Ales@GSC

YouTube video by GSC Game World S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl — Night of the Hunter Showcase | Update 1.6

Hey guys, we just released the next major patch for S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 that includes Night Vision goggles, stealth gameplay improvements, offset aiming, and a lot more! Read full patch notes here -
store.steampowered.com/news/app/164...

youtu.be/0naul_67_Jw

Lastly, here are some notable ads from this issue

#PCGI

This issue also featured some excellent reviews of games such as Crusader: No Remorse, Phantasmagoria, Worms, and Witchaven

Meanwhile, a lot of PC Zone readers in 1995 were understandably annoyed that their expensive PCs were becoming outdated so fast. Some of them were complaining about developers prioritizing grachics and chasing trends like "interactive movies" (FMV) over focusing on the gameplay.

December 1995 issue of PC Zone magazine is notable for many reasons. One of them is an infamous cover featuring Destruction Derby promo. The other is an article about how difficult it was to run Doom on PC hardware of the time. 60FPS in Doom became achievable only 2 years after its original release.

Yeah, I wouldn't have complained if BF6 devs themselves hadn't bragged about how "our destruction is better than in any other game". It's just not true - from what I saw in beta, it's not even better than in some older Battlefield games.

I was going to retire from MP games myself, but The Finals brought me back. This game is basically what I expected to be the next big thing in the 10s - more interactivity, physics, and fully destructible maps. It's baffling that it took so long, and The Finals is still an outlier in this regard.

Battlefield 6 beta made me realize that I can't take seriously anymore MP games with only partial environment demolition. Playing it after The Finals with its total destruction just made me frustrated every time I used rocket launcher in BF6. It does look great overall, but gameplay is not for me.

I reinstalled Dawn of War - Soulstorm recently, and was disappointed to discover UI scaling issues. So when Relic announced Definitive Edition, I knew it was a sign. So far had a blast playing this masterpiece again at 4K/240FPS. Hope they'll continue updating it and add achievements and other stuff

Bonus trivia from the same issue. Apparently, back in 1995, PC Zone added a porn WAD for Doom on their cover CD "due to a problem that was beyond their control". Despite apologizing for this "incident", it didn't stop them from advertising back issues availability right on the same page.

In June 1995 issue of PC Zone magazine, I noticed how many people struggled to keep up with tech advancements. One guy spent £2000 on 486DX2 computer that became obsolete in a year. Funnily enough, PC Zone staff blamed "Yanks" for chasing the latest tech when most players couldn't afford it.

#PCGI

I'm happy to share that our team is currently working on updating S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 to UE 5.5.4 engine, extended optimization, A-Life enchantments, Night Vison devices, free additional gameplay content, and a lot more other stuff that is too early to reveal yet!
store.steampowered.com/news/app/164...

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin writing - "You're like free pizza at an anime convention. She can smell you. And she wants to consume you."

I've never played F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin before, so I almost didn't believe my ears when I heard the guy saying this line.

I'm slightly late to the party, but I just played F.E.A.R. 2 for the first time. Not sure what happened, but gunplay (especially shotgun) feels significantly worse than in the original game. Not thrilled about the level design and plot either, it's so bland I'm not sure if I'll continue playing it.

Today is the 40th birthday of the Commodore Amiga! This landmark system evolved pixel graphics a quantum leap overnight.

These four pics are my most enduring memories of this remarkable 16-bit computer. Do you have any favorite games or memories about this amazing machine?

SIRCAA The Mole lighting (S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl)

SIRCAA The Mole lighting (S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl)

SIRCAA The Mole lighting (S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl)

SIRCAA The Mole lighting (S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl)

www.artstation.com/artwork/Nqm6kq
The last set from SIRCAA I wanted to share is The Mole - an underground complex beneath the institute. I wish we had more time to work on this location, but I still liked the end results. Also provided support for the cutscene you may have seen at the end

#Stalker2

Full article in case anyone would be curious to check it out.

While reading the September 2003 issue of a PC Gamer US magazine, I've noticed this chart in an article about the "real cost" of piracy. I find the "piracy level" percentage and countries' selection for it a little strange (no CIS or LATAM regions?), but it's still interesting nonetheless.

#PCGI

Not really, there's actually a dynamic dialogue lighting system for all your conversations with NPCs. It's just works only when you have a flashlight disabled, something that majority of players rarely do even in hubs, sadly.

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Rendering 'Assassin's Creed Shadows' Assassin's Creed Shadows is a large systemic open world game with dynamic time of day cycles, a systemic weather system, and seasons. it is the first next gen only Assassin's Creed game. It's built on...

There's actually a really cool GDC presentation about how they did rendering in this game - gdcvault.com/play/1035526... It covers pretty much everything, but I still can't help myself but occasionally mess around with it instead of just playing the game. Old habits die hard!

I continue to (very) slowly play through Assassin's Creed Shadows. I think I've spent around 1/3 of my current playtime on just flying around and checking out how they did their weather system and render.

#VirtualPhotography #AssasinsCreed

I thought I'm the only one who's still using Last.fm 😄 And somehow, I've managed to beat your numbers already, despite listening to music mostly at home

This photo was actually used to illustrate an in-depth article about QA testers and their job. It has some important insights on what kind of challenges they had to deal at work back then. But it also shows how little has changed 24 years later in some regards, sadly.

I was reading a July 2001 edition of Computer Games Magazine and found this gem of a photo.

#PCGI

YouTube video by Spartan Mozi S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 — New Zone Trailer

Check out this S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 mods showcase that were made by our extremely talented 3D artist Sanekum (with whom I also had pleasure working on SIRCAA) - mod.io/g/stalker2/u... Too bad we couldn't use this clip as an official trailer for this patch lol

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3Gs...

#Stalker2

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - Patch 1.5 Guns & Looting is live — new threats, new loot, and more 🌪️ - Steam News Major A-Life update, new weapons, mutant loot, balance and combat fixes, QoL upgrades, and official mod support. The Zone just got deeper.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 Patch 1.5 is available now! Includes A-Life update, Modkit SDK, mutants parts looting, performance improvements, new weapons, and more. Check out the patch notes and YouTube trailer for this update below.

youtu.be/yR2DDPJHHcg

store.steampowered.com/news/app/164...

#Stalker2

We have a big update for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 coming tomorrow!

#Stalker2

Another batch of shots I took while exploring Assassin's Creed Shadows

#VirtualPhotography

I'm severely restricted by character's limit, but I'm convinced this game is going to be something really special. Holstin is as close to a perfect survival horror experience in my eyes as it can be. It's such a weird mix of gameplay mechanics and bizarre visuals, and yet it blends together so well.