S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

Sarky · 12-07-2011 11:27AM

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

Son
Of
A
Whore
!

16 hours into clear sky, I had just gotten some real nice weapons and I was looking forward to actually being able to take on groups of armed bastards without having to run and hide and pick them off one by one.

then I get ambushed, and all my weapons and money are stolen.

I am most upset.

I remember that bit. don't know why they left in such an arbitrary kick in the teeth.

Still, I also remember killing the guys who took my stuff and taking it back. Wasn't terribly easy, but it's possible. Try that before giving up, maybe?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 12-07-2011 11:34AM

oh yeah I got my stuff back straight after that, felt like a boss for getting two headshots with a ****ty pistol and just sauntering over to take back my weapons (but not my money

)

the game breaking bug is further on in the game

it's when I have to go into the factory to get some info on the brain scorcher, or something. I'm working with lefty and the other stalkers that are protecting the scientists. There's a section where you have to hop onto some boxes that are stacked, and jump over a wall. two of the stalkers jump over after me, but the rest are bugged and stay on the wrong side.. and the game won't continue after that.

I could have rescued the game, but I was exploring after that bug appeared trying to see if it was a bug or if I had to go on my own. and my autosave got overwritten when I (without thinking) moved into a new map area.

I really want to play more today, but.. my only save is directly after I exited the swamps for the first time. I'm just not putting up with all those **** weapons for another 14+ hours until I get my kit sorted again. It was all well and good working my way up through the **** inventory and no upgrades, but to get them all.. and then to lose them an hour later. ugh.

I think what really annoys me though, is a short while before that bug.. I had made a point to go and collect every stash visible to me on the map, do every side quest... which meant just constantly walking back and forth all over cordon. it took ages, and it felt great to have it all done.
I just can't do it again.

--edit

actually, does anyone know where the complete mod for clear sky stores save games? I downloaded some after much soul searching, but no matter where I drop them the only saves I see are my auto/quick saves and the one good save I have back entering cordon.

mewso · 12-07-2011 11:48AM

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

actually, does anyone know where the complete mod for clear sky stores save games? I downloaded some after much soul searching, but no matter where I drop them the only saves I see are my auto/quick saves and the one good save I have back entering cordon.

I can have a look when I get home but it was in My Documents somewhere I thought.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 12-07-2011 11:50AM

yeah looked in my documents, I dropped the save files i dl'd everywhere I saw the Stalker-CS folder, but they just didnt work

Harps · 12-07-2011 01:41PM

Chairman Meow wrote: »

If youre worried about performance, go with SOC. Its much less demanding than COP

Cheers, bought it just now for the costly price of €1.12

Not sure if it'll run but for that price I think I'll take my chances

Chairman Meow · 12-07-2011 02:52PM

Harps wrote: »

Cheers, bought it just now for the costly price of €1.12 Not sure if it'll run but for that price I think I'll take my chances

Whats you laptop specs? Post em and ill tell you what kind of performance to expect!

If youre able to run any relatively good looking games like half life 2, or episode 2, then you could at the very least run SOC with dynamic lighting turned off (dynamic lighting is the real performance killer in soc)

Harps · 12-07-2011 03:40PM

I can run Half Life 2 quite well, a few frame rate problems when things get hectic but nothing game breaking. I'm not really expecting it to work smoothly but for that price I cant turn it down

SoC passes the minimum specs on that system requirements site but doesnt meet the recommended settings, worth a try anyway as I'll probably get a new laptop in the next year either way

Main thing it fails on is the graphics card which is apparently very dated, ATI Radeon X1250 to be exact.

briany · 12-07-2011 03:59PM

Chairman Meow wrote: »

Dont waste you time with CS anyway. Its **** compared to SoC & CoP. I only have it installed as a graphics showcase (its more or less the prettiest of the 3)

I have to say that even though I played, finished, and enjoyed all three games, I thought CoP was the weakest of the bunch. The older zones found in the first two games played tighter and it felt like there was more to do ,more to explore and things really amped up as you got closer to the CPP but with CoP, there wasn't really that feeling of urgency. The final moments of the story proper felt relatively leisurely compared to the first two. My opinion is that if they wanted to include a totally new playing area then they should have waited until STALKER 2.

