STALKER: Clear Sky already on the shelves

So, gentlemen, waited. A game called Stalker: Clear Skies appeared on torrent store shelves!

The long-awaited continuation of the game (and to be more precise, the prehistory) STALKER: Shadow of the Chernobyl finally came out, and, despite all sorts of gossip and spam of detractors, did not suffer the same fate as the first part of the game (as you know, it was developed five years old). Well, let's start a review of the new game from GSC Game World.

Here is what the official sources say about this gaming product:
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For the first time, a group of stalkers came close to the very heart of the Zone - the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, provoking a cataclysm that almost led to a catastrophe. The grandiose Discharge of anomalous energy changes the Zone. There are no more tested and relatively safe roads. Whole levels disappear in the splashes of anomalies.



Stalkers and even expeditions are dying or trapped in the missing territories. New territories, about which nothing has been known since the appearance of the Zone, appear on the Zone map. Emissions continue to shake the zone. The zone is unstable. Anomalous activity is maximal.



Changes to the well-known stalkers map of the Zone upsets the fragile balance of power in the Zone. Enmity for new territories, fields of artifacts and spheres of influence flares up between the groups. No more old enemies or friends - now every man for himself. Between the factions began the war of factions.



The main character is a mercenary, who by the will of fate turned out to be at the very edge of the confrontation between the stalker factions, the Strelok and even the Zone itself. The main character will play a major role in the events that led the history of the Zone to the point where the original STALKER game begins.



What awaits stalkers in the opened depths of the Zone? What new dangers lurk in new territories? Why are emissions shaking the Zone? Why has the Zone changed? How to eliminate its instability? Which faction will prevail in the opposition groups? Why did the Shooter hit the death truck? What happened to Strelok before? Was there another choice? You will find the answer to these and many other questions in the official prequel “STALKER: Clear Sky”.

Game features:

- Atmosphere of the Exclusion Zone.
- Studies of the new depths of the Zone - Red Forest, Limansk, Pripyat Undergrounds and others.
- Simulation Gang War.
- Ability to play and lead to the victory of any group.
- Modified life simulation system.
- Diverse behavior of stalkers-NPC in the simulation.
- A new level of entertainment plot scenes.
- Improved artificial intelligence of computer opponents.
- Bypassing dynamic obstacles computer characters.
- Use NPC grenades.
- Fast Travel.
- Improved concept of detectors, artifacts and anomalies.
- A new system of upgrades of weapons and armor.
- Repair of weapons and armor.
- Redesigned HUD and PDA.
- The new version of the game engine X-Ray 1.5.
- DirectX 10 render.
- Modified DirectX 9 render - parallax bump, soft particles, depth of field, motion blur, eye adaptation effect.
- High-tech and detailed game graphics (normal map).
- Inverse kinematics.
- New animation engine.

Below is a video very well demonstrating the gameplay of the game:


The system requirements of this game, as I think, encouraged some to improve their iron horses a little:

Minimum system requirements:

Windows 2000 SP4 / XP / Vista;
Pentium IV 2 GHz / Athlon XP 2000+;
512 MB of RAM;
10 GB of free hard disk space;
DirectX 9.0c - compatible graphics card with 128 MB memory;
Sound card;
DirectX 9.0c;

Recommended system requirements:

Windows XP / Vista;
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 / Athlon 64 X2 4200+;
1.5 GB of RAM;
10 GB of free hard disk space;
DirectX 9.0c - compatible 256 MB memory card;
Sound card;
DirectX 9.0c;

Below is a set of links, passing on which you yourself can learn more about this game:

Google
Clear sky official website (en)
Information about Clear sky (ru)
Clear sky in Wikipedia (ru)
Clear sky on ag.ru
Clear sky on OZON.ru