At times the internet's a shiny electro-portal straight into the heart of tomorrow, a winged techno-messenger bringing news at the speed of light. And at others, it's a river of filth, the father of lies and the crackle of static farts. It varies. But how to tell truth from desperate fiction? Well, GamesRadar, for one. And time reveals everything. Here are our favourite modern myths, debunked, de-frilled and derided.
TARGET:
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
RUMOUR:
It's going to be released this year, even if it's unfinished. Everyone's getting fired because the game's been canned. Relations with publisher THQ are falling apart. And the technology for the game has been taken by those leaving.
REALITY:
Developer GSC Game World strongly denies all of this. The game is in the beta stage - the testing period between the first working, or alpha version, and the final game - so there's not long to go until it's finished anyway. Regarding the layoffs, five people have been dismissed (out of 40), "due to the graphics-related works being almost complete". All project leads, programmers and testers remain hard at work.
Furthermore, any technology 'leak' on to the net is simply theft, as the company owns the rights and isn't selling within the foreseeable future. It also "does not intend to postpone the release of STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl due to rumours of that kind".
SCOOP OR POOP?
Totally the second one.
