Today is the Day that Video Games Died

[Powermoloch]

I love SoC, the atmosphere gives me the goose bumps. Especially in the labs.

 

[Upgrade_Itch]

I have seen a decline in quality pc titles in recent years, mainly because of console ports being brought over (lazy programming/ coding).

Classics like: Half Life 2, Far Cry (1), Unreal Tournament 2004.......

Haven't seen a pc game of that quality in a long time.

 

[dust]

snip

Pretty much all of this, with accent on the Clear Sky Red Forest being awesome(I wish it could be added to the SoC as a mod or something). The swamp was great also, especially at night, in the early stage of the game, without night googles/good weapons.

 

[DigDog]

i played all 3, and i liked the first best.

i recommend you look for google for STALKER Complete, a series of fan-made patches with trainers, tweaks, sleep mode, repair mode, objects spawner, quest bug fixes, stability fixes, savegame fixes, high-res textures, etc ..

it's free and makes the game 10x more enjoyable and /10 less broken.

here : http://artistpavel.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/stalker-complete-2009.html

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Stalker Complete is a horrible horrible mod and you should feel bad for recommending it.

It's what you would get if you thought only 10 year old kids are playing the game.

 

[Gibsons]

I admit I would have liked a STALKER 2 but then again I'm not sure where it could have gone story-wise. We might have had new mutants, a few new zones with returning ones, and of course new weapons...

Here's the plot as imagined by me

Spoiler

You play as Strider, the former Monolith guy from CoP. You only remember the last 30 days or so, but your connection to colonel whatshisname, maybe you find out what your 'real' name is. Your mission is to infiltrate Monolith and discover their secret(s) and recover your memories. Yeah, it's YA amnesia storyline. Or you could play as Strelok on his next mission, etc

Anyway, I'm really bummed at the news here. I have no interest in a MMO of any kind.

 

[bigsnyder]

Why such hate for Bethesda? The Elder Scroll series and Fallout have been very good in my opinion. Not trying to argue, just curious why the animosity. I certainly understand the flak EA gets.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Why such hate for Bethesda? The Elder Scroll series and Fallout have been very good in my opinion. Not trying to argue, just curious why the animosity. I certainly understand the flak EA gets.

I don't like the Elder Scrolls series, so I won't get into that.

But Bethesda ruined Fallout, they are not to be trusted with IP. Fallout 3 was a terrible terrible Fallout game. Not too bad as a game, but Fallout? Should have kept the game in the vault.

Bethesda is amazing at consolizing games and making them easy for the average gamer.

Stalker needs to kept with the Russians. The Russians know how to make the best apocalypse scenarios

 

[exdeath]

Gaming died a long time ago when the 16 and 32 bit era ended.

 

[JamesV]

I loved STALKER, played through it at least 10 times. Alot of games say they are scary like FEAR, but STALKER actually was. Add to that some of the best world geometry I've ever seen in a game, where one building might have the detail of a whole town in Fallout, and a difficulty that is not casual - nearly a perfect game.

Funny that the best games around come from Eastern Europe these days - STALKER and Witcher 2, while games in the US are declining all the time, becoming console and casual friendly.

 

[Dankk]

Funny that the best games around come from Eastern Europe these days - STALKER and Witcher 2, while games in the US are declining all the time, becoming console and casual friendly.

I agree, Eastern Europe's video game industry has been growing in an awesome way. Let's see... STALKER, Witcher series, Hard Reset, Metro 2033, Cryostasis, King's Bounty... what else am I missing?

 

[Gibsons]

I agree, Eastern Europe's video game industry has been growing in an awesome way. Let's see... STALKER, Witcher series, Hard Reset, Metro 2033, Cryostasis, King's Bounty... what else am I missing?

Serious Sam

 

[Markbnj]

SoC downloading now. Looking forward to checking it out. Always nice to know that if I like it there is a great sequel waiting for me next.

