S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a rare find in the world of games and even more so in the world of shooters. A game based on a book, "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatsky brothers and Andrey Tarkovsky's subsequent movie based on that book, is not a commonplace occurrence. Follow that up with a story and settings taken from Chernobyl, the world's greatest nuclear disaster area and you have the ingredients and potential for a different experience. The game combines elements from all of those references in a scarily realistic way. The Russian science-fiction tale, Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. was published in 1972 and featured a zone of land, called zona, cordoned off after an alien landing. Stalkers sneak inside to recover objects with mysterious and deadly powers. The story, which the authors later adapted for the screen in Tarkovsky's 1979 film, Stalker, predicts the Chernobyl disaster just a few years later. Strangely enough, the contaminated area around the power station is now often called the zona.

But GSC Game World, the game's Ukrainian developers, did not stop there. Their plans for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are as ambitious as their storyline, come spring of next year they plan to introduce the world's best non-linear FPS/RPG game.

Although in danger of being conceived as pretentious, the game has to be considered with the makers in mind. Based in Kiev, Ukraine, GSC Game World have offices only a couple of hours away from Chernobyl. The whole Chernobyl story is a real and distressing influence to everyone that grew up with the consequences, it is only natural then for that influence to surface in every aspect of peoples' lives and in the GSC case, that is games.

Set in 2012, the game imagines a second nuclear accident rendering the power station a hotbed of mutant activity. Players become Stalkers, moving freely through the 30 square kilometers as they dice with death to find alien artifacts, and attempt to solve the mystery of this creepy area.

The intrigue behind the game doesn't stop there however, Those two things [the story and film] served as a powerful inspiration for us, says Oleg Yavorsky, GSC's PR Manager. We borrowed the stalkers and the idea of the artifacts, however, he adds, the setting is different, and we have our own storyline. The game utilizes a popular rumor that the Chernobyl accident was a result of an antenna that directed psychotropic waves at the U.S., and that was accidentally turned on by the power station's staff. According to some experts, there was such an antenna, we have a photo of such a structure.

Just in case you've never heard of GSC before, they are responsible for Cossacks: European wars and its two follow-up addons Cossacks: The Art of

War and Cossacks: Back to War. If that series doesn't ring a bell, try the recently released real-time strategy title American Conquest, or tactical shooter Venom: Codename Outbreak and arcade racing game, HoverAce. GSC have certainly kept themselves busy in the past few years.