Is no one else getting inordinately excited about the release (March 20th in the US)??
Stalker...
Is no one else getting inordinately excited about the release (March 20th in the US)??
Re : Stalker...
There was a time, and I forgot when, when I was eagerly awaiting this game but because it got delayed a couple of times I lost all interest in it. Hah hah, I remember seeing an interview wherein a developer player was cursing like heck because it was so difficult
Emotion, passions, and desires are, thus peace is not.
Emotion: you have it or it has you.
---
Pay heed to my story named The Thief in the Mead Hall.No.
---
Check out some of my music.
Re: Stalker...
Well I have it installed and running...
Just to give it some contect here is my machine:
Vista Ultimate
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 MB
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 SDRAM
BFG 8800GTX
Western Digital Caviar 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HD
First it takes ages to install, I guess it is seriously compressed to get it all on one DVD.
I got some nasty horrible crash when I tried running it at first. I updated my X-Fi drivers from from the Beta ones to some real ones (came out on the 15th) but no difference. I was using the Beta 101.41 Nvidia drivers. I rolled back to the 100.65 driver and Stalker burst into life...
I have set it to 1920x1080 and Maximum settings (I chose the Maximum setting, I have not gone into advanaced and played with the sliders) and Full Dynamic Lighting. It looks really sweet, the comparison to HL2 era graphics is appropriate. The level are very large by FPS standards but do not think Oblivion or you will really be disapointed... The lighting is fantastic, very authentic, very atmospheric, basically really, really good! Nighttime is properly dark and a thunderstorm at night with the landscape lit convincingly by the lightning flashes is really good. It also has the best implimentation of the flashligh of any game yet (IMO)... Well in those settings with the machine above all runs real well and real smooth...
Combat is not run and gun... Think Ghost Recon with seriously inaccurate weapons... It is difficult to the level of frustrating sometimes, though being RPG I am not sure if I have gotten a bit carried away with picking fights with heavily armed and armoured soldiers... Emptying the clip of your AK into a guys back just to have him trun around and one shot you is frustrating. That is the soldiers, the bandits are considerably weaker.
Remember kids that headshots save lives, usually your own...
The story is difficult to follow and a bit mysterious, but then again I have not gotten that far yet... The main character dialog is in accented english (in my version obviously) and bulked out with further text. Incidental speech is all in Russia which is very atmosphere and adds a challenge too as you can here you enemies calling out to each other but you have no idea what they are trying to do. I spent an additional 10 minutes carefully searching a building for the last bad guy I could hear before i realized it was one of the guys I had put down, he was not quite dead and was calling out (for help I assume)...
I can see where the Fallout comparisons come from, exploring, fighting, looting the corpses, getting frustrated that you can't lug all those weapons around, collecting rare firearms and struggling to find the ammo, mutants wandering around, talking with anyone even though they may not have much to say, radiation bathed post apoloptic landscape... It is all there...
Broken bits... I have not seen the performance issues other Vista users have reported but I have seen a couple of issues that may or may not be Vista related. Firstly CTD with no errors when quicksaving or loading. Not all the time but like 1 in 10. I also saw a CTD once on starting a conversation. Secondly plot holes? I had a mission to save a guy called Carl, I completed it, or at least i think I did, I killed a load of soldiers and escaped a componend with him. He showed me to a manhole and I went on my way... Later after negotiating some tunnels and a small army camp and I escaping on foot to be informed that I failed the mission to save Carl?!?? Have to investigate more...
Overall the strong sense of atmosphere and intense gun fights (getting shot at is as scary as it can be in a game) make everthing else easy to put up with...
Re: Stalker...
Translation: I have far too much disposable income.Originally Posted by Bob the Insane
I'm glad you could at least run it mate, I was barely chugging along at 5-10FPS when it wasn't thrashing my HDD at 1024x768 medium. For the record my box is an AMD 3800(single core), 1gb RAM, and two 6800 Ultras in SLI. MAN did that game thrash my HDD constantly, and I have it fully defragged/optimized using JKDefrag. Maybe I can contribute more when I get a new box in a few months, but until then this is a $40 coffee cup coaster.Perhaps I should just blame bad Russian coding in the mean time.
On a side note, what are your thoughts on the RPG aspect of it? That was really the big selling point when I was looking at it... Heard they've dropped quite a bit of that part and made it more of a pure FPS with some "RPG aspects". Seeing how I can't play it myself... got any input?
"Justice is the firm and continuous desire to render to everyone
that which is his due." - Justinian I
Re: Stalker...
My wife was far less polite about it...Translation: I have far too much disposable income.
Self build, $2900... not all that bad considering what I got and how much Alienware and such would charge for it...
Think Shooter with RPG aspects and pretty big levels.. Do NOT think Oblivion-esk RPG with guns...
The RPG aspects come into the that fact that you can choose what to do and how to do it... You can pick and choose your missions depending on whom you talk to. The RPG aspects are limited to talking to people to gather information and get missions for cash and more information... It is a bit tricky to start with but gets more interesting once you get your hands on some decent weapons... I can't emphasis the tactical shooter aspects enough... This will neither appeal to hardcore RPG folks nor the Unreal Tournment crowd... If you liked Ghost Recon and you liked Fallout's setting this should appeal...
There are some FedEx missions and some Kill the Person or Clear the camp missions. The reviews are correct in the core missions show more imagination... There is no repair this, or work out the puzzel for that tasks though. I guess that is the single RPG element most notably missing... No puzzles or the "question everyone to investigate" missions. Most if not all missions end in fire fights..
The fire fights are good though, even if they seem incrediblly one sided (and not your side) until you get some decent equipment...
The combination of "non-scripted" AI and scripted missions is funny as things can get messed up sometimes. In the above example with Save Carl, I eventually killed off the soldiers, found his body and got my info... Apparantly I really should have talked to him before heading into the tunnels (the first time i saved him) as he had maps of the tunnels and map of the guards in the army camp I ended up in... Shows the variety possible though that I got through without this....
Last edited by Bob the Insane; 03-23-2007 at 04:01.
Re: Stalker...
To me that sounds like you need 2GB of RAM.
I'm seriously considering to buy this, from what I read here and on another forum, it sounds like a very good game. I'm usually not into FPS with monsters etc, but this has a more realistic touch and setting, plus the gunsfights sound very good. Since everyone mentions RPG, is accurracy only related to guns or is there something like skills which improve with time?
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
Re: Stalker...
No, no skills (other than your own skillz...)...
There are a load of stats (the most obvious are Health, Endurance and Radiation Level) but there are no experience points or skills to spend them on. It is all about equipment... Your clothes/body armour alters your resistance to all the different forms of damage in the game, plus clipping zone artifacts to your belt confers benefits and penalties to these stats to. Your endurance defines how long you can run and jump about and decreases faster the more weight you are carrying. Decent body armour, plenty of bandages and first aid kits, a decent rifle and plenty of ammo are all you really need...
Of course you start with just a knife...
The above makes the Arena interesting as your equipment is stripped away and you are give the same weapon as your opponent(s). So it will never get easier, you simply have to get better at the game...
The RGP elements are limited which is why I think it is better to describe this as a ShooterPlus rather than an RPG with guns...
Mind you there are plenty of full blown RPGs out there that involved little beyond fighting and collecting the loot...
Re: Stalker...
Same assessment here. This machine was "hot crap" when I built it over 2 years ago too, best that you could get. It's still good and can run most anything, STALKER was the first game that really and truly gave it a thrashing even on the default recommended settings for my box.
Tell me about it! Mrs. Whacker usually makes me sleep on the couch for a bit after I inform her that my bi-annual upgrade is coming up soon.My wife was far less polite about it...
