3/20/07 S.T.A.L.K.E.R (PC)

[Morfiend]

Any one tried this yet? Reviews are very mixed from the "review" sites. I think gamespy gave it a 6.6 and Gamespot and IGN gave it around a 8.7, was wondering what you guys though. Im in the market for a new FPS game, so maybe ill pick it up.

[Sairon]

So much wasted potential it makes me cry. This could've been so damn good. RPGish FPS with looting and a superb setting. Combat feels good and while being fairly linear it offers more freedom than most FPSs. There's side quests and loads of side tracks to take. However, you easily get locked into a loading cycle where you've run out of med packs or simply happend to position yourself bad. Respawning of soldiers is random between loading which can piss you of, it's pretty irritating to get shot down while looting after a while. Overall, YMMV, some of my friends really really dig it.

[Strazos]

Buddy of mine is warming up to it, though his tastes are much too...mainstream, for my liking, so I'm not sure if that tells you anything.

Well, his PC isn't as nice as mine, and he says it runs fine on Medium settings, so that might be a bit more informative.

[Fabricated]

Picked it up for $30 today.

-Combat feels pretty good, but it's hard. You bleed out like nothing when injured and even with a high resolution and properly adjusted graphics it can be hard to make stuff out to shoot it.
-Feels like Oblivion with guns and bad accents. Almost too much game.
-Looks decent, but runs like SHIT. I'm packing a X2 4400+, 2 Gigs of RAM, SATA drives, and a 7800GT and it runs like ass.
-I doubt I'll get anywhere in it.

[schild]

At least you're playing something besides World of Warcraft.

[Fabricated]

At least you're playing something besides World of Warcraft.

I'm also playing Company of Heroes, but that shit is hard too.

[Wolf]

-Looks decent, but runs like SHIT. I'm packing a X2 4400+, 2 Gigs of RAM, SATA drives, and a 7800GT and it runs like ass.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN TURN OFF THE SHADOWS!

I fucking love that game, but I wouldn't recommend it to people from the western world too much. It's old school in the sense that there's a ton of atmosphere around the world and the gameplay is pretty decent, but from a technical standpoint it's a piece of shit - slow loading, buggy graphics, crashes to desktop. To me - it's very worth it. It's loosely connected to the book (which, btw is one of the genius works of modern literature - not sure about the English title, should be something like "Picnic by the Road" by the Strugatzki brothers) and the movie (which, btw is one of the genius works of modern cinema - Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky), but is a world of its own. If you're looking for a really, really good and different game and you are willing to look over some technical glitches I am definitely recommending this. Nothing more to say to people that probably know of Chernobyl and "socialism" but haven't lived through them

[Phred]

-Looks decent, but runs like SHIT. I'm packing a X2 4400+, 2 Gigs of RAM, SATA drives, and a 7800GT and it runs like ass.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN TURN OFF THE SHADOWS!

I fucking love that game, but I wouldn't recommend it to people from the western world too much. It's old school in the sense that there's a ton of atmosphere around the world and the gameplay is pretty decent, but from a technical standpoint it's a piece of shit - slow loading, buggy graphics, crashes to desktop. To me - it's very worth it. It's loosely connected to the book (which, btw is one of the genius works of modern literature - not sure about the English title, should be something like "Picnic by the Road" by the Strugatzki brothers) and the movie (which, btw is one of the genius works of modern cinema - Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky), but is a world of its own. If you're looking for a really, really good and different game and you are willing to look over some technical glitches I am definitely recommending this. Nothing more to say to people that probably know of Chernobyl and "socialism" but haven't lived through them

Ya shadows bog it down seriously. I find if I alt-tab out then go back in I get wierd visual effects that make me need to restart as well. Other than that though I love the shit out of this game, and I usually hate fps's. Very hard to start with but once you get some decent gear it get's a bit easier and fairly free form at the beginning though the end kind of forces you down 1 or 2 paths depending what quests you did.

You can find some good tweaking hints on http://www.gsc-game.com/index.php?t=community&s=forums&s_game_type=xr&thm_page=1&thm_id=5946&sec_id=16 that can help and a few people there have posted their ini files in downloads to help others out. I was having trouble with the full dynamic lighting but that turned out to be the alt-tabbing.

HUGE SPOILER BELOW.






















































Don't miss the find the guide quest if you want a "real" ending. Otherwise you will be unable to open the door to get to the real end and have to settle for one of the fake endings.

Compared to a few other sites I read I'm really surprised at how much this game has flown below most people's radar. I'd think it would be hugely popular with a lot of the readers here.

