S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Released? Tell Me Another One!
When I recently saw that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. had finally been finished, or should I say “finished” in quotation marks, I figured that was the nail in the coffin of an extremely long and drawn out development process. Any game this many years late that suddenly falls out of the development house and thumps into retail would have to be terrible, or at least mediocre, running an engine far too many years out of date and featuring gameplay features that PC gamers left behind even earlier. Its long gestation reminds me of a certain 3DRealms game that has the words Duke and Nukem in it.
Imagine my surprise that S.T.– oh can I just call it STALKER already? Thanks. So, I’m surprised to find that STALKER is earning high marks. Gamespot has bestowed an 8.5 on the game and while noting some bugs says it’s an interesting open-world shooter. It’s not enough to get me to buy it, mind you, but it’s good to see the game finally reach retail and do well in the ratings. Gamespot even says that the developers are working on a patch to fix the bugs they found, but if I were you, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Via Gamespot.
See also: The Stalker Official Site.
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IGN gave it an 8.2 as well. They call it unique. Until I actually play it, I’m calling it another FPS.
Yeah it is quite the crowded genre.
Over the weekend I saw someone pick up a display box for it in a store, which prominently shows a guy holding a gun right on the cover (not the above picture) and ask his son, “Hey, is this a shooter?”