stalker
Latest
New CoX patch puts the wallop back in Martial Arts
City of Heroes Dev Back Alley Brawler has been a very busy guy of late. When he's not fending off incoming questions like a tank herding Rikti monkeys, he's working on animations and visual effects. Recently, several powers have seen improvements to their animation speed, allowing players to beat the tar out of stuff much faster than they used to. Katana was recently improved in this way, and now the set in the spotlight is Martial Arts, which hasn't seen any love for a long, long time. The little pauses have been shaved off, meaning that the kicks and punches now flow beautifully. Forum poster Tormentoso has put together a little demonstration.
New CoX patch rejuvenates the Stalker
Even with the release of Issue 12: Midnight Hour bringing new joy to CoX, there was one Archetype who wasn't so happy; the poor neglected Stalker. Although the Stalkers now had electric armor and electric melee powersets to play with, they were still not much in demand on teams, and even in PvP some new changes had made it harder for them to Assassin Strike foes with certain powers running.Let it never be said, though, that Castle the Powers Guy is one to ignore a legitimate grievance. Very shortly after Issue 12 launched, a new patch hit the Test server that brought more Stalker joy than we've seen in months. That patch went live today.
UK Pub Deep Silver to bring S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky to North America
With S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky shipping worldwide on August 29, Deep Silver has announced that it will handle publishing duties in North America for developer GSC Game World's upcoming prequel to 2007's S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. We think it's particularly interesting that Deep Silver, a UK-based studio that only established a US footprint last month in Los Angeles, has been trusted to steer the game's North American debut instead of THQ, which handled the original game's release last year. As the latest in GSC's considerable plans for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe, the game promises a "what-if" look at the events leading up to last year's FPS/RPG hybrid, and according to Deep Silver was "created as a warning to mankind against mindless play with technologies" -- especially, we assume, any tech that can give rise to hordes of radioactive beasties.
Player vs. Everything: Playing with your friends
Players often venture into the wilderness of online games alone and friendless, seeking out allies in the worlds they inhabit and making friends as they go along. Some games are better at encouraging players to work together than others, too. You're not going to last very long playing by yourself in games like EverQuest or EVE Online, so you have to go looking for people to play with. On the other hand, in games like World of Warcraft you can start at the first level and get to level 70 without ever talking to another human being (it's even easier if you're a Hunter). Regardless of whether your particular game of choice forces you to find friends, many people like to have friends to play with anyway. Even if you don't need them, it's kind of the point of online games to play with other people. Right? That's why some people roll into these games with a ready-made posse. Maybe it's a group of real-life friends that want to play together online, or maybe it's a guild composed of players that you met in a previous game and you'd all like to try something different together. Either way, it's pretty nice to be able to work with a group of people you already know, trust, and like. You don't have to hope that the fickle hand of fate will deliver good PuGs to you (we all know how rare those are), and you don't have to worry about trying to find a new group of people who you can relate to in a sea of anonymous faces (many of whom will have value systems, expectations, and maturity levels that will be different than yours). Is it possible you're missing out on something by bringing your own people in, though? If so, do you care?
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky ships August 29
PC gamers will be frolicking through the radioactive wastelands of Chernobyl once more with the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, now set for August 29th. The post-apocalyptic prequel promises "an alternative look" into the events of 2007's S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, pitting players against radioactive decay and mutated creatures with one too many of something. Probably teeth. Also, it's apparently "set in 2011 and brings forth the events to have preceded the third campaign of Strelok to the Zone center." Exciting!Developer GSC Game World aims to ship the shooter simultaneously worldwide "according to the agreed plan." If said plan falls through, there's always the consolation of the game's day and date release on Steam.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky coming to Steam day and date
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky – GCS Game World's prequel to their long-in-development and well-received "survival FPS" S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – will be available for digital distribution exclusively on Steam, where the original game is available for a reasonable $20. If you're not into getting your games virtually, it will still be available in stores on the very same day "later this year." Now the question is whether or not "later this year" falls within the estimated Q1 release; considering the original's six year development cycle and their other ongoing projects, we're not placing any bets.
Man arrested for stalking girls via Halo
A New York man by the name of Joshua R. Stetar was arrested Friday for stalking two young girls, a 15-year-old and her sister, he met while playing an unspecified title in the Halo franchise. Stetar, 20 years old, had discovered the girl's address by searching online and had been sending flowers and other packages -- which her parents returned -- to her home since they first met online in 2006. Stetar had apparently driven 40 hours straight from his home in Saratoga Springs, New York to the girl's home in Spokane, Washington, where he drove by her house and sent her threatening text messages. According to the Associated Press, the girl's parents were outside the home at the time and saw Stetar driving past. They wrote down Stetar's license plate number and called the police, who later tracked down Stetar at a hotel and arrested him. He has since posted the $10,000 bond and was released on Saturday. A disturbing story to be sure. Let this be a reminder to the parents out there to utilize the 360's parental controls and keep an eye on what their kids are playing. [Via Gaming Today. Thanks YGZ Kentucky and Foolio] Read - Detailed report from KHQ Read - AP report via KOMO
Watch out for that MMO stalker...
Oh, I'm sorry, that's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. According to a recent community Q+A on GSC's website, home of the critically-acclaimed shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, the Ukranian developers are "seriously considering" entering the extremely crowded, and also extremely lucrative field of the MMOG. Sadly, they didn't leave us with any additional details, so all we're really left to do is sit here with our chin in our hands and ponder what an MMOG from GSC might be like.Of course, the first question that comes to mind is whether this MMOG (notice the careful of absence of an "RP" anywhere in there) would be in the vein of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with some massive elements added to it, or whether it would be a completely new side project. One also has to consider whether GSC is going to leverage their shiny new Xbox 360 SDKs in pursuit of this project, or whether it's going to be a PC-only affair. So many variables!One thing is certain though -- GSC better have a pretty good idea of what they're getting into, because the market for MMOs is beginning to look really crowded these days.[Via CVG]
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. creators 'seriously considering' a MMOG
In much the same way that Elder Scrolls games are like Everquest without stupid people, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sort of reminded us of Anarchy Online without the crushing, ever-present stench of failure. It seems that the similarities to an MMO have not been lost on the creators of the game, who chatted about the possibilities in a recent Q&A with fans.When asked if S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Online was in the works, GSC Game World shot down the idea of an online co-op version of the game, but said "If you mean an MMOG, then we are seriously considering it," which should definitely be encouraging news for fans. If GSC goes from "seriously considering" to "seriously announcing" it, we'll be sure to let you know.[Via CVG]
One Shots: It's an epidemic!
In our never-ending quest for game news and views, some of the writing staff have been heading out to the four corners of the MMO market. This generally means logging time into games we wouldn't normally play. Much like Eloise, I recently headed into the world of RuneScape, and admittedly found much the same experience with some of the players. Now this isn't to say I didn't like it at all; personally I found the stalkers and beggars downright hilarious. Of course, I also freely admit that I have a weird sense of humor. So today, I share with you the above screenshot I took to show what happened to me literally not 30 seconds after I'd completed the tutorial and landed in the main RuneScape world. "Money plz" he repeated to me about 15 times as I spoke with the kindly old man who was helping me find my first quest. "money need kthx." All the while I was howling with laughter at someone hitting the very obviously just-spawned me up for cash. A quick ignore and I was on my way, but it raises the question -- how do you handle the inevitable beggars and annoyances? Do you give them an earful, or just laugh at them for being so utterly stereotypical?Do you have a story to tell, or a screen to share from the far-off corners of the MMO multiverse? If so, send them to us at oneshots@massively.com. Your image and story could be featured next for us to all enjoy -- or cringe at.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. port may be destined for 360
