In early October 2009 Stalker: Call of Pripyat was released in several states in Eastern Europe. In November 2009 the game hit the markets in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Now COP is finally launched North America and the rest of Europe, too.

Since PC Games Hardware is originally based in Germany, we have already dealt in detail with the latest part of the Stalker series. In course of the international release, we would like to give you an overview about the articles we have published already.

Stalker: Call of Pripyat - Benchmarks from DirectX 9 to DirectX 11
The developers of Call o Pripyat have released a stand-alone benchmark tool that allows you to check the performance of the game in several settings. Since the benchmark offers all DirectX versions from 9 to 11, PC Games Hardware tested and compared DX9, DX10, DX10.1 and DX11. Furthermore we checked how the screen resolution affects the performance.


Stalker: Call of Pripyat - DirectX 11 vs. DirectX 10
Besides the differences in performance, the DirectX 11 rendering path of Stalker: Call of Pripyat also offers one of the DX11 exclusive features: Hardware Tessellation. Therefore we compared the visual differences between DirectX 11 and DX10, which doesn't have this feature. Another set of benchmarks shows the impact on the performance of the game.


Stalker: Call of Pripyat - DirectX 10 versus DirectX 9 comparison
Back in September 2009, weeks before Stalker: Call of Pripyat was released even in Eastern Europe, we had a chance to check the visual differences between the DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 mode of the game. Our on-click-comparisons show the exact screens in the individual rendering paths.


Stalker: Call of Pripyat - The first DirectX 11 screenshots
Back in 2009 PC Games Hardware was one of the first websites that were able to offer DirectX 11 screenshots of Call of Pripyat. Since the game wasn't released anywhere yet, and the international release was still months away, the article caught a lot interest.


Stalker: Call of Pripyat - High-res DirectX 11 screenshots plus wallpaper download
As a gimmick for all Stalker fans we have assembled a small collection of screenshots which can be used as desktop wallpapers. The pictures have been taken at a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels with maximal details as well as 4x MSAA and 16:1 AF in DirectX 11 mode.