I think we've all established that Steerpike is weak-kneed for the STALKER series. I've been able to justify my 1,000th replaying recently on account of getting to write a giant article about the games for an upcoming book, and I thought I'd share the latest mod that's worth a visit: L.U.R.K.

New weapons, updated graphics, fancy new shaders including ambient occlusion lighting and parallax mapping, but most importantly…

…

wait for it…

A fully realized stealth system that actually works! Yes, at last you can sneak up on enemy Stalkers and stab them while they play harmonica by the fire (harmonica sounds also new). So far, very broken… but also great. Worth a L.O.O.K.

Thanks to RPS's Alec Meer for the info; all our friends at RPS (that is, we like them; they don't know we exist) are Cult of STALKER members, and I love 'em for it. STALKER Complete 2009 – the other big mod Alec mentions – is a gorgeous graphics update, but it's about visuals rather than gameplay changes. If you're as much a STALKER lover as I am, you have a couple of installs going, so you can check it all out!

Have fun.