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

[Admiral Huddy]

Anyone playing this?

What do you think?

I've been playing it a few hours and have to say I'm quite enoying it.. It's very much like Deusex with a bit of F.E.A.R.

Combat is not easy.. pretty pointless so it's easier to run or sneak past opponents rather than facing up to them.

Runs lovely on the 8800GTX with all the settings on high

Only one bug so far... a save game got corrupted causing a BSOD! Had to revert to previous savegame which was annoying.

[Daz]

http://www.boat-drinks.co.uk/showthr...?t=3285&page=2

Belmit has been posting his views in that thread

Do you have crash dumps from those blue screens? I'd love to see what the hell was happening to cause the loading/saving of a game to crash a box :/

[Admiral Huddy]

it's either the game or the drivers..

It get's stuck on CLIENT_ Sync when loading.. then the system hangs.. then bang. nv4_disp error...

Originally Posted by Daz

http://www.boat-drinks.co.uk/showthr...?t=3285&page=2

Belmit has been posting his views in that thread

Do you have crash dumps from those blue screens? I'd love to see what the hell was happening to cause the loading/saving of a game to crash a box :/

[Belmit]

I found it good but the end was a disappointment. There's something like six different endings, and the one you get is based on what you've done in the game. I hurtled through the last couple of missions to get to the end, and because I'd amassed so much money from selling artifacts and doing crappy side missions I got the 'greedy' ending. This pretty much sucks because after getting the best enviro suit and gun there's not much else to buy as you find everything else you need, so you end up with hundreds of thousands of rubles at the end that you can't drop or spend - a huge flaw I feel. There's just no value in having money in the game.

If it was possible to do your own thing and not have to do the exact same main missions I would play through it again. One day I might but not any time soon. A real shame because the potential for this was HUGE. They just needed to make it more open-plan, harder to accrue wealth and put a few junked but repairable vehicles in the game.

Oh and anomalies are nowhere near as good as I thought they'd be; you have a sensor that goes off if you go near them FFS, like you can't see them anyway. Don't think I strayed into one at all.

Artefacts are a little buggy too. If you get two of the blue sphere artifacts and attach them to your belt, you can run for ever! And there's one that is supposed to prevent bleeding from wounds but it actually makes you bleed permanently. Chuck it, quick!

[Admiral Huddy]

I've just read through your comments in the "now playing thread". I'm only a few hours in. I've learnt already that it not worth standing up to openents... I'm at some sort of rail depot taking on a hand full of soldiers and scum

but shooting is hard..

Actually, what setting did you play this on? STALKER?

[Belmit]

I think I played it on whatever the 'not a complete n00b' setting was. The difficulty curve, even on the easier settings, is a bit inverted as well. You start out with crappy armour, pitiful stopping power (SMGs were my main weapon for some time before I got a decent rifle) and had to heal myself after every couple of enemies I fought. More than three bandits in a group and you might as well forget it. You even have to run away from packs of 'blind' dogs.

Later on you can get a suit that protects about 90% against everything; radiation, electricity, fall damage, explosions damage, bullets... and so with a semi-auto rifle and scope you can take out platoons of bandits with a single clip. Zombies later on are much harder though as they are often armoured, tooled up and hard as nails! Bit slow though mind; they're not all there.

[CliffyG]

I've given up trying. Random blue screens and application hangs before i've even gone out of the first village. I have tried pretty much the lowest settings possible yet nothing makes any difference. Glad i didnt pay for it.

[Admiral Huddy]

Originally Posted by CliffyG

I've given up trying. Random blue screens and application hangs before i've even gone out of the first village. I have tried pretty much the lowest settings possible yet nothing makes any difference. Glad i didnt pay for it.

What is your rig Cliffy?


I have reached some sort of tunnel but the radiation is sapping away at my health... It's all a bit fiddly.. I have bumped into my first monster..

[CliffyG]

I have an AMD 64 4200 x2, 1GB 6400 DDR and an Ati x1800xt. Quite out of date these days but should be more than man enough to manage medium settings.

[Belmit]

After getting radiation poisoning, the best thing you can use to stop it are the little first aid kits with a syringe in the icon. One shot will cure you until you enter radiation again. An alternative is to drink vodka. It's not worth carrying though - takes up too much room, weighs more, and isn't as effective. And it makes you giddy. The large yellow medkits, when you find them, will heal you and cure radiation sickness in one. Bandages give you a small heal and stop bleeding, but don't cure radiation.

Edit for my spec: I'm only on a Prescott 3.2GHz, 1GB RAM, x1800 regular and managed to run comfortably at medium settings. I think my gamma was off though. It's meant to be pitch black at night but I never encountered anything more than dusk!