Chairman Meow · 12-07-2011 04:10PM

Harps wrote: »

I can run Half Life 2 quite well, a few frame rate problems when things get hectic but nothing game breaking. I'm not really expecting it to work smoothly but for that price I cant turn it down

SoC passes the minimum specs on that system requirements site but doesnt meet the recommended settings, worth a try anyway as I'll probably get a new laptop in the next year either way

Main thing it fails on is the graphics card which is apparently very dated, ATI Radeon X1250 to be exact.

Yeah youll more than likely have to turn it on static lighting. A shame, as dynamic lighting still looks gorgeous to this day, and SoC complete looks absolutely lovely. But youll be able to play it, thats the important thing. Oh but youll need at least 2GB ram in your laptop. SoC is very resource hungry.

I have to say that even though I played, finished, and enjoyed all three games, I thought CoP was the weakest of the bunch. The older zones found in the first two games played tighter and it felt like there was more to do ,more to explore and things really amped up as you got closer to the CPP but with CoP, there wasn't really that feeling of urgency. The final moments of the story proper felt relatively leisurely compared to the first two. My opinion is that if they wanted to include a totally new playing area then they should have waited until STALKER 2.

While CS has more of a climax than CoP, i hated CS for a variety of reasons:

The humour. It made stupid attempts at being funny. The zone isnt supposed to be funny :mad:

The difficulty. The part where you were supposed to sneak past the cordon, yet every time you try you get raped by a machine gun. WTF?! The game tells you to go that way, yet you get destroyed. Only by googling did i find out theres a much easier way up the top of the map that it doesnt tell you about.

The Setting. Its supposed to be a prequel to SoC, yet everywhere has loads of new stuff that isnt in Soc! It jsut really messes up the continuity.

Faction wars. The faction crap made the zone feel more like call of duty, you couldnt go anywhere without there being a pitched gun battle. There was no eerie silences once you got past the swamps. It made the zone not feel like the zone.

CoP IMO is only very slightly behind SoC in terms of quality. It got rid of all the ****e from CS and brought it back to just being a lone stalker, in the zone, surviving. How it should be.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 12-07-2011 11:12PM

well, I managed to go to about 4pm today without playing which I'm actually pretty proud of.

Started off from my only useable save, just after the swamps and I'm near enough to where I was when the bug hit me. only i have better weapons, a better suit, more (metter) artifacts and better upgrades all around.

And because I took the time to attack the military base at cordon straight away, I was able to get decent weapons at the start instead of having to plough away with that stupid hunting rifle.. and I made about 4 round trips back to the military base from the stalker camp in cordon to grab weapons and ammo to sell to stalkers. had loads of money

PandyAndy · 13-07-2011 12:44AM

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

actually, does anyone know where the complete mod for clear sky stores save games? I downloaded some after much soul searching, but no matter where I drop them the only saves I see are my auto/quick saves and the one good save I have back entering cordon.

Not sure about Clear Sky, but for whatever reason SoC and the SoC complete mod 2009 stores my save files into the Public My Documents folder. Maybe check there.

Sephiroth_dude · 13-07-2011 02:00PM

How do you go about installing mods if you brought the game on steam?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 13-07-2011 02:33PM

w/ the complete mods you just double click the mod installer and it does the work for you

Sephiroth_dude · 13-07-2011 02:43PM

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

w/ the complete mods you just double click the mod installer and it does the work for you

what about other mods that don't have the installer?I think I'm gonna have to buy soc again because I tryed to install it on two different computers now and it wouldn't install on either,so was think of buying it off steam this time.

VenomIreland · 13-07-2011 04:05PM

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

what about other mods that don't have the installer?I think I'm gonna have to buy soc again because I tryed to install it on two different computers now and it wouldn't install on either,so was think of buying it off steam this time.

Simply install them in the gamedata folder in the main directory (make sure you don't have a gamedata folder inside the main gamedata folder).

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 13-07-2011 08:25PM

well, just finished clear sky

I quite liked it, the end was a bit.. underwhelming though. Strelok bugged out on me, he wasn't moving at all so I just shot his stationary self with the magic ray gun until his psy shield thing was disabled and then a 30 second cut scene of not much at all. Yes we saw strelok and his stalker tatoo, so hooray for that but... it was just over so suddenly.

Also wtf are clear sky. They make themselves out to be some sort of peaceful scientific faction and then all of a sudden they're ****ing commandos, and their solution to stopping 1 man from going into the zone is to send a ****ing army in after him.

the NPP was as irritating as ever, with those ****ing portals to everywhere. Game wasn't as good as chernobyl or pripyat but was still a good 30 odd hours. Glad I finally got to play it.

Harps · 03-08-2011 01:52AM

Finally got my copy of Soc after 2 weeks of waiting for it in the post. Only started so to early to really judge it but I love the feel of it so far, the guns, even the sh!tty ones at the start feel good to use and I see why everyone's been raving about the atmosphere. Really makes me wish I could run it with full dynamic lighting and the complete mod but not to be with my 3 year old laptop

Like the fact I've just been thrown straight into the game instead of having a boring hour of tutorials and pointless gameplay, I got destroyed in my first encounter with the enemy but slowly getting the hang of it

ShadowHearth · 03-08-2011 07:21AM

Harps wrote: »

Finally got my copy of Soc after 2 weeks of waiting for it in the post. Only started so to early to really judge it but I love the feel of it so far, the guns, even the sh!tty ones at the start feel good to use and I see why everyone's been raving about the atmosphere. Really makes me wish I could run it with full dynamic lighting and the complete mod but not to be with my 3 year old laptop

Like the fact I've just been thrown straight into the game instead of having a boring hour of tutorials and pointless gameplay, I got destroyed in my first encounter with the enemy but slowly getting the hang of it

To be honest, this is the feature I like and most hate in stalker game. You are a normal human like any ather in the world. They die from few bullets, you die from few bullets. It makes you play cautions and planing your encounters, not just run in blazing guns, soak up 5 million billets between your butt cheeks and then loot.

I agree, sometimes it can be frustrating when you get shot from nowhere, but it is very satisfying when you gear up on your own and earn your gear.

I am playing metro, which was similar antygod feel, but I got to a level I can't pass because of retarded ai and very hard section

Genghiz Cohen · 03-08-2011 11:09AM

I can't believe how long it took me to get this game.
Brilliant!
It's like a mix between FEAR, Fallout, System Shock II and Arma/Flashpoint.
It's everything I want!

ríomhaire · 03-08-2011 11:45AM

ShadowHearth wrote: »

To be honest, this is the feature I like and most hate in stalker game. You are a normal human like any ather in the world. They die from few bullets, you die from few bullets. It makes you play cautions and planing your encounters, not just run in blazing guns, soak up 5 million billets between your butt cheeks and then loot.

I agree, sometimes it can be frustrating when you get shot from nowhere, but it is very satisfying when you gear up on your own and earn your gear.

Yeah once I got weapons with scopes (snipers and assault rifles) I pretty much never used any other guns against the human enemies. The best option is just to stay the hell away from them and shoot them from very far away while hiding I found.

leemurta · 03-08-2011 11:58AM

Was just wondering is anyone playing this on windows 7?
It just says it is not officially supported and I want to make sure it will run ok.

