Astrophysics are a touch bewildering. And love is a bit of a noodle-scratcher. But a convoluted, multi-layered plot about a genetically engineered pensioner; now that’s really complicated.The following game endings are all either vague, slightly ambiguous or just downright indecipherable without advanced degrees in picking up on minuscule - but vastly important – plot details. In an effort to make things a little easier, ... » Read More

18 Jun 2008

Further Reading

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

The links between novels and gaming are stronger than you think. Successful franchises spawn tie-in books dealing with the further adventures of Lara Croft or generic videogame action heroes, but often a respected author’s words can find themselves directly or indirectly rendered in gaming. Take Cormac McCarthy’s The Road for example, a post-apocalyptic journey through a near-future American wasteland that’s become required ... » Read More

26 Jul 2007

Original PC gaming miscellany

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

Weve done some research - yeah, we be book-smart - for some insight into some of our favorite games and compiled a bunch of our results below for your reading pleasure. The Origin of Rapture Rapture, the underwater city in forthcoming blockbuster BioShock, is so-called after a phenomenon experienced by scuba-divers called “nitrogen narcosis” - famously described by Jacques Cousteau as “the rapture of the deep.” Its trigger is a high nitrogen pressure within the body ... » Read More

22 Jun 2007

The Professionals - Enchantments

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

Whether or not you believe in the healing power of crystals, games are riddled with the things. Sometimes they talk to you and tell you what buttons to press to make your character jump or eat an entire string of sausages, and sometimes they teleport you, or save your game. The mystery of enchantments shrouds almost every fantasy game, and we reckon its time to debunk this particular aspect of the paranormal with the help of Dan Kahn, a practitioner of the healing ... » Read More

20 Mar 2007

S.T.A.L.K.E.R., part three

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

Our in-depth interview with GSC on its long-awaited game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. concludes today as the developer's senior PR manager Oleg Yavorsky fills us in on missions, factions, AI, multiplayer, the mysterious "blowout" phenomenon, and more. Read part one of the interview here, and part two here if you missed them. Can you tell us about the "blowout" phenomenon? Yavorsky: This is a major, deadly energy shockwave coming from the center of the Zone and followed by insanely bright flashes of light, ... » Read More

14 Mar 2007

S.T.A.L.K.E.R., part two

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

On Monday we brought you the first installment of our chat with GSC on S.T.A.L.K.E.R., which finally releases on March 20. Today the interview continues in part two, with GSC's Oleg Yavorsky talking to us about weapons, A-Life and storyline. There's more too, and the third part will be coming shortly. Over to Oleg... Are day/night cycles in real-time, and also, what can you tell us about weather/climate in the game? Yavorsky: Day & night shifts in real-time, which is one of the features ... » Read More

12 Mar 2007

S.T.A.L.K.E.R., part one

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

It's been a long, long wait, but S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is now very nearly upon us. March 23, its launch day, is marked in big red felt tip pen in our diaries. Will the survival-shooter be worth the wait, exciting our hard drives with its gameplay? It's seeming so... With the game about to hit, we cornered GSC's senior PR manager and very friendly guy Oleg Yavorsky for a chat about stalking through the nuclear wasteland. Part one of the interview is presented below, and we'll be bringing you more ... » Read More

22 Feb 2007

Beasts with brains...

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl's promise of gloomy survival among the ruins of the world's most infamous nuclear plant has always been an enthralling idea. Finally, after taking you on a tour of the Zone and revealing our early playtests, we've had the chance to cosy up with Stalker and really work our way into the game's chilling heart. And here's five reasons why that journey has been an apocalyptic ... » Read More

1 Dec 2006

Mapping out multiplayer

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

The Zone may be something of a solitary place when you're adventuring through the story mode, but S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 's multiplayer component is anything but lonely. Spread across three distinct gameplay types, the competitive action is fast and deadly. Some of the multiplayer features are obviously inspired by previous hits - such as buying weapons before each round - while others are new innovations that help keep the run-and-gun action feeling ... » Read More

30 Nov 2006

Playing well with others

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

When you first start playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s single player adventure, one of the biggest challenges is figuring out who (and what) else is out there. Because all of the different factions have their own motivations, it falls to the player to determine who is friend and who is foe. Exploring the early levels, we ran across three competing factions of stalkers: Duty, Freedom and Loners. The Duty faction is composed of ex-military personnel who are driven by a desire to protect the world from ... » Read More

29 Nov 2006

STALKER Day Three: Survival of the fittest

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

Adventuring through the Zone is a dangerous task. Natural dangers are everywhere and competing factions are none too happy about your presence. While a quick trigger finger is a necessity, it's not the only means of survival. In some cases it can actually be a hindrance, as conservation of ammo is a skill that you'll have to master early on. Like many other FPS titles, STALKER features an impressive array of weapons from simple pistols, to shotguns to full on RPG launchers. On a first run ... » Read More

28 Nov 2006

Bringing the Zone to life

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

Presenting the illusion of a living world is always a challenge for a game developer. Real people often have quirks that even advanced artificial intelligence has trouble mimicking. Some developers compensate for this by giving the AI more control, but this too has flaws as the AI can become unpredictable. For S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the developers at GSC decided to combine the two approaches and get the best of both ... » Read More

27 Nov 2006

Entering the Hot Zone

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

Twenty years ago, Chernobyl was the site of the worst man-made disaster to ever hit the face of the planet. Equally representative of man's brilliance and arrogance, the early morning explosion that ripped apart Reactor #4 changed the face of nuclear power across the world. The incident not only irradiated a large swath of Eastern Europe, it turned a thriving city of more than 50,000 into a ghost town overnight. Due to both its history and the rumors surrounding the disaster, Chernobyl seemed ... » Read More

26 Feb 2006

Upgrade or die

PC Feature | STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

The arrival of the "next-gen" in console land is obvious - it happens instantaneously with the release of a new box. The line is blurred in the constantly evolving world of PC, but only a fool would say it's not there. PC is currently edging into new territory, boosted there by swelling processor power, sparkling new graphical technologies, and outrageous ambition. Corridors, bases and monsters can only get so beautiful; we're moving on to whole worlds now, living environments ripe with ... » Read More

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