S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

[Tacgnol]

That Tarkov look is mostly caused by anomaly mods ripping Tarkov assets and applying reshades. The Anomaly community is rather obsessed with copying Tarkov for some reason.

The original mod creators have slightly better taste.

And dafuq is OpenXR? The only thing I can find is OpenXRay, which isn't even a visual modification. At least it isn't the purpose of it.

OpenXray is the engine that Anomaly and a lot of the newer COC offshoot mods run on. As well as improving various systems behind the scenes (and migrating the engine to 64 bit), it also adds a bunch of new graphical effects/settings.

 

[Ghulgothas]

That un-reshaded Agressor clip looks painful to play. Nowhere in STALKER should grass be that green, and everything looks over-lighted and washed-out.

 

[LESS T_T]

Physical release will be handled by Koch Media. https://www.kochmedia.com/en/2021/0...elease-of-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-heart-of-chernobyl/

KOCH MEDIA AND GSC GAME WORLD PARTNER UP FOR THE PHYSICAL RELEASE OF S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: HEART OF CHERNOBYL

Today, Koch Media, a leading global publishing partner, and GSC Game World, a Ukrainian video game developer, announced their physical publishing partnership for the upcoming release of the open-world first-person shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl. The long awaited sequel to the popular S.T.A.L.K.E.R.- franchise will be available for Xbox Series X/S and PC on April 28th, 2022.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is based on a fictional universe in an altered timeline set in Chernobyl. The unique blend of first-person shooter, horror and immersive simulation lets players loose into a huge open world in a post-apocalyptic setting. The first gameplay of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl premiered during Microsoft’s E3 2021 showcase and has since then received numerous “Best of the Show” awards from media throughout the globe.

Stephan Schmidt, Director of Global Partner Publishing at Koch Media adds: “After the great presentation at E3, we are more than thrilled to set the stage for a global physical market entry for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl. We already worked on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky and are looking forward to closely collaborate with GSC Game World again on all physical publishing matters to successfully release the next chapter of the award winning S.T.A.L.K.E.R franchise.”

Evgeniy Grygorovych, CEO of GSC Game World adds: “We are pleased to partner with Koch Media to bring physical editions of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl to players across the globe. We trust our game is now in capable hands. Together, we will offer several editions of the game to the players so everyone can find the best value for themselves.”

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe is based on three videogames as well as several hundred books, comics and numerous fan-fiction pieces. With over 15 Million copies sold worldwide, the franchise has been critically acclaimed and fans are eagerly waiting for its return with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl.

 

[SlamDunk]

 

[Alienman]

 

[ADL]

I don't know what this means for performance but UE5 is basically a rewrite and this might be good. I'd imagine Epic is heavily consulting and working on this themselves given that this will be the flagship title that introduces UE5 if that release date is anywhere close to being true.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat had p. nasty DRMs in them, chances that STALKER 2 get Denuvo is 99.99%.

 

[cvv]

Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat had p. nasty DRMs in them, chances that STALKER 2 get Denuvo is 99.99%.

Nowadays most AA or single A games come out on GOG. Plus all the prequels already are on GOG. I'd bet HoC will be on GOG either on the launch day or a few weeks later (like Kingdom Come, also published by Koch).

 

[ADL]

God I hope so

 

[Baron Dupek]

You can read it as "later when hackers deal with Denuvo in our game or we remove it later, or next year".
This game might be AA but Sergey feels like AAA publisher, and that comes with price...

 

[Israfael]

First, this game should at least get released, then you can think about DRM-free or whatnot (like if it gets to be a popamole garbage or just SHoC tier jankware)

 

[Stavrophore]

All i want is good modding potential. Thats all that matters. Modders can fix a lot of shit.

 

[Curratum]

All i want is good modding potential. Thats all that matters. Modders can fix a lot of shit.

There is no modding on UE5, son. There is barely any modding on UE4 as well, for that matter. It's going to be a closed system.

 

[Jenkem]

With this being on UE5 I'm assuming this shit is going to be EGS exclusive for a year because there's no way in hell slavs will pass up free money.

 

[Tacgnol]

With this being on UE5 I'm assuming this shit is going to be EGS exclusive for a year because there's no way in hell slavs will pass up free money.

No, already confirmed to have a simultaneous release on Steam and other platforms.

It seems that M$ doesn't allow games they sponsor/showcase to have storefront exclusivity.

 

[Curratum]

With this being on UE5 I'm assuming this shit is going to be EGS exclusive for a year because there's no way in hell slavs will pass up free money.

No, already confirmed to have a simultaneous release on Steam and other platforms.

It seems that M$ doesn't allow games they sponsor/showcase to have platform exclusivity.

MS have been playing the good guys for a while now. First-party games directly to Steam, no Win store exclusivity either. The freaking new Halo game beta was even Steam-only.

 

[Tacgnol]

It probably helps that Gaben was an M$ executive in a previous life and is apparently still good friends with the M$ gaming division.

Epic seemed quite butthurt in the leaked court docs about that.

 

[Curratum]

Timmy's loss that he's a fucking obnoxious cunt who isn't friends with anyone but the people he bribes with his Chinese buddies' money.

 

[Grotesque]

Modders can fix a lot of shit.

"Bugs can be fixed, but an unmodabble game is shit forever" - Sun Tzu

 

[ADL]

Usually I wouldn't do this so far in advance but this is probably the cheapest it'll ever be pre-launch.
https://www.greenmangaming.com/voucher-offer/save-now/

If it sucks I'll flip it and make some money. Best case scenario I save a bunch of money and I never have to worry about buying DLCs or expansion packs. Worked in my favor for Elite Dangerous and ARMA 3 doing the same thing.

 

[Puukko]

Why's there a "multiplayer badge" listed under the ultimate edition bonuses? This doesn't have any MP does it?

Taking the pros(s)per AAA route by cutting a side quest from the base edition too.

Yeah, I'll probably wait for the GOTY edition.

 

[awsker]

Why's there a "multiplayer badge" listed under the ultimate edition bonuses? This doesn't have any MP does it?

Taking the pros(s)per AAA route by cutting a side quest from the base edition too.

Yeah, I'll probably wait for the GOTY edition.

Coming post-release, according to their website:

 

[Puukko]

Mite b cool.

 

[gerey]

Why's there a "multiplayer badge" listed under the ultimate edition bonuses? This doesn't have any MP does it?

Original STALKER also had multiplayer - which was all kinds of bizarre and for the most part a relic of the original design concept of Oblivion Lost.

Still, there's really nothing stopping the developers from making a co-op or PvE game mode (besides obvious technical challenges), since it would basically play like DayZ.

Then again, they're Ukrainians, so I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to shit out something similar to Escape from Tarkov to Jew their userbase.

 

[randir14]

Why's there a "multiplayer badge" listed under the ultimate edition bonuses? This doesn't have any MP does it?

Original STALKER also had multiplayer - which was all kinds of bizarre and for the most part a relic of the original design concept of Oblivion Lost.

I remember the original multiplayer demo for Shadow of Chernobyl. The devs accidentally left cheats in the game so you could outright turn on god mode and nobody could kill you.