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[EviLore]

It's not all that difficult, but you feel like you are under attack all the time at points. Areas that would be great for exploration become warzones. When I say "armies", I mean an abandoned looking series of buildings might contain 10-20 enemies rather than a more reasonable and expected number. It's their number combined with the AI behavior that frustrated me.

If anyone has any tips for getting "into" the game, I'd appreciate it. It's still one of those games that lurks in the back of my head as something I really want to enjoy.

You ever try the mods? You might like Oblivion Lost.

 

[dark10x]

You ever try the mods? You might like Oblivion Lost.

Yeah, I actually messed with some of the mods and probably should give them another shot. Oblivion Lost seemed awesome, but it caused some weird problems that resulted in crashing savegames and whatnot. Also had odd performance issues when viewing fire (FRAPs still reported 60 fps, but the framerate appeared to stutter whenever dynamic lights were in the scene). Never could figure out why it did this. That was on the old 8800GT, though, and I haven't tried it since upgrading to the GTX260.

Might be time to give it one more shot.

 

[Ikuu]

Try and grab a Vintar BC, search on YouTube if you want to find it, you can see the bullet drop making it very easy to aim with and it's also silent.

For me STALKER is all about the atmosphere, I have some issues with parts of the game, but there is really nothing else like it.

 

[Blizzard]

I've heard dynamic lighting always produces slowdown, though it can be impressive at night. I only have a single 4850 so I may not be able to cut it. And savegame corruption is the main reason I'm afraid to try mods...

*edit*

I haven't looked on YouTube yet, but if there's only one of that weapon (the Vintar BC), how long can you use it before it breaks?

 

[Ikuu]

I'm not sure if there is only one, but I used it about 70% of the time since I got it until I finished the game. I would of used it more but I kept running out of ammo, or didn't want to use everything incase I came up against something that needed it.

 

[bengraven]

I fucking LOVE the first one. It's on the very top of my backlog as soon as I'm done with The Witcher. I bought it with my PC but played Witcher over that because I was in a fantasy mood.

I need to see if Clear Sky is $3 at NewEgg as well still for the completist in me.

GET OUT OF HERE STALKER.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

the first one, even with its flaws was an amazing experience.

Clear Skies was disappoint but at least with fast travel it wasn't as annoying.

I can't wait for this one, hopefully the shooting is improved, I found the gunplay to be one of the weakest parts in Stalker but thats just my opinion.

After being left with a bad taste by Far Cry2 I can't wait now, I was hoping FC2 would fill the void and do some things better than Stalker but it was a disappointment of repitiveness and backtracking.

 

[Minsc]

STALKER is more or less my ideal FPS. Amazing atmosphere, great immersion, and a nice feeling of familiarity but at the same time being an outsider.

Such a great game, and most problems people have don't bother me much or are fixed with a few mods. I just wish it was all perfect, but that should by no means stop anyone from experiencing such an awesome FPS.

Headphones + late night gaming + STALKER = win.

 

[dorkimoe]

STALKER is more or less my ideal FPS. Amazing atmosphere, great immersion, and a nice feeling of familiarity but at the same time being an outsider.

Such a great game, and most problems people have don't bother me much or are fixed with a few mods. I just wish it was all perfect, but that should by no means stop anyone from experiencing such an awesome FPS.

Headphones + late night gaming + STALKER = win.

i keep hearing about the atmosphere and what not, when does the combat get not so just ..lame?

 

[Tain]

I'm really liking the first one so far. We'll see.

 

[flarkminator]

OH MY FUCK YES.

Stalker was one of the scariest, awesomest, winnest, epicest experiences I'd had in a long time.

Single handedly brought me back into the fold of PC gaming with it's bear hug of bad assery.

COME 'ERE YOU!!!

 

[bengraven]

STALKER is more or less my ideal FPS. Amazing atmosphere, great immersion, and a nice feeling of familiarity but at the same time being an outsider.

Such a great game, and most problems people have don't bother me much or are fixed with a few mods. I just wish it was all perfect, but that should by no means stop anyone from experiencing such an awesome FPS.

Headphones + late night gaming + STALKER = win.

Man, even with my speakers and playing during the day I get the creeps sometimes. I remember the first time one of those Fleshs popped out at me from around a barn door. I shit bricks.

But that's a great recommendation.

 

[notsol337]

Once again, I'm really blown away by how real the sky looks.

 

[Ledsen]

Man, I'd really intended to play this game once I clear a few other things first but your impressions are giving me pause. Tell me, would you say it's more or less irritating than Far Cry 2? I've heard similar complaints about it and both are currently on my to-play stack...

