"The release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was postponed from Q1/2005 to May so that GSC has enough time to test the complex game world and all of its facets. The dynamic life simulation system has become better than the developers expected. Unfortunately, this also results in that the investment of time into the testing has become more extensive than initially planned. As far as I was told today, the implementation of the features has been completed all in all. (The game is, so to speak, "finished".) What is being done now is optimization of the code, thus the game will run as we want it to. The dynamic life simulation system can, however, only complexly be tested as every situation differs from the precedent and nothing hardly happens exactly the same way as it did before. What on the one hand guarantees a high value of re-playability, makes the completion of the game very time-consuming on the other.

Simply put: The developers have to play through S.T.A.L.K.E.R. again and again and examine how the other stalkers and creatures react and how this influences the whole course of the game. I am glad that THQ does not release the title under time pressure, but offers the necessary time that the development requires, so that GSC can live up to the high expectations.

An official press-release will probably pop up tomorrow. Yet, I hope that this very first estimation helps you out."