• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

GSC is closed, STALKER 2 cancelled [Up5: GSC: Wait for Up6 in mid-January]

Wow. After such a huge delay with the original STALKER, they've been on a roll for the last 3-4 years. This is heartbreaking. All three games have been fantastic.

What the fuck.

I would LOVE it if CDProjekt Red would pick up the STALKER guys and make a secondary CDProjekt Red studio to finish STALKER 2. That'd be amazing. They could really do the game justice AND get it marketed/distributed correctly.
 
This is definitely not a complete list, but I have a partial one.

ACES also closed down, the studio behind Flight Sim games.


There's a quite a big list of PC-centric devs that are either dead or now making inferior multiplatform games catering to the lowest common denoninator.
 

FGMPR

Banned
ACES also closed down, the studio behind Flight Sim games.


There's a quite a big list of PC-centric devs that are either dead or now making inferior multiplatform games catering to the lowest common denoninator.

The strange thing is both Flight Sim X and the STALKER series both sold very well. There's no "PC is dying" angle in any of this, if that's what your getting at.
 

JoeMartin

Member
On the Importance of STALKER. Nice little article from RPS on the mechanics that made STALKER so compelling.

A good read, and well worded for what I and I'm sure other STALKERphiles feel for the game. It's a true rarity for a game to genuinely cause such a soul sucking suspension of disbelief, and whatever chemistry GSC found, it's possible that we might never get that back. A definite shame.

Funny too that he parallels it to EVE - another game I still play and love.
 

FGMPR

Banned
A good read, and well worded for what I and I'm sure other STALKERphiles feel for the game. It's a true rarity for a game to genuinely cause such a soul sucking suspension of disbelief, and whatever chemistry GSC found, it's possible that we might never get that back. A definite shame.

Funny too that he parallels it to EVE - another game I still play and love.

You're avatar is a perfect example of that.
 

Deadbeat

Banned
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck,

Real talk Bethesda should just buy the fucking IP or CDProjekt at this point I don't care. I just want a sequel.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Yeah, but STALKER was a hundred times the game that Metro was. Hell, it was an actual game.

I want STALKER, not "follow an NPC as they talk to you" simulators.

I disagree. SOC was the game and Metro was the game. CS and COP were mostly open environments with some NPCs put in. Only core mechanics established by SOC made them worth playing.
 
There's no "PC is dying" angle in any of this, if that's what your getting at.

I'm not. What I'm getting is that it's sad that so many exceptional PC-focused studios are dead, it's a pretty big loss for the platform. There's nowhere near that much out of business console teams, you could probably count them on one hand.
 

Ikuu

Had his dog run over by Blizzard's CEO
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck,

Real talk Bethesda should just buy the fucking IP or CDProjekt at this point I don't care. I just want a sequel.

God no, a Bethesda Stalker would be so bad, CDProjekt however would be nice.
 

kamspy

Member
Real talk Bethesda should just buy the fucking IP

I'd rather it stay cancelled.

What needs to happen is some awesome indie guys, like the ones who made Hard Reset, just make a spiritual successor. License CryEngine 3, hell, even UE3.

Now, smart-GAF, throw together a small portion of a STALKER esque map with some little missions and shit. Enter it in the next Make Something Unreal competition. Win. Get funding. Make us STALKER 2. Profit.


I'm not. What I'm getting is that it's sad that so many exceptional PC-focused studios are dead, it's a pretty big loss for the platform. There's nowhere near that much out of business console teams, you could probably count them on one hand

lol biggest console studios right now are pc studios. infinity ward (rip) says hi.
 
lol biggest console studios right now are pc studios. infinity ward (rip) says hi.

And that's the problem. Some of them were bought out by the big publishers and now chasing the mass markets for the biggest roi or shut them down (EA says hi). Others dissolved on their own.

Regarding the closed consoles studios, I was thinking more about teams like Smilebit.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
I'm not. What I'm getting is that it's sad that so many exceptional PC-focused studios are dead, it's a pretty big loss for the platform. There's nowhere near that much out of business console teams, you could probably count them on one hand.
Did you miss Nirolak's incomplete list? Plenty of console studios in it. Or PC that then focused on consoles.
 
i'm sorry i didn't buy stalker eatchildren

Don't worry, I played a couple of them and didn't care for them. But coming into this thread and spouting about how I didn't like Stalker is a little bit like going to a funeral and listing all of the failures and shortcomings of the deceased, so I will simply say farewell to Stalker. I liked what I tried to do as a PC gaming-oriented franchise, even if I didn't like it as a game.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Any must have tweaks & mods for a first CoP playthrough?

It looks quite shitty as maxed vanilla and gets weird hangs here and there.

The terrain is the worst, with the lack of decent distant objects/grass making it even more evident.

Or should I go with a different S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and mods altogether?
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
That's for SoC..?

Edit: oh, there's a moddb link to a CoP version too. I'll try it...
 

Deadbeat

Banned
There's nowhere near that much out of business console teams, you could probably count them on one hand.
A lot more console devs have bit the dust than pc devs. Go reread nirolak's list.

going multiplatform doesnt guarantee success or more sales. Besides, if you even look at the info they were making a lot of money. It seems they partied a bit too hard.

edit: and possibly evaded taxes. Going multiplatform would help with evading taxes right?
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
I don't think that Bethesda or any other western dev is even remotely interested in STALKER IP.
 
Give it to those sick fuckers behind Amnesia and outsource the core shooting mechanics/motion blur to Guerrilla.

GOTY.

Seriousness: I've actually never played a Stalker before, but I definitely like the look of 'em. There's just something infectious about that Eastern Europe/horror combination.

Sad news, though. All the best to them.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Installed CoP Complete 1.0.2 and I'm not seeing much of a difference from before (but the menus changed so it's installed for sure). Still using maxed settings except AA (and I think DOF, not sure if it was on or off when I took the screens as I went back and forth not sure if it added anything good to the game) though I'll probably have to tone it down to keep performance higher later. Nevermind imageshack's resizing it stilll all looks rather flat and bland and bleh, not like some of the impressive screens... Does it seem like I'm missing something? The grass still disappears way too close making terrain further away even blander too... The foliage style overall reminds me of Mount&Blade... Not a good thing outside a few nicer tree models and stuff...
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6821/xrengine201112110701513.png
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6824/xrengine201112110703525.png
http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/8770/xrengine201112110705437.png
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/9064/xrengine201112110707233.png
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
They made areas bigger in COP stretching the old ass enigne, so deal with it or play superior SOC and CS with Complete mods.
 

Scipius

Member
∀ Narayan;33366637 said:
What about Rockstar San Diego? I think they could do something amazing with it.

You must surely be joking. When was the last time they even made a PC game?

We're talking about a game even Valve would fuck up if they applied their normal development process to it. Of US developers, only Tripwire might be a possibility.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I love Bethesda and Obsidian, but there is no way they should touch STALKER. Valve could probably do it justice, based on Half-Life, but even that isn't a 1-to-1 fit. I think it would have to be somebody from that region of the world leading the development.
 
Top Bottom