Who's ready for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?

Stalker + MotorStorm + God of War 2 + all these games I want - no money = I'm in debt out of my ass....

Would anyone like to donate to the Baker foundation... $1-10 bucks are greatly appreciated :D :D :D :D


Prolly get this one next week, after all the pre-order nerds get their copies :)
 
Duo Joe said:
Would you guys recomend playing in Vista? Correct me if Im wrong, but this IS a direct x 10 game right??
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This game doesn't make any use of DX10, nor requires it to be installed.

Nettwerk said:
Which drivers/video card you using in vista? When I got in the game all I saw was the sky and world was a white haze. 8800gtx/101.41 drivers
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Im using the 7950GX2 in Vista with the beta 101.41 drivers, SLI is working correctly and it looks fantastic, runs really well.
 
Im running a system with four XRaptors. Two raid0 XP Pro. Two raid0 Vista Ultimate. Since this game isnt DX10 shouldnt I run it from XP? Thoughts. Thank you.
 
Duo Joe said:
Im running a system with four XRaptors. Two raid0 XP Pro. Two raid0 Vista Ultimate. Since this game isnt DX10 shouldnt I run it from XP? Thoughts. Thank you.
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HDD speed will only effect loading times.

All other things being equal it would be better to run it off XP, the drivers are more mature and so more optimised for performnace, and the OS has a lower overhead.

For people with fast PC's the difference is marginal though.
 
The game's sort of been at the back of my mind since I first heard about it what must now be over two years ago...? Regardless, I only found out today that it's actually being released this month, and am off now to dig up some material on it. Hurrah!
 
From another site: Pretty disapointing....

Not very impressed with the game myself, but it is 'ok', I guess.

First off, I was surprised the game is not a 'wide open' game like Oblivion, there are LEVELS, it asks you when you want to change levels, even. In this way the game reminds me a LOT of Trespasser (which I enjoyed). Levels are large, but not extremely so for a game that's mostly outdoors.

The view distance can't be cranked up very high, in fact, this is one of the few recent games that HAS stunted view distance. Noting that, the graphics aren't very impressive.

The lighting effects are nice, at least there's no loading when you go to the indoors areas. The time of day effects and dynamic lighting are all nice, but really slow down my comp (but still I can play reasonably well with a pretty old computer).

The AI is flat out bad from what I've seen. At one point I was fighting about ~12 enemy humans at the same time, but they would clump together in groups of 4, I threw a grenade in between them and they didn't even try to get away. Worst AI I've seen in years, really.

Gameplay isn't very engrossing, it's like a RPG without the depth. No leveling up or anything like that. Just kill, pick up items, move on.

Lots of bugs, I've encountered a weird time acceleration glitch where the time of day (but not enemies) would become so fast that I starved to death. There are a few times my character has dropped dead suddenly and without warning. Also, I've encountered a few bugs that slowed my computer to < 1 frame per second until I went to the menu.

The actual control + gunplay + action is subpar for a FPS. There is a physics engine, but it's rarely used at all. The actual gunplay is very easy, not much to it. It also seems the weapons are a bit limited in scope.

Finally, the artwork is pretty bad. Humans especially look creepy and very bad. Far Cry years ago had better looking humans. The environments aren't horrible, but look very artificial at times.

Anyways, I'm pretty disappointed in the game, even though I wasn't very hyped for it. It's not 'horrible' but it's not 'good' either.
 
Duo Joe said:
From another site: Pretty disapointing....
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This might be from another site but I'm going to address these points anyway because some of them are total rubbish.

First off, I was surprised the game is not a 'wide open' game like Oblivion, there are LEVELS, it asks you when you want to change levels, even. In this way the game reminds me a LOT of Trespasser (which I enjoyed). Levels are large, but not extremely so for a game that's mostly outdoors.
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So far I've only got through several what I'd call stages, which is areas which kind of levels but there is no loading involved, like getting past the bridge etc. The Land isn't quite as wide open as games like oblivion which just mapped a whole country but it is quite sizeable and while you're contained to certain areas by fences you still have a lot of freedom.

The view distance can't be cranked up very high, in fact, this is one of the few recent games that HAS stunted view distance. Noting that, the graphics aren't very impressive.
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All games have a max view distance, this one is quite large when set to max, it's more than enough for the mood/setting of the game which is mostly drissly, dark skies, raining and bleak.

The lighting effects are nice, at least there's no loading when you go to the indoors areas. The time of day effects and dynamic lighting are all nice, but really slow down my comp (but still I can play reasonably well with a pretty old computer).
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Dynamic lighting was very impressive in the start area of the game, it runs well for me on a medium/high end rig, most of the eye candy you're not going to be able to crank right up unless you have a modern rig, the same goes for most big title releases.

The AI is flat out bad from what I've seen. At one point I was fighting about ~12 enemy humans at the same time, but they would clump together in groups of 4, I threw a grenade in between them and they didn't even try to get away. Worst AI I've seen in years, really.
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I thought it was quite good actually, although I had no experience with their reaction to grenades yet. they draw their weapons when they spot enemies but dont persue unless they get attacked (most of the time). They flee to safety when they need to, so they retreat into buildings.

