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Dumpshock Forums _ General Gaming _ S.T.A.L.K.E.R

Posted by: Backgammon Mar 26 2007, 12:24 PM

Anyone else pick this game up? I've played a bit so far, and it's pretty awesome. I have some big bugs, but they fall under "seriously annoying" and not "can't play the game".

Gunfights are really awesome, the AI is absolutely amazing. As good as FEAR's was, I'd say the AI is twice as good in this game.

Veteran difficulty level is the best experience. You'll die a lot, so save often, but it's still worth it. The highest setting, Master, is not fun. I've tried it (accidentally..) and dead people have like 4 rounds of ammo on them. So you never get ammo, so you have to basically make it through the game with your pistol and knife. At veteran you get enough ammo to at least have the same weapons as what is used against you.

Bug-wise, it's hit and miss. The game either runs super smoothly on your system, which doesn't have to be high-end, or you get massive problems, like me. For some god unknown reason the game won't load for me if I change my user preferences, and my system had huge fps problems at very precise places. I've managed to get around it, but it wasn't easy.

All in all, get it know if you have courage to potentially fight bugs, else wait till a patch. But eventually get it, it's an amazing game. I'd say it's a merge of FEAR, Fallout and Deux Ex - a pretty awesome combination.

Posted by: Fix-it Mar 26 2007, 02:54 PM

yeah, been playin' it.

AI= better than FEAR's? I think not.

then again, I have it set to "STALKER" difficulty, because I ain't a masochist

in FEAR the AI would flush you out of camping spots with grenades.

I have yet to be fragged, despite many enemies carrying nades, which is fine, because it means more for me when I loot the corpses.

I also must complain about a lack of 9x19 ammo. I wanna use my silenced MP5.

I must say this game probably could have used a short public beta for final polishing. it's a sapphire in the rough.

Posted by: Backgammon Mar 26 2007, 03:03 PM

True, I haven't been naded yet neither, depsite them having grenades, like you say. Might be a bug / unimplemented feature. However, the way they position themselves, flanking you, taking cover, etc, is very very good.

Posted by: Fix-it Mar 27 2007, 12:56 AM

aaagh, I'm stuck due to a bug in the game... so annoying. can't get the script to trigger.

thank god for the LR300 w/ silencer and scope.

Posted by: Vvornth Mar 27 2007, 08:03 AM

First patch is out, looks like this game is going to be a classic like System shock 2.

Oh and ammo is supposed to be scarce.

Posted by: Backgammon Mar 27 2007, 12:28 PM

No patch is out... Just checked with the update game button.

Posted by: Fix-it Mar 27 2007, 02:37 PM

it's on fileplanet, and it also invalidates your savegames. that's annoying.

Posted by: Backgammon Mar 27 2007, 03:15 PM

Ouch. Good thing it's a good game I don't mind restarting. But ouch still.

Posted by: Kagetenshi Mar 27 2007, 06:51 PM

Man, I'd love to play this game, but it doesn't look quite good enough to become Exception #2.

~J

Posted by: Backgammon Mar 27 2007, 06:56 PM

Well, that begs the question. What was Exception 1?

Posted by: eidolon Mar 27 2007, 07:07 PM

Careful, Kage'll lecture you about your usage of an expression, regardless of linguistic evolution.

Posted by: X-Kalibur Mar 27 2007, 07:10 PM

QUOTE (Backgammon)

Well, that raises the question. What was Exception 1?

I fixed it for him

Posted by: Kagetenshi Mar 27 2007, 07:31 PM

There's another joke in there somewhere about exceptions and the raising thereof, but I'll refrain. Anyway, the one exception to my otherwise strict "do not buy games for the Windows platform" rule is the aforementioned F.E.A.R., which I lost about two weeks of my life to the demo of. There are a few things they could have done better (aside from stuff like "use OpenGL"), but combat in that game just felt good, and the atmosphere was pulled off surprisingly well.

~J

Posted by: eidolon Mar 27 2007, 08:39 PM

I'm actually semi-interested in FEAR and STALKER, but the fact that they're both FPSs pretty much means I'll only ever play them if someone gives them to me for free. I just get too bored with the FPS thing nowadays. Doom III bored me to tears even though the initial ambiance and visuals were awesome.

Posted by: Fix-it Mar 28 2007, 12:53 AM

funny you should mention doom 3. stalker is kinda similar in that things are very dark.

maybe it's just my settings, but I find myself running around with NVGs on all the time.

Posted by: eidolon Mar 28 2007, 01:33 AM

In DIII I used the tactical flashlight mod. Well....a tactical flashlight mod, I'm sure there were many.

Posted by: Kagetenshi Mar 29 2007, 08:02 PM

QUOTE (eidolon)

I'm actually semi-interested in FEAR and STALKER, but the fact that they're both FPSs pretty much means I'll only ever play them if someone gives them to me for free.

http://www.gamershell.com/download_10167.shtml. See what you think. The demo takes about 45 minutes on the first runthrough (of course, varying based on skill) and 20-30 thereafter.

If you don't really get the urge to play the demo again, just move on.

~J

Posted by: Fix-it Mar 30 2007, 01:56 AM

So having played STALKER all the way through (and starting for a second time, do some other stuff)

I have come to a conclusion:

"Oblivion: With Guns"

Posted by: Backgammon Mar 30 2007, 12:32 PM

QUOTE (Fix-it)

So having played STALKER all the way through (and starting for a second time, do some other stuff)

I have come to a conclusion:

"Oblivion: With Guns"

Sounds about right.

