The Eurogamer TV Show - Episode 4

Published 30 November, 2006 Duration 25:19

Exclusive behind-the-scenes amusement at ultra-secretive development legend Rare, creator of the joyous Viva Pinata; and a chilling journey into the heart of the Chernobyl disaster zone to uncover the mystery behind PC FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Comments (51) Latest comment 6 years ago

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  • The12thMonkey #1 6 years ago

    Good show. Pinata does look pretty decent. Shame my game buying moneys for the next few months are already spoken for.

  • Heitzu #2 6 years ago

    Why am I only getting the first 11:57 mins of this?
    Just to clarify its end of the progress bar is 11:57 not that it stopped streaming it.

    Thanks for that Pat
    strange thing is the first time it just stopped at 11:57 and that was it no advert loaded, second worked though so thanks for letting me know otherwise I would have missed that great feature.
    Edited by Heitzu at 30/11/06 @ 20:16

  • patlike #3 6 years ago

    Let the player carry on after the first 11:57. You'll get a Viva Pinata ad then the STALKER feature. It's worth waiting for. I was on that trip, and watching it's a little "odd," to say the least.

  • dsmx #4 6 years ago

    The main reason why rare will never make another goldeneye is simply because all the people that made that game left to join other companies such as free radical.

  • Banjax #5 6 years ago

    First half was nice though pretty much a complete re-run of the article we had a few days ago. To be expected, I suppose, but a little disappointing all the same.

    Now I'm stuck with a 'now bufferring' message...

  • JSD124 #6 6 years ago

    This stuff should be on the telly, seriously.

  • barkholt #7 6 years ago

    Did you notice that the Rare developers has an Amiga 500 setup in the background? I wonder what they might be using that for :)

  • Wabe #8 6 years ago

    Aaargh!

    Seeing the progress bar at the end, I clicked here for the comments. Now I see I've missed half of it have to sit through it buffering all the first half again in order for it to 'run through'.

    Irritating.

  • Wabe #9 6 years ago

    Hells Bells - it's taking all night to re-buffer the 11 minutes 57 seconds I've already seen!

    Sodding adverts FTL :(

  • funkstar #10 6 years ago

    sprinkle bitch, heh

  • Dabs #11 6 years ago

    So that's what my biology teacher's, Mrs. Kirkhope, husband looks like.

  • firm3d #12 6 years ago

    Wishlist for the Eurogamer TV Show - RSS feeds for iPod, PSP and a higher resolution one too. Likely/possible?

    EDIT - I should say by "RSS feed" I mean something suitable for media aggregation tools like iTunes or Democracy.
    Edited by firm3d at 30/11/06 @ 21:59

  • englishmen #13 6 years ago

    Great show, any chance of making it Democracy Player compatible?

    Thanks

    Edit: Damn it i think i need my eyes checked, i didn't see the above post.
    Edited by englishmen at 30/11/06 @ 22:09

  • YourMessageHere #14 6 years ago

    Although I didn't find the Viva Pinata bit interesting I was happy to sit through it and the middle advert (why did you do that?) for the Stalker feature.

    Overall a good article. However, excuse my probably inaccurate paraphrasing but "the fact that the game is limited to PCs only is somewhat perplexing" is not a sensible or wise statement. PCs are as valid a games platform as any other, especially the high-end ones that already surpass the new generation of consoles in power terms, for which this game is primarily designed and which the majority of FPS players will own.

    I for one am glad this is PC only; trying to create a game that can be easily ported to a pad-based machine would make what purports to be a complex game suffer, probably terminally. Not to mention that it would probably have taken another 3 years to release and end up with some vile exclusivity deal that delayed the PC version for another six months after the console release. PCs need killer apps more than any console does at present. Not that this has any chance of being a PC killer app, it's still too low-key.

    Oh, and for the love of god will someone tell me whether STALKER has co-op? That will make it twice as good, however good it eventually turns out to be.

  • Donny #15 6 years ago

    Great show! Viva Pinata looks good, but that Stalker preview was great.

  • patlike #16 6 years ago

    We are looking at downloadable versions for iPod and PSP, as well as general downloads of the Show, for '07. Glad you're enjoying it so far, though :)

  • JohnnyM Verified , Eurogamer.net #17 6 years ago

    YourMessageHere - That's not quite what I meant. The point I was making was that, after so much effort on GSC's part, it seems a shame the game is only coming to a single platform, thus limiting the potential audience.

