S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky!

[wart]

Anyone else waiting for the Stalker prequel? The engine revamp looks awesome and fps/rpg games are, in my opinion, really fun.

August 29th can't come soon enough :brokenheart:

 

[schneiderguy]

I finally finished up STALKER today, since the crash every 5 minutes problem i had on XP fixed itself when I moved to vista Besides accidentally getting one of the "bad" endings, I thought it was really good. The atmosphere they create is amazing. Best single player FPS since HL2 IMO. I am now very excited for Clear Skies

edit: The innacurate guns also drove me insane, hopefully they tweak that in Clear Skies. I installed the Oblivion Lost mod which makes firefights much more satisfying when you can actually hit someone standing 5 feet away from you.

 

[fallout man]

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
I finally finished up STALKER today, since the crash every 5 minutes problem i had on XP fixed itself when I moved to vista Besides accidentally getting one of the "bad" endings, I thought it was really good. The atmosphere they create is amazing. Best single player FPS since HL2 IMO. I am now very excited for Clear Skies

edit: The innacurate guns also drove me insane, hopefully they tweak that in Clear Skies. I installed the Oblivion Lost mod which makes firefights much more satisfying when you can actually hit someone standing 5 feet away from you.

Google for, obtain, and install "Simbion" mod.

It brings back:

-vehicles
-blowouts (which make anomalies shift location!!!)
-free roaming AI
-unincluded monsters
-joining factions (for real this time)


You can also play with other fun stuff, like making new artifacts using recipes, using artifacts to make anomalies pop up, etc. It's absolutely worth it.

Another mod project I was really into was the Stalker REDUX mod. I think it sort of stalled and went the way of the dinosaur, but it was fantastic. It was a hyper-realism/survival mod with ballistics stats pooled from real-world info, so the guns and ammo worked "as they ought to." It also made the spoils of looting rather scarce, so you really had to work on the whole survival bit.

 

[TheVrolok]

A new CS thread pops up every week or two - I feel like it's one of those games that is very highly anticipated by a certain, perhaps smaller (relatively to the gaming popular) niche.

Edited to add that I'm definitely pumped for it.

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: fallout man

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
I finally finished up STALKER today, since the crash every 5 minutes problem i had on XP fixed itself when I moved to vista Besides accidentally getting one of the "bad" endings, I thought it was really good. The atmosphere they create is amazing. Best single player FPS since HL2 IMO. I am now very excited for Clear Skies

edit: The innacurate guns also drove me insane, hopefully they tweak that in Clear Skies. I installed the Oblivion Lost mod which makes firefights much more satisfying when you can actually hit someone standing 5 feet away from you.

Google for, obtain, and install "Simbion" mod.

It brings back:

-vehicles
-blowouts (which make anomalies shift location!!!)
-free roaming AI
-unincluded monsters
-joining factions (for real this time)


You can also play with other fun stuff, like making new artifacts using recipes, using artifacts to make anomalies pop up, etc. It's absolutely worth it.

Another mod project I was really into was the Stalker REDUX mod. I think it sort of stalled and went the way of the dinosaur, but it was fantastic. It was a hyper-realism/survival mod with ballistics stats pooled from real-world info, so the guns and ammo worked "as they ought to." It also made the spoils of looting rather scarce, so you really had to work on the whole survival bit.

Does redux still work with the latest patches? Bought STALKER about a month ago but haven't had the time to seriously play it until now. I was heavily disappointed by the few guns I actually wielded. Nevermind the AI attempting to pistol-snipe me from about 500 yards and never running out of ammo (and missing 99% of the time).

 

[43st]

I really liked the idea of the original Stalker, but the execution was quite poor. I think the biggest deal breaker for me was the constant respawning of creatures and bandits. I mean it didn't even wait, it was literally 10 seconds between waves, and it never ended?!?! Great idea, but lame game.

 

[nerp]

I've been playing a bit of the original when I have free time and I really like it. I've barely scratched the surface, though, so I can't fathom buying an expansion. I only paid $9 for this game from gogamer on sale so I suspect by the time that I'm ready for the expansion, I'm going to pay a similarly low price.

 

[BassBomb]

I will make sure to play the original before Clear Sky comes out. I downloaded the original and hated it for the first 2 minutes I played. I think I will like it this time around if I give it a chance.

 

[40sTheme]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
I will make sure to play the original before Clear Sky comes out. I downloaded the original and hated it for the first 2 minutes I played. I think I will like it this time around if I give it a chance.

Way to give it a chance, eh? LOL
Seriously, though, give it more than two minutes; maybe more like an hour. You'll begin to fully enjoy it once things start picking up and you begin to understand how everything works. It definitely takes some thought to really figure out what you're doing. That's why it is a neat game.

 

[Dumac]

Originally posted by: 40sTheme
Way to give it a chance, eh? LOL
Seriously, though, give it more than two minutes; maybe more like an hour. You'll begin to fully enjoy it once things start picking up and you begin to understand how everything works. It definitely takes some thought to really figure out what you're doing. That's why it is a neat game.

I just recently picked up STALKER. I haven't had the chance to play it yet, but I've heard good things about the Oblivion Lost (I think that was the name) mod. Should I play the game vanilla first, or jump straight into the mod?

 

[BassBomb]

I hated it right off the bat because I was using a really slow rig, so it looked like shit, felt like shit too.

I couldn't stand the fact that I was hit with a wall of text rather than voiceovers .. the reason I probably will stand it now is that I just came off of playing WoW and enjoyed doing quests and such which is similar style to Stalker (which I heard is a FPS with RPG elements). I should be able to appreciate the game for what it is this time around.

 

[imported_Imp]

Can't wait. I loved the original enough that I don't even care about engine improvements so they'll just be gravy. After seeing the trailers though, I wish my machine could run with dynamic lighting on...

 

[alm4rr]

it hopefully takes longer than 17 minutes to complete
http://speeddemosarchive.com/STALKER.html

 

[geoffry]

Yep, this and Far Cry 2 are what I'm most looking forward to.

 

[GZFant]

Definitely one of my favorite games of all time. I don't think it will be too hard to like Clear Sky. It is the wait that is hurting most.

 

[fallout man]

Originally posted by: irishScott

Does redux still work with the latest patches? Bought STALKER about a month ago but haven't had the time to seriously play it until now. I was heavily disappointed by the few guns I actually wielded. Nevermind the AI attempting to pistol-snipe me from about 500 yards and never running out of ammo (and missing 99% of the time).

REDUX got abandoned around 1.004, so you might have up patch up only up to there in order for it to work.

I played the Simbion mod for shits and giggles, but since it's a Russian mod, I've had to convert the game to fully Russian dialogue in order to avoid annoying conversation glitches. It doesn't really crimp my style, but it's not for everyone.

 

[mauri]

I'm really waiting for the prequel. I started to play stalker few months ago (game sitting in my shelf since the launch), but the 5-min Vista crashing bug made the game unplayable. I tried it again this week (with the latest patch installed) and the crash bug had just gone away.

I'm really impressed with the atmosphere the game has. It has some quirks (some that got me abandon the game in the first place), but something just makes it interesting to play (at least for me). And I finally have a system which can run it with full details without turning it to slideshow (one problem I had with the game when I bought it at the launch). I'm quite at the beginning still, but I'm aching to play more.

I'm just wondering is it worth to install some mods right at the beginning, or should I play it through without any mods, at least for the first play through? Which mods are worth installing that work with 1.005 mod?

edit: typos.

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: fallout man

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
I finally finished up STALKER today, since the crash every 5 minutes problem i had on XP fixed itself when I moved to vista Besides accidentally getting one of the "bad" endings, I thought it was really good. The atmosphere they create is amazing. Best single player FPS since HL2 IMO. I am now very excited for Clear Skies

edit: The innacurate guns also drove me insane, hopefully they tweak that in Clear Skies. I installed the Oblivion Lost mod which makes firefights much more satisfying when you can actually hit someone standing 5 feet away from you.

Google for, obtain, and install "Simbion" mod.

It brings back:

-vehicles
-blowouts (which make anomalies shift location!!!)
-free roaming AI
-unincluded monsters
-joining factions (for real this time)


You can also play with other fun stuff, like making new artifacts using recipes, using artifacts to make anomalies pop up, etc. It's absolutely worth it.

Another mod project I was really into was the Stalker REDUX mod. I think it sort of stalled and went the way of the dinosaur, but it was fantastic. It was a hyper-realism/survival mod with ballistics stats pooled from real-world info, so the guns and ammo worked "as they ought to." It also made the spoils of looting rather scarce, so you really had to work on the whole survival bit.

Che, thanks a lot man... Now I've gotta replay Stalker a third time. Trying to decide between this Simbion and the AKM mod now.

 

[fallout man]

Originally posted by: Imp

Originally posted by: fallout man

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
I finally finished up STALKER today, since the crash every 5 minutes problem i had on XP fixed itself when I moved to vista Besides accidentally getting one of the "bad" endings, I thought it was really good. The atmosphere they create is amazing. Best single player FPS since HL2 IMO. I am now very excited for Clear Skies

edit: The innacurate guns also drove me insane, hopefully they tweak that in Clear Skies. I installed the Oblivion Lost mod which makes firefights much more satisfying when you can actually hit someone standing 5 feet away from you.

Google for, obtain, and install "Simbion" mod.

It brings back:

-vehicles
-blowouts (which make anomalies shift location!!!)
-free roaming AI
-unincluded monsters
-joining factions (for real this time)


You can also play with other fun stuff, like making new artifacts using recipes, using artifacts to make anomalies pop up, etc. It's absolutely worth it.

Another mod project I was really into was the Stalker REDUX mod. I think it sort of stalled and went the way of the dinosaur, but it was fantastic. It was a hyper-realism/survival mod with ballistics stats pooled from real-world info, so the guns and ammo worked "as they ought to." It also made the spoils of looting rather scarce, so you really had to work on the whole survival bit.

Che, thanks a lot man... Now I've gotta replay Stalker a third time. Trying to decide between this Simbion and the AKM mod now.

Simbion incorporates the best of AMK mod, so I wouldn't worry about it.

The only caveat is that the Simbion mod is Russian-made, so you will have to hunt down translations to make it glitch-free. Seek out the GSC world official mod forums for translation packs, as many are out there for that particular mod.

 

[Peelback79]

The first mission almost ruined the first game for me. I was so frustrated at not being able to hit anything. But that made it that much sweeter when I sucker shanked a soldier at the rail-bridge and used his ak-74u to kill his comrades. Why sure I'll pay you some money to cross....*shank*. Eventually, the fact that you had to run everywhere you went somewhat tiresome. The fact that you weren't guaranteed awesome weapons and unlimited access to ammo made the game more challenging. The first few missions I made the mistake of carrying a secondary weapon rather than loading up on tons 'o' .39 and found myself scavenging shotguns and uzzi's to get missions done.
I also liked the unique environment. It didn't feel like a bunch of hills cut and pasted together.
Now that they chose to amp the graphics up after I bought a new rig that can handle it, yeah, gonna buy it.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: alm4rr
it hopefully takes longer than 17 minutes to complete
http://speeddemosarchive.com/STALKER.html

No game like Stalker you can complete properly in 17 mins,any TRUE gamer will explore and fight his way through every area,not to meantion as many quests as possible,now tell me that can all be done in 17 mins,remember the game is meant to be played as the developers designed the game ie whichis a bit longer then 17 mins,especially if you want to soak in the atmosphere and truly enjoy the game to its full potential.

 

[Sylvanas]

Got my copy Pre-ordered

 

[Zenoth]

The PC Zone magazine reviewed Clear Sky: http://stalker.deepsilver.com/presse.php?lang=us

And the Russian version may be released earlier, just this upcoming week on Friday the 22nd.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Regarding the Simbion demo, every hit I am getting in google is in cyrillic. Anyone hitting english paydirt? I am downloading what LOOKS like the mod file from June 08, wish me luck.

Also, anyone know what the best texture/retexture pack for STALKER is?

 

[Zenoth]

Originally posted by: Dorkenstein
Regarding the Simbion demo, every hit I am getting in google is in cyrillic. Anyone hitting english paydirt? I am downloading what LOOKS like the mod file from June 08, wish me luck.

Also, anyone know what the best texture/retexture pack for STALKER is?

The SIMBION mod is full of bugs, you should get AMK Mod instead, very stable and features 80% of the SIMBION stuff plus a unique NPC communication system (which SIMBION got from AMK and managed to screw up somehow). I'm referring to the last version of SIMBION I tried a month or two ago, but I stopped playing it due to constant crashing, and I wasn't the only one. Try it if you want though, but I highly recommend AMK instead, and at least AMK has been translated in English, that's a plus.