S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the vicious Ukrainian FPS set in the “exclusion zone” around the ruined Chernobyl nuclear power plant, may be getting its own television series.
Fair warning: I’m a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fanboy. You can have your Halo and your Gears and your Modern Warfare; I’ll take crawling through a crumbling village in the pitch-black night, praying I don’t run into some hideous creepy-crawly with a face like an octopus butt, any day of the week. And unlike those other games, it looks like mainstream Russian audiences may soon be able to enjoy that awesome irradiated goodness with nothing more than a basic cable subscription.
Details are slim but the stills and teaser at KinoSTALKER.com look very true to the game. Almost too true, in fact; some of these shots look as though they’ve been lifted directly from the game or a box cover. That’s not too much of a surprise, given the involvement of GSC Game World, the studio behind the series, but it does make me wonder if this isn’t some kind of PR stunt for a future S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game. Maybe someone gave those crazy S.T.A.L.K.E.R. cosplayers a video camera?
Not that the idea is entirely outlandish. As PC Gamer notes, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game franchise is loosely based on the 1979 Russian film Stalker, which was itself based on the 1971 novel Roadside Picnic. In other words, it’s a television show based on a game based on a movie based on a book. Which, I think most fans will agree, makes it exactly the kind of convoluted mess any proper S.T.A.L.K.E.R. product should be.
GSC Game World officially revealed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in August. The game is currently slated for release sometime in 2012.