    I'm not casting aspersions on PC as a gaming format - simply suggesting that it's a bit short-sighted, in the current climate, not to cover both PC and console, when the game would likely work well on both.

    Mark Rein, for instance, laid into EA and Crysis for the very same reason when I spoke to him at Leipzig. His point was: is it good business sense to release a game that would work well on console and PC solely on the latter?

    Either way, Oleg's comments suggest that, if the PC version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. shifts decent numbers, there will be a console version...
    Edited by JohnnyM at 30/11/06 @ 23:55

  • rauper Verified Managing Director, Eurogamer Network #18 6 years ago

    Tip: You can skip to the 2nd half of the show by clicking the "Next" button without having to buffer the first half of the show...

  • Gurrah #19 6 years ago

    Why is it perversed that PC gamers can enjoy an exclusive title? We had to wait for certain games longer than expected because consoles had to stick their neck in and delay the release - and console developers do the same thing all the time. There are more exclusive console titles out there than PC titles and, let's face it, almost every conversion from console to PC has been daft, whereas devlopers always take their time to adapt games to the console environment. I think Stalker will be a great game and I am happy it'll be controlled by mouse and keyboard.

    Oh and thx @EG for featuring some PC games on the EG TV-show at last :).
    Edited by Gurrah at 01/12/06 @ 07:19

  • username #20 6 years ago

    Good work, folks. I only managed to watch the first half before my boss got into work but this is like a proper TV show! :p

    I was wondering about the Amiga as well; can anyone explain why it's on his desk? I know there's at least one person here who works for Rare :)

  • strangeed #21 6 years ago

    I loved the Stalker bit, good work there guys. There supporting articles on it are good too. It must have been one hell of a trip!

  • kissthestick #22 6 years ago

    loved the RARE tour/interview, cool guys.


    cant wait for Banjo 3 :D

  • Banjax #23 6 years ago

    Seen the second half now (thanks for the tip, rauper). Fascinating stuff - and I'm not even a PC gamer.

    Keep up the good work!

  • jmctavish #24 6 years ago

    Great show. Hope there's going to be another one soon.

  • chronom4n #25 6 years ago

    I was a little bit moved whe mr. naumov said that he is glad that this game will be a reminder of krypiat. That is life imitating art. I hope that this game succeeds on that level alone. this is one of the few games that people will actually relate to.

  • jozz #26 6 years ago

    Like the previous article the Stalker part was quite interesting and nicely done too. t'was a Good watch.

  • AHiFi #27 6 years ago

    Rare are brilliant in my opinion. Always have been. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. feature was fantastic too. Good show EG.

  • ekko #28 6 years ago

    Best yet?

    Really liked the STAKLER bit, but the gameplay footage left me with mixed feelings. While the Chernobyl setting is very interesting the movement and actual gameplay looked very fixed and static.

    I'll probably pick it up though it reviews well.

  • foxy2006 #29 6 years ago

    i gotta felling that Stalker is gonna rock, even though its its a been aeons in the making
    /crosses fingers

  • YourMessageHere #30 6 years ago

    Fair enough, but it still seems a weird thing to say; usually people seem to make out that exclusivity is a good thing. Is it also a shame that Halo 3 is exclusive to the 360, or Gran Turismo is exclusive to Sony consoles? I'd say it is, but others disagree.

    Anyhow, I can't imagine Stalker working on a console, if it's what I think it is (i.e. more akin to Deus Ex or System Shock 2 than, say, FEAR). I mean, look what happened when they made Deus Ex 2 with consoles in mind; it was so nerfed on PC compared to the first one that I played through most of it by fatally throwing furniture at enemies, FFS.

    Crysis, also, might concievably work on a console, but really FPS games belong on PCs; you can argue your Halo pad layouts all you like, but mouse and keyboard is just superior as an FPS controller scheme. I don't expect Wii Sports on the PC or Dawn of War on the PSP (despite the fact that both could be adapted to work) so why should Mark Rein expect the genre the PC does better than any other platform on other platforms?

    Then again, are you meaning it makes sense in gameplay terms or economic terms? Economically, I dare say you're right, but that's just one more arsed-up game to be given a "could have been better" review. Is it economic sense to release a game on an inappropriate platform?

  • OnlyMe #31 6 years ago

    But what is that Amiga in Rare's office doing there? It looks like the keyboard for an Amiga 4000, and it looks connected to something, but what and where? I need to take a closer look and see if I can spot ther rest.

    EDIT: after a closer look, I can see now that it's an A500. Didn't see the back part of the Amiga 500 at first, so I thought it was an A4000 keyboard. Also, there's a standard television to the right of the LCD Viva Pinata runs on in the background , so I guess they play games on the A500 during breaks. Could also be a source of inspiration.
    Edited by OnlyMe at 01/12/06 @ 18:31

  • JohnnyM Verified , Eurogamer.net #32 6 years ago

    Halo 3 and GT are exclusive to their respective platforms because they are first-party products. (Although you'd expect Halo 3 to end up on PC at some point, of course).

    S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a third-party project, so the only thing holding it back from releasing on other formats is publisher will and consumer demand.

    Depends how good the game proves in the final analysis, but if 360/PS3 owners want it, GSC seems to believe it will work.

    As an aside, one thing that we didn't include in the edit was the topic of DLC - Oleg spoke favourably of Valve's Episode strategy for Half-Life 2, so there's a chance PC owners will see something similar happen with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

  • Nickster #33 6 years ago

    Johnny Minkley, please tell me you are gay. You are one hot little Pinata baby, I want to take a stick and whack the shit out of you...hehehehe....

  • TardKommando #34 6 years ago

    Great stuff. I think the quality of these TV episodes are getting better and better. It's now part of my Saturday morning coffee routine (I am in NZ).

    The excessive alliteration was annoying in the first few but now I look forward to it, just to see how many mashups Mr Minkley may string together.

  • spongebob #35 6 years ago

    Johnny Minkley IS hot. And this show is great. Seriously, EG should ask money for this. I'd subscribe in a whiff.

  • ruairi #36 6 years ago

    Eurogamer + Chernobyl FTW! yay

    Loved the B-movie feel to the stalker report.

  • thefjk #37 6 years ago

    Cooooooooooooool!

    (Edit: unbreaking long word!)
    Edited by thefjk at 02/12/06 @ 13:37

  • X201 #38 6 years ago

    RSS feed please.

  • dk_rare #39 6 years ago

    Excellent EG guys, I was impressed by your article about going into Rare, but the video is amazing! You guys are the best ^_^ Some of you are pretty hot too, looking at that video, unless that was just the cute Rare boys ;)

  • manic_mouse #40 6 years ago

    Another great show. Seems you guys are really hitting your stride. Johnny should be on TV, in fact this show is better than the majority of what passes for videogame TV "shows".

    A podcast version would be awesome!

  • SuperBas #41 6 years ago

    Great episode, really enjoyed it. Keep it up!

  • #42 6 years ago

    Where the fuck is the stalker interview?

  • MrWonderstuff #43 6 years ago

    Yea this and VideoGaiden are the best gaming programmes currently out there.

  • Dizzy #44 6 years ago

    Stalker looks indeed junk now. The dev cycle has also been a total fuck up, I will be surprised if this games makes any significant impact.

  • Bi50N Verified Head of Global Communications, THQ #45 6 years ago

    "Hard to say from the low res game captures here how Stalker holds up visually, but I am a bit underwhelmed by the enemy AI, I have to say"

    I should point out that the enemy Stalkers you can see in the footage are in fact Zombie stalkers, hence the somewhat wooden-looking AI

  • patlike #46 6 years ago

    "Where the fuck is the stalker interview?"

    Start the Rare feature then click on "next". You'll get a Viva Pinata ad. Let the player finish it, and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. feature will run.

  • speedjack #47 6 years ago

    Fantastic show(s).

  • Saii #48 6 years ago

    I'm getting the same problem as other people here. The second half isn't loading.
    Can we get the EGTV divided up into parts? At times I only get about to view 10 mins between studies and I don't like having to buffer the first 10 mins again just to get back to where I left off.

  • Royal Fool #49 6 years ago

    Great show, I don't mind having longer, more focused looks at fewer games. It's a nice alternative from all the hurried and fast-paced game shows around that need to throw as much at you as possible in the shortest timeframe.

    The in-depth reports on Evolution Studios, GSC and Rare have been great. Keep up the good work!