I tried to give STALKER Shadow Of Chernobyl a go on my Windows XP Creative EAX machine.

Even though I enabled "EAX" in the options menu and my hardware is found (both EAX 2.0 checks are "present" in the console) I cannot notice (hear) any reverb / difference with EAX on/off.
I tried some multiplayer maps and tried to go in some basements in the rookie village after starting several new games .

Restarted the game after changes too, restarted system, reïnstalled the game (to test earlier patches) several times...

My card is a XFI Titanium that works fine (EAX working) in other games like Prey, Quake 4, Condemned, etc.

I tried STALKER SOC V1.0000, V1.0004 and V1.0006 updates.

With V1.0000 the game does not show EAX 2.0 hardware present in the console, with the later versions it does.

Maybe there are only some very select areas that offer EAX reverb?
I found a video of someone restoring EAX in Stalker SOC on modern OS'ses with software hacks and there seems to be a very clear and present difference with EAX on/off in his video's.

Or is EAX definetly broken in this game, even under Windows XP?