The AI is good enough to leave all the entities in the game to do their own thing, you see hunting parties leaving and returning, most AI has a home camp of sorts, you see raids certain groups against bandit camps and attacks by bandits. Dogs attack in packs but flee on their own, they even seem to follow an alpha male from what I can work out, who is usualy first to attack.

There's also relationships between you and other characters, they have feelings towards you which can make them hostile or friendly depending your actions towards them, even small things like if you get your weapon out in front of them, they will suddenly feel threatened and start gibbering russian at you.

Gameplay isn't very engrossing, it's like a RPG without the depth. No leveling up or anything like that. Just kill, pick up items, move on.
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No real RPG elements, there are some nifty/unique things about the character which do lead you to be able to alter his stats. The game doesn't really need this, it feels primarily more like an action game crossed with an RPG.

Lots of bugs, I've encountered a weird time acceleration glitch where the time of day (but not enemies) would become so fast that I starved to death. There are a few times my character has dropped dead suddenly and without warning. Also, I've encountered a few bugs that slowed my computer to < 1 frame per second until I went to the menu.
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Not had any of these, the only "bug" so far is that it seems if I set the highest texture setting my FPS drops to about 10-20, if I set it to one notch lower it goes back to about 80fps, thats no doubt beta Nvidia drivers.

The actual control + gunplay + action is subpar for a FPS. There is a physics engine, but it's rarely used at all. The actual gunplay is very easy, not much to it. It also seems the weapons are a bit limited in scope.
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So far the gun battles have been quite good, I was a bit frustrated at the amount of pistol rounds people take, but as soon as you get a shotgun and some other better weapons you start to kill people a lot easier. I agree, there's little physics interaction, just the occasional prop, but it's not necessary to overuse something like this, it doesn't always benefit the game.

Finally, the artwork is pretty bad. Humans especially look creepy and very bad. Far Cry years ago had better looking humans. The environments aren't horrible, but look very artificial at times.
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IMO the artwork is very good, it's a consistent tone of an unforgiving, grey, desolate, almost post apocalyptic world, I've said it before and I'll re-emphesize that it feels a LOT like you're playing fallout1/2 in first person.

I'm sure crysis will be released in 6 monts time and blow this (and everything else) away, but to be honest the level of graphics in this in comparison to how well it runs, is a good trade off, you dont need SLI 8800GTX cards to play this game in max settings with some AA/AF which is nice.

I wouldn't say the game is fantastic, but it's definately worth getting if you like the idea of the setting it's in, it's certainly above the current average thats for sure.
 
After playing this game a few more hours, I would definitely recommend it for most people.

What I like about it so far:
(1) Graphics. I find the art style well-suited for the purpose of the game. The character models are well-created as well as the monsters, buildings, and world objects. I'm not a graphics-whore so perhaps others may find the graphics lacking, but I still do have some standard and expectation from a recently released game graphic-wise and this game didn't make me feel that the graphics were horrible or substandard compared to recent shooters.

(2) Gameplay. I've always liked it when a game incorporates a formula of having a main quest + numerous side quests. STALKER definitely has a lot of side quests that NPCs give out. Some are good, some are mediocre, and some are kind of boring. But, I believe this can't be helped. Other games suffer from this too, even RPGs, such as Oblivion and Gothic 3.

The inventory system, fortunately, isn't annoying and the enemy AI is clever enough to offer a decent challenge (so far, I'm playing at Novice level until I get used to how STALKER works).

(3) Sound. I like the sound. It creates a creepy and somewhat depressing atmosphere that manages to stir my mood while I'm playing. It fits in with the setting, the ruined area of Chernobyl and the bizarre and horrifying creatures that occupy it.

What I don't really like:

(1) Dialogue. I wish there were more voiced dialogue in the game--kind of like in Gothic 3 and Oblivion where everything is voiced out.

(2) Bugs. Like someone else mentioned earlier, there is a bug where the time will accelerate really fast and starve your character to death before you have a chance to feed your character. This bug is really stupid and since the game doesn't autosave often by itself, it could mean that you have to replay a large portion of the game if you didn't manually save often.

(3) No vehicles and option to fast-travel. Maybe there are vehicles later on in the game, but so far, I haven't encountered any that I can get into and drive. This makes those quests where you have to retrieve a certain item and take it back to camp a real drag.

There is no fast-travel option either like in Oblivion where you can just click on a location you've previously visited and appear there right away with the time of day being adjusted.

Well, there it is. My very preliminary and limited "review" of the game. It is, of course, nowhere a complete review since i haven't played through to the end.

Overall, I'd give this game a score between 85-90. Can't wait to play some more once finals week is over. =)

-optimummind
 
Yeah, that just seems way too pessimistic. It's like you said "Well everyone here has said they're enjoying the game a lot but I'm going to go find someone who hates the game so everyone can see it's not all sunshine and rainbows!".
 
I think somewhere above someone mentioned running this on Vista. I am running Vista Ultimate 64 and XP SP 2 32bit (on seperate drives). Check out specs in sig (latest ATi drivers), it is much slower in Vista with same settings.

For example, with full dynamic lighting and most settings at max (AA x2) the fps can drop to like 15 in firefights (MP beta). While running in XP, the fps will stay above 25 in most instances even with two or more players shooting at each other, muzzle flashes etc.

So in other words, it seems that XP has a constant 15-20 fps difference over Vista. Probably secondary to video driver issues. I'm sure in a few months (maybe after the first service pack) Vista will be as fast or faster than XP.

Edit: And YES, I will most likely be getting this game a few days after release (paycheck). Even if it turns out to be horrible, it's kind of like if Duke Nukem Forever came out tomorrow, you'd buy it just because you've been waiting an eternity for it to come out.
 
Can anyone who has the game let mw know if you can turn off head bob? You could not in the MP Beta and it was really irritating.
 
Suiseiseki said:
Huh. Distance looks a hair better than CoD1 and a lot worse than HL2.
You're not thinking the buildings on the horizon are real, are you?
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Does it really matter? That distance looks very realistic to me. Go stand on a mountain or something on a dreary, rainy, misty day and come back and let us know how far you can see.
 
jaqattack02 said:
Does it really matter? That distance looks very realistic to me. Go stand on a mountain or something on a dreary, rainy, misty day and come back and let us know how far you can see.
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Seriously. Visibility distance has a lot to do with atmosphere, and the feel of a game. If they want you to be on edge and claustrophobic the whole time, they can accomplish that easily by using a short draw distance and/or distance clipping fog or something. From what I can tell STALKER is supposed to keep you on edge and a little freaked out. Letting you see everything isn't a great way to accomplish that.
 
Mark_Warner said:
Seriously. Visibility distance has a lot to do with atmosphere, and the feel of a game. If they want you to be on edge and claustrophobic the whole time, they can accomplish that easily by using a short draw distance and/or distance clipping fog or something. From what I can tell STALKER is supposed to keep you on edge and a little freaked out. Letting you see everything isn't a great way to accomplish that.
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I agree, and the game is very scary/freaky in places and the draw distance is quite acceptable for the type of game it is, it's very rarely sunny and even then only on the outskirts of the zone, the closer to the middle you get, the bleaker it gets.

I've just spent 9 straight hours playing it, it's now 2am :D

I won't give away any major spoilers, but...you go underground at one point into like a sewer system/basement/bunker type thing and theres a few things down there which will definately scare the living pants off ya grandma ;)
 
I'll be bringing it home wednesday, but I'm still running this old rig, so I might let it sit off to the side until I rebuild if it runs like arse. Been looking forward to this game for weeks!
 
My question is how did everyone get SP early legally?

I'm going to pick it up Wednesday after work. I hope it's like Fallout.
 
ClearH2O said:
My question is how did everyone get SP early legally?

I'm going to pick it up Wednesday after work. I hope it's like Fallout.
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I think you'll be pleased with it, it's a lot like Fallout in a few different ways, the whole gritty art design is how I imagined a 3d fallout would be like.
 
Hey, anyone having a problem where when you start the game, about 10 seconds after you start the game, it will either freeze or quit to desktop, also during these few seconds my FPS are on the floor (6-10 fps) @ medium settings, medium distance, and all the other slider bars, a little AF and no AA (HDR on). I believe I am having problems with my windows install but is anyone having these kind of problems anyways? Im running windows xp SP2, with ati 7.2 drivers with my x1950pro.
 
2 pages, and only 1 ingame screenshot (that only showed the viewing distance) :(

I NEED SCREENSHOTS! ;)
 
Danith said:
2 pages, and only 1 ingame screenshot (that only showed the viewing distance) :(

I NEED SCREENSHOTS! ;)
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Shh, I seriously rather think it had HL1.5 graphics than thinking it would be Crysis like and then crying on my G15 keyboard about how negative frames per second are no fun
 
Danith said:
2 pages, and only 1 ingame screenshot (that only showed the viewing distance) :(

I NEED SCREENSHOTS! ;)
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Ok, here are some pics:

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No AA because it doesn't seem to work (is there HDR in this game? or is it an Nvidia thing?)...
33kcak4.jpg

Where I currently am in the game.

2dgkgmg.jpg

This is a picture of an "anomaly" (at least I think this is what it is)... small mine-like things that reek of radiation and if you walk into it, you burn up and shit.... it's weird.

4hveo9z.jpg

Another pic of the "anomaly", trying to show you the distortion effect it portrays + small flashes of color...

346rn68.jpg

Trying to have some mutant boar for dinner. Yum!
Note: I proceeded to fire and completely missed and wasted an entire clip before it ran away. The guns are AWFUL in this game.


But yeah... I need a sniper rifle. Bad.
 
I got a question, are there a lot of moments of monsters popping out from nowhere like in Doom 3? Hope not, I'm not a fan of those games
 
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