GSC Game World

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl [Xbox 360 – Cancelled]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl was released March 20, 2007 by Ukrainian studio GSC Game World. The project was very warmly received by the players of the CIS countries and became a cult title.

However, few people know that Shadow of Chernobyl was planned to be released on Xbox 360. Not only that, when the game was called Stalker: Oblivion Lost, they also wanted to release it on Xbox Original, but the idea was postponed.

After the long-awaited release and the start of development of Clear Sky, GSC announced that Shadow of Chernobyl would be released on Xbox 360. However, this idea was discarded after the release of Call of Pripyat.

Quite recently some build of Shadow of Chernobyl was leaked on the Internet. In many ways it was the same game, but with one “but”: it had an inventory wheel, stylized for a gamepad, and in the tutorial instead of the keyboard keys, as it was in the PC version, there were console keys (and from the Xbox!).

Whether this was the exact build that was talked about back in 2007, or whether it was a relatively recent version meant to be re-released on modern consoles is unknown. Well, time will tell. 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl [PC – Beta / Alpha]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a FPS developed by the Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, published for PC in 2007. As we can read in Wikipedia, the game was first announced in November 2001 as “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Oblivion Lost” and had its release date, originally in 2003, pushed back several times. Meanwhile hundreds of screenshots of the game had been released, as well as a dozen preview video clips, due to years of delays some considered S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to be vaporware.

In late December 2003, a pre-alpha build of the game was leaked to peer-to-peer file sharing networks. This build, marked as version 1096, inadvertently acted as a fully-functional tech demo of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s engine, despite its lack of NPC enemies and fauna.

At the end of February 2009, due to popular demand GSC Game World released “xrCore” beta build 1935, dated October 18, 2004. It uses a completely different physics engine with many cut monsters, levels, and vehicles. It was also significantly larger than the retail release. It is however somewhat unstable, but features the full game along with a “fully functional ALife system”. It is currently available for free download from the GSC servers and mirrors. Also, oldest leaked builds of the game can be found in here.

Below you can see many videos from STALKER’s prototypes, alpha and betas. More videos and links can be found in the STALKER beta topic in our U64 Forum. Thanks to Megalol for the contribution!

Videos: