GSC Announces "Big Update" For S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

GSC Game World is working on a "big update" for its hit Chernobyl-based FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that will involve a new gameplay mode and other features.

"We're preparing a big update with a new game mode," S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Project Lead Anton Bolshakov said in an interview. "Freeplay, with no story tasks, including only the A-Life driven ones, where the goal is to gain ranks, climb up in rankings, so as to become the best S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in the Zone."

GSC is also working on releasing the single-player SDK for the game, which should prove a real boon for modders because of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s expansive and free-flowing game world. The multi-player SDK was released in May.

Other details regarding the game's future were not released, although the company has made it known that it plans further announcements at E3 this year. "We will be happy to share all the interesting details during the E3 in July," Bolshakov said.

Although S.T.A.L.K.E.R. went through a difficult development cycle, with it's originally-scheduled release date of 2003 pushed back several times until it finally came out in March 2007, it managed to avoid a Daikatana syndrome and has been both a critical and commercial success.