I haven't played Stalker, but Far Cry 2 is my GOTY 2008 and I doubt Stalker can even approach its awesomeness. Play FC2 and be humbled, it's an amazing experience that every gamer should enjoy at least once.

 

[Ikuu]

Far Cry 2 is a giant pile of wank.

 

[-tetsuo-]

I haven't played Stalker, but Far Cry 2 is my GOTY 2008 and I doubt Stalker can even approach its awesomeness. Play FC2 and be humbled, it's an amazing experience that every gamer should enjoy at least once.

STALKER is much better than Far Cry 2. STALKER + mods is much better than a whole lot of things.

 

[thaOwner]

It's not really an open world game. It's a series of large-ish interconnected zones.

They were going for realism with the gunplay, so weapons don't have the usual videogame accuracy; they also jam occasionally and degrade with use.

Cool. Thanks for the answer.

 

[Minsc]

Yeah, I actually messed with some of the mods and probably should give them another shot. Oblivion Lost seemed awesome, but it caused some weird problems that resulted in crashing savegames and whatnot. Also had odd performance issues when viewing fire (FRAPs still reported 60 fps, but the framerate appeared to stutter whenever dynamic lights were in the scene). Never could figure out why it did this. That was on the old 8800GT, though, and I haven't tried it since upgrading to the GTX260.

Might be time to give it one more shot.

That fire thing was a problem that was fixed in the awesome lighting mod, Float32 iirc. There was something like a few hundred light source generating things put in to the fires, which caused weird problems like what you're describing.

Really can't recommend the Float32 mod enough, not sure what's changed with the expansion, but back when it first came out, that was one amazing mod. Enhanced the lighting/shadows at no significant framerate cost, and in some cases improved it.

 

[Wollan]

FarCry 2 was excellently pulled off.

It's a gigantic game, the weapons are great and the hit detection good (combat is my biggest complaint in regards to Stalker), it's probably the most polished open world fps (day one product) ever released.

If I somehow could mix the combat seen in FC2 (though there's obviously great room for A.I improvements), the decent animation and engine performance with the universe and atmosphere of Stalker it would be a blessing.

 

[Ikuu]

You could sit out of the range of the AI and just snipe them, and half the time they would just stand there and not react at all. And when you had to take out a convoy and were unsuccessful you could just sit in the same spot and watch as they would drive round in circles all day. Not to mention the world just felt boring and lifeless.

The only thing worth mentioning is the fact it's one of the few games in which dx10 gave a performance increase.

 

[Revolutionary]

Eh.
I really don't see what people see in STALKER that make them go insane.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the first game, despite it's countless shortcomings, but obviously, it was farrrrr from perfect.
Then came Clear Sky, where everything was supposed to be more polished, and a better game overall...

Nope.

I hope this new one is good but... they seriously need to test their games more if they expect me to pay up.

 

[dLMN8R]

FarCry 2 was excellently pulled off.

It's a gigantic game, the weapons are great and the hit detection good (combat is my biggest complaint in regards to Stalker), it's probably the most polished open world fps (day one product) ever released.

If I somehow could mix the combat seen in FC2 (though there's obviously great room for A.I improvements), the decent animation and engine performance with the universe and atmosphere of Stalker it would be a blessing.

Ugh. I beat Far Cry 2 and after the first 10 hours (1/3 of the game) it was one of the most tedious, poorly-designed games I ever played. It has absolutely nothing on STALKER. Not the gunplay, not the variety, not the atmosphere, not the AI, and not even the storytelling.

 

[Joseph Merrick]

do not ever again address the royal goty highness stalker series with farcry2 dogshit on your breath. off with your head.

 

[SonOfABeep]

get out of here stalker
get out of here stalker
get out of here stalker
get out of here stalker
get out of here stalker

NICE!
I hope my new laptop can run it decently. I'm just playing through the first one and have clear sky on deck. Loving the game.

 

[Regret Truth]

STALKER is much better than Far Cry 2. STALKER + mods is much better than a whole lot of things.

Any suggestions on for some of the better mods? I've bought both games on release and never got around to playing them. :/

 

[Minotauro]

Yeah, I could see you disliking it as well, but still, do give it a shot.

I'll sum up things that bothered me for you...

1) Lack of exploration due to a constant stream of combat with the excitement of an MMORPG. :\

2) Quick discovery of artificial barriers reveal smaller areas than first expected - all densely populated with enemies or NPCs (again, feels more like an MMORPG world than what I had hoped)

3) Little personality or interesting dialog - One of the best things about something like Vampire Bloodlines was the quality of the writing and the scenarios presented. The story and characters in STALKER were all extremely uninteresting to me.

