STALKER: "Genre-redefining"

Discuss anything from Age of Empires to Wasteland. Any gaming talk that isn't Fallout-related goes here.
User avatar
Megatron
Mamma's Gang member
Mamma's Gang member
Posts: 8030
Joined: Fri Apr 19, 2002 1:00 am
Location: The United Kingdoms

Post by Megatron »

i dont like it much really. im in a thunder cave and the dogs that were chasing me got zapped then i get zapped.

Image

this is me getting zapped in the first bit about 20 times
User avatar
DarkPhilly
SDF!
SDF!
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Jan 23, 2007 7:23 pm

Post by DarkPhilly »

Theres no doubt this is a tough game. The AI at times can be a bit tricky. Took a little bit to get used to, and you can become incumbered quite easily, but After plugging at it a bunch of times and quick saving I find it to be a blast.

About a couple of hours in, you start to pick up more interesting gear. Better weapons, Artifacts, armor and other goodies are around the corner. Makes life easier, cause most of the weapons in the first few hours have terrible accuracy. Give it a bit longer to pick up something decent and I'm sure you will enjoy.

FYI Quick save is F6, Flashlight is L, and quick Medpacks = [ bandages = ]
User avatar
VasikkA
No more Tuna
No more Tuna
Posts: 8703
Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2002 6:14 pm

Post by VasikkA »

It's a bit heavy on my comp(1700mhz, 1gig, geforce 5900 fx), but it runs decently with 1024x960 if I turn off dynamic shadows and anti-aliasing. Looks a bit shit though, lol. Performancewise it just runs about the same as Oblivion, but I hope graphical or performance tweaks emerge soon by some amateur vodka coders.

After playing a few levels(6-8 hours), I agree with what DarkPhilly wrote except that I don't find the game very hard(playing with Stalker difficulty); sure there's a few annoying parts but you can run past or away from them with the turbo button. The quests so far have been complete shit so basically I'm following the main story and try to finish the game as quickly as possible. You get enough dough and items anyway. After expecting a huge open-world map the fences and other artificial borders felt a bit ridiculous, but on the other hand I don't want a sandbox a la Oblivion in my FPS's so I kinda like it this way.

The anomalies are too frequent though. You see about 5 of them everywhere you look. They should be harder to detect and be more frightening, now they're just annoying. Despite its flaws, Stalker is well worth the buck if you have 'em and it only seems to get more interesting the more I play it. I can't wait getting to Prypiat and ze Reaktor. From what I'm told, things are pretty crazy down there. B)
User avatar
[HpA]SniperPotato
Desert Wanderer
Desert Wanderer
Posts: 518
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:23 am
Location: Everywhere and Nowhere
Contact:

Post by [HpA]SniperPotato »

Run it at 800x600 and you can put object and texture detail to its highest. It looks pretty good like that.

Dark Valley is crazy.
Fallout Tactics multiplayer: COOPnet and MegaCOOP map pack
User avatar
Antimeasure
Strider
Strider
Posts: 744
Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2005 8:24 pm

Post by Antimeasure »

The game is actually pretty neat if you can stand the crashes, the Dark Valley was a pain in the arse the first time i went there. I had plenty of ammo and medpacks - when i made it out i was bleeding, with a empty/broken weapon and i was glowing from radiation.

In the beginning i died lots of times too, but once you get a good weapon everything changes, the biggest problem is just to find the right type of ammo if you use a weapon that's not related to the Ak's.

However, the game still crasher or freezes every 10-20 minutes, sometimes even more frequent...
I hope there will be a patch soon.

Image
I like my women as i like my whiskey. Twelve years old and mixed up with coke.
User avatar
jetbaby
Mamma's Gang member
Mamma's Gang member
Posts: 4186
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2004 11:32 pm
Location: Magical Island

Post by jetbaby »

Funny thing:

STALKER shipped so late apparently they already applied the price break? 39.99 USD. Well. Five years late and all, I could imagine they've made back their operating costs in the first or second purchase, seeing as how it was made by Ukranian slaves.

Installing now.
off topic? OMG YOU'VE BEEN CENSORED... yet you're still posting. MYSTARY!!!!

Duck and Cover: THE site for all your Fallout needs
Dreadnought

Post by Dreadnought »

If I can get hold of the game for 5 - 15 bucks at the used-games-shop around the corner, I might give it a try.
User avatar
Splatterpope
Desert Wanderer
Desert Wanderer
Posts: 505
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:05 pm
Location: Wasteland, Australia.

Post by Splatterpope »

Yeah, not going to happen. Not for another 10 years, anyway. Australian prices are screwed.
Dreadnought

Post by Dreadnought »

Splatterpope wrote:Yeah, not going to happen. Not for another 10 years, anyway. Australian prices are screwed.
Not really. The shop near my place has pretty new games for low cost, coz they're fucking pre owned by some fat dick who was unable to play the shit so he said IT SUCKS and that's why they often sell it for ridiculously low prices. You gotta be quick/lucky though.
User avatar
Splatterpope
Desert Wanderer
Desert Wanderer
Posts: 505
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:05 pm
Location: Wasteland, Australia.

Post by Splatterpope »

Actually it's probably a good idea to wait a while. Get the game cheaper, and get to play through for the first time without any glitches.

I just couldn't resist. $110 dollars out of pocket.
User avatar
jetbaby
Mamma's Gang member
Mamma's Gang member
Posts: 4186
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2004 11:32 pm
Location: Magical Island

Post by jetbaby »

jetbaby wrote:Installing now.
As covered in another thread, no, not actually installing. God hates DVD games.
off topic? OMG YOU'VE BEEN CENSORED... yet you're still posting. MYSTARY!!!!

