With much of the project seemingly coming together at the last minute, it really is anyone's guess whether the internal expectations - that have long since marked GSC's debut first-person shooter out as something special - are in any way realistic. Knowing full well that the game could slip, while being careful not to make those kind of frank admissions or even daring to speculate, THQ knows that not only does it have to rely on the relatively unproven talents of GSC to deliver the game on time, but for the Ukrainian developed game to hit the mark in terms of gameplay as well. But despite such boldly enthusiastic proclamations amid the chaotic din of the show floor, he admits 'the pressure's on'.

'Yes, STALKER is the big one for this Christmas,' a THQ exec happily confides during E3. What is this? 1998? We haven't heard such forward-looking, risk taking vision from a US firm in years. And all this from a game devoid of licensing and due out exclusively on the PC. NVIDIA certainly has enormous faith in the product, championing it as a poster child for its relentless The Way It's Meant To Be Played campaign, while its financial backer THQ is quietly expecting even greater things. We'd love to get carried away with the stupendous visuals, but we've been burned too many times - the best we can do is hope that it blossoms into a game to match the quality of the environments, and prove GSC Game World's various doubters wrong - in style.

After all, we know it's graphically beautiful and wrapped around the premise of a post-disaster Chernobyl, but how does it actually play? We've been all the way to Kiev and back to try and see for ourselves, but we're still waiting for significant gameplay revelations, leaving us to rely on measured optimism. For all the screenshots and video footage, STALKER may still have some convincing to do.

Stalker shadow of chernobyl gameplay