Honestly, I'm really curious to hear what you have to say about the game when you get around to playing it. It's such a strange game that seems to leave a different impression on everyone that plays it.

Yeah, sure thing. I do wanna give it a shot. It may be a bit though...I'm playing through Crysis right now and that might be a tough transition to make...especially since I play it cloaked like 90% of the time. It sounds to me like all the best aspects of Crysis are the worst aspects of Stalker.

For what it's worth, I actually did play it briefly when I first picked it up. I was immediately pulled in by the atmosphere and the setting. Then, I got to a poorly staged gun fight at some sort of barn I think, died, and then quit. I haven't been back to it since...although I have been meaning to.

I have to say though, those complaints of yours are the exact type of thing that drive me nuts in gaming...especially the second one. There's little as frustrating as getting the impression that you have a large, open environment to dig through only to quickly find out that you're fenced-in by artificial borders. It's almost like they're sabotaging their own design.

 

[ghst]

yes. i will buy this game.

Any suggestions on for some of the better mods? I've bought both games on release and never got around to playing them. :/

rps wrote up a great article on clear sky mods recently- http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/04/27/stalker-the-mods-return-to-clear-sky/

 

[Joseph Merrick]

There's little as frustrating as getting the impression that you have a large, open environment to dig through only to quickly find out that you're fenced-in by artificial borders. It's almost like they're sabotaging their own design.

it's not like it's zeno clash or anything though.

 

[DubloSeven]

EFF YEAH!!

 

[Poimandres]

Yeah, sure thing. I do wanna give it a shot. It may be a bit though...I'm playing through Crysis right now and that might be a tough transition to make...especially since I play it cloaked like 90% of the time. It sounds to me like all the best aspects of Crysis are the worst aspects of Stalker.

For what it's worth, I actually did play it briefly when I first picked it up. I was immediately pulled in by the atmosphere and the setting. Then, I got to a poorly staged gun fight at some sort of barn I think, died, and then quit. I haven't been back to it since...although I have been meaning to.

I have to say though, those complaints of yours are the exact type of thing that drive me nuts in gaming...especially the second one. There's little as frustrating as getting the impression that you have a large, open environment to dig through only to quickly find out that you're fenced-in by artificial borders. It's almost like they're sabotaging their own design.

Actually, with my acquisition of a new PC, and with it Crysis and STALKER, I found myself in the same position you are in.

The combat and AI in Crysis is far more satisfying, but compared to STALKER the environments feel decidedly empty. With STALKER, it's all about the atmosphere and sense of exploration in the world. There's plenty of scope for exploration and cool things to find- even if each area isn't massive and tuly "open".

Once you get used to the "feel" the combat is also fine I've found, and the sense of being in a true world that comes from the creatures and bandits actually wandering the world on their own accord shouldn't be undersold.

I hope the new game turns out well!

 

[dejan]

Yeah, that was rumoured some weeks ago on several german gaming websites. Part of the rumour was that GSC Gameworld is currently also thinking about STALKER 2 and that they might ditch their X-Ray-Engine for the sequel in favour of CryEngine 3. Great news anyway

 

[Asparagus]

Stalker's one of my all time favourite fps games, I can't wait for this.

 

[DubloSeven]

What were the sales of Clear Sky like?

 

[eXistor]

Ugh. I beat Far Cry 2 and after the first 10 hours (1/3 of the game) it was one of the most tedious, poorly-designed games I ever played. It has absolutely nothing on STALKER. Not the gunplay, not the variety, not the atmosphere, not the AI, and not even the storytelling.

Totally. The first 5 hours were bliss, but then I saw the game kept repeating itself again and again....and again. The gameworld is fantastic and I loved the controls, but it just seems they forgot to put anything in it.

 

[Zenith]

You think GSC has actually learnt how to make games yet?

 

[Joseph Merrick]

Yeah, that was rumoured some weeks ago on several german gaming websites. Part of the rumour was that GSC Gameworld is currently also thinking about STALKER 2 and that they might ditch their X-Ray-Engine for the sequel in favour of CryEngine 3. Great news anyway

not rumored. this all came directly from gsc.

 

[burgerdog]

Do any Stalker players know where to download Float 32 mod and how to install it for steam? I did it a few months ago but I can't find the same website that I used before, everything else looks sketchy.

 

[Action Jackson]

Do any Stalker players know where to download Float 32 mod and how to install it for steam? I did it a few months ago but I can't find the same website that I used before, everything else looks sketchy.

Wasn't float32 incorporated into one of the official patches? Anyways I hope GSC isn't turning into a one trick pony.

