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Print E-mail del.icio.us 35 comment(s) - last by Chillin1248.. on Apr 19 at 11:09 AM

Water texture from Half-Life 2 used in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Doom 3 Lighting asset in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Evidence has been appearing of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. using Textures from HL2 and Doom 3

S.T.A.L.K.E.R., from developer GSC-Game World and publisher THQ, has garnered much attention before it was released. It is no surprise after its release it's still deep in controversy. However, the controversy now isn't about if the game will or will not be released, but what it used to be released.

The good folks over at MapCore have posted the first evidence of such copyright intrusions. As you can see from the photos to the right and over at Shacknews, the evidence is pretty damning. A quick Google search will show many other instances being found.

While ripping art from other games can trace back to Duke Nukem II, there are many cases of texture packs being shared or just certain textures being purchased. That does not seem to be the case here as id Software CEO Todd Hollshead was quoted saying:

I've seen a post on a web forum that claims DOOM3 assets are used in another game, but we've been working hard on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars as well as our own internal project and have not had the time to fully investigate or otherwise verify that the claim is true. Only from what I've seen on the Web, it's concerning. However, it may turn out to be nothing. Nevertheless, it would be improper to make any decision about a course of action until we find out whether the claim is true, and what assets from DOOM3, if any, have potentially been used.

GSC-Game World is located in the Ukraine (Ukrainian Copyright laws), which according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), ranks #6 per capita in Copyright piracy as well as hosting the worlds number one spammer, Alex Blood. GSC-Game World is Ukraine’s largest computer games producer.

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Hmm ... is it any good?
By VooDooAddict on 4/12/2007 5:24:03 PM , Rating: 2
Hmm, is the game any good?

Now might be the time to buy it before it's removed from shelves.




RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By Chillin1248 (blog) on 4/12/2007 5:30:29 PM , Rating: 4
This game in my opinion is pretty amazing. Very unique gameplay and atmosphere. I highly reccomend it to anyone who really enjoys FPS's as well as some RPG enthusiasts.

I really think that the price for it is a bargain compared to the amount of work and replay value.

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Chillin


RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By UsernameX on 4/13/2007 11:13:43 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
This game in my opinion is pretty amazing. Very unique gameplay and atmosphere. I highly reccomend it to anyone who really enjoys FPS's as well as some RPG enthusiasts.


I agree. Go out and buy this game. The amount of work put into this game is amazing!! I have never had such an entertaining off-line FPS experience. The AI is decent: they run (yes run) for cover, they duck, lay on the ground, snipe you, and use guerrilla tactics. Some of the latter mutants are REALLY difficult to kill. While the graphics aren't amazing, the game definitely makes up for that because of it's game play. Even if you're a BF2 master, some of the AI will give you a challenge (especially with the realistic gun fire). And with the current patches (and I'm sure more that are upcoming here in the near future) this game should have scored a 9+ out of 10 on most review sites.

For any FPS fan out there.... give this game a shot (no pun intended). If you like it shed out a few bucks for a game that has taken a little more then 6 years to develop. Even if there has been a few textures copied.


RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By s12033722 on 4/12/2007 6:41:34 PM , Rating: 2
It's not bad. It's a Deus Ex wannabe with nowhere near the depth of customizability of the character and a serious problem with weapon accuracy. Otherwise, it's decent.


RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By Chillin1248 (blog) on 4/12/2007 6:50:14 PM , Rating: 4
The bullet accuracy is, of course, intentional.

The realistic randomness of the bullet spread makes you horde your ammo and pray that the last shots in your magazine fly straight and true. It really does add to the tension and keeps gunfights from going to a stale snapshot like state, now you actually have exchanges of gunfire for a change.

And how much more custimization do you really need for the character. He has artifacts which are like boosters. He's got different (around 10-25) suits with different stats. And finally there is a rediculous amount of guns with different bullet variations (as much as three different bullet types for a gun, and guns themselves can be modified or upgraded). Your character has to eat and he has a weight limit for everything involved.

