I just finished it. (without trying to spoil it - the longer ending that is). I might have to go back to an earlier point and just exist and do some other missions for awhile and explore a little more. or see what the wife and kids have been up to
Finished it and I have mixed feelings ... On the one hand, it is one of the best looking games of 2005! I must confess that it still looks good today but, to really appriciate it you need to manually tweak AA settings etc. On the other hand it is a bug-ridden piece of rubbish. The 'official' list of bugs is only rivalled by the 'unofficial' list. Everything from eating disorders to not even starting! (Hi Tiger). I remember a few years ago when 'STALKER' was first being developed and I got to read alot of the concept design and game play mechanics and I can tell you now that the finished game is merely a shadowy facsimile of its former self. There has been a lot of code hacked out either to increase 'playability' or to accommodate a quicker release date ... I'm not certain. Things like co-operative play etc. Ok, as a story goes I found that it was like a good book. I couldn't put it down. The main story line was driven and did not lose too much focus and kept the protagonist (you) going in the right direction. The story line did not appear to be on rails but your various actions kept the game in play and you always knew which direction you needed to go. I felt the game had some of the elements of other popular games as well, such as F.E.A.R. (and yes, I did crap my pants a couple of times ...) and Resident Evil. In the end my total feel for the game can be summed up as such ... ... It's Oblivion - with guns!
ive raided te X18 labs and grabbed the doco's - great atmosphere in there, like Doom3 and Fear, very spooky. The cinematic at the end of it was great, nicely edited. Im in no rush to finish the game, enjoying running out missions and finding the next great gun and artifact. I think the game will have great replay value, but im not keen to restart with those lame first guns hehe. Yeah there are a few bugs, a few annoyances - I wish to hell people would stop repeating their lines when you stand near them, like the 1000Rad bar, shut up!!!! lol Ive got the headshots down pat now, just took out a crowd of 8 bandits with 9 shots, sweet
I'm still bloody trying to find Strelok... I just healed Fox and I keep getting eaten alive by rabid dogs or shot up by other mad bandits. Addendum: Yay! I made it to The Garbage now! Any tips on storing things? I get bogged down with all the shit I am carrying.
travel light, that's my advice. my normal traveling weight is around 22kg. you'll find a ton of stuff as you explore. store the good things near the sellers, just stick them in a nearby stash box, dont worry no one will steal them. you'll earn a lot more money selling redundant artifacts than lugging weapons back to the sellers, and artifacts weigh a lot less. Also choose one or two wepons to use and dont collect ammo you don't need. You'll also find most things you need, so you won't need to buy them. I've got over $280k right now and spend very little of it.
Just installed the 101.41 vista drivers and damn! such a perfomance increase. getting around 20 extra frames inside and out. nice EDIT: just finished the game by accident, thought there was more to do in the quest. not very impressed with the ending. I'll be reloading a previous save and go exploring more.
Have to say I (for some reason or rather - maybe I was drunk at the time ) walked all the way back from The Garbage to the trader and traded in my artifacts.... Now I am just distracted with little odds and ends getting back to The Garbage... It is so easy to get distracted from the main missions! 11hrs gaming so far now (thank you x-fire) and wow, this is a good game. Have no issues running on my PC (aside from my initial post re the first install not booting). Have an intel core duo 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 7950GT graphics (512MB onboard). Indoors or outdoors within the game, no issues. Very immersive! I just have to stay focussed
I'll be upping my PC specs to accomodate this. Sounds great! Judge Kiwi, your observations about where STALKER began, and where it is now sound a bit too much like BF2 for me! Ripped and hacked to pieces to get that round code, to fit into that bureaucrats square game. Sad really. However, to call it Oblivion with guns is all the endorsement I need! BTW: Maybe another STALKER thread for those... After impressions?
I just finished the game, had to restart with the patch. But I was so impressed with the last level that I just had to add this comment to the review: Near the end of the game you will be making it to the Chernobyl Nuclear Complex, by this time the story really peaked my interested into the whole Chernobyl disaster that I actually went out of my way to read up on what really happened there. The wikipedia entry has some good background information but what really surprised me was the following. The power plant is simply massive and it's architecture in certain parts looks like something out of a sci-fi movie and gives you the impression that there is something seriously dangerous behind those walls that should not come out! Now one might think that this is just all part of the game's atmosphere and we have all seen sci-fi factories in FPS games before but this time the layout of the plant actually matches reality. If you go to Google Earth and you look at the structure of the buildings it all matches the game's representation, the bridges and ridges, traintracks, pipes, it's all there. I was playing the game while watching the satellite pictures on my other PC and could position myself at all times, very cool! Given that the Chernobyl level matches the actual real world layout makes it into one of the most immersive ones to ever be in an FPS game!
EXTRA CONTENT?!?!?! Has anyone noticed the "setup-bp" file in the install folder??? This is Extra Content - anyone know what this is??
Tiger74, Latest S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Cheats - PC Hmmm ... seems it is the two extra MP maps ... I thought they were supposed to be Collector's Edition exclusives ...
mate that is the bonus pack file for the collector's edition (yeah i bought it). But you can find the codes all over the place and use them anyway from what i understand. First Impressions - Awesome game. Impressions about the final section - YAWN, and BULLSHIT. you only get the gauss rifle for like an hour, and then the games over, and in that hour you don't even need to snipe, i did immensely enjoy rpging the chopper that what an awesome shot. was not impressed with the GP37, i just used my fully customized TRS301, with under and over, and scope. it was awesome, and i think i only had 3 jams the entire time.
Played for an entire day cursing my inability to hit the side of a barn. Was about 5 minutes from bed, running back to the Trader, and discovered right click iron-sight aiming. I....suck.
I must say, my first post in this thread really showed how little I'd played of the game. That starting pistol is the pits to hit anything with, even with the iron sights. :lol: Still enjoying it though especially with the more advanced weapons, love the silenced pistol too.
If there's one thing that really annoys me. It's the "Oh no, you can't shoot me while I'm doing an animated 'I've been shot' scene". Drives me utterly insane.
I concur... I've pretty much come to the conclusion that while stalker's been a good filler, it's a game that I will probably never play again because it's so frustrating.
