Stalker is really kind of bad ass

[Eric P]

I have been taking a break from WoW during the week to focus on other things (like trying to teach myself Cisco stuff so i can finally go for my CCNA) and it's given me time to play other games.  I recently re-beat HL2 and started replaying Episode 1 to take advantage of playing them on superior hardware (much prettier and faster loading now).

Having recently purchased stalker but letting it sit due to WoW, I decided to give it a go.

First off, the lighting and shadow effects are really awesome.  Being in a wooded area during a storm and having lighting effects flash off and show rather dynamic shadows is really cool.

i like that the game is essentially a bunch of open areas connected through choke points, but i think i would have liked it better if it just constantly streamed data to remove even those few loading areas.  my largest issue with this is the having to run everywhere, esp when only one person (so far) will actually buy any weapons i pick up from corpses.

the setting is really neat and the side quests are interesting, but really just amount to fetch quests and "you showed up just in time to kill all these bandits/soldiers/mutants" what have you.

shooting is kind of lame.  i've flanked and run up on people and shot them 5 times with an AK-74/2 just to have them one shot kill me and i've found that i can just wait out the AI when I'm attacking a complex (like the research complex you steal the briefcase full of papers from).  though i like the "bleeding" rules and think it adds a really neat dynamic.

the "artifacts" system is neat but really the additional radiation they kick out is a hassle for what you actually get in most instances.

inventory management is a bit of a pain.  you can carry 60 or 65 pounds worth of equipment (i think) including your armor/clothes so you get used to carrying just one pistol and one "rifle" (shotgun, mp5 knock off, ak knock off).  Attempts to carry more to sell result in a rather quick loss of endurance, which you need for running and jumping.

i'm about 5 hours in or so and all in all it comes recommended so far.

[Raban]

I bought this over Dark Messiah a month or two ago and I was severely disappointed. The models are inexcusably bad, and it's very easy to die.

I tried to like it, I really did.

[Eric P]

i like the atmosphere and i got some hints from gaf to make my day a bit easier

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I bought this off Steam but haven't gotten around to playing it yet

[Eric P]

if it had multiplayer co-op, that would be awesome

or even small scale persistent world

[recursivelyenumerable]

have you guys seen the movie?

[Eric P]

have you guys seen the movie?

nah, but it's in my netflix queue

[Solo]

Awesome game. Best atmosphere in ages, which made it possible for me to overlook the technical issues.

[Smooth Groove]

I haven't really started playing Stalker yet but I remember there was some mod that improves the graphics.  Of course, it would also make the game more power hungy.

[Eric P]

man, i dunno

the graphics look fine to me

the models are kind of samey and drab, but it fits

the environment and atmosphere is where everything shines

[BlueTsunami]

I've had a urge to play this game... maybe its due to playing Fallout 3. Interestingly enough, the fact that its easy to die in the game sounds like a plus since this adds tension... something Fallout 3 didn't really have (well, only at the very start).

[Mondain]

fantastic game, better than Fallout 3 IMO

every time I replay Fallout 3, I wish it would be more like STALKER -- oppressive atmosphere that felt closer to the spirit of the first two games and never corny, difficulty that adds a lot of tension (I put Fallout 3 at the hardest difficulty and everything is STILL pathetically easy), NPCs that sometimes really hate you, great sense of mistery and loneliness, gritty environments that look almost real, superb gunfights, and 30 times less crap to loot

I absolutely LOVE the music that plays in the bar, it's so haunting

[Third]

Damn, I was so stuck in the first segment of the game. I didn't know how to get out of the room with the man behind the counter. 

Once outside I was overwhelmed by the sanbox-ish world. So I stopped playing and never went back. Will play again eventually.

[Draft]

I absolutely LOVE the music that plays in the bar, it's so haunting

What are you standing there for, come in, come in.

[fistfulofmetal]

it's janky as all fuck, but it's still pretty awesome.

going down into the laboratories are some of the scariest experiences i've had in games.

And I agree completely with what Mondain posted. I love the scale of Fallout 3 and how much stuff you can see, but The Capital Wasteland just doesn't have the feeling The Zone has. If I can get a hybrid of both games that would be perfect.

[cool breeze]

stalker was great.  I still need to finish the second game, which I kinda stopped playing after a few hours when they brought you back into the old familiar environments. 

[Draft]

Just think how good Stalker would have been with some extra budget/talent to tweak the gameplay. The atmosphere/graphics/music/presentation are flawless.

What's the movie? I've never heard of this.

It wouldn't exist, because any developer with a big budget wouldn't be able to make a gaming anachronism. You want to play something like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., you accept the fact it's going to be made by mud people with a budget roughly equivalent to a fry cook's salary.

[Kestastrophe]

Any mod recommendations on this game? I've heard there's a mod that makes it more playable (whatever that means) and a texture/graphic mod as well.

[Eric P]

stalker was great.  I still need to finish the second game, which I kinda stopped playing after a few hours when they brought you back into the old familiar environments. 

i can relate, but the new game tweaks in the second game kept me playing.