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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Glows With Chernobyl Radioactive Link
Thanks to Eurogamer for its coverage of a THQ-sponsored press trip to Russia to preview GSC's forthclming PC first-person shooter. Since the game is "based on the premise that you've gone to explore the 20km 'exclusion zone' of Chernobyl", this has led to some odd preview publicity, as the writer notes: "When they invited us on a cheery tour to go and see Chernobyl for fun, we knew something had gone awry in our lives. Stranger still, during the press conference to promote the much anticipated mutate 'em up S.T.A.L.K.E.R, they wheeled one of the men responsible for the tragedy. I didn't know whether to laugh or throw things." There's also an interview with one of the developers on Eurogamer regarding this September-bound title, but it's concluded that S.T.A.L.K.E.R, with its impressive visuals, is "...shaping up to be one of the scariest, most original takes on the increasingly tired FPS genre."
I for one, hope they make a skin of Elena playable in the game :)
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Unfortunately, this press event sounds like it is in really bad taste. The actual Chernobyl disaster was horrible. Making a game out of it is one thing, as it is sure to be fictionalized and live in a world separate from our own.
When THQ "wheeled one of the men responsible for the tragedy" out, that's just terrible. The lines of reality and fiction are being crossed and in a horrible way. For GTA4, I suggest they bring out real car-jackers to show the folks a good time.
God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
The actual Chernobyl disaster was horrible. Yeah, well, so was World War II, but there's been no shortage of games based on it and no one complains.
Advice: on VPS providers
We had Iodine in our salt in Sweden long before Chernobyl. A few seconds in Google confirms this: The Iodine is added to prevent a serious medical condition (iodine deficiency leading to endemic goiter), it's not due to radiation poisoning, even though Iodine (in higher doses) could be used to help prevent damage to the thyroid gland in case of a nuclear accident. Inhabitants living nearby Swedish reactors were issued Iodine pills to stockpile before the reactors were started.
Money for nothing, pix for free
Take the open-ended gameplay and post-apocalyptic atmosphere of Fallout, add the skill-based semi-RPG characteristics of the original Zelda, and you've got this game. Could very well turn out to be a sleeper hit.
I like the way that Zelda allowed you to progress in an open-ended style as far as your skill allowed you to go. You could skip the extra heart containers, more powerful swords and the rings if you were really hardcore.
--- Where's my car, and why are these grass stains on my pants?
To his credit, the writer raises up front the issue of the appropriateness of certain elements of the trip.
To his discredit, he then lets go of the issue just as quickly--with a potshot at a journalist who had the temerity to accept a free drink--and from there on in, it's all game, game and game. ("It looks staggeringly beautiful, and takes PC visuals to a place we've all been looking forward to for a long, long time.")
Indeed, beyond a reference to the 20 km "exclusion zone" around Chernobyl in which S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is set, the piece barely acknowledges the event itself. No reference to the deaths from the explosion and radiation at the nuclear reactor near Kiev, the courage of the people who contained the fire, the vastly increased risk of thyroid cancer among Ukrainian young people from the release of radiation, or the evacuation and resettlement of an estimated 326,000 people.
Not even the date (1986).
And while the writer does mention "reactor," it's only to inform us that "the small team at GSC actually went themselves down to the stricken reactor to gather source material, and have done a fantastic job of replicating the rust and decay."
But let's step beyond the article for a moment. It's amazing to me that someone would build a game around a relatively recent event that has been such a source of misery to the Ukraine.
Hell, make up a reactor accident in an imaginary country--if only to spare people's feelings. It is further amazing that THQ would actually bring journalists to Chernobyl to promote the game--this surpasses the recent deliberate-bad-taste publicity stunts by Acclaim--and that a journalist could go ... and then produce coverage that skirts the disaster itself.
How about a few pointed questions to THQ and GSC reps on the issue of taste? How about a word from people who live in the area on how they feel about the game? How about even a passing reference to what happened that April night in 1986?
Time does have a way of softening the impact of events. Almost 30 years after the fall of Saigon, we've started to see games based on the Vietnam War. (I don't see the analogy that another poster drew to World War II. That was the defining event of the 20th century, and its outcome defined much of the world for the 34 years that followed.)
I'm unsure where exactly to draw the line, but I don't think 18 years is enough. Game developers need to think harder about this issue before turning a national tragedy into a shooting game. And gaming publications need to question of the value of such trips and the quality of the coverage they produce.
What's next? In 15 years, are we going to see a game based around the collapse of the World Trade Center towers?
I'll answer that question right now: Without a doubt.