I didn't know (or maybe didn't remember) this was a thing, but apparently there's a STALKER 2 set to come out in September of this year. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1643320/STALKER_2_Heart_of_Chornobyl/

Cautiously optimistic. In my old age I'm more and more like Ox... I doubt I'll buy this new or at full price. But you never know... if the reviews are glowing I might. It's not like I don't have the money (unlike Ox of old), I just don't really play games like I used to.

Ooh, that does look really good!

But yeah, at this point there are so many good games out there that I feel silly for buying one at full price when they are likely gonna have to patch it a few times upon release anyway. I'd be way more likely to do it for a smaller game than an ambitious one with open world gameplay like this one, there's just too many variables to control for during development/QA/beta given the market pressures.