They’ve done it again. Deep Silver announced that due to “a manufacturing problem,” S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky will hit retail stores in North America on September 15, 2008. Unfortunately, the digital download release date has not yet been determined.

There were no other details mentioned in Deep Silver’s press release (like you know, what this “manufacturing problem” is). One thing’s for sure though: this has to be the third setback for the FPS/RPG. If you recall, a first delay was announced when S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky went gold. The second delay had something to do with CD keys being left out. Third time is indeed a charm.

If Deep Silver keeps this up, we’ll soon have a successor to Duke Nukem Forever.

Post from: EveryJoe

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky gets delayed again in North America

If you’re paying attention to details like release dates, then it’s likely that you’ve been expecting European-developed S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky to hit store shelves any day now. After all, publisher Deep Silver promised that despite the initial delay, the FPS/RPG is expected to arrive on September 5, 2008.

Forget what Deep Silver said because there’s going to be another delay. In North America, at least. The reason? Somebody forgot to put in the CD keys. You know, the all-important info that makes our games work. Apparently, there’s been a recall of copies that have been distributed to North American retailers.

According to 1UP, the game’s European release will remain unaffected by this delay.

Image of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is courtesy of Deep Silver.

Post from: EveryJoe

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky recalled in North America

We have good news and bad news. First, the good: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky has finally gone gold. As for the bad—the PC exclusive is going to be released a week later than the originally announced date. From August 29, the Shadow of Chernobyl prequel is coming on September 5 instead.

Does a week’s delay really matter in the grand scheme of things? There are two answers to that question. From the business standpoint, yes it does count–somewhat. From the gamers’ perspective, not really. Good thing we belong to the latter.

Image for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is courtesy of GSC Game World.

Post from: EveryJoe

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky goes gold, gets delayed

You gotta love your PC-exclusive FPS. Aside from superior controls, longevity, and gameplay, the graphics are just topnotch. From the looks of things (pun intended), S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky surpasses the sweet visuals of its predecessor. Want proof? Just watch the video above for a comparison.

My biggest gripe about its predecessor (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl) is the total absence of vehicles out of the box. Game owners had to wait for the mod to shorten those long and boring walks. From what I’ve read about Clear Sky, the single player campaign still doesn’t have the much-desired feature. If you want to drive around Clear Sky’s huge world, you have to duke it out in multiplayer. I expect a mod to unlock this for single player, but that means we have to wait again despite this supposed “Fast Travel” system.

The good news is that all this purdy eye candy is said to run at the same system specs required by Shadow of Chernobyl. Is this true? Perhaps. Now that the prequel supports DirectX10, I wonder how it would look when running in Windows XP.

Post from: EveryJoe

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky almost looks real

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is an FPS/RPG hybrid that took six years in the making. It’s not quite as good Half-Life 2, which also took around the same time to develop, but S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is obviously not as bad as Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.

Actually, I find Shadow of Chernobyl quite entertaining, so I’m pleased to hear that its second installment is coming soon. According to GSC Game World, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky will ship on August 19, 2008.

Like its predecessor, Clear Sky is coming out for the PC only. “We heard that before from Crysis,” you may reason. I understand that Crysis is abuzz with rumors that it’s coming to consoles, but let me ask you this: were there any such rumors that surrounded Shadow of Chernobyl when it came out?

Nope. If GSC says Clear Sky is only for the PC, then I guess they mean it.

Image of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is courtesy of Koch Media and GSC Game World.

Post from: EveryJoe

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. prequel shipping in Q3 2008

Could this be the reason the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. lacks support?

Way to go THQ. Since patches don’t bring in the cash, might as well forget supporting the old game you’re still accountable for and try to rip off more people by making a prequel.

Post from: EveryJoe

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. gets a prequel but still suffers from patch support

And what’s not to like about it? The enemy soldiers’ AI is eerily good, and the open-ended approach to this tropical paradise made the experience very fresh compared to other linear shooters that came out that year (*cough Doom 3 *cough* Half-Life 2 cough*).

According to CVG, Far Cry 2 is following in the footsteps of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., meaning that the sequel is set in a huge expanse of land that you can freely wander. There will be two “fully-open worlds that are five kilometers on a side, with the second world unlocking roughly one-third of the way through the game.”

If you do the math, Far Cry gives you 50 square kilometers of land that you can go through anytime.

There’s just one problem: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. can be awfully boring when you’re running though a seemingly-endless stretch of land. What’s more, the Ukrainian shooter doesn’t have controllable vehicles that could help with the tedium presented by travel. Your only hope is using third-party mods.

I just hope that all this talk about open-ended gameplay in Far Cry 2 would actually translate into something fun.

Here’s another question—if the sequel would have no Trigens, no mutants, or any of the Dr. Moreau-esque stuff associated with Far Cry, then why would the game be called Far Cry 2 since there’s nothing to associate it to the original? The “Far Cry” title is important because the weird experiments are labeled “Project Far Cry” in the first place.

It’s like saying the next Bond film won’t feature a British spy and espionage gadgets.

Your thoughts?

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Post from: EveryJoe

Far Cry 2 ditches old scheme and takes S.T.A.L.K.E.R. approach