I mean what exactly are you missing here that you would like to add?

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Chillin


RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By glitchc on 4/16/2007 2:17:36 PM , Rating: 2
Umm, fun. The fun factor of playing a game and not having to think about those things.


By Chillin1248 (blog) on 4/16/2007 8:54:56 PM , Rating: 2
And you can do that.

Just stock up on one ammo type, one weapon and two suits (one for combat and one for exploring) and you are good to go. But if you want to play the game as they designed it you should check out the suits and guns and ammo.

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Chillin


RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By GlassHouse69 on 4/13/07, Rating: -1
RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By Vinnybcfc on 4/12/07, Rating: -1
RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By knowyourenemy on 4/12/2007 8:18:52 PM , Rating: 2
Despite that, the game is worthy. Personally, it is one of the most fun games I've played in a very long time. I love the gunfights in particular.


RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By GlassHouse69 on 4/13/07, Rating: -1
RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By Vinnybcfc on 4/13/2007 12:01:16 PM , Rating: 2
Got a job thanks, if you couldnt tell it was a joke, I buy my games.


RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By GlassHouse69 on 4/13/07, Rating: -1
RE: Hmm ... is it any good?
By DEVGRU on 4/13/2007 11:31:16 AM , Rating: 2
The game rocks.

Its not perfect and has its share of flaws, but still a great immersive world that lives and breathes on its own.

Its got some damn nice physics and AI for the most part (AI isn't that great in CQB), and IMHO stands well with other games in the genre; FEAR, Deux Ex, System Shock 1/2, etc.
The game also supports - natively - however many CPU cores you want to throw at it (dual, quad), which I thought was pretty sweet.

You'll need a pretty high-end system to get the most out of it with full-lighting enabled. I have a 939 4400+ X2, 4GB Corsair memory, 500GB Seagate RAID 0, X-Fi, and X1900XTX - and it gives my PC a workout at 16x12, but I still get decent framerates... the XRay engine it uses won't touch any AA with full HDR lighting enabled, just a FYI.

It sucks if they did steal textures, etc. But I'm just glad the game came out, I've been waiting for YEARS since I first saw screenshots many, many moons ago.


Ouch
By James Holden on 4/12/2007 11:48:49 PM , Rating: 2
I did some research on this after this article -- it's not a possibility, they really did gank the art.

What I don't get is that it wouldn't have been a huge deal to develop a lot of these textures and objects on their own.

Why did THQ do this?




RE: Ouch
By someguy123 on 4/13/2007 1:03:13 AM , Rating: 2
theres tons of reasons, like running out of funding for production or just loss of interest coupled with the need to upgrade the game graphically since they started developement years ago on a different engine.

even so....this is a really low thing to sink to. I honestly believe they didn't think anyone would notice, and I didn't notice either...but theres always someone who'll notice on such a widely known game.


RE: Ouch
By Mithan on 4/13/2007 5:53:46 AM , Rating: 5
Could have been an honest mistake, meaning they used some textures as stop gap measures and then meant to replace them later. These games use thousands of textures so easy to miss a few...

More likely they did just copy a few from here or there and figured nobody would ever notice though....


RE: Ouch
By Tyler 86 on 4/15/2007 4:42:01 PM , Rating: 2
This is mostlikely the case...

They do have tons of original art in the game.

Afterall, it's freakin' Chernobyl, not City 17, or a Mars UAC research facility.


RE: Ouch
By Alpha4 on 4/15/2007 10:21:31 PM , Rating: 2
Do you know if the bereaved companies took any action?


RE: Ouch
By Griswold on 4/18/2007 3:22:55 PM , Rating: 3
Then your research sucks.

See this to find out why:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38...

Better luck next time.


RE: Ouch
By Chillin1248 (blog) on 4/19/2007 11:09:56 AM , Rating: 1
Hate to say it, but there is still no proof that GSC-Game World ever purchased any of the texture packs. And if Valve purchased them how does that change anything, they could have still been lifted from HL2 which included the textures purchased.

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Chillin