The guys over at Eurogamer are reporting that GSC’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is being offered for free through the GameTap on-demand service. Exclusively during this week, PC gamers can check out the RPG-slash-FPS, albeit with a catch: this version of the game is unable to use any mods.

While I cannot comment on the greater awesomeness of the game with its “must have” mods (I beat the game pre-mods, early patch, chock-full-o-bugs and still enjoyed it), I do highly recommend anyone looking for an atmospheric first person shooter with a touch of RPG elements to check this game out. At the very least, you’re getting a full game demo here.

Those interested only need sign-up for the free GameTap client at the website to begin the download procedure.

Also worth noting is that GameTap is currently offering Descent: Freespace, Deus Ex, Hitman: Blood Money and Psychonauts for free.

See you in The Zone, Stalker…

Welcome readers to our weekly edition of GameTap Thursday. Not only will you be getting another dose of American McGee’s Grimm Volume 2 this week, but subscribers are in for a treat with the addition of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and Digby’s Donuts. There is also good news for those who have signed up for the free end of the gaming service, because Tomb Raider Anniversary is free to play for one week only.

Grimm Volume 2, Episode 15: The Pied Piper: The Pied Piper has rid the kingdom of its rat infestation, but when the King gets cheap and refuses to pay for his services–the piper leads the kingdom’s children into the river. How much more nasty can it get? Add that dirty little troll Grimm into the equation and find out for yourself.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl: The landmark first-person shooter with RPG elements from THQ comes to GameTap. Set in the city of Chernobyl after a fictional 2006 nuclear disaster, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a “sandbox” style game, allowing players to explore the large in-game world as they please in a non-linear fashion. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has sold over 2 million copies to date.

Digby’s Donuts: Digby has big plans to become the donut king of North America. He’s starting small, though, just one shop at a time. And he’s got a rather…unique mechanism for sorting and organizing his tasty treats. With your help, his chain will soon span the coast, and America will be up to its ears in donuts — that is, unless you drop too many.

Tomb Raider Anniversary: Eidos celebrates ten years of Tomb Raider by reinventing the original Tomb Raider game with an expanded storyline and levels that have been redesigned from the ground up. Lara also has new abilities and tools not present in the original.

Next week on December 18, Grimm sinks his grubby hands into A Christmas Carol which will be free to play until December 31.  As always, for more information on the over 145 free games from GameTap or how to become a subscriber, check out the official website.

Whoa there, GameTap; I think I need a minute. You’re telling me that you’ve partnered up with THQ to bring some of their games to your subscription service? And what’s more, these are actually some of their best titles? I need to sit down…preferably in front of my gaming rig. Yes, GameTap has indeed confirmed a number of cool titles will be making their way to their service this summer, games such as:

• Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War
• Company of Heroes
• Red Faction
• Supreme Commander
• Saints Row 2
• Titan Quest
• Puzzle Quest
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

There’s enough games there to keep you occupied for quite awhile (Puzzle Quest alone may steal a couple weeks off your life). The only out-of-place one on the list seems to be Saints Row 2, since that makes me wonder if the game will hit GameTap the same day it hits retail — like Codemasters did with Jericho.

Via Press Release

There is really not much else for me to tell you about the trailer other than what the title of this post already has, therefore, stop reading this and watch the trailer for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky.

You can expect S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky to be made available on August 29 for the PC via Steam and local gaming retailers.

We’re just a few days away from this year’s E3, and while this week’s 1UP Show of course packs in plenty of E3 predictions, that’s not all there is. 1UP’s Shane Bettenhausen was fortunate enough to visit Guerrilla where Killzone 2 is in development. In addition to getting the tour treatment, he got to speaking with several of the developers and nabbed some exclusive, never-before-seen gameplay that you can see on the show.

If you’re more of a PC gamer, perhaps the prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is of some interest to you? S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky was on display for several of the guys from 1UP and it’s definitely looking pretty hot.

All of that is on this week’s 1UP Show, which you can stream on GameVideos right here, or download from any of the links below. Oh, and just a heads-up — next week, there will be three installments of the 1UP Show on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. You can count on there being some cool stuff on there, directly from E3, so stay tuned.

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The latest trailer for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky was recently released, and it shows off the atmosphere of the game. We apparently missed this over the long holiday weekend, but here it is nonetheless.

Game features:

• Atmosphere of the Exclusion Zone
• Research of new depths of the Zone – Red Forest, Limansk, Pripyat Undergrounds and more
• A-Life-driven Factions War
• Possibility to play and lead any faction to victory
• Advanced A-Life system
• Varied behaviour of NPC stalkers in the A-Life world
• Advanced spectacular storyline scenes
• Improved AI of computer-controlled characters
• Skirting around dynamic obstacles by NPCs
• Use of grenades by NPCs
• Fast Travel
• Improved concept of detectors, artifacts and anomalies
• New system of upgrades for weapons and armor
• Weapons and armor repair
• Reworked HUD and PDA
• New version of the game engine – X-Ray 1.5
• DirectX 10 renderer
• Improved DirectX 9 renderer – parallax bump, soft particles, depth of field, motion blur, eye adaptation effect
• Cutting-edge and detailed game graphics (normal map)
• Inverse kinematics
• New animation engine

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky will be made available on August 29 for the PC via Steam and local gaming retailers.

Thanks to a link provided by VG247, we now have a list of developers confirmed for E3 2008 along with what titles they will be showing off at the event. While the list is still updated regularly, as of this post, this is what you can expect should you be attending.

Akella
Postal III (PC, X360)

Bethesda Softworks
Fallout 3 (PC, PS3, X360)

Capcom
Bionic Commando (PC, PS3, X360)
Bionic Commando Rearmed (PC, PS3, X360)
Capcom Project #1 [untitled] (other)
Capcom Project #2 [untitled] (other)
Dark Void (PC, PS3, X360)
MotoGP 08 (other)
Neopets Puzzle Adventure (PC, Wii)
Plunder (PC, PS3, X360)
Resident Evil 5 (PS3, X360)
Spyborgs (Wii)
Street Fighter IV (PC, PS3, X360)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3, X360)

For the full list, hit the jump.

Read the full article

GSC Game World developers have been talking about creating an MMO based on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. According to VideoGamer.com, GSC Game World’s Oleg Yavorsky said that the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. team is “considering different options,” which may include collaborating with a studio with MMO experience, but “hasn’t started anything there yet.”

“We also looked into that side and again it’s a totally different type of development which we don’t have experience of yet,” he said. “We’re considering different options there for development with someone who already has big experience of that. But so far we haven’t started anything there yet.”

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl and its upcoming prequel, Clear Sky, are open world survival horror first person shooters with RPG elements. The combination has proved very successful and seems well suited to transitioning to an MMO setting. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky is due out August 29.

via VideoGamer.com

Publisher Deep Silver has announced that it will be bringing GSC Game World’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Clear Sky to North America. The prequel to the first person survival shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky promises hybridized FPS, RPG and survival horror gameplay with both single and multiplayer modes.

“The buzz surrounding this game is phenomenal,” said Cathy Tische, vice president of sales and marketing for Deep Silver. “We’re excited to let people know that it’ll be available here at the same time as the rest of the world.”

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Clear Sky is due out August 29, 2008 on DVD and Steam.

via RPGWatch