Nice! Stalking the stalker news.

Looking good!

I like all the cues GSC picked up from the Gunslinger mod (bandaging, taking pills, etc.) It ups the immersion ever so slightly. And was that the Duga installation in the glimpsed previews? Always wanted to see it up close...

Its just amazing when developers recognize the job of the community and implement community addons to their next actual game.
Even though I will probably not be able to play it, all the luck to the devs for their love for the community of Anomaly.

This last video has impressed me much more than any of the previous footage about this game. Still, I have enough experience with expensive and overhyped games to avoid any preorder. Waiting to November to make up my mind about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.

@GoG -
- Why no direct link to the video mentioned? Where to search it, I don't want to much bother(click&type here and there, save us a network bandwidth and hand-harming actions) ...
- Why "Related Games" only occasionally presents the game card on announcement page?

I don't see the point of pre-ordering this game at all. I mean, there's no pre-order bonuses, no discount, nada. I'll do the same and wait for November and watch a lot more reviews.

I don't even think they've mentioned the save system in this game. Is it checkpoint-based, save points or free quick/manual saving?
This is important to me and I won't buy anything until this is cleared up.

It will probably work mostly on area based checkpoints with free form saves, like the originals and Anomaly.
Since they are clearly taking inspiration from a lot of Anomaly addons, we can confidently say that it will focus on player choice and freedom when it comes to this. At least that's what It seems to me.

What's that? Do you mean free saving like in The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk or Fallout 3/4 (or adventures like Monkey Island 1-3)? That would be great! I never played Anomaly so I have no idea how it works there^^

Ah, thanks! I wasn't familiar with this expression :)
But this would really make me buy this game right after release. I'm a bit afraid of the "survival" aspect of the game. You have to eat, drink and sleep which is basically a death timer and I'm not a fan of that in general. They advertised this game as openworld with a lot of exploration but how can you freely explore if you just have to run after food and stuff all the time?
A free saving system would at least let me correct bigger mistakes :D

I think it's called "soft locking" :D

By what the devs said on the interview video, they will apparently focus on hardcore gameplay and that's why Im talking so much about Anomaly lol :P.

Anomaly is hard, as in, your first 5~10 runs you will only die for a couple of hours until you understand how to survive.
Harder than the original trilogy by what I've heard (I've only played Anomaly).

Anomaly isn't STALKER 2, though, so its good to wait weeks/months after release for good reviews. (20~50+ hrs reviews).

If they follow this path to please Anomaly community, this game will not be for everyone indeed, which is not a bad thing in itself, but it may not please you if you are not into this kind of hardcore gameplay.
Simply because this is the kind of game that seems to be a true open world sandbox survival horror, albeit STALKER 2 will clearly focus more on story, while Anomaly focused a lot more on player freedom and role play.

Edit:

Also, STALKER Trilogy will probably receive deep discounts before STALKER 2 launch, so it might be a good time to play the series.

If you want to feel what Anomaly is like, I personally recommend it, even if just as an experiment.
Its free and standalone 'mod' that combines the three games into one huge semi open world with quests and side quests.
The unfortunate part here is that it focus a lot on community addons and individual player customization, which is really time consuming to set up.

There are some addon packs made by the community that you could try, but it shines when you create your own 'zone' inside the game and tweak it to your liking.

Well, I'm really not much into games with hardcore survival gameplay but it depends. If I have a way to save my game, I also have more motivation to try out different things in this open world. It really gives me more freedom.

Also, STALKER 2 is a very expensive game in the making so I don't think it's too heavy for normal players because they really need many sales to get their cash back. So it might be a little bit more forgiving than most other games of this type. At least I hope that :D

I don't see Anomaly on GoG, only those tower defense games...

https://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly

Here's the main page of the mod.

Also a little guide on the same page: The version v1.5.1 is still with most content, as many addons have not been updated to v1.5.2 yet.

I feel many will 'come back to the zone' the closer it gets to STALKER 2 launch...

Thank you! Good to know it's a standalone pack :)