[Azazel]

I intend to buy this.

However, I will need to purchase a new PC to play it on properly first. Yay.

[Rithrin]

I'm loving this game. The beginning is offputting since you get to attack 6 bandits with AK's while you're armed with a pistol and no real understanding of the mechanics. But past that the game really opens up. Not to mention this a game that finally has decent NPC AI, they hide behind bushes to obscure your vision, take cover behind large objects, flank you while their buddies in front distract you, duck out of site while reloading, will change hiding spots once they see you duck to reload, heck one of the NPCs killed me by shooting at the explosive barrel next to me that I didn't notice. Good fun all around.

[Morfiend]

This game is driving me insane. I am not slouch at FPS games, but in this game, I cant see to hit anything, and yet at the same time, the NPCs with sub machine guns can head shot me from like a mile away (and through walls). I dont know what im doing wrong, but it seems like a constant "quick load". Even fighting the simple bandits I am getting killed so quickly. Also, the interface is fucking horrible. If you loot some one, you have to hit esc to get out of the loot screen. Blah.

[Wolf]

Do you use the lean buttons to lean out of cover to shoot? That's pretty important. And only shoot in very small bursts, like you're shooting a railgun in quake. Don't shoot the head try and aim for the torsos of the enemies. Also if you're having trouble look for cover closer to the baddies. Keep in mind that medkits/bandages don't have any sort of cooldown so you can gobble them down as fast as you can hit the buttons ;)

[Rithrin]

I'm pretty sure that the AI get a huge accuracy bonus dependant on the difficulty (Which is defaults to maximum btw). I know I can't hit ANYTHING with a sawed off shotgun unless its directly in front of me, but NPCs constantly shoot off chunks of my health with those guns from what seems like football fields away. But I play on the highest difficulty, so...

And I don't know if this is a bug or if its a "realistic" way of portraying heavy bullets but sometimes bullets will go through light walls, like thin gates and doors and crates. So don't try hiding behind stuff like that.

Also what Wolf said, those are key.

[Phred]

Back when I was starting out I used the silenced pistol I found from heavy cover as much as possible. Also remember to be in a full crouch when attacking as much as possible. And definately turn the difficulty down to the lowest. You don't want to play this game through the first time on the default difficulty.

And yes, accuracy is a bit weighted toward the NPC's it seems. I've been hit by NPC's a half  mile away with assault rifles where the spread on my shots is about 1ft or more in variance on the hit zone. There are mods that make it work more like a standard fps shooter where your bullets go exactly where you aim if you wan't that kind of thing.

One important thing to know about mods. If two mods alter the same file one will overwrite the other at the moment. People are working on a mod manager that will merge files (grr at the lack of a good win32 diff and patch utility).

[Phred]

Back when I was starting out I used the silenced pistol I found from heavy cover as much as possible. Also remember to be in a full crouch when attacking as much as possible. And definately turn the difficulty down to the lowest. You don't want to play this game through the first time on the default difficulty.

And yes, accuracy is a bit weighted toward the NPC's it seems. I've been hit by NPC's a half  mile away with assault rifles where the spread on my shots is about 1ft or more in variance on the hit zone. There are mods that make it work more like a standard fps shooter where your bullets go exactly where you aim if you wan't that kind of thing.

One important thing to know about mods. If two mods alter the same file one will overwrite the other at the moment. People are working on a mod manager that will merge files (grr at the lack of a good win32 diff and patch utility). As well some places they say you have to unpack the whole data file to make mods work. In my experience this is not true. Putting the mod files in place and setting the loading of them to true is all it takes. (this will become more clear if you work with the mods a bit)

[Sky]

Do you use the lean buttons to lean out of cover to shoot? That's pretty important. And only shoot in very small bursts, like you're shooting a railgun in quake. Don't shoot the head try and aim for the torsos of the enemies. Also if you're having trouble look for cover closer to the baddies. Keep in mind that medkits/bandages don't have any sort of cooldown so you can gobble them down as fast as you can hit the buttons ;)

Leaning, check. Short bursts, check. No headshots? Depends on the weapon and enemy. I'm used to games set modernish where enemies have body armor and short burst headshots are the norm. Medkit pounding is lame gameplay imo, I'd probably use a god cheat if it got too annoying (I'm old).

Phred is having quotes trouble lately, eh?

[Phred]

Phred is having quotes trouble lately, eh?

Meh. What can I say. It was late and I forgot to preview. That second post was supposed to be a modify on the first one.

[Sky]

Phred is having quotes trouble lately, eh?

Meh. What can I say. It was late and I forgot to preview. That second post was supposed to be a modify on the first one.

I know

[UnSub]

I know I'm late to the party here, but I've just finished STALKER to get one Wish Granter ending, the 'Agree' ending and the 'kill everyone' ending.

Overall: not bad. By the last level to get the 'kill everyone' ending, I was getting a bit bored. Between the Gauss Gun and the G37, it was just a matter of finding the bad guys and headshots all round. The guy showing up to vomit exposition at you screamed "Matrix: Reloaded" and was a bit weaksauce regarding the mystery of the zone, but other than that, I'll give STALKER points for doing something a little bit different and having some nice atmospheric bits to it.

The world does have a good feeling of things going on without you, even if 1) they all want to kill you and 2) most of it is in Russian. It's only worth doing the side missions for loot and the main storyline (as mentioned above) does show it's origins too clearly at some points. Also, for a 'realistic' world, it feels less than realistic to kill a hundred or so people in less than a(n in-game) week and have people still regard you the same way.

However, I like the post-apoc world that was created and the detail of the zone design. The world did feel very open, right up until you smacked head first into one of the walls (e.g. I thought sneaking into the military base to get the documents would be child's play, until I found I couldn't go around the base due to the thin wire fence bordering the walls.

I'm looking forward to seeing the next STALKER as announced at E3 this year. Not so keen on it being a prequel, but someone obviously feels they have a story to tell.

One question I want answered: in the STALKER world, where the hell are the women?

[lesion]

I found the entire storyline really, really abysmal. I only got one Wish Granter ending because the game keeps fucking crashing. what pisses me off the most is that I really like this game, or want to, and then all these technical things come up along with a bunch of amateur design flaws (not that I wasn't expecting any) and totally deflate the wonderful atmosphere they set up.

what the fuck was that timer at Chernobyl? I don't even remember because a) the radio chatter was Russian and b) I was too busy running my ass off to beat it, bypassing all the cool shit outside the power plant (not to mention random red-haze bullshit obscuring vision anyway). what kind of gamer will not boot ass to get to the next objective when you put a random goddamn countdown on the screen?

then inside you're continually hounded by that baritone motherfucker saying the same line over and over again. if the intent was to make you want to shoot yourself and end it all, good job devteam. I was battling to retain sanity all the way to the COMPLETELY RETARDED WISH my character asks for. at this point I was glad for the outcome, because my walking random-fuck plot device was now a fixed object of hatred for totally disconnecting the gameplay from the cinematics in every way possible. (I know there are multiple endings, I am just so depressed by the quality of this one that I cry uncontrollably every time I load the quicksave)

RANDOM RADIATION

BORING-ASS ANOMALIES

INTERNET RAGE

I haven't uninstalled this game yet. it's tearing my brain apart with the present levels of awesomeness and totally-shit-not-awesomeness.

[Sky]

Just got in the new PC Gamer and they mention the Float 32 mod that looks pretty nifty.

[UnSub]

The bugs did get annoying, especially while outside / inside Chernobyl. I crashed a few times during saving the game.

The Wish Granter is 5 bad endings. You need to have completed the "Find the Guide" objective and the next one he gives you get access to the two 'full' endings, only one of which is the 'good' ending. Or: there is a way to open the required door without having completed the necessary objectives - look it up on Gamefaqs if you need it.

The counter outside Chernobyl was a blow-out; basically, some sort of massive radiation burst. The other time in the game you experience it, you go unconscious instead. This time it's a constant health erosion that will kill you unless you get into Chernobyl. I also wish I had a bit more time to explore that area too, just to see what it looks like.

The radiation was a bit annoying, especially since your Geiger counter seemed less than reliable.

[Sky]

I'm loving this game. The beginning is offputting since you get to attack 6 bandits with AK's while you're armed with a pistol and no real understanding of the mechanics. But past that the game really opens up. Not to mention this a game that finally has decent NPC AI, they hide behind bushes to obscure your vision, take cover behind large objects, flank you while their buddies in front distract you, duck out of site while reloading, will change hiding spots once they see you duck to reload, heck one of the NPCs killed me by shooting at the explosive barrel next to me that I didn't notice. Good fun all around.

Finally loaded this up. Haven't modded it beyond 1.0004 + a bug fix fan patch.

That first mission I just kinda went in guns blazing and got cut down fast. Then I remembered to play smart :) Let the three NPCs run in and start distracting the bandits, I ran back to the road and flanked the bandit compound. Shot one out back who had a silenced pistol. Then I snuck in and picked off everyone from behind while they were distracted by the friendlies out front. AI seems pretty decent.

My main gripe thus far is the packs of dogs. Brutal, since the main weapon I have for them right now is the double barrel shotgun which needs constant reloading while they're all over me. If I see them ahead, I pull back into some anomalies, hearing the exploding dogs is great. But still, most of my deaths are by those stupid packs of dogs.

Not very far in, played a couple hours just checking out the starting area, finding hidden stuff. Good explorer game.

[NiX]

Finally got a hold of this, but I'm worried about all the bugs and such. Suggestions for patches, mods..etc are much appreciated

[UnSub]

Finally got a hold of this, but I'm worried about all the bugs and such. Suggestions for patches, mods..etc are much appreciated

There are a ton of mods. From memory, there are even a few 'grouped' mods that give you a range of mods in one.

 - You'll want one that increases your max carrying weight.

 - There are a couple out there that give you the names of RL weapons, if that floats your boat.

 - There are also some official patches too that are meant to make the game more stable.

 - From memory, there is a patch that makes it easier to see at night, which makes travelling at night a lot easier.

[rk47]

Ummm I wouldn't recommend taking care of those 'weight & night' fixes. Although the AI tendency to score a good hit at you no matter what conditions pisses me off. The weight & night quirks makes it a good survival game tho. It's a wasteland, you're no superhuman; take what you can carry. Enjoy it for what it is.

[FatuousTwat]

If you are patient, you might want to wait for the new one coming out later this year. I'm pretty sure the name is STALKER: Clear Sky... Kind of a prequel.

Fake Edit: N/M you already have it :P

[UnSub]

Ummm I wouldn't recommend taking care of those 'weight & night' fixes. Although the AI tendency to score a good hit at you no matter what conditions pisses me off. The weight & night quirks makes it a good survival game tho. It's a wasteland, you're no superhuman; take what you can carry. Enjoy it for what it is.

I doubled the max carrying weight and still had problems. The default weight is just too low.

[NowhereMan]

I'm not too far in but I've got two weapons with a couple of hundred rounds each, my own armour and plenty of med-packs and bandages. That leaves me just enough weight to pick up a few artifacts and carry probably a lot more anti-rad drugs than I need. This is on the Stalker difficulty, I don't know if carrying weight decreases but unless weapons and armour get significantly heavier you've got just enough weight to carry the basics. If I doubled carrying weight I'd be swimming in ammo and money from loot.

I've got the feeling that if I have to start taking on large numbers of mutants that I might need to ditch a second weapons just so I can carry lots of one type of ammo, really need to get back to playing this soon. I think they manage to capture the post-apocalyptic feel quite well, though I think with a bit more work on the characters in the world and possibly also writing some decent side-quests they could really have made it much richer. My biggest gripe is the time-limit on side-quests, especially since it applies to getting your reward. After passing under the railway in the first zone I completed half a dozen side quests but didn't go straight back because I had more stuff to do and didn't really fancy running back and forth through the tunnel again. Suddenly failing all of them just because I hadn't picked up my reward was annoying.

[schild]

Turns out my computer can eat through this game now that I've patched up. Finally get to play a game I've been frothing for for a long time. Stoked.

[NiX]

I've seen mention of fan patches. Do they beat the 1.006 patch?

My biggest gripe is the time-limit on side-quests, especially since it applies to getting your reward.

You can get a mod that cuts out the time-limit on side missions. Maybe I'll grab that one seeing as I'm hearing more and more that it hurts the game in terms of seeing certain places.

[schild]

I am so bad at this game.

[UnSub]

I am so bad at this game.

In what way? The first mission, armed only with a crappy gun and up against entrenched enemies, is one of the hardest things in the game.

[schild]

Yea, the moment after that I started raping ass. I don't think I quite understand how to manage radiation poisoning from artifacts yet.

[schild]

Ok. Is there some sort of fast travel in the game between levels? I just ran 15 minutes all the way back to the trader to sell off like 40 artifacts. Now I'm rolling in money. Can't seem to buy a car. Or an awesome helicoptor. Also, I've started finding prototype weapons. Is there some sort of diabloesque thing going on? Oh, and is there a way to raise stats besides armor and various artifacts? Am I missing a character screen or something. Finally, I have no clue where to go next. Mole got killed when I was running back and now my quest market is gone. I'd go loot his body but he's surrounded by paramilitary who have better AIM than Fatality.