 

[Skott]

Why MMO? Well, there is the sale from the intial box retail or download. Then mothly subscription fees and sales from expansion packs. Even if the game is mediocre there is a lot of money to be made. At least so Devs and the industry thinks. WoW proved there is gold in MMOs.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

SoC downloading now. Looking forward to checking it out. Always nice to know that if I like it there is a great sequel waiting for me next.

Well, 1 good sequel, anyway. Though I do advise you so savor SoC - the sequels are mechanical improvements. They don't match the atmosphere though, and actually left me thinking "Man, I wish someone would port SoC to the CoP engine and mechanics."

And because this is a constant issue with Shadow - Marked One is not a trained soldier. He is a random Russian dude. This means he is not supreme expert marksman, or even an especially good shot.

"Stay still if you want to shoot straight" is good advice in any shooter. And all shooters have their aiming reticles expand when you move the mouse to change your aim.

STALKER is dead serious about that though - you will not hit a damned thing if you twitch shoot. Predict where your enemy will be, and let your aim settle, or Marked One will not shoot straight. You need time to settle your aim.

And a pistol isn't going to hit anything more then 5 feet away.

 

[Markbnj]

Well, 1 good sequel, anyway. Though I do advise you so savor SoC - the sequels are mechanical improvements. They don't match the atmosphere though, and actually left me thinking "Man, I wish someone would port SoC to the CoP engine and mechanics."

And because this is a constant issue with Shadow - Marked One is not a trained soldier. He is a random Russian dude. This means he is not supreme expert marksman, or even an especially good shot.

"Stay still if you want to shoot straight" is good advice in any shooter. And all shooters have their aiming reticles expand when you move the mouse to change your aim.

STALKER is dead serious about that though - you will not hit a damned thing if you twitch shoot. Predict where your enemy will be, and let your aim settle, or Marked One will not shoot straight. You need time to settle your aim.

And a pistol isn't going to hit anything more then 5 feet away.

Yeah I have already started learning that, and also that it doesn't cut you any breaks in terms of damage. If you don't see someone with a shotgun who wants you dead you're going to die. Pretty refreshing given the forgiving nature of most modern shooters.

One thing I really hated right off the bat was the head-bob. My god. Felt dizzy just walking around outside the trader's vault in the outpost. Got a mod for that, thankfully.

The other thing is the "new stuff on your PDA" mechanic. Seems to update at the oddest times and for reasons I can't always figure out. And all the stuff in the diary part is perma-new.

 

[destrekor]

Just to make sure everyone is clear on a little important piece of information... Bethesda is not simply a developer studio, and only that.
They also are a publisher. ZeniMax has been buying up a few other dev studios and Bethesda is becoming the publisher for titles those companies make.

Not that I really like any of their projects anymore, but iD is also a major studio under that common banner now.

But Bethesda Game Studios, yeah... I haven't been very fond of their releases.
There's a chance, however slim, that some upcoming games published under the Bethesda banner won't feel like BSG games at all - it depends how heavy-handed they are as a publisher/studio-helm. Some, like Activision and EA, are heavily involved and very demanding of some of the dev studios they (as parent companies) own.
Bethesda is basically the ZeniMax game publishing label, but it's only been in the past few years that they've been buying up some studios.

 

[GZFant]

I had to climb out of the ashes of hell just to say, indeed, this is quite a fatal blow.

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

Now to HL3. Us computer gamers last saving grace.

 

[beginner99]

Well I have CoP, was actually the first game I bought back then when I got my new rig because seemed to be a good game. However didn't like it very much...not really an FPS to me. Too much running around without any action...and then I hated the excessive head bobbing and constant stuttering even at settings my GPU could more than handle. Fact is after about 30 min of playing I started feeling sick...

 

[Stringjam]

Stalker Complete is a horrible horrible mod and you should feel bad for recommending it.