So this is also killing me. Can you actually get inside of the Chernobyl reactor building and look at the destroyed reactor 4 itself??? If there are any cheat codes can I persuade you to do that and run inside and show some screenshots??? Pretty pretty pleeeaassee???
"Justice is the firm and continuous desire to render to everyone
that which is his due." - Justinian I
Re: Stalker...
Love to, but I think that is at the end... Maybe... I will check out the multi-player maps to see if it is there...
Re: Stalker...
Hmm, I saw a screenshot somewhere....but where?...
Can't find it anymore.
I'm eager to buy the game now, but I have exams on Wednesday so I don't know...I should learn and not play.
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
Re: Stalker...
Reactor. Pictures. Now.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
"Justice is the firm and continuous desire to render to everyone
that which is his due." - Justinian I
Re: Stalker...
Does it really require Win XP with SP2?
Re: Stalker...
Minimum requirements state Windows 2000 SP4 and I am running it on Vista so I would guess no...
Re: Stalker...
Hmm, I've seen it written quite a few times. I'm running XP with SP1 currently. Shall I take the risk?
Last edited by Ragnor_Lodbrok; 03-25-2007 at 11:48.
Re: Stalker...
I heard it crashes a lot on Vista machines and that they are working on a patch for that.
So if it doesn't crash often for you I wonder whether you have User Account Protection enabled or disabled? Because someone said it often crashes when he tries to save and my first thought was that the UAP could prevent overwriting and thus make it crash. I'm interested to know because I run Vista and think about getting the game, but if it crashes all the time...
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
Re : Stalker...
What are the minimum and recommended system requirements?
Emotion, passions, and desires are, thus peace is not.
Emotion: you have it or it has you.
---
Pay heed to my story named The Thief in the Mead Hall.No.
---
Check out some of my music.
Re: Stalker...
I have User Account Protection most definately disabled... Horrible nasty thing...
The only crash i get (CTD) is on saving... Which is particularly annoying... I have to save regularly because while this causes the CTD regularly that is not as bad as making a lot of progress only to have the CTD on the next save... I would say it averages 1 in 10 saves...
Other than that it pretty much works fine...
Specs:
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=645658
Scroll down a bit...
Re: Stalker...
Hmm, so it's good to know they are working to fix that, I want to play the game now, but I think there are some exams and a weekend at my parents which come first.
Also good to know that my system should run the game fine.
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
Re: Stalker...
Woo, with any luck i should be getting it tomorrow. Can't wait, it looks amazing and i've been following its development for years.
Re: Stalker...
The patch 1.0001 is out and fixes the problems with Vista and 70 other bugs.
But it's not savegame compatible and I couldn't find an english mirror for it yet.
SP fixes include(copied from another forum):
another edit: All three versions of the patch finally up at gamershell.Even though the patch focuses on multiplayer, these items for singleplayer were addressed:
1. Money is now worth something - you can now get stuff from dealers that weren't available, for example protective suits, ammo for most of the weapons, even from the first dealer.
2. Body armor is now modelled in full. Now, the blue bar above the health indicator works. You can also now repair your armor at any dealer's place.
3. Sneak and stealth-kills were improved, but not made too easy.
4. Dead bodies don't have double loot any more.
5. Weapons are more efficient.
6. Improved FPS / less new area loading stuttering (based on RAM).
7. Enemies can be shot through thin walls/doors, etc.
8. Trading system is improved - Stalkers now carry worthy stuff besides the medkit for trading
Last edited by Husar; 03-27-2007 at 16:28.
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
Re: Stalker...
Where in the world did you get your list??
The one on fileplanet is a lot less encouraging from the SP perspective...
Re: Stalker...
Patch 1.0001 notes...
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
"Why spoil the beauty of the thing with legality?" - Theodore Roosevelt
Idealism is masturbation, but unlike real masturbation idealism actually makes one blind. - Fragony
Though Adrian did a brilliant job of defending the great man that is Hugo Chavez, I decided to post this anyway.. - JAG (who else?)
