S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope is the first major expansion for the open-world shooter, bringing with it a huge free upgrade for all owners.
Update 2.0 for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 brings with it a big Unreal Engine update which they said brings "the biggest overhaul to how the Zone looks, feels, and lives since launch" full of upgrades across the whole game including improvements to the lighting along with fog being a new game mechanic, some big AI upgrades, there's three types of binoculars, new weapons and attachments, highly customizable difficulty settings, and much more.
Maybe this is finally the version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 we all hoped for originally.
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From the press release sent to GamingOnLinux:
“Throughout the Cost of Hope development, we allowed ourselves to experiment more. To take risks. To surprise. Sometimes that meant trying things we'd never attempted before. Sometimes it meant making bold creative decisions simply because we believed they would make the experience more memorable. Above all, we wanted to create something that would genuinely excite long-time fans of the series. We can't wait to hear what you think,” said Ievgen Grygorovych, Game Director and CEO of GSC Game World.
“For us, the release of this DLC is proof that even in the most difficult times, Ukrainians continue to create, work and deliver great games, and even the full-scale war has not been able to put the development of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe on hold. We have done everything we could to bring this story to the world, because the game gives us a unique opportunity to reach millions of people around the globe and tell them about Ukraine: its strength, talent, culture, identity and resilience,” said Max Krippa, Owner of GSC Game World.
Prepare for a big update download, it's showing as 130GB in Steam for me.
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There were a lot of complaints about the new DLC not being assigned to owners of the Ultimate Edition but that problem has just fixed itself (for me).
Edit: switching to Proton 10 seems to have fixed it. Well, I'll let you know after compiling shaders for 30 minutes!
Last edited by fabertawe on 20 Aug 2026 at 3:39 pm UTC
Quoting: fabertaweIt won't start for me. I get a popup "failed to load DiscordRPC plugin" followed by a "fatal error" popup and it crashes back to desktop.you can skip prewarm shaders compilation, they will just compile during gameplay and cause some traversal stutters, and the rest will compile on the next launch.
There were a lot of complaints about the new DLC not being assigned to owners of the Ultimate Edition but that problem has just fixed itself (for me).
Edit: switching to Proton 10 seems to have fixed it. Well, I'll let you know after compiling shaders for 30 minutes!
🤣😂😅
Just absolutely mind blowing. How is this possible?
Ah well, I was interested in purchasing and installing it if they had done the most basic game dev of all time, but they aren't interested in that I guess.
Last edited by Shmerl on 21 Aug 2026 at 1:51 pm UTC
Quoting: ShmerlThere is literally a setting for keys rebinding?There always has been since launch, but it's kind of a lie. It'll let you rebind some stuff but there are multiple problems:
1- worst of all it'll let you rebind some actions on top of hardcoded / impossible to change keys, but you don't know this, so then you go in-game and press the button and multiple things happen. This is game-breaking and makes it unplayable - you die instantly to the first trash mob because you press "weapon down" but it does "weapon down" plus "sheath weapon, bring out flashlight" all at the same time because the devs hardcoded the flashlight action to be unchangeable.
2- there are some actions in the game which don't even have rebindable entries in the settings. But they aren't even listed so you don't even know what they are until you are prompted in-game, and then the key is in a place you can't even press with the correct hand.
I haven't played this 2.0 launch. So maybe they fixed all this stuff. I don't know ... I will keep following but so far there are mixed reports in the discussions. Some people say it's still broken, others don't.
Quoting: JarmerI refunded this game on launch because you couldn't rebind the keys (amazing that a game even exists in this state whatsoever) ... and I just checked the steam discussions and someone is already posting today about after 2.0 the ladder keybind is still broken so they can't play the game.
Quoting: Jarmer1- worst of all it'll let you rebind some actions on top of hardcoded / impossible to change keys, but you don't know this, so then you go in-game and press the button and multiple things happen. This is game-breaking and makes it unplayable - you die instantly to the first trash mob because you press "weapon down" but it does "weapon down" plus "sheath weapon, bring out flashlight" all at the same time because the devs hardcoded the flashlight action to be unchangeable.
I usually play with default keybinding so I have little practical experience with changing it but I tried to rebind a few keys now for a quick test and it seemed to work. I now have crouch on 1, flashlight on 2, melee on L, movement on arrow keys, jump on numpad 1. Doesn't seem to double any actions.
If you have specific questions about specific keys - please ask and I will try to test.
:).
Quoting: Jarmer1- worst of all it'll let you rebind some actions on top of hardcoded / impossible to change keys, but you don't know this, so then you go in-game and press the button and multiple things happen. This is game-breaking and makes it unplayable - you die instantly to the first trash mob because you press "weapon down" but it does "weapon down" plus "sheath weapon, bring out flashlight" all at the same time because the devs hardcoded the flashlight action to be unchangeable.Do you have any examples of hard coded keys? I've rebound most and never had a problem, including the flashlight.
Quoting: theailerAnyone having issues with hdr? My whites(like the sky when looking out from a house or a fire) are purple. No matter what settings I change expect if I change black level to 4 but then the game gets waaay too darkI didn't have this problem but there's a patch out today to fix broken textures, so presumably your issue?
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