A new S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow Of Chernobyl patch has been released, updating the game to v1.0004. The update adds a standalone dedicated server to the game, while offering multiplayer and singleplayer bug fixes and tweaks. There's also a promise of an FPS increase of 10 to 15% thanks to some engine optimizations. If you have the non-US release, download the patch here. ... Read more

Computer & Video Games has part one and part two of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Q&A, asking project lead Anton Bolshakov about the rocky development of this action game.

GSC Game World today announced that following the success of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, more games based on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe are on the way. The company plans to announce these products at July's E3 Media & Business Summit.

"We are very happy of the players' positive reaction to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. all over the world. This fills us with confidence the team is on the right track and adds us strength to go for next exciting accomplishments. It will be very soon that we present our new interesting ideas and solutions," said GSC Game World CEO Sergiy Grygorovych.

THQ has issued the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 1.0003 patch, updating US and European releases of the game. There are patches to update the original game, as well as 1.0001 release (if you have that one installed your save games will be preserved). The 1.0003 release offers more bug and crash fixes, plus the 16:9 aspect ratio now works correctly.

When reports surfaced earlier this month that GSC Game World's recently released S.T.A.L.K.E.R. shares numerous assets with games such as Valve's Half-Life 2 and id Software's Doom 3, some pointed to the possibility that S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s developers could have obtained the textures from a common source rather than directly from the other two games. According to observations by a reader of tech site The Inquirer as well as other internet detectives, that is indeed the case. The common source in question appears to be Marlin Studios, a company that offers pre-made texture packs in a variety of themes, intended for use in video games and movies.

"Take your graphics to a new level!" promises Marlin Studios' site. "Select from our world-famous professional quality libraries of Premium 3D Models and Seamless Textures, or purchase a moneysaving pack deal."

According to today's report, several of the textures found to have been shared between the three games were indeed confirmed to be included in various Marlin Studios texture packs. Amongst its clients, Marlin Studios lists Doom 3 publisher Activision, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. publisher THQ, and Half-Life 2 developer Valve Software.

This week, threads have started showing up on various forums containing what appears to be evidence that GSC Game World's recently released shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl makes use of a number of graphical assets taken directly from commercially released games such as Valve's Half-Life 2 and id Software's Doom 3. Many forum posters are speculating that the assets were used without authorization.

One of the first threads to be made regarding the matter was posted to the MapCore forums; the thread creator, user michi.be, posted screen captures allegedly comparing the light image folders from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to those of Doom 3 (all screen captures locally mirrored). Tellingly, though some of the images had been modified in various ways, such as having hue or saturation adjustments, the original filenames from the Doom 3 folders remained the same--for example, a file with the Doom-esque name "lights_impflash.dds," referring to one of the game's enemies, was visually modified in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. folder but retained the filename.

Later in the same thread, user Johnny posted an image allegedly comparing a water texture from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to a water texture from Half-Life 2. As in the Doom 3 case, the images were nearly identical and the filename was unchanged with the exception of its extension.

Responding to inquiries made by Shacknews, id Software CEO Todd Hollshead stated:

I've seen a post on a web forum that claims DOOM3 assets are used in another game, but we've been working hard on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars as well as our own internal project and have not had the time to fully investigate or otherwise verify that the claim is true. Only from what I've seen on the Web, it's concerning. However, it may turn out to be nothing. Nevertheless, it would be improper to make any decision about a course of action until we find out whether the claim is true, and what assets from DOOM3, if any, have potentially been used.

Hollenshead's reply suggests that if S.T.A.L.K.E.R. developer GSC Game World did in fact make use of id Software assets, it was not done with id's consent. Shacknews has also contacted Valve and GSC on the matter, but neither party had responded at the time this story was published.

The first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. patch has been released over at FileShack. The list of fixes is huge so just click 'more details' on the file page. This patch will break your save games!

If you already managed to grab S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and need help getting through the game, there's a game guide on GameSpot. It offers a walkthrough, and combat tips.

Computer & Video Games and GameSpot have posted the latest S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Q&As, C&VG completing their three part feature and GameSpot asking about anomalies and artifacts.

New at Computer & Video Games today is part two of their S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Q&A. GSC's Oleg Yavorsky is asked about the game's day & night cycles, game scripting, and weapons.

Computer & Video Games has posted part one of a new S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Q&A, asking PR manager Oleg Yavorsky about the action RPG that's due out later this month.

Atomic Gamer is the latest site with a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl preview, offering multiplayer impressions. We recently posted our singleplayer impressions.

GameSpot and 1UP have new S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl previews, checking out the game at a THQ press event. Update: FiringSquad has impressions as well.

At THQ's Gamer Day event on Thursday night in San Francisco, THQ worldwide publishing executive VP Kelly Flock announced that development on GSC Game World's incredibly long awaited S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl has wrapped, with discs ready to go into production. The game is now set for release this month. Originally titled the easier-to-type Oblivion Lost--when it looked like this--the game has been in the works for well over five years.

THQ distributed a batch of screenshots at the event--now the game looks like this.

Update: For those hungry for any further S.T.A.L.K.E.R. media, here are three pre-rendered shots courtesy of THQ.

GameSpot has the latest S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl preview, offering multiplayer impressions. The article also includes a Q&A with Dmitry Yasenev and Ruslan Didenko about the game's five factions, mutant creatures and AI.

GameSpy has the latest S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl preview posted, going hands-on with the multiplayer beta. IGN has impressions as well. GSC Game World's action game is due out next month.

Here are six more screenshots from S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, which is due out in a few weeks.

FiringSquad is the latest site with a S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl preview, going hands-on with a beta build of the long awaited action game. Look for it in stores in about a month.

There's a brief S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Update Q&A on FiringSquad, asking Oleg Yavorsky about the final stages of development of this upcoming action game.

GameSpot has a new S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Q&A this evening. Project lead Anton Bolshakov talks AI, multiplayer and more.