Again, we find ourselves in the awkward position of looking up a PC game to find out whether or not we should be interested in it. You see, another PC developer, in this case GSC Game World, has gotten all cozy with the Xbox 360. The company, responsible for the recent PC FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R., has announced that it is now officially a certified Xbox 360 developer. So, now we're looking up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to see if we should be excited. We seem to remember reading the name on Joystiq quite a bit a while back ... oh, look at that! It has an 82 average on Metacritic, so that's a good sign, right?We should probably mention that GSC has not announced that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is headed to the 360, but it makes sense to us. Then again, so did Pogs. And we all knew how that turned out.[Via Joystiq]
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. devs hop onboard Xbox 360 love train
After spending some six years developing the PC first-person shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R., we figured it would be some time after the game's long-delayed release last March before we heard from Ukraine's GSC Game World again. We were, of course, wrong as not two months after the game's debut the studio came forward with a burst of enthusiasm for its radioactive baby, announcing plans for "several subsequent new products" in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise. Just what projects the company has in the works remains anyone's guess, though a new posting on GSC's official website confirms that the studio is now a certified Xbox 360 developer, which has us wondering if GSC plans to irradiate Microsoft's console with a port of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. anytime soon.According to GSC, the effort to get Microsoft's seal of approval took the studio 2 years, and that "from now on, our old ambition to create multiplatform projects has become a reality." So, does this mean that yet another PC developer has been lured away, wooed by the sultry siren's song of console game development? Probably, though GSC chief exec Sergiy Grygorovych adds that the company plans to continue to pay "maximum attention to the PC platform." You hear that PC zealots? Put the pitchforks down please, we're all friends here.[Thanks, PrivateRyan]
Will name changes let ninjas run free?
While Robin and I think it's a great idea, some people are in an outcry about the upcoming name-change service that Blizzard is offering. As Monsoon tells Blizzard on the forums:This is probably the worst ever decision ever made. How are we supposed to track ninjas and retards who may apply to our guild if there is no way to track their name changes?"Nethaera calmly responds:Perhaps putting them on an ignore list might help.The ignore list will be automatically updated once that character's name change gets activated. Of course no system is fool proof, and there will always be someone looking to exploit things, but realistically, is it a terribly big problem if people you consider "ninjas" and "retards" yet are still unwilling to put on your ignore list can change their names once every 90 days? In my experience, the kind of person who likes to call others "retards" generally isn't very nice themselves, and tends to find new "retards" all the time (with no offense meant to Monsoon here). I don't think it would be possible, even if the ignore list were extended to include a potential thousands of names, for some people to be satisfied that all the "ninjas" and "retards" were sufficiently dealt with and removed from the system
16 year-old girl stalked from WoW to her high school
In today's online world of MySpace and Facebook, the trend seems to be against what the media has been warning the public of for years. Don't mention your name, your school, your town; wait, I meant, please join the "School X" and "Town Y" social groups! No one wants to feel anxious about their online identity these days. We all want to connect, to play, to share information, to put ourselves on Youtube videos, post photos, and it has even become uncool to be antsy about meeting people you met online. Unfortunately, regardless of what we'd like to believe, stalking still happens. A high school girl was recently approached at school by a man who crossed borders and travelled hours to find her.
Stalker remotely controls family cellphones, even when they're off
To use a TV news cliche, it's like a horror movie come true: three families from Fircrest in Washington State are being harassed by a unknown individual, who somehow has the power to turn cellphones on, send messages, and change ringtones. Over the last few months, the families have had calls that threaten death and violence against them, calls that tell the people what they're doing at that time, and calls that originate from the cellphones of other members of the family. In one case, the stalker changed the ringtone of a phone to say "answer your phone." According to one James M. Atkinson, an apparent expert in these matters who used to provide the CIA with advice in counterintelligence, the technical profficiency to pull off this level of stalking isn't that high: if the FBI can do it, why not some anti-social kid, right?