Oh and I don't know if you are aware of this Fix-it, but you get more quests in higher difficulty settings, with better rewards. So if you're starting again, go for Veteran or Master if you want to have quests you didn't get before.

Posted by: Fix-it Mar 31 2007, 01:18 AM

Anyone playing this game: Do it in order. it's supposed to be non-linear, but it isn't. you end up breaking the game.

(Heavy Spoilers)

[ Spoiler ]

Posted by: Kagetenshi Mar 31 2007, 01:25 AM

You might want to report those bugs.

~J

Posted by: Shrike30 Apr 12 2007, 06:27 PM

I'm a huge fan of STALKER so far. I started playing on whatever the middle level of difficulty is, just because gaming (for the most part) seems to have gotten around to deciding that "easy" is for non-gamers and "hard" for people who are good at the game.

Oblivion: With Guns is not a bad description. The qualifier I'd tag onto that is "Oblivion: With Guns, Without Such An Open World That You Just Wander Around Doing Oddball Stuff Until The Game Gets Boring And Without Worrying About Levelling Efficiently." The stuff that it doesn't do that Oblivion does makes it superior, in my mind. Not to mention I vastly prefer assault rifles over longbows.

The Cordon felt a little slow, but the game looked like it had promise, and so I stuck with it. The Garbage was pretty cool, but when the game really came together was maybe 90 minutes in, when I got up to the Bar and started getting interesting tasks, and the kind of supplies I actually needed to go out and kick some ass without feeling like I'm just trying to scrape by.

For me, one of the huge tricks was learning that scavenging should really be limited by weight. Outside of ammunition and a basic level of supplies, I really only collect artifacts, antirad meds (they're light and fetch a good price), animal bits, and the occasional unique weapon/nice armor. When you get a couple of +endurance artifacts together (and keep your weight below 50 kilos, even though your true max is 60), being able to sprint continually also makes the game a lot more playable.

What's the usual kit y'all drag around? For me...

[ Spoiler ]

On a vaguely kit-related note...

[ Spoiler ]

One thing I had happen, that was kind of surprising to me... I've been noticing that the game applies some degree of realism to it's ballistics. Rounds can penetrate sheet metal and wood without much trouble, and punch through things like the corners of concrete walls on occasion. They'll ricochet if they hit hard objects or surfaces at a flat enough angle... I've skip-fired a magazine under a gate I had someone on the other side of, and killed him with it. The biggest surprise to me, though, was when I was firing at someone over a pipe, using a scope... and one of his return shots knocked me out of scoped vision. "WTF," I thought, and zoomed back in to finish him off... and my gun jammed. It proceeded to continue jamming every 5-8 rounds after that until I tossed it and got a new one, despite it being in very good condition (above 90%). My best guess? One of the rounds coming at me hit my rifle, and damaged it.

I've been having a grand time with STALKER. I hope you all enjoy it, even with the occasional bugs.

Posted by: Backgammon Apr 12 2007, 07:52 PM

I find the story isn't really pushed on you enough. I had to go into my PDA to discover a section called 'Folklore' that really added flavour to the game. And you have to pay attention to what's really going on with the story by reviewing your notes, or you could play the whole thing without ever realising what you'Re up to.

On a side note, I just discovered there is a movie called Stalker, and a book that move is based on (book is not called Stalker, I foget the exact name). The game is based on both a little, though both movie and book were not set in Chernobyl (it hadn't happened yet). I may have to check that out.

Posted by: Fix-it Apr 12 2007, 08:34 PM

the book (more like a short story) is excellent, the movie I can only find in it's native russian.

this is a problem as I don't speak russian. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/

but yeah, the story has potential, but is broken by the lack of dialogue between characters, and the fact that the event scripting is very easily broken.

edit:
the vintar BC has gotta be the best gun evar. silenced, scoped, doesn't break/jam, common ammo. only issue is the 10 round clip.

the best handgun in the game is actually the beretta 92fs, but you can only get it by killing the duty guys in the trash. not a good idea.

Posted by: Backgammon Apr 14 2007, 05:12 PM

Bring lots of anti-rad before going into NPP. Seriously. Like 40-50.

Posted by: Shrike30 Apr 21 2007, 06:40 PM

I just got there... you're not kidding. I took your advice and picked up a high-rad suit before I went there (passed on using an exoskeleton because of it, actually), and damn... i can practically hear my brains cooking in my skull, even with a serious -radiation artifact online.

One of the things I like about this game, and which this area is pretty good at encouraging, is that you don't have to, or even want to, fight everything. If I could run past it or avoid it in this area, I did so... no reason to get shot up and irradiated just to run down some yahoo with a rifle I could just as easily bypass.

Posted by: SuperFly May 2 2007, 02:59 AM

I LOVE THIS GAME! It's the most immersive FPS I've ever played, hands down.

I got stuck midway through the game because of a glitch, though, so I'm just gonna play something else until the 1.002 patch comes out.

Posted by: Lindt May 2 2007, 07:53 PM

I seem to have a major graphical glitch when it rains. So pretty much all the time.

Over all, its a fun game, but I just cant get it to stay happy on my machine. However the ballistics model is just fantastic to play with, though admittedly I found it frustrating that I spent more time with the bolt in my hand then I did a gun.