The release of the long-awaited prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl has been delayed yet again.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky has been pushed back from its original North American release date of August 29th to September 5th and now beyond. This time no new release date has been projected. However some online retailers are slating for September 15th, tentatively. The official Clear Sky Web site, meanwhile, still states that the game will be "in stores everywhere on August 29th."

Some of us may remember similar delays with Shadow of Chernobyl. Originally announced in November 2001, with no specific release date some time in 2003. Towards the end of 2003 in December a pre-alpha build was leaked via peer-to-peer sharing networks marked as version 1096. In February 2005 THQ anticipated the release of Shadow of Chernobyl to be toward the end of the 2006 fiscal year, again with no specific release date. Then in October 2005 THQ confirmed that the game would not be out until the second half of THQs 2007 fiscal year and October 2006 at the earliest. Another revision followed in February of 2006 that the game would not be in stores until the first quarter of 2007.

In January of 2007 THQ ran a competition where lucky winners would have the chance to play the beta version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R in an all day marathon lasting 24 hours. Even this all day event had a change from 24 hours down to 12.

This where things started to see the lighter side of electronic gaming as the morning of the event, the lucky 'winners' were greeted by THQ staff at the event only to find out that THQ themselves could not get any copies of the game promised for the marathon. The game had gone gold on March 2, 2007, and a free multiplayer demo was release following this date on March 15, 2007.

Stay tuned for more news on S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky.