S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Anyone playing it? Options

[Backgammon]

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.

[Fix-it]

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.

[Backgammon]

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.

[Fix-it]

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.

[Vvornth]

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.

[Backgammon]

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

[Fix-it]

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

[Backgammon]

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

[Kagetenshi]

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

~J

[Backgammon]

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

[eidolon]

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

[X-Kalibur]

[Kagetenshi]

:grinbig:

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

[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. 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.

[Fix-it]

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.

[eidolon]

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

[Kagetenshi]

[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"

[Backgammon]

[Fix-it]

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 ]

so's I thought the second time around I would hurry up to freedom territory and get myself some good guns (G36, that russian silenced sniper one, a decent handgun)

well, I roll into freedom territory, and suddenly get ambushed by like 8 duty guys. no reason.
anyone who's done the plot most of the way through knows about the mission for duty to get the grenade launcher, and there's a renegade duty squad, and it's ok if they die. this was them.

I waste them all (ph3@r ma skilz) and go into the freedom base, and talk to the head guy, and STILL get the mission to destroy previously mentioned duty squad. me and teh freedom guys run to the farm, and lo and behold; they're dead. I can't complete that mission.

so I fart around that map for awhile, kill the bloodsuckers in the village, get the GL to keep for my own, and some nifty guns. then head back south. duty all of the sudden shoots me on site.

this is a problem.

not because they shoot me (I'm a better shot) but because in the 100rads bar, there are several Duty guys. they can pull thier guns in the bar. the player (me) cannot. so whenever I walk in, I greet a hail of gunfire I can't answer.
I can't roll a frag in the room, can't get the missions or fetch the documents from the lab. whoops. game over.

oh well. I found a strange bug where I can get unlimited SEVA suits from a safe in the wild zone (section between science lab and bar). every time I search this one corpse I get the cache icon "The safe in the house". and another suit pops up. yay.

[Kagetenshi]

You might want to report those bugs.

~J

[Shrike30]

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 ]

Primary weapon, about 15-20 spare magazines. This will usually be a Tunder 14 or a TR301/G36.
Secondary weapon, usually a shotgun, suppressed MP5, or Vintar BC with either about 100 shells (50 shot, 50 slug) or about 15 magazines of PB1s, or about 20 mags of 9x39 Sniper (helpful if you're carrying a Tunder 14, as well)
Handgun, USP .45 Compact with 4 spare magazines, unless I'm carrying the MP5 in which case I use the USP 9mm.
4 grenades of each type, 8 launcher grenades if i have a launcher
4 medkits
10 bandages
10 antirads
4 cans of food
Artifacts... usually one -radiation, two +endurance, and 2 +bulletproof

On a vaguely kit-related note...

[ Spoiler ]

I just finished up going after the Brain Scorcher. My brother is playing through the game a little behind where I am, and he got a phone call shortly after I went there.
"Hey, uh... when you go to the Scorcher? Bring ammo."
"Uh... yeah? I usually do?"
"No, dude... ammo. Like, 40 spare mags for whatever you usually use, a few hundred rounds of 5.45 for when you need to pick up an AK and use it, something like a shotgun and at least a hundred shells, a 9mm handgun just so you can find ammo in the field, and as many frags as you can carry... at least 50. Oh, and a spare suit of armor, if it's not too much weight."
"Oh, shit."

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.

[Backgammon]

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.

[Fix-it]

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. IMDB page



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.

[Backgammon]

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