S.T.A.L.K.E.R. release date

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 January, 2007

Delayed FPS gets firm target.

THQ UK has confirmed that S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl will be released on 23rd March in Europe.

The PC-exclusive first-person shooter - first announced toward the end of 2001 - has been the subject of much speculation after repeated delays, although much of its ambitious design remains intact.

Players will explore the deadly Zone around Chernobyl, scene of one of the world's most devastating nuclear accidents nearly 21 years ago, with a full life simulation that introduces depth to areas whether you've visited them or not.

You can read more about it in our most recent preview and interview, and it also featured heavily in episode four of the Eurogamer TV Show, when Johnny and co. ventured to Prypiat.

The US version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is due out on 22nd March.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • krudster #1 5 years ago

    /realises it's three years ago since I went to see this in Kiev.

    Where does my life go?

  • Segnit #2 5 years ago

    There there krudster... we all have a mid life crisis at some point (for me it's at 23).

  • Inspirius #3 5 years ago

    23rd of March 2007 will be exactly three years to the day that I pre-ordered this on Play. If I hadn't used a discount voucher then I probably would have cancelled it ages ago. Still, woo, I suppose.

  • Maldoror #4 5 years ago

    You have a game in development for so many years and then you end up releasing it, on what is possibly the same date for the PS3 European launch and subsequently Halo 3 for the X360.

    Also the game looks kinda "meh" by now.

  • Pike #5 5 years ago

    /realises it's three years ago since I went to see this in Kiev.

    Where does my life go?

    So, a lot of free vodka in Kiev I take it?

  • richardiox #6 5 years ago

    Would I be right in thinking they are still using the engine they developed in 2000/2001? If so would it be a fair assumption to say the game should be very scaleable and should run pretty well on a mid specced system (x800xt, 1gig ram, P4 3.4). At the time of their initial beta builds that rig would have been more than top of the line.

  • space_ace #7 5 years ago

    wow uses a light engine and see what happened...

  • agparrot #8 5 years ago

    You wrote this story because the countdown ticker appeared yesterday on your site - and it's taken all this time to add up all the days?

    ;)

  • Empedocles #9 5 years ago

    Krudster I still has the echoes of the hangover from that trip, man that hurt........................................................ .......................

  • mkreku #10 5 years ago

    I can't help it, but I am really looking forward to this! I just hope it's as open-ended as it sounds! Imagine being able to investigate and explore Chernobyl all by yourself while being hounded by mutants and soldiers! I don't care if the graphics and physics aren't up to the 2007 standard, it's the game world that intrigues me. Let's just hope they haven't cut out all the RPG features they were talking about at the beginning of this ambitious project.

    I can see a Boiling Point in this. Of course, I loved Boiling Point, especially after the 200 MB patch they released for it..

  • Der_tolle_Emil #11 5 years ago

    You wrote this story because the countdown ticker appeared yesterday on your site

    That was my first thought too :)

  • spongebob #12 5 years ago

    Great! I might even buy this game. Hopefully there will be a demo. And hopefully it comes to Steam if it's good.

  • mkreku #13 5 years ago

    Read this on the official STALKER site:

    "Support for all third generation D3D compatible accelerators, optimized for Geforce3 and up"

    Exactly how long has this game been in development for? :p

    Oh well, at least I suspect my X1950XTX will be able to run it quite smoothly.

  • karstux #14 5 years ago

    Let's hope they're not rushing it! ;-)

    Seriously, I can't wait to get my hands on this. Graphics are not everything, as long as the gameplay is fun (and it will be, if they accomplished most of what they set out to do) it'll be well worth buying...

  • UncleLou #15 5 years ago

    People act as if this is looking horrible by today's standards, which strikes me as very weird. Still a decent looking game, really.

    Much more worried about the actual game in this case than the graphics.

  • Artemus #16 5 years ago

    Never thought we'd see this released. What next? DNF? Or maybe not.

  • YourMessageHere #17 5 years ago

    /orders Stalker

    @ mkreku

    I really wanted to like Boiling Point, but the bugs forced me to give it up. How much does the patching fix? Like for example, can I walk 200m from my car before it spontaneously disappears 6m underground? I might give it another go if it's now playable.

  • MaskedDave #18 5 years ago

    Wow, this is lining up to be the best birthday ever! =D

  • mkreku #19 5 years ago

    @YourMessageHere: Yes, you can! The bug fixes so you can have a car standing in every ditch on the road between.. uhh.. I forgot the name of both the towns in Boiling Point. It also fixes performance, makes the cars actually feel like cars when you're driving them, stops the saved games from corrupting, and a billion other things. Boiling Point was an unplayable mess before the patch. After the patch it ran like a dream for me! Together with the multiplayer patch they released for Deus Ex, the Boiling Point patch is the best patch I've ever downloaded. Those 200MB really made a difference.

  • Furos #20 5 years ago

    I still have stalker pre ordered from 2004. From play.com for 17.99. Im really looking forward to stalker now, i was reading it's around 60 hours gameplay with 6-7 different endings.
    Now long now :)

  • YourMessageHere #21 5 years ago

    Hooray! I know what I'm doing on Saturday after my exam then!