 

[burgerdog]

Wasn't float32 incorporated into one of the official patches? Anyways I hope GSC isn't turning into a one trick pony.

I didn't know they did that. I'll boot the game and see if they did.

 

[Action Jackson]

I didn't know they did that. I'll boot the game and see if they did.

Just checked it myself and there seem to be conflicting statements, it was announced to be included with patch 1.0004 but apparently left out in the end. The modder's homepage seems to be offline too.

 

[Nikorasu]

So basically, this is the game that will reveal that either SoC was a total fluke, or CS was simply an isolated incident.

Which is it, GSC?

 

[godhandiscen]

Stalker is so bug ridden I find it incredibly annoying. Even when FRAPS reports 120fps the shit feels like less than 30 during certain light intense sequences. No matter what I do, I cannot achieve a fluid experience with a constant 60fps since the game takes a massive shit once I hit towns. Here are my specs.
Core i7 3.8GHz
6GB DDR3 1800MHz
GTX295 OC'd

There is no way my computer can't handle it. There is just something wrong with the game period. Stalker makes Crysis in Very High seem "fluid" which is laughable. Also, disabling the enhanced lighting makes for a piss poor graphical showing. I love the gameplay, but the engine sucks ass.

edit: I am talking about CS btw.

 

[Joseph Merrick]

So basically, this is the game that will reveal that either SoC was a total fluke, or CS was simply an isolated incident.

Which is it, GSC?

which of those were Codename Outbreak? :O

 

[dLMN8R]

Good interview talking about stability, quests, etc.

http://www.pcgames.de/aid,687169/ST...t-GSC-STALKER-2-bestaetigt/PC/Special/?page=2

Some decent new information:

-All quests are manually designed now, no more randomly generated side-quests
-They're finally taking a serious approach at testing the game
-RPG elements are expanded further with more weapon upgrades and such (woot!)
-More NPCs have missions to get from them instead of just a limited few (and they're not randomly generated!)
-He mentions working with different factions, but they mentioned in an earlier interview that the "faction war" system from Clear Sky was removed. This is a good thing - that faction war system sucked balls


Also, he says that CryEngine 3 for the full sequel STALKER 2 is nothing but a rumor. We'll see about that...

 

[Big-E]

Good interview talking about stability, quests, etc.

http://www.pcgames.de/aid,687169/ST...t-GSC-STALKER-2-bestaetigt/PC/Special/?page=2

Some decent new information:

-All quests are manually designed now, no more randomly generated side-quests
-They're finally taking a serious approach at testing the game
-RPG elements are expanded further with more weapon upgrades and such (woot!)
-More NPCs have missions to get from them instead of just a limited few (and they're not randomly generated!)
-He mentions working with different factions, but they mentioned in an earlier interview that the "faction war" system from Clear Sky was removed. This is a good thing - that faction war system sucked balls


Also, he says that CryEngine 3 for the full sequel STALKER 2 is nothing but a rumor. We'll see about that...

All those things sound great as I think they missed their mark on the last one. I really like the fact that they are getting rid of the random side quest and faction wars.

 

[ChoklitReign]

Wow, so everything is going to be improved. Can't wait to see gameplay.

 

[legend166]

I only ever played STALKER with the 2009 Complete Mod, so it was great for me. I read that "now includes sleeping feature!" in the OP and I was all "huh?"

 

[DodgyGeezerFella]

2 new trailers, 1 gameplay, 1 atmosphere -

Gameplay -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIwTy74Mvmk

Atmosphere -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgZN3n4wT3o

 

[Doytch]

Good interview talking about stability, quests, etc.

http://www.pcgames.de/aid,687169/ST...t-GSC-STALKER-2-bestaetigt/PC/Special/?page=2

Some decent new information:

-All quests are manually designed now, no more randomly generated side-quests
-They're finally taking a serious approach at testing the game
-RPG elements are expanded further with more weapon upgrades and such (woot!)
-More NPCs have missions to get from them instead of just a limited few (and they're not randomly generated!)
-He mentions working with different factions, but they mentioned in an earlier interview that the "faction war" system from Clear Sky was removed. This is a good thing - that faction war system sucked balls


Also, he says that CryEngine 3 for the full sequel STALKER 2 is nothing but a rumor.We'll see about that...

I fully understand what they mean, and I've been there, but I just have this image in my head of burly Russian coders smoking cigars and knocking back Stolicnaya with their feet on the desk as some guy who looks like the programmer from Goldeneye comes in telling them they really need to be checking some corner cases.

 

[CiSTM]

Kinda hyped for more expansions but I really would like to see STALKER 2 already.