S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky

• Developer(s) GSC Game World
• Publisher(s) Deep Silver (Koch Media)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, is the prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, a first-person shooter computer game by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World. The game consists of a roughly 50/50 mix of new areas and old, remodeled areas from the previous game. The X-ray graphics engine has been updated to version 1.5 and includes DirectX 10 support (later patch 1.5.06 included DirectX 10.1). Additionally, the AI received an overhaul to accommodate the new faction wars feature.

Plot

Year 2011. Five years passed since the Second Disaster, which eclipsed the events of April 1986. The Zone is shaken by frequent and powerful blowouts, which move anomaly fields, opening new routes to previously inaccessible locations. Stalker factions fight for the new territories and key points. A lot of stalkers die, but newbies keep on arriving.

Gameplay

This game combines elements of survival horror (ammo scavenging, frightening atmosphere with powerful monsters), first-person shooters ("twitch-based" aiming, with a first person perspective), and RPGs (inventory management, quests, character interaction, armors and defense stats).

The most significant gameplay addition since Shadow of Chernobyl is the faction wars system. Different factions will struggle for territory, attacking to gain territory and then defending to keep it, while others then try to retake it. The player will be able to join and help factions in their battles. The stronger a faction becomes, the better equipment the traders can provide and their soldiers can use. The player character is a mercenary, and may do missions for any faction, or remain completely neutral, without consequence. Each of the main factions provide services, most importantly access to a trader and an engineer.

While Scar is always aligned with Clear Sky, and his ultimate goal is to defeat Strelok, he can fight against or ally with the four other factions in the Zone (Loners, Duty, Freedom and Bandits). The Swamp-dwelling Renegade or the Military factions cannot be joined. Careful choice of faction alignment needs to be considered in some parts of the story, for it may be difficult to progress further if the Stalker the player is interacting with is hostile, has needed information or is essential to triggering the next stage.

Other gameplay advancements since the first game include a deepened weapon customization system with the ability to repair damaged gear. Anomalies are harder to notice and now contain the artifacts in the game, which require a detector to locate. NPCs are given the ability to use hand grenades, take cover dynamically and use "blind-fire" techniques. Light machine guns have been introduced. There are NPC guides in the zone that will provide fast-travel for a fee. Emissions occur on an infrequent basis, requiring the player to take cover in a building pointed out by the PDA. If not adequately concealed, the player can die.

• Recommended requirements:
- Windows XP (Service Pack 2)/Windows 2000 SP4
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 / AMD 64 X2 4200+-
- RAM: 1.5 GiByte
- 10 GByte free hard drive space
- 256 MiByte Direct X 9.0c compatible graphics card / GeForce 7900 / Radeon X1950

• Optimal requirements:
- Windows XP (Service Pack 2)/Windows 2000 SP4
- Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6700 / AMD 64 X2 5200+
- RAM: 2 GiByte
- 10 GByte free hard drive space
- 512 MiByte Direct X 9.0c compatible graphics card / GeForce 8800 / Radeon X2900

• Extreme requirements:
- Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 required)
- Processor type: Intel Core2 Duo E8500 / AMD 64 X2 6000+
- RAM: 4 GiByte
- 10 GByte free hard drive space
- Direct X 10 compatible graphics card with 512 MiByte VRAM / Geforce 9800 GX2 / Radeon HD 3870 X2

Cryostasis: The Sleep of Reason
Developer: Action Forms
Publisher: 505 Games

The scenario of the game us goes back to 1981. A gigantic ship of the Soviet Union, name North wind, sailing close in the North Pole with mission to opens the way in refrigerated ocean for smaller commercial vessels. This is a huge scale ship, which fed with individual energy while capable even to cope adverse conditions prevailing in the region. The North wind has stuck from unknown cause, in ice and has lost the contact with the members of the crew. The player assume the role of Alexander nesterov, a Russian μετεωρολόγου, who has to find the ship and to reveal the true around the mysterious disappearance of Steel beast AND THE TRIBUNAL DE GRANDE crew.

Apart from the resistance to polar temperatures, nesterov equipped with a special capacity, the mental ECHO, which may penetrate the memories those experienced terrible death, traveling back in time and changing the actions which led the person (or plasma) in this. Thus, during the game had to be doing enough travel in the past to save several of the occupants, with its technical trial and error, unfortunately, not absent.

During the course of the game, we will be faced with deformed and angry sailors, appalling creatures and particularly σκληροτράχυλους leaders (bosses). The biggest danger we are going to deal with, however, is the cold. Our primary objective is to find a source of heat, either this is one alight lamp, or a generator, or even one as tube, with a view to raising for some of the temperature of Nesterov.

Minimum system requirements
CPU: AMD 3000+ or Intel equivalent
DRAM: 1GB
Graphics card: AMD/ATI Radeon 9800 pro or nVidia 6800GT
HDD space: unknown
Sound card: DirectX 9 compatible
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000

Recommended system requirements
CPU: AMD x2 5600+ or Intel CoreDuo 6400
DRAM: 2GB
Graphics card: AMD/ATI Radeon 2900 HD or nVidia 8880 GTS
HDD space: unknown
Sound card: DirectX 9 or 10 compatible
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP or Vista