Cravez · 03-08-2011 12:27PM

ShadowHearth wrote: »

To be honest, this is the feature I like and most hate in stalker game. You are a normal human like any ather in the world. They die from few bullets, you die from few bullets. It makes you play cautions and planing your encounters, not just run in blazing guns, soak up 5 million billets between your butt cheeks and then loot.

The thing with STALKER was, which I think a few mods sorted out was that the difficulty in the game jumps scale at a certain point. The start can be quite difficult because of your equipment, once you get sorted with half decent armour and a weapon that has a scope with good power you pretty much mill through quite easy. I guess the 'Challenge' of the game wears off at a certain point.

That said I do enjoy the game and really do recommend it to anyone, but would probably invest in a few mods to 'enhance' the gameplay experience a bit better.

marco_polo · 03-08-2011 12:36PM

leemurta wrote: »

Was just wondering is anyone playing this on windows 7?
It just says it is not officially supported and I want to make sure it will run ok.

Yep is no problems at all. And make sure you download the awesome Complete Mod before you start

http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009

ShadowHearth · 03-08-2011 12:45PM

Michael Cravez wrote: »

The thing with STALKER was, which I think a few mods sorted out was that the difficulty in the game jumps scale at a certain point. The start can be quite difficult because of your equipment, once you get sorted with half decent armour and a weapon that has a scope with good power you pretty much mill through quite easy. I guess the 'Challenge' of the game wears off at a certain point.

That said I do enjoy the game and really do recommend it to anyone, but would probably invest in a few mods to 'enhance' the gameplay experience a bit better.

No argueing there - mods are a must!

I remember going in to abandoned complex, the mission where proffesor sends you out. Holy crap I pooped my pants there atleast 10 times. Proper horror survival atmosphere. I couldn't wait to get the shot and run away from there! Constantly looking back. The worst thing was that you needed to go deeper and deeper and deeper.

Damn that's it, I am installing it today.

Presume oblivion mod is still the one to get?

marco_polo · 03-08-2011 02:09PM

ShadowHearth wrote: »

No argueing there - mods are a must!

I remember going in to abandoned complex, the mission where proffesor sends you out. Holy crap I pooped my pants there atleast 10 times. Proper horror survival atmosphere. I couldn't wait to get the shot and run away from there! Constantly looking back. The worst thing was that you needed to go deeper and deeper and deeper.

Damn that's it, I am installing it today.

Presume oblivion mod is still the one to get?

Depends what you want really, Complete simply improves the visuals and audio of the original game while leaving the gameplay intact, while Oblivion changes the dynamics fairly substantially (making in quite a bit harder).

Since you have played it before Oblivion would probably be the more interesting option.

Sarky · 03-08-2011 03:36PM

I seem to recall Complete also adding a sleeping bag so you didn't have to wait out the night time worrying about something you couldn't see sneaking up behind you.

Shiminay · 03-08-2011 03:48PM

Yea, the sleeping bag was added into Complete and is a very useful addition. I remember having to retry a certain mission about 20 times because it was night time and I had to escort someone and I had absolutely no idea where they went after I spoke with them

briany · 03-08-2011 03:51PM

Quite envious of people getting to play it through for the first time I must say. It really is a well balanced mix of genres as the poster above points out.

I seem to recall Complete also adding a sleeping bag so you didn't have to wait out the night time worrying about something you couldn't see sneaking up behind you.

That sounds like a good idea. Mind you, night-time is easily the scariest part of the game overall and over-reliance on the bag might rob some of the more skittish players of a pretty unique white knuckle experience. You just gotta mooch about at night at least a couple of times in STALKER, it's the only time in a game I remember being relieved to see human hostiles........:pac:

Sarky · 03-08-2011 04:00PM

There are still plenty of dark bunker complexes where the sleeping bag won't help. God, those bits freaked me out something fierce back then.

kearneybobs · 03-08-2011 04:03PM

Do you need to sleep in Stalker or is the bag there to simply allow you to change the time of day?

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

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