S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Cancelled
polycounter lvl 7
Hi, STALKER 2 has been offically cancelled 
One of my fav games
I hope they will find some investor to continue on game
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/04/25/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-cancelled.aspx
One of my fav games
I hope they will find some investor to continue on game
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/04/25/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-cancelled.aspx
Replies
Yep, it's a bummer. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the series. Great fun exploring, enjoying the forests, junk piles, anomalies, etc.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE !!!!
But it wouldn't be made by the Stalker devs - I don't get too excited when new studios without any of the original dev team pick up a beloved franchise.
wow, that's a little harsh.
I'm sure it would be a fine game - much like Eidos Montreal handling Deus Ex: Human Revolution - but it was only kind of a Deus Ex game, or how Fallout 3 didn't really have the same.... essence? soul? as the original Fallout games.
Plus, lack of consistency across the game in terms of questing, quality and voice work was also breaking, not to mention all those nifty 'fun' elements people talk about such as how with 1 IQ everyone would threat you like a brute with certain penalties applied, are infact far and apart at most, you could progress through the game easily, same with most modern RPG games.
It doesn't help also that the entire system of the games was broken, you do one quest, you better do it at a certain time after having spoken a certain amount of times to certain people, or else you won't be able to get part 2 of the quest.
In other words, before saying that Beth will 'fail' with STALKER, remember that STALKER has kinda the same history as Fallout, as in half of the bugs weren't fixed until someone released a small 200KB patch to fix the shadows, and most likely the game can only improve later on, if another company with a fresh set of eyes takes a look at it.
Am I saying that STALKER or the old FO games were bad? No, but they're sure as hell weren't the gems people claim them to be, they only stand out due to nostalgia and because they did something 'cool' during their time.
There's a lot to be said for games that did something awesome during their time - without that innovation other, better funded games wouldn't have had the leg up to do it elsewhere - cause lord knows most of those games are funded by suits that are terrified of trying something new or original if it's untested by an lesser paid innovator who risked everything to make it work as well as they could.
Bethesda can make great games, difficulty is not one of their fortes however, neither is atmosphere, imo.
I just have absolutely no faith in that they would adapt and stay true to the previous stalker games style and gameplay.
Part of the charm of the STALKER games is how each new one included some kind of import of new graphics tech, or how they randomly spoke Russian, or how it was brutally difficult at times, judging by Bethesdas post Morrowind track-record none of these things would be kept in the sequel.
No offence to the artists or designers or anyone in Bethesda, seriously. I just don't think STALKER is something that would fit Bethesda, judging by their previous games.
Either give it to Vostok or 4A or let it die.
I feel like monkey wrenching the Stalker format into the Fallout mold would be a shame, but I think Bethesda is smarter than that. Time and time again they have shown they can take an IP and make it better, while still keeping the core fan base. If there is any collective of developers out there I trust, Its Bethesda.
Didn't consider this, if they somehow could acquire some of the old STALKER folks who haven't gone to 4A or Vostok, that'd be great.
COME BACK HERE, STALKER!
...as for people suggesting that Bethesda try and continue the series, I would rather it fade away.
The raw appeal and vividness of STALKER - just like Metro 2033 - is that the people making those environments and stories have lived under the former Soviet Union and the successor republics. That's an extremely unique life experience, seeped in various tiny details, that those of us who didn't live behind the Iron Curtain and its immediate aftermath just can't equate to - or hope to recreate.
Compare the Pripyat level in Modern Warfare to how much more detailed, believable and authentic the depictions in STALKER were. All the small details and self-consistent logic and little stories in the environments that you wouldn't even think to include unless you had actually lived it, but all of those together are what make the world click.
Those games simply had to be made by Ukrainians and Muscovites for them to work. They had to be made by people who have lived those places. Bethesda can't do it.
It could've definitely been something more, but they seemed to have saved that for what would've been stalker 2 as they were making several expansion titles, if anything bethesda knows how to do big open worlds.
I think I could could the amount of mmofps'es out there even if it was just a stump, we can definitely use more of those.
Especially since they would want it to work on consoles... :P
If I may make a wild speculation, Human Head just had an open world FPS game cancelled. They reside under the Bethesda banner. Seems like a fair possibility that they might wind up with the STALKER license. If I had my druthers though, I'd prefer Arkane to have a shot at it once they're done with Dishonored. I think they've probably got the chops to pull off a decent STALKER game, at least more so than any of the other developers that do work for Bethesda Softworks.
Stalker is a beloved franchise?
I honestly would have never thought that.
I actually thought I were pretty nice there.
Side note, a Bethesda game will never actually fail in sales, just like how a CoD game will never fail in sales.
Pros for Bethesda making a Stalker game
1. Larger areas to travel in, The biggest downside (besides the bugs) in the current stalker games are that the areas are pretty small if you think about it. They have really jammed(Don't remember the correct word) in all the locations. Since Bethesda is used to making big open games this shouldn't be to hard for them.
2. It might get easier to mod, if Bethesda create a similar tool as they have for Morrowind/Oblivion and Skyrim which is just bonus points as people could then expand upon the Stalker world. This has it's downsides and upsides.
Cons for Bethesda making a Stalker game
1. Just as GSC Game World got a reputation for releasing broken games Bethesda has one as well. The Stalker franchise don't need a new company starting over and creating bugged games. Once again the fans will probably end up having to fix the game instead of the developers until the create DLC or a new expansion.
2. Bethesda has a bad reputation to hire famous voice actors and few of them. A Stalker game needs to have Russian/Ukrainian voice actors and not American ones as it would ruin the atmosphere talking to anyone.
3. I don't know how many people from Russia Bethesda has under their wings, but I doubt they will be capable of recreating the same atmosphere previous games had. This is the biggest issue since the Stalker fans loves the atmosphere, kill it and the game will fail. If they wanted to create a Stalker game they should have bought the company or hired must of the people that are left and let them work in peace without interference from Bethesda.
4. Bethesda will port the game to consoles so the game will have to be dumbed down so every console player can handle it. If Bethesda handles Stalker like how they handled Skyrim I'm sure that no Stalker fans will want to play nor buy the game.
5. Bethesda understanding of difficulty curve is increasing the health pool of your enemies by ludacris levels. Price example is Skyrim, increasing the difficulty just increases the enemies health pools (my mage with hes best spell could barely scratch regular enemies.) in the Stalker franchise a head shoot is a head shoot. You can kill most enemies with a single head shoot (non mutants) unless they are wearing heavy armor. If Bethesda makes a Stalker game this will be screwed up and increasing it will make enemies capable of tanking snipers shoots to the head without a problem. The Stalker franchise is meant to be hard, but fucking fair, Bethesda don't even know what the fucking word fair means.
6. A Stalker game requires the player to be immersed as hell, I have never been immersed by a game Bethesda has made or released since Morrowind. Prime example Skyrim. Saving the world and the plebs will still look down on you, become the Arch-mage and they will still tell you to join the Magic school (don't remember the name), even wearing the arch-mage robe does jack shit.
No, Bethesda will never create a Stalker game and yes if they did it would be a big commercial hit. So move along people, there is nothing to see here. Yes I rather see the franchise die then let Bethesda touch it. Maybe even let the fans create their own Stalker game, I'm pretty sure there are some hardcore Stalker fans that would be up to the task.