Duck and Cover: THE site for all your Fallout needs
User avatar
Smiley
Righteous Subjugator
Righteous Subjugator
Posts: 3186
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 11:20 pm
Location: Denmark. Smiley-land.
Contact:

Post by Smiley »

Be honest, is it worth paying for..? I can't be arsed to download it.
Testicular Pugilist
Dreadnought

Post by Dreadnought »

Smiley wrote:Be honest, is it worth paying for..? I can't be arsed to download it.
Well, it's rather worth buying it for 10 bucks.

Or if you have a friend who has STALKER you can make him addicted to PCP so he's gonna sell it to you because he desperatly needs drugs. :drunk:
User avatar
Mad Max RW
Paparazzi
Paparazzi
Posts: 2253
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2002 1:20 am
Location: Balls Deep in the Wasteland
Contact:

Post by Mad Max RW »

It's nothing like how they advertised. STALKER is definitely NOT free roaming from the start. The map may appear large and open, but about 80% is unused and the parts you can go to are fenced off. Without a strong mod community I don't see this game having any lasting appeal. By lasting I mean more than a few days on your hard drive. Remember Freelancer? This is sorta the same deal.
Also, the whole RPG thing was supposed to be about your weapons and getting shit to modify them. There's maybe 5 weapons in the whole singleplayer game (more in the MP beta somehow) and very little ammo for the interesting ones. Only a few mods like a scope and grenade launcher, and they are specific to certain weapons. It's impossible to play a sniper sneaking around being all stealthy and shit.
Story and everything associated with it (characters, dialog, cutscenes) don't make any goddamn sense and feel rushed like the entirety of the game. And then it ends almost completely at random with no option to continue exploring.
Also, don't try playing with dynamic shadows. You know, the stuff that's become standard in every game since 2003. It runs like a dog (or not at all) on even the most high end machine.

So basically what you come down to is a gimped game with a shit engine filled with inane Russian banter. The atmosphere is good, but barely enough to warrant a download and a couple afternoons of dicking around.
User avatar
Splatterpope
Desert Wanderer
Desert Wanderer
Posts: 505
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:05 pm
Location: Wasteland, Australia.

Post by Splatterpope »

Mad Max RW wrote:So basically what you come down to is a gimped game with a shit engine filled with inane Russian banter. The atmosphere is good, but barely enough to warrant a download and a couple afternoons of dicking around.
Yeah, it's fairly gimped, but everyone knew that it's hype train was outta control anyway :lalala: . If you play the game with an open mind (And forget the whole open world, vehicles, and the advertised "You won't need real life friends" AI thing..) then it's a pretty good experience. I honestly haven't had any better firefights in any other game. Well, real time firefights anyway.

The good things about it are that there's such a thing as ammo conservation, it has realistic trajectory modeling, (Even if the weapons in the game are actually far more inaccurate than their real-life counterparts.) Dynamic areas, and a pretty good setting. It's also rather creepy, as you aren't Rambo. Getting caught out in the open by anything more than one enemy is a very very bad thing.

The engine is definitely crap.

But apparently it's pretty easy to mod, and there's already a few floating about out there. And like most gimped games, the modders are probably going to re-activate all the cut out things, and revamp the game.

But yeah. Really hard game to judge. I think with some time, and a bit of community effort, this thing's gonna shine.

For now, other than the combat, it's a bit sad.
User avatar
Smiley
Righteous Subjugator
Righteous Subjugator
Posts: 3186
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 11:20 pm
Location: Denmark. Smiley-land.
Contact:

Post by Smiley »

This sounds like a game I might pick up in a few years..

To relate, I've just played through a good 7 or 8 missions in Tribes: Vengeance, which is actually pretty alright. Skiing, being heavy/medium/light armored, flying and dropping weapons in favor of others is pretty cool. I miss the old tribes days.

I think I'll fire up Ãœbersoldier, next.
Testicular Pugilist
User avatar
Thor Kaufman
Mamma's Gang member
Mamma's Gang member
Posts: 5081
Joined: Mon Dec 16, 2002 11:56 am
Contact:

Post by Thor Kaufman »

Ubersoldier is decent, but it got rather horrible when 100 enemy soldiers attacked at once, it has some hard parts I guess D:
User avatar
Mad Max RW
Paparazzi
Paparazzi
Posts: 2253
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2002 1:20 am
Location: Balls Deep in the Wasteland
Contact:

Post by Mad Max RW »

Ghost Recon 1, which came out 6 years ago (about the time STALKER started development) has way better firefights and more realistic weapons. Plus the maps are better, missions make sense, and it's fun.

There's so many pointless things in STALKER that make it even more annoying. Like the use of food and how you have to drop everything and use it or start dying. What the fuck? If you're gonna cut out vehicles that need gas, sleeping, coop, why leave such a worthless feature. And a second crouch button? More crouch? A crouchier crouch? Just add prone! I don't get it. Maybe in a year or 2 if any mod tools are released and dedicated fans still exist something worthwhile will come out of this game.
User avatar
Splatterpope
Desert Wanderer
Desert Wanderer
Posts: 505
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:05 pm
Location: Wasteland, Australia.

Post by Splatterpope »

[quote="Mad Max RW" Maybe in a year or 2 if any mod tools are released and dedicated fans still exist something worthwhile will come out of this game.[/quote]

Dev tools get released in a month or so, apparently.
User avatar
Stainless
Living Legend
Living Legend
Posts: 3049
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 5:52 am
Location: Melbourne, Futureland
Contact:

Post by Stainless »

Had a huge memory leak issue, so I shelved it. Patched it today, and it's actually been fun once I stopped using a shitty pistol. Bits of it are annoying (I want to carry EVERYTHING dammit), and for some reason it reminds me alot of Boiling Point. It feels dated, yet interesting at the same time.
Our Host!
Post Reply