S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Studio GSC Announce... Cossacks 3
I said not to get your hopes up
Remember when S.T.A.L.K.E.R. studio GSC Gameworld grandly announced its renewed existence to the world, and how I warned you it was unlikely their next game would be a new entry in the open-world FPS series? I do hope you didn't get your hopes up regardless.
GSC Game World today announced Cossacks 3 [official site], which is actually a remake of ye olde Cossacks: European Wars from 2001. Their return to their historical epic real-time strategy series is due later this year, and teases battles with up to 10,000 units.
Cossacks 3 will tour big battles from the 17th and 18th centuries, having players do that RTS dealio of gathering resources, building structures, researching upgrades, and training men to murder the heck out of enemy forces. Huge enemy forces. 10,000 is a lot of units.
Along with five historical singleplayer campaigns, it'll have multiplayer with support for random maps and up to seven players (or AIs).
Cossacks 3 is due later this year, some time from October to December, on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The original Cossacks games came out in a period when I mostly refused to play anything where I wasn't personally shooting men's faces off, so I can't tell you anything from experience. Psst, hey, knowledgeable readers, tell us all what they were like, yeah?
As for S.T.A.L.K.E.R., look, you knew it wouldn't be that, didn't you? Pretty much anyone who ever had anything to do with the series is long gone, and many are making their own S.T.A.L.K.E.R.L.I.K.E.S.