I'm a huge S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fan, and being a dedicated PC gamer I've been enjoying CryEngine 2 since Crysis was released. It's an interesting idea to put the two together. I think it will be difficult to nail the atmosphere of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in a different engine, but I hope it turns out well. Here's a link to the article on PC Gamer:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/02/07/modders-recreating-stalker-in-cryengine-2/
I really agree that it will be insanely difficult to nail the atmosphere... I'm not a massive fan of the cryengine... it looks really good but I already preferred the art and atmosphere of the stalker games to that of crysis.
Well... I think it's cool these dudes have the talent to do that with mod tools and such... But honestly, I'm not a fan of working on [i]someone else's[/i] work. I would prefer if these talented dudes just took the things they like about S.T.A.L.K.E.R., cut out the shit they don't like and add things they think would be cool, and make a Crymod based on their refined design. Sure, you might call it a "rip off", but it would be theirs. It would show off their real talent.
Im a massive stalker fan and i agree with Logan and the OP, getting the atmosphere will be hard but imo the ambient sound did alot for me playing that game, cranking the volume made it so intense and just the story and everything gives me goosebumbs thinking about it!!!
Same here, STALKER is probably one of my favourite games ever, but the Xray engine did an amazing job of giving the game it's "rusty" and unique atmosphere, using CryEngine might spoil it. And I hope the next STALKER doesn't turn out to have crap graphics like Crysis 2.
I really don't know why Crysis 2's graphics are so bad looking. Is CryEngine 3 worse than CryEngine 2, or is it just that Crytek did not take full advantage of CryEngine 3 when making Crysis 2??