It's what you would get if you thought only 10 year old kids are playing the game.

What do you recommend? LURK (I haven't tried that one yet....I'm waiting for the next big release)?

The game needs something to fix the horrible weapon damage characteristics. The first time I played this game I pumped 3 rounds of 12 gauge into a guy 5 feet away and he turned around and killed me with one shot. I just about gave up on it at that point.....I shoot REAL guns and this kind of lack of realism was really pissing me off.

Your average Colt 1911 pistol is very accurate up to at least 25 yards, and will sure as hell take down anything you hit with it. It seems like in this game, anything past a few feet away makes pistols almost worthless.

This is why I've always played it with Complete + Realistic Weapons add-on to fix those issues. It turned S.T.AL.K.E.R. SoC into one of, if not my absolute favorite games in life. I've played it through at least a half-dozen times now......there's just nothing else like it.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Just to make sure everyone is clear on a little important piece of information... Bethesda is not simply a developer studio, and only that.
They also are a publisher. ZeniMax has been buying up a few other dev studios and Bethesda is becoming the publisher for titles those companies make.

Not that I really like any of their projects anymore, but iD is also a major studio under that common banner now.

But Bethesda Game Studios, yeah... I haven't been very fond of their releases.
There's a chance, however slim, that some upcoming games published under the Bethesda banner won't feel like BSG games at all - it depends how heavy-handed they are as a publisher/studio-helm. Some, like Activision and EA, are heavily involved and very demanding of some of the dev studios they (as parent companies) own.
Bethesda is basically the ZeniMax game publishing label, but it's only been in the past few years that they've been buying up some studios.

Bethesda strategy since Morrowind is churning out heavily marketed turds for console folks couldn't care less about the quality, and for PC people who are willing are forgive anything and rave about everything they do because "it's open-ended" and "I can mod my skimpy anime armor in".

 

[DigDog]

Stalker Complete is a horrible horrible mod and you should feel bad for recommending it.

It's what you would get if you thought only 10 year old kids are playing the game.

i own originals of both CoP and CS and both were broken beyond repair; so maybe the appeal of Complete is to be able to actually FINISH the game rather than getting stuck on the Test Psi Helmet quest or going on holiday in Broken Save Game land.

 

[AtaruMoroboshi18]

http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalkersoup

One of the biggest most incredible mods for STALKER: SoC. It's ridiculously huge with nearly all of the cut out content of the game and tons of user-made modifications, items, weapons, etc. STALKERSOUP will keep you playing STALKER: SoC for a LONG TIME.

 

[shortylickens]

I don't like the Elder Scrolls series, so I won't get into that.

But Bethesda ruined Fallout, they are not to be trusted with IP. Fallout 3 was a terrible terrible Fallout game. Not too bad as a game, but Fallout? Should have kept the game in the vault.

Bethesda is amazing at consolizing games and making them easy for the average gamer.

Stalker needs to kept with the Russians. The Russians know how to make the best apocalypse scenarios

I was just running another Fallout 3 game and I have to disagree. While it certainly didnt have the same gameplay as the previous titles, it does keep the spirit and theme alive. And if you go into it expecting nothing at all you will be pleasantly surprised to see how much effort they put into creating a living world with lots of cool stuff to do.

We will never have another old school Fallout, just like we will never have another Baldurs Gate or Icewind Dale. But just cuz a game is different doesnt automatically mean its bad.

Heck, they kept the same 1st person perspective and 3D accelerated world for Elder Scrolls and managed to screw it up, so we know doing things the same isnt automatically better either.

 

[Markbnj]

Can anyone explain the PDA and diary in Stalker for me? This seems to happen over and over: kill bandit, tap 'F' to search body. Hear "new PDA stuff sound" and see pulsing blue icon. Hit 'P' and see that "Diary" has a green notifier next to it. Click "Diary" and see that everything in Diary is green again. Click it all to turn it all white. See nothing new.