THQ has taken this game out of Vaporware. I'm part of the closed beta. I'll let you know what I think about it in a bit. They've only given us an MP client, so we'll see. :-/

Man, I still have the trailer vids from ages ago, I've been wondering when or even if this was going to come out.

Only MP client? Meh. I'm much more interested in the SP portion. Unless they did something remarkable in the MP.

But STALKER coming out this year? It's so easy to not believe.

Yep. Graphically, it looks like it came straight out of 2001 even with the settings maxed out. It runs like utter garbage on my machine maxed out with a consistent framerate of 24fps.

Athlon 64 4000+
2 GB DDR-4300
ATi Radeon x1900xt 512mb

So in all, it looks like a (good) Half Life mod, but it's not on par with CS:S. The environment isn't very interactive (when I shoot at a crate, it doesn't splinter). It feels very static and fake.

I guess I hope the single player campaign is at least interesting. I also hope they don't sell this game for more than $20 when it comes out.

I'm going to read over the beta agreement to see if there's an NDA about disclosing screenshots. If there isn't, I'll post up some shots.

Eh? I swore they were boasting about the X-ray engine (I think that was the name of this game's) has dynamic physics and lighting effects. Maybe it's stripped down for the MP client?

But it better damn well be a good game after so many delays and hype.

I should note that they also only provide two mediocre maps to go along with this beta.

I thought STALKER's had a March 2007 release date for quite some time now but I don't remember it going gold.

Oh well.

hey lol going gold is kinda funny like going sf_goldg_01 ahhaahah 8)

Except it didn't go gold.

Well, the physics weren't there, and the lighting effects I can't really speak to. Both maps had rain scripted... Which may very well account for the poor performance, but it doesn't excuse it for looking trashy. 6 years in development, this should be more than a very shiny gold plated turd, unfortunately it's shaping up to be just that.

I seriously hope that the SP campaign makes up for it. I remember seeing all the old stuff where you... you know... got to see Chernobyl. These maps are just boring.