A 421MB benchmark tool for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (PC) is now available on FileShack, offering insight into how your system will cope with the post-apocalyptic trappings of GSC Game World's DirectX 11-enabled shooter-RPG.

The benchmark cycles through four stages--day, night, rain, and bright sun--with an online leaderboard allowing users to upload and compare their performance scores.

Picking up after the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and prequel Clear Sky, Call of Pripyat is now available in German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) will hit both North America and the rest of Europe in Q1 2010.

Thanks to Shacker rms for the heads up.

To demonstrate S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat's support of DirectX 11, publisher bitComposer has issued some new screenshots from GSC Game World's latest.

Explained bitComposer: "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat will support two of the most important features of DirectX 11: 'tessellation' and 'compute shaders.'"

The creepy post-apocalyptic PC action-RPG hits German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) in November, then Europe and North America in Q1 2010.

The post-apocalyptic S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has always been suitably creepy, and judging by this trailer, the stand-alone sequel Call of Pripyat looks to continue that lineage.

Taking place after the events of Shadow of Chernobyl, Pripyat players will represent the Ukraine Security Service, sent on a mission to discover what exactly went wrong in the Zone. Answer: everything.

Pripyat hits the PC this fall.

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Shackvideo users can use the HD Stream.

Journey into the nuclear wasteland with a new S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat trailer, showing a sampling of the gorgeous landscapes and mutated monstrosities set to thrill and chill when GSC Game World's action RPG sequel hits PC this fall.

Please install Flash to view this Shackvideo

Shackvideo users can use the HD Stream.

Developer GSC Game World has launched the official site for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, revealing new screenshots and the system requirements of the action-RPG. Following up on the events of the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. entry, 2007's Shadow of Chernobyl, Pripyat continues the post-apocalyptic PC shooter series with new options this fall.

Minimum System Requirements

• Intel Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz / AMD XP 2200+... Read more

GSC Game World, developer of the post-apocalyptic shooters S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and the prequel Clear Sky, today announced a new game in the series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (PC). Pripyat will pick up where the original game left off. Players will take on the role of an agent in the Ukraine Security Service, sent into the Zone to collection information on a failed military operation.

The title is slated for release in fall 2009. Check below for a list of features:... Read more

Developer GSC Game World has apparently revealed plans to release a second stand-alone S.T.A.L.K.E.R. expansion and a full-fledged sequel to the action-RPG.

The expansion, subtitled Call of Pripyat, is due out later this year, according to ClanBase and TTLG. Both sites, originally noticed by Blue's News, cite the same Russian language interview with GSC Game World president Sergey Grigorovitch.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was also mentioned as being in the works, but no details were offered.

The post-apocalyptic first-person role-playing series premiered in 2007 with S.T.A.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl in 2007, followed in 2008 by prequel Clear Sky. While the franchise has only hit PC thus far, GSC is a licensed Xbox 360 developer.