S.T.A.L.K.E.R

[Vorm]

Just received my copy from play.com £17.99 delivered. Bargain. (That's $35 for you USA peeps)

Not only that, but the missus is out tonight to I get a free pass to play

Any one else picked this up yet?

[Suite307]

i heard it was caca and stupid amounts of demandingness for nothing.

[Agret]

I pre-ordered it years ago and picked it up the other day, I had a look at the minimum requirements and they are my computer so I decided i'm not going to try running it, gave it to a friend to borrow until I get my new computer. He said it's not very good but his dad seems to enjoy playing it. I can't believe he can say S.T.A.L.K.E.R. isn't very good yet finished Sin Episode One Emergance, that game was terrible....aside from the cool main menu music :P

[Vorm]

Well, if it is caca, I'm glad I got it cheap.

[Streeteh]

THe graphics are a matter of preference, some think they look terrible due to thier gritty un-polished nature, i personally think it adds to the atmosphere, if everything was smooth and shiny like in say, Doom3, it just wouldn't suit the game at all.

The dynamic lighting is probably the best i've ever seen on a PC game yet, as the weather changes what were once bright (and relatively safe) warehouses become gloomy deathtraps as all sorts of nasties emerge from thier lairs to hunt. As you fight off the hordes of mutant dogs thunder crackles and lightning cuts through the broken windows casting shadows in amongst the throng of enemies. As your shotgun tears through one after another they eventually realise the small bit of meat that is a STALKER isn't really worth the effort and turn tail and run, leaving you battered and low on ammo, but proud to have survived... then a Soldier who heard the commotion from 1/2 a mile away kicks through the doors and blows your head off... better luck next time i guess.

Got a bit carried away there, but at least it shows how much i'm enjoying it.


[EDIT] The multiplayer is crap though

[Everything]

What's this "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." ?
Is a FPS?
i heard of it, but didn't get interested

[Vorm]

Originally Posted by Kenny

What's this "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." ?
Is a FPS?
i heard of it, but didn't get interested

Wikipedia tells all

[Everything]

indeed, it does
I'll check that out , once i get out of school

Edit: Looks cool

[PsYcNeT]

Agree that the graphics demands may be too high for some gamers, but if you can run the dynamics, the lighting is phenomenal. Stalker + weather effects = *drool*

That said, it's essentially like an Oblivion-esque FPS with a bare minimum of leveling, more about item collection (artifacts) and keeping your health up.

Oh and I officially hate dogs after playing this game.

And don't start playing on a hard mode, because even on STALKER mode (medium) it's super duper fucking hard.

9/10 GFX
9/10 Gameplay
7/10 Value (because most people need an upgrade to run it at full)
9/10 Sound (the guy playing guitar at the beginning totally threw me off, I thought it was coming from upstairs)
8.5/10 'feel'

8.5/10 overall for sure, would get 9 if the engine was optimized more.

[Coronius]

I just die all the time :P i do like one mission, start the next, die. get pissed go watch tv. come back onto the mission that killed me, get it done. next one die. and repeat :P But i donno i havnt playd alot to say anything yet, i like the graphics and im getting more pleased with my computer snice the install put the graphics settings on "high" by itself *proud* :P

[Agret]

        1. Go to your main install directory
	2. Run file called setup-bp.exe
	3. Choose your install language
	4. Enter these BONUS UNLOCKER CODES:

	pseudodog = Unlock code #1
	snork     = Unlock code #2

	5. Press NEXT button and you got the BONUS content unlocked

^ For people who didn't get the collectors edition

My friend said that the graphics are "worse than Quake 4", which doesn't sound too promising. My new computer should be able to handle the dynamics though so it'll be fun. As long as the AI is good and the world is large + fun to explore i'll be happy.

[PsYcNeT]

Well the engine is completely from scratch, and Quake 4 runs well because like D3, you can't really see much at once and it's mostly small hallways.

STALKER looks cool because if you have full distance view you can see like miles away, the grass and plants are awesome and have full movement, and during a lightning storm everything has crazy dynamic lighting. The lighting is what makes it tbh. Player models/skins have something to be desired.

That said, I'm running this thing on an uber rig and I still drop frames occasionally (well, not if i turn down AA but who wants to do that?)

Probably disappointing for some

[Agret]

What are the specs on your rig?

[tu!]

dl'ed torrent, installed, played for a couple days, un-installed.

[Agret]

Care to give reasons why? Also, what hardware you running & what type of performance you get?

[Skanky Butterpuss]

torrented, had to turn it down to minimum for it to be playable, played for 10 minutes, my computer rebooted. tried again, got a little farther, comp froze. me sad, cuz it looks cool, and the sound effects ive heard so far are fucking phenomenal. i want it to worrrrrk

[Agret]

Video card overheating maybe?

[Skanky Butterpuss]

hmm, its a laptop and its on a cooling pad, so i wouldnt know how to cool it any more than it already is...
Specs:

ASUS S96J
Intel Core Duo T2500 @ 2.0 GHz
2 GB DDR2 667
ATI Mobility X1600

[FMPONE]

Honestly one of the best fps ive ever played :P

it rocks my world

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Agret

What are the specs on your rig?

nVidia 7950 GX2 1GB VRAM OCd to 2x800 MHz Mem clock/2x600 MHz GPU clock
e6600 OCd @ 3.1 GHz
2 GB DDR2-800 OCZ Platinum EL OCd/Overvolted
X-Fi XtremeMusic on SPDIF mode

Hardware Settings:
Split-Frame SLI rendering, High quality texture rendering, Multisampling, Gamma-correct AA, Clamped -LOD bias, Thread Opti on

The game runs well at 1280x1024 with everything at full (including ASF and AA) but again, I still drop frames occasionally and judging by the actual game itself, I'd have to say this is a coding issue, either that, or it doesn't handle SLI as well as it should, though it does seem to take advantage of it (apparently it has multithreading built into it as well).

Split-Frame SLI seemed to work better than Alternate Frame 1&2

I still think it's a great game, and I'm honestly getting more play out of it than I did with Oblivion, if not for the fact that I really like the idea of the game