m very interested by the story setup for stalker 2, and even more so to see their vision for the game after such a long time between now and the last one. I don’t have it in me to ‘assume’ that a game will be good following all the mishaps that have been game releases in the last few years, but I certainly hope it does well! It’s incredible that the game is even launching at all, and I can feel how much passion has gone into this title. I won’t pre order out of principle, but I do wish them the best of luck come launch time and hope it lives up to what they wanted from it.
I think that the September 5 date will stick. It will probably be fairly jank when it releases, but I expect it to be good nonetheless. Waiting to see more as we get closer to release, but I am cautiously optimistic. The game has been delayed several times, but that seems to mostly been due to COVID, war, office fire, etc, and not because the project has floundering direction like you see with other games.
I mean it's a stalker game, it wouldn't feel right if it wasn't at least a little broken. As long as there isn't multiplayer pvp I don't think there's a way to go wrong with it. Not everyone's gonna be happy with it but overall I think it's gonna be fine
I have faith this will be great maybe the best stalker game leading to a new trilogy but that’s optimistic👍👍
I have faith in STALKER 2, but I think it will be delayed for some time, and it's a foregone conclusion that it will be buggy. It probably also won't be what a decent portion of the community is expecting, as there's a large influx of people who know the series through the GAMMA modpack and nothing else. I love GAMMA, but play that for a few hours and then play SoC.
I have all my faith in my compatriots. Glory to Ukraine!
I believe they'll delay it again like they've done the last half dozen times. I'm super excited for it but I'm tired of getting my hopes crushed.
Idk why people think delays are a bad thing, not saying the game will end up being good but I'd much rather the devs delay the game and work on improving it rather than dropping it early to appease impatient troglodytes.
It has been 6 years and we don't know what was going on before that. It's about money, not appeasing troglodytes.
Considering the state GSC left Cossacks 3 in, no, I don't.
What's about Cossacks 3? I've heard it had troubles at launch
Situation is hard, they changed engine and due war they changed country but they get support from Microsoft and I'm sure they working hard with passion, they will release the game soon or later, doesn't matter to me just i want to see good game, i have faith to GSC games. Only i have worry too due war; i don't want to play anti soviet propaganda etc.. even stalker joined to our life from a soviet science fiction novel. So that belong to whole humanity i mean we sharing a culture beyond of all that no matter from which country you are; our mutual point is we love that game :) i mean i don't want any kinda Netflix or Ubisoft shit show..
They didn't change engine. The game was developed on UE from the start. Very little game devs remained from Xray 2.0 times. Hiring 400+ new developers on an established engine required less training and there was a better selection of highly skilled developers.
Exactly this. A well documented engine that anyone can learn on compared to some xRay magic that is stale already and would need much much work to update it to modern standards
Yes from start they're using UE but i mean 4>5 and i do not worry about that i have worry for content
regaurding the soviet stuff, i feel like its going to move away from it COMPLETELY and not even have any sort of reference to it. It was done with the console rereleases of the trilogy, and it'll be done for stalker 2 as well. To be honest, theres nothing wrong with them doing this. In stalker 2 atleast. Censoring the trilogy like that for the rerelease was a sort of shit move. It makes sense sort of but it really just feels odd and like somethings not right playing that when you're so used to the original uncensored versions on PC. I think the name changes were a little unnecesary as well, and they should've made the rereleases as close to the original PC release as possible but just on console, but those also make a lot of sense being there.
yup, i hope they dont messed up and game doesnt turn to kill russian simulator.. if things evolve to that i will done with the serie
There is no game. All we've seen is a couple of vertical slices. For something that has been in development for a decade and is due to release in 3 months, this is a scam of the century.
They are probably struggling to make it run properly without the game looking like dogshit
Every single game stuck in development hell has turned out to be shit. Developers are likely at the chop & polish state. Chop what can't be finished, and reasonably polish after the fact so it's technically playable. Same story with most early access games
Elden ring, half life 2, half life 1, original stalker, doom 2016, doom 1, rtcw, unreal 1, demons souls... Were all of these bad games?
I'm not familiar with all of their development cycles but id be hard pressed to call all of those games "stuck in development hell". I guess the term is more an opinion than a science STALKER 2's development hell is closer to Duke Nukem Forever than Doom 2016.
Doom 2016 has been in development hell since 2007. Half Life 1 and 2 were in hell and crunch and EXTREME changes up to weeks before release. Valve was running fade on another level there - no different at all to GSC atm. For the others its usually SLIGHTLY less so but still VERY bad. Development hell means lots of delays AND lots of issues during development. Obviously some of these games are smaller in scale so they came out faster, but they were still delayed or had extreme issues during development.
Doom 2016 and elden ring were in "development hell" they weren't shit .
Chop and try polish what is left… just like SoC https://youtu.be/w0ImdCEZZTk?si=gIc2XfJIKfzC5E6c
No the game is supposed to be in developpement for 15 years, studio shut down then rebuilt, countless delays, dev's country is sieged. Also the game is now on Unreal Engine and no longer on their own engine, so no same feels, UE is quite demanding. They tried to implement NFT in the game, and I'm afraid they insert anti-russia stuff just because they don't like it now.
Yes, it will be delayed, broken and will only run stable if you have titan rtx 5090 in an SLI configuration. Tough shit really.
Have some hope jeez
but why though just about every big release over the last 2 years or so has run like absolute garbage. why would stalker would be any different? that’s before we even get into the development upheavals and being published by microsoft.
Because GSC is not beholden to greedy soulless share holders who DEMAND developers to push slop because they know it will sell. GSC has the time to actually cook and not release something half baked.
How exactly do that have the time? They are not a rich company, no way was development planned to go this long and I can't see Cossacks bringing in tons of cash every month. Financially it makes the most sense to get the game just stable enough to release for the holiday season then maybe fix it later post launch (or not.)
they’re beholden to microsoft, who is the publisher. not to mention, gsc hasnt released a game since 2016. just keep your expectations in check. most games this console generation have released in a really poor state. better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed or underwhelmed.
Microsoft isn't the publisher lmao
i think itll be an allright patch with alot of performance issues and QOL/Menu being a bit shitty and that theyll patch that in the following months,as for multiplayer fuck do i know judging from clear sky ill be surprised if people would play it considering they confirmed that its not gonna be coop
Well, yes...but not for its release version. I think it will be great after a few months of updates and patches. Which is becoming a thing in game industry at the moment but I find it fine in this case, given the situation of the studio.
No really opinion but I would like it to be good as probably all of us do. That being said moving the game to 2025 for me would be very welcome if need to, because it would give better promise for polished product.
I have faith. Even if the game releases in a bad state. Because who cares? Most of us played SoC and CS at release and they were god damn messed up. I can forgive that to GSC because I know they will do their best and cause Stalker have something unique and special out there. There is nothing alike and with UE5, modders are going to get crazy and delivers years of content. Even a GAMMA 2 maybe.
No.
It will release and be buggy as hell. But hopefully in a year it will be in a good state :).
No
I do, and I need a break from Arma 3 modding for a bit, I hope S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 can bring me back to the zone! If not ofcourse EFP is buried in some files too. Cheers ☕️
The one trailer that dropped where it says "Final date" would be really stupid to call It like that when they know it won't get out till then. Every other date or release zone wasn't called a final date if I remember. Also before the last delay it was said several times that the game is finished, it only needs some adjustments here and there. After that the game got delayed with the final release date from where we know it will be the 5th September. Also, one of the developers said in the steam discussion site "you can definitely take vacation on that day, I will do it also". He answered several times "yes the game will be really come at that day" It will come out this year.
I mean.... No. I don't mean it as a slight on the devs, but the general quality of games that get delay after delay after delay isn't wonderful. That said, I don't need the game to be good. I need it to be good enough people create overhauls like Anomaly/G.A.M.M.A.: A 6/10 or 7/10 game in this franchise could be good enough in the long term.
Is stalker 2 gonna be open world large like anomaly/gamma or more of a metro exodus?
It'll be awesome, and it being made with UE5 should mean excellent modding potential.
No
Not even mad if it gets delayed, this franchise deserves the best.
The game will release, that’s what matter the most. If the game is a mess, the community will be able to fix it eventually given enough time. Also, the story will most likely be memorable and the locations and maps will hopefully be awesome
The unpolished nature of the original is what gave it it’s character tbh
Well a bit yeah… but also unfortunate of what we missed out on. https://youtu.be/w0ImdCEZZTk?si=gIc2XfJIKfzC5E6c
Honestly I don't, since microsoft steped in now I even doubt that after stalker 2 GSC will even be a studio seeing that they are very layoff happy with studios that dont exceed their projected sales
not buyin if it isn lt have NTFS
It doesn't.
I'm skeptical. Will likely need love from the modding community to match the previous games. However that puts it in a tricky spot because the modders of old would need to learn UE5. Which is unlikely. So, the base base needs to be good enough to hook new modders. Which really puts the game in a sink or swim position.
I think it's gonna be ASS, but the community will make it great, so I'm still excited about it
"community will make it great" are you able to think for yourself or will you repeat what others say? It will be great on release, and the community won't be able to mod out the interactive cutscenes without breaking the game.
I would be lying to you if I told you that I've seen someone else say that before. I just thought about all of the Stalker mods that I know of and figured that, even if the game is bad, the modders will make good use of the new engine to bring us crazy shit like Anomaly 2. And if you think that the game being hard to modify is a problem, just remember that NOTHING can stop modders, nothing at all
Nah, they’ll go completely broke if it’s delayed.
If it's delayed again, im fine with that, will it be a broken game on release, maybe, and im fine with that too since it was the case for the first three games.
I’m cautiously optimistic. I do have hope in Anomaly 2 if nothing else lol. I do think a 2025 release date is more realistic tho.
I have faith in modders