9 Days to Stalker

Only 9 days till the release of Stalker and I am slightly excited. I have been doing some reading and it seems like they have gone back to the roots of the concept and hopefully will be delivering a sandbox type gaming experience.

Those previews that I have read through have said that the preview code was a bit buggy. And I read in an interview with one of the developers that it isn't quite a large open world. That there are, in fact, three areas. So, we won't have completely seemless gameplay across the entire map. However, I wouldn't consider Oblivion to be a completely sandbox experience either. Oblivion was not seemless. It would have to load going in to and out of buildings and dungeons. A sandbox game should be open with no load time at all besides the initial one it takes to get in to the game. Buggy code is not a great concern to me either. While I don't like it there is an expectation that those games released which are by smaller developers and don't have the budget are going to be a little bit more frustrating and glitchy. Some games which I have played and loved such as X3: The Reunion and Boiling Point have been extremely buggy. X3 was so buggy that it was infuriating. Going through numerous uninstalls and waiting at least six months before an update was released which made the game playable on a long term basis. I now rate X3 as one of the best games I have ever played. However, not all gamers are that tolerant. They want to be able to purchase something and be able to play it (without frustration) straight away and I do agree, however, PC Gaming is not like watching a television show or a movie. The experience of gaming is completely different and the lengths of production are massive compared to television. In order to be able to play games which are not mainstream and offer an experience that goes beyond the level of your standard punched out shooter then you need to be prepared to put up with a little bit of frustration. In the end it is worth it.

I wonder whether the gaming community will be tolerant of a buggy Stalker considering the delays in its production? If the game does not run smoothly and without crashing out of the box what will happen to the sales of this title? If it takes another 3 months to get the game in to a playable state will people consider it to be worth the wait?