One of the few game publishers that used Santa Monica's Barker Arena exclusively was GSC GameWorld and they used the venue at E3 last week to show off S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, an upcoming stand alone prequel to their post-apocalyptic first person shooter that THQ published earlier this year (this new game does not yet have a publisher).

This new game actually takes place a year before the events of the first game with a new protagonist (who may or may not turn out to be a bad guy in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl). Conditions in the radiation zone are also different, so much so that artifacts in the enviroment may in fact be invisible to you. You will have to use a special device to find these invisible items but there's a rather large caveat; if you are holding the device you can't hold a large weapon. If you find yourself in a firefight you will have to make a choice; get shot while trying to find an invisible artifact or dump finding it and shoot up the guys trying to shoot you.

At the Barker Hanger venue, GSC GameWorld had a E3 only build of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky to try out. The demo took placed in a bombed out former hospital where some AI buddies were taking fire against some enemies. The demo had us criss-cross in between both levels of the building with barriers along the way that needed to be taken care of. AI appeared to be pretty strong as snipers attemped to take us out along with enemies protected by armor and heavy machine gun fire. At one point a large helicopter was strafing our posistion as well. Overall the demo showcased Clear Skies's improved character models and solid AI. While the build we played was DirectX9, we were told that a DirectX10 version was in the works.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was a game that took several years to complete but S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky currently has an early to mid 2008 release date so hopefully we won't have to wait nearly as long for the second game in the series to come out. Look for more info on the prequel to be revealed in the months ahead.

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