It really sucks buying two Stalker games on Steam and not being able to even launch them due to bugs.. I find a lot of boards talking about the same problem, but none of the solutions work for me. Perhaps I need to install a Windows XP partition for this series? Currently running Windows 7.
Now about Far Cry 2... it was quite odd in the beginning, the indoor/outdoor loading times and the gun handling took some time getting used to after spending a week playing Crysis (which I promptly uninstalled after the shitty tank mission).
But after I fixed a choppy terrain caching bug caused by DX10, I sat down with it again and everything clicked into place. Far Cry 2 is scratching the Stalker itch I had, even though it is quite different.
The african setting is brilliant, combined with the mercenary-friends system it reminds me a lot of Jagged Alliance in atmosphere. The graphics are mostly great and it runs great on max settings.
I'm not sure if I've encountered the 'checkpoint' complaint people always had with this game, I think it had to do with checkpoints along the way that kept spawning enemies if you return to them? This doesn't seem like such a problem and it keeps you on your toes.. if you want you can always just drive through?
The game seems to allow for a lot of cool shit to happen, last-minute explosive arrows at a convoy rushing towards you, with hugely satisfying explosions and amazing fire physics.. I dig it! There also seems to be a fair amount of NPC and world activity.. and of course the way it handles first-person character animations such as self-healing and door opening is good to see after first being done in Breakdown on Xbox.
It also comes in at around 3GB, which is good because I'm not a fan of 9GB Steam downloads.
Anyway, I just hope everyone who didn't have it yet and likes single player FPS games bought this for the $3 it went for. I'm glad I got it!