Im officially a stalker!

[CornishCorpse]

I bought stalker for 25 quid today and damn was I in for the treat after the original problem of trying to get rid of the yellow sky ( what the hell? ) and getting rid of a mod which made the sky laggy and uber trippy its all good. The guy at pcworld my computer would run it on average setting but everything is on the highest and this game is sweet.

Jus wanted to say thanks to everyone who posted reviews on this game because it gave alot of influence on the purchase and dizzam..Im still near the beginning but hey after I attacked bandits and hunted down a warthog with a sawnoff so I could sell its foot for some ammo I knew I was hooked.

[darth los]

I bought stalker for 25 quid today and damn was I in for the treat after the original problem of trying to get rid of the yellow sky ( what the hell? ) and getting rid of a mod which made the sky laggy and uber trippy its all good. The guy at pcworld my computer would run it on average setting but everything is on the highest and this game is sweet.

Jus wanted to say thanks to everyone who posted reviews on this game because it gave alot of influence on the purchase and dizzam..Im still near the beginning but hey after I attacked bandits and hunted down a warthog with a sawnoff so I could sell its foot for some ammo I knew I was hooked.

You had me scared for a second there.:rockbrow: I too find the various reviews for games posted on here very helpful. Maybe we should make a sticky thread exclusively devoted to game reviews.

[CornishCorpse]

Have no fear dude, this is a world that you need to get lost in and what a beautiful but gritty world it is! And Im running it on maximum setting on a geforce 7500 the card Ive had for the last three years :lol:

[darth los]

Have no fear dude, this is a world that you need to get lost in and what a beautiful but gritty world it is! And Im running it on maximum setting on a geforce 7500 the card Ive had for the last three years :lol:

It seems as though the standard for games is becoming immersed in an ever expanding world. The old linear gameplay just isn't going to cut it anymore.

[MinionZombie]

STALKER is indeed a fantastic game, Cornish - are you playing with all the latest patches installed? If so, how's it playing?

Also, what specs do you have?

I got it on the day of release (after a FEVERISH wait :lol:) and then spent two weeks pouring over it. I didn't even explore everywhere in the game.

The first half of the map is generally a bit more sedate and more about exploring and learning about the zone and such like, the Red Forrest onwards is a shooting gallery, lots of action when everything's kicking off, so it's a tad half 'n' half in that respect, but otherwise yes - ideal for immersion, you can't really get sucked into it.

Wait till you start exploring the underground complexes ... that sh*t is scary as, well, sh*t. Had me freaked out anyway.

[darth los]

I have got to get into this computer gaming thing. I feel lost when you guys talk about this stuff. How much would a decent one run me?

[CornishCorpse]

What the hell was that thing?! I started on the underground sewers and I found..predator apparently? Four shotgun shells and most of a mag from the version two of the ak and on it goes..

My Specs? Im too lazy to search em out but its a Compaq comp with geforce 7500, apologies for my lazyness.

I disagree with you MZ, I thought it was pretty easy to get involved in the game. For example today I was lurking with a bunch of stalkers in an abandoned hangar, one strumming on the guitar while the others warmed their hands I had a offline cigarette just watching the surroundings and the rain fall and enjoying it all.

Also I really like how much freedom there is in the game and how you feel like youre lucky to have a weapon. In games like gta ( god bless ) weapons dont really feel powerful, make big booms or a loud noise okay but in stalker every weapon has its own unique style and feel.

On the level of freedom thing again..A good example for darth los incase youre intrested in giving it a go is you being able to shape what sort of stalker you want to be. The example is essentially I had been getting destroyed by bandits several times over and after a sharp retreat I passed a fellow stalker. Hood up and trudging on in the rain and carrying a machinegun. I can talk to him..or I can barter with him for his gun or I can do what I did at the time. Unload both barrels of a sawn off into the back of his head and loot the corpse. The machinegun was the key in my future survival but its an option not everyoene would take.

Damn this rules, the trading reminds me of Soldiers of Anarchy

[MinionZombie]

It is indeed a great game. Whoops, I figured as much, it was a typo, what I meant to say was:


but otherwise yes - ideal for immersion, you can really get sucked into it.

I'm a big fan of the game, I'll hop back into it at some point down the road...apparently there's a big, fat update coming which will include a mode where you can just go about the world doing your own business and there's no story to worry about, which would be really cool, hopefully that would mean there's more chances to just snoop around Pripyat and Chernobyl itself. Those areas have a lot of fighting, so there's often not much chance to really stop and look around.

There's a mod out there which apparently just puts a load of zombies in there, which would be really cool.

[CornishCorpse]

The free roam mood sounds like it could be amazing but for the minute Im loving the freedom and the option to just take a few canned meals and go off hunting boar or wild pig in the forest. Also the sawnoff is so beautiful! I was thinking of trying the zombie mod but it seemed like alot of trouble for the occasional zombie, I couldnt see them adding them in packs but thatd be good and they look to be very romero style zombies. Theres a link on undead games if you want to try it

Although the game is very much a spin out at parts..The game designers must be some evangelical priest because I swear the game scared the weed out of me. What is with the guy who raises his hand and the world blurrs you forward to him and back while draining health? Dear god..on the bright side I taught the wall a lesson it wont forget.