Re: Stalker...
I was playing with the new patch last night, so from the begining again...
It is hard to say if gameplay has changed that much because I am much better at the game now than when I was at the same point previously. I managed to get through the first bandit battle without dying and rescued Nimble. I also did not make much use of the starting shotgun last time but now find it very useful (don't know if it changed or not)...
The most obvious change is with the trader, he has more stuff to sell, namely the Viper-5 (no ammo and it is totally out of your budget range at the start) and more suits. More suits is important because your suit will degrade as you take damage now. Can't work out if you can repair your armour, but is is certainly easier to replace. The trader now sells the Leather Jacket, Bandit Armour and the Merc Suit. Note also the Stalker suit you could find in the first village is now a Merc Suit...
I think the game is running a little smoother, but as it was running pretty smooth on my rig before it is hard to tell.
The occasional ctd on saving I was getting (using Vista) still occurs but with one important difference, it actually saves before ctd now. Still annoying but at least I just have to restart, no backtracking required.
I have not noticed other stalkers having more stuff worth trading, but then I am back near the begining again so that may change.
Re: Stalker...
I got the game yesterday and played a couple hours this morning and so far it is great. The graphics I found pretty amazing, the feeling is very nice, only small drawback is that a lot of things seem to respawn, like pesky bandits which you have to kill again and again.
I wanted to try whether I could join the army but it didn't work out that well, I'm now at the Stalker bar(rushed a bit at the start) and I am looking forward to go on next week when I'm back at my PC.
Also using XP makes the whole thing a lot more enjoyable, and for me in Vista it did NOT save the game with the patch applied, it crashed almost every second time, sometimes every time I attempted to save which was rather frustrating, they should fix that.
Another note is, that they actually recommend a DualCore for the game, so all single Core lovers gotta know that the end of their beloved old tech is coming along rather fast(though it's weird they thought about dual cores during development but forgot to optimize it for Vista).
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
Re: Stalker...
Well, me and my friend finally got it.
We now have no social lives. Immediately as soon as we get home from school we're on the game.
I need to go and play it more. I'm at Agroprom.
Re: Stalker...
Anyone know any good websites or forums to help with this game? The first level was ok, but the garbage or whatever the next one is called seemed a bit insane. I'm fighting armies of seemingly respawning bandits and no obvious traders/sources of sidequests to soften the deal.
Re: Stalker...
The exit route to the Agroprom Research Institute is crawling with bandits, but you can try to sneak past them or just run for it. IIRC approaching the exit from northeast is relatively easy. Try drawing their attention to one direction, running around the hangar, and approaching from another direction.
If you've done Agroprom, getting to the Bar area should be relatively easy and you'll have no shortage of decent weapons or armour after that.
Re: Stalker...
Thanks - yes, after many false attempts, I circled round and made it to Agroprom. I was a bit depressed to find the next level starts off with a scripted battle/flight sequence. It's starting to feel more like a run and gun shooter (or run and be gunned, in my case), whereas by comparison the first level had a nice Morrowind vibe to it.
Re: Stalker...
Can't repeat it enough... This is FPS+... Not RPG with guns...
Trying to avoid to many spoilers, but wait until you are in the town of high rise buildings and snipers... Just like being back in CoD...
If that soulds too negative I will say overall the game is great and I am having a lot of fun but if this game is RPG, it is in the Icewind Dale moving from battle to battle style rather than the deeper story driven Balder's Gate style...
The whole point of the quests to to get more money and equipment (and the money is for more equipment) so you can get well enough equiped to follow the story and finish the game...
Re: Stalker...
I can't survive the opening battle at Agroprom - repelling the military assault. I take down one or two, then the stalkers are all killed and I fail the mission. I have an AK74 (+sawn-off) and a merc suit; any tactics?
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks