More info on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
So there you have it... a whole new set of levels designed to bring a bit of clarity and answer some of the questions raised in the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. But what are you going to see in the expansion, set for release in early 2008? <For a start you’ll be able to research and explore new areas of the Zone – Red Forest, Limansk, Pripyat Undergrounds and more. The A-Life-driven Factions War has been enhanced and now it’s possibleto play and lead any faction to victory. In fact, the whole A-Life system has had an overhaul to give much more varied behaviour of NPC stalkers in the A-Life world with improved AI of computer-controlled characters.
This is a key point of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky pack with AI now skirting around dynamic obstacles by NPCs and able to do far more such as use grenades. Travel, a big bugbear of the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has been improved to be much faster and the concept of detectors, artifacts and anomalies have all been given a revamp.
There’s a new system of upgrades for weapons and armour and also of weapons and armour repair. The interface has had some work done too to give you a better HUD and PDA.
And if that little lot weren’t enough, the entire game is running on the new X-Ray 1.5 game engine which adds in a DirectX 10 renderer, improved DirectX 9 renderer with parallax bump, soft particles, depth of field, motion blur, eye adaptation effect. And even then you’ve still got inverse kinematics (whatever the hell they are) and a new animation engine to look forward to.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky will be out on PC sometime in early 2008.