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. dev plans several follow-up titles
According to GSC Game World's website, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl developer plans to announce "several subsequent new products in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe already" during July's Min-E3. Several projects? Already?S.T.A.L.K.E.R., originally scheduled for a 2003 release, was pushed back four years until March 2007. Keeping the multiple titles in the same universe might help speed up things, but we hope they don't get into too many development issues trying to juggle so much. S.T.A.L.K.E.R., despite having a title quite cumbersome to write, is a very entertaining and atmospheric (scary) open-ended shooter, and we'd love to see another game in the series -- we just want it this decade.[Via Primotech]
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. patch renders old game saves useless
A new patch released for the long-delayed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. addresses a whopping 68 bugs ranging from minor typos to serious multiplayer blunders. But just like the wonder drugs advertised on TV, the side effects are pretty nasty. After installing the patch your instructions are to delete all files from the save game folder. Every. Single. One. Game saves created before the patch was installed will not work afterwards.And so begins the great debate: do you install now, or try to finish the game and hope it doesn't crash?[Via CVG]
Metareview - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Just months after the glitz and glamor of its inaugural debut on Wired's annual Vaporware awards, the long-delayed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. cozied up on retail shelves next to other evidently non-vaporous games. Yes, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a real boy now and it's more than a little exciting to see that the ambitious title made the journey from idea to interactive game more or less intact. Sure, the years in limbo didn't do much to help the once impressive engine, but reviews praise the title's innovative aspects -- namely the open-ended, and S.C.A.R.Y., gameplay. Yahoo! (90/100) offers a poop metaphor that actually makes us want to play the game ... albeit alone ... and with a fresh pair of drawers nearby: "given all its troubles we're fortunate to have a game at all, let alone one this good. Its setting is superb, its gameplay tense and convincing, and it boasts what are definitely the best fill-your-pants moments in a PC game for quite some time. It's hard to see how it could have turned out better." GameSpot (85/100) loves the open-endedness, and gives us the mash-up genre descriptor we've been waiting for: "At its heart, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a first-person survival game that blends action with role-playing. This isn't a linear game, like Half-Life or Call of Duty, where you basically are restricted to a straight path and are taken for a tightly controlled and scripted ride. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s huge environments and open-ended gameplay make it more like a role-playing game, as you can go where you want and do what you want if you're willing to live with the consequences." Eurogamer (80/100) offers easily the most compelling review, despite its lower score: "For some people the odd rough brokenness of Stalker will frustrate and annoy. It isn't finely polished, and it's not Hollywood; this is more like an antidote to the Americanised way of doing things. It's a warped behemoth from the Ukraine, and one of the scariest games on the PC." Sold! We've been hungry for a first-person shooter that requires mandatory underwear changes as part of its design; System Shock 2 was so long ago, and Bioshock is delayed. We want this sort of experience.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl goes G.O.L.D.
Delayed once to avoid the holiday rush. Delayed a second time to add some spit and polish. Since 2003 this poor little game has been repeatedly shoved on the back burner and ignored. But now, according to publisher THQ, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl has wrapped up development is is sitting around just waiting to be shipped. This month. Seriously! Set in an alternate-reality post-apocalyptic Chernobyl, the gritty first person shooter promises weather effects, intelligent AI, destructible objects and a robust multiplayer mode. The stuttering S.T.A.L.K.E.R. release smells a lot like the Prey delays or the now-laughable Duke Nukem Forever, but if it turns out as interesting as it sounds, maybe it can actually make a dent in the crowded FPS market. [via Shacknews]
S.T.A.L.K.E.R finally gets a date. Of sorts.
When a needlessly cryptic countdown appears on a website built to promote a specific title, we naturally assume that it's counting down to a release date. But without an official confirmation, we're a bit hesitant to call the clock currently running on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl website a release countdown. We've been scorned before, baby. We know your dirty little tricks. Originally announced in 2001, GSC Game World's S.T.A.L.K.E.R has been the recipient of many a vaporware award throughout its illustrious career of back burning. Having consulted the Joystiq abacus, we have determined that the countdown ends on March 22nd, 2007. What will happen exactly is up in the air. It could be a release date, or possibly even a demo of the game. It could even be an announcement of an announcement! S.T.A.L.K.E.R to be retooled into a Daikatana expansion pack confirmed!