[MinionZombie]

lol, ah mate yeah, those monsters are well scary. Up close they're pretty weak, it's just getting there. Further away they're nucking futs. You have to get behind some cover and dip out for very short moments and lob grenades or shoot at it's head. There's an underground area later in the game where you come across another one. Just hang back at the door and use the walls as cover. Duck in and out and shoot/lob grenades until he's dead...otherwise you won't be able to go in the room and survive.

[capncnut]

Well, if this comes to the consoles then I'll be more than happy to be another S.T.A.L.K.E.R.er. Looks a bit grim and gritty and I like that.

[MinionZombie]

It's £13 on play.com for the PC at the moment. :)

They said they're doing more games in the franchise, so that no doubt means console versions as well as a sequel. I can't wait for the big phat patch to be released for the PC version - it's going to include a 'free for all' type mode, which allows you to just do what you wanna do without a story getting in the way, so *fingers crossed* that I can finally get to have a really good snoop around Pripyat and Chernobyl itself. You always felt a bit rushed through in those areas.

[CornishCorpse]

What do you mean "rushed" MZ? Is there some sort of game timer that I have completely missed? Except for the quest timers but bah. Ive spent alot of game time just going "...Hey..Whats over there?" usually followed by " you jamming son of a b*tch" :lol: In the future we will all be required to clean and take apart our weapons in VR before we begin the actual game.

Also found another thing I love about this game. The weapons, opposed to other games where weapons fit the stereotype eg shotgun loud and good at close quarters, machinegun does okay damage. Every weapon in this game makes a world of diffrence from the cheap rebel weapons to looted Russian Military gear.

Fu** you Spetsnaz

[MinionZombie]

What I mean by rushed is you feel rushed through, you don't have anywhere near as much time to explore Pripyat as you do with other areas earlier in the game. The reason why is because by that point in the game you're getting near the end and sh*t's going down, so there's a lot of people killing each other and looking to kill you, so you don't have that time to just wander around going "ooh" and "ahh" and "damn that's creepy".

Then when at Chernobyl sh*t is flying all over the fan and your face, and there actually is a ticking clock. You have to get inside and down into the guts of the power plant itself before there's a blow out, and then with all the people shooting at you and each other, again there's less time to gawp...

So hopefully with the new patch they're releasing soon with a 'free to roam' mode or whatever, hopefully Pripyat and Chernobyl will be opened up for some proper exploration, as that was something missing from the end of STALKER.

But you do get to see quite a bit in Pripyat, but I'd like to be able to see more in greater detail in my own time without worrying about my head being blown off...still though, it's all good. I love the game. :)

[CornishCorpse]

Youre very right about the grittyness capn..The world feels like its been stained and the fact that you can survive a battle and come back to the area later on in the game to find the bodies from the battle were they had fallen makes it all that more epic.

Another big plus is the sound of the game, everything sounds like it should. No weak weapons, less loud weapons. Also the added feature of modding rifles :D

[MinionZombie]

It is indeed a great game, superb atmosphere, although I bet they're smarting a bit now that COD4 have their own rendition of Pripyat to fight in...oooh betty I can't wait to have a goosey at that! :)

But yeah, the atmosphere - sound and visuals - to STALKER is superb. That old railway building, that big one with anomalies on the concrete path, man alive the detail in there, just gawping up at the roof all half-caved in when the sun is out and shining through, just superb detail. It's a game where you really have to stop and look at your surroundings, unlike a game like GTA or whatever where the actual buildings are quite basic, especially by comparison, you don't stop to gawp at the textures but you do with STALKER. Exploration and slack-jawed wonderment is par-for-the-course.

Have you been underground yet? Into the creepy-as-sh*t areas down underground...ah mate those sh*t me up.

[CornishCorpse]

Yup, Im guessing you didnt have a suit with inbuilt night vision? Lol The game is truly stunning. I love how everytime you play its a big mission, an epic quest. Rather than " I hid behind a truck then shot him with a machine gun and shot his mate in the head" its you crouching beside a burnt out wreck of a truck reloading youre rifle then popping out firing a burst catching a guy in the chest, yelling "fu**!" when the rifle jamms and slamming back behind the truck as bullets whizz past.

The undergrounds are properly screwed up but this game has alot of spin out features like the ghosts? What the hell dude? Not to mention the noises. The underground reminds me alot of Aliens. Theres alot of them, theyve torn you up in seconds, youre paranoid as hell, you KNOW they are there but you have no clue where so every corner is a new death.

>.< I hate those invisible bastards, you sweep a room walk in chilling out and next thing you know youre being hacked up by the blade 2 fanboys..Oiy!

PS Heads up dude, Escape from New York on three.

[MinionZombie]

PS Heads up dude, Escape from New York on three.

*digs that moozik*

And Porky's is on Five ... ahh mate, I loved that flick when I was about 13, REALLY loved it. :p

Ah mate, the game has a lot of culture to it, you don't feel like you're rushing into a game, you feel like you're visiting something far greater than yourself, you feel that you can never know everything about the game's world, and that puts you in your place. You hear people talk about places in advance, and then you end up there, seeing the horror that people have previously described.

Love it.

[capncnut]

Interesting (http://xbox360.qj.net/S-T-A-L-K-E-R-for-consoles-to-be-announced-at-E3-/pg/49/aid/95049)

By the way, I said this was coming ages ago...