ha-ha!
Guess who nabbed a copy of the STALKER Multiplayer Beta demo?
I downloaded it today and whacked it on my computer, now there's no actual servers for it (or maybe there is one, but I don't play online anyway), I just wanted to give it a test and see how it worked on my rig - and the news is good, it's workin' reet nice on HIGH settings as well.
The frame rate is smooth (aside from some moments when the frame rate goes kinda wiggy, but that's an engine/beta issue). The weapons all have different sounds ( ), the graphics look rather spiffing (definitely Half Life 2 era, but the over all realism is far better than HL2, it's not about swank, it's about realism).
The weapons weren't all available, but the ones that were, were pretty nifty. The SA-80 is particularly swish, I'd recommend that one for general over all use as it has a scope and is nice and accurate I found.
The audio is excellent, it's really spooky to go wandering around, it's the sort of sound design that fits the content like a glove, you go walking around and you don't notice the changes, it's subtle. And believe me, when a far-off howl from some monster rings out, you'll get a shiver down your spine. The weather is cool, it changes subtly, you get random leaf-filled gusts of wind from time-to-time when you're wandering around and it pisses it down with rain when it's stormy - you even see the spots of rain dampen the ground. The lightening is particularly cool (with excellent thunder), the light from the flash falls just right and really makes the already desolate landscape seem far scarier.
Clearly some things were disabled in this MP beta, there wasn't any ragdoll physics going on with things like doors or boxes and such, and the feel of your man's movement wasn't sh*t-hot, but I've played worse feeling FPS games most definitely, but you get used to it after a while (although I don't like the toggle-style sprinting).
Overall, it runs smooth, it looks great, it's creepy as all hell - I think it's gonna be a fun game.
Plus it's fun to kill your Stalker, sick I know, but walking into an anomoly deliberately is funny, especially when you get tossed around like a, well, ragdoll, and then your corpse gets levitated up into the air and blown apart - and you can catch radiation poisoning (I did it by standing next to a truck - an icon will display and go red when you're in deep trouble).
You can also get a detector thing, which cracks/beeps when an anomoly is near or you're near radiation - so that's really atmospheric. Finally, this MP beta was stable, I didn't have any crashes (just don't try and start a "new game" lol, because this is a multiplayer beta after all).
I certainly look forward to playing the proper game.  
*additional*
Also, the fact you have a shadow is a nice touch, yes it's occasionally been done before, but it's a very rare thing in FPS games. Also, the way you run seems more human, especially when strafing, you feel your legs moving and can see it in a subtle wobble as your legs move ... I thought that's a nice touch - it takes a bit of getting used to, especially when you're used to the likes of Doom 3 when it's all rather smooth, or Half Life 2 when it's even smoother ... in fact, a gripe about HL2 is the skiddy nature of Gordon's feet, he'll continue forward a little even after you've taken your finger off the key. 
|
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
Posting Permissions
Originally Posted by CapnKnut
I must state , the weapons seem kick arse ! I just read another article link here , and it says the weapons wear out and must get replaced ... hmm realistic . i wonder if you can maintain weapons to keep them ? Anyway , from the screenshots , it looks very haunting . I will give it a go ... if I feel like the risk is worth it , Ill get it . But my Alienware is still in the shop , I owe over $500 to get it back for the labor on repair ... By the time I get it back , it will be obsolete , Frack! BTW , no one in the Rockville MD area ever take their pc to Hightech , they are criminals .
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks