Finally, multiplayer - is this going to be fairly traditional, or are any of the single-player RPG and survival elements brought across?

Yavorsky: The multiplayer will introduce three modes of play: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Artifact Hunt. While the former two are pretty standard popular modes, the latter one is an original mode which will carry most of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 's single-player elements.

The essence of Artifact Hunt is two teams fighting over artifacts appearing randomly on the map, delivering the artifacts found to their base to get scores, fragging on the way of course, while at the same time trying to avoid radiation, and anomalies present.

Another borrowing from single-player is the dynamic shift of day and night. Thus, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. multiplayer will enable players to see weather effects, real-time changing day and night time. It's really fun fragging opponents under the full moon.

For multiplayer we have created special dedicated maps (thanks to the team of professional cyber-athletes who helped us design and balance them).

The MP part provides for a selection of weapons (unique for each side), bought at the beginning of each round. Weapons, protective suits, equipment etc will become available gradually in line with the player's rank increases (after he scores and frags to achieve a certain rank). Up to 32 players will be able to join in a game over LAN or the internet.