s.t.a.l.k.e.r. game release!

koneko

As expected, didn't get to play much last night, but some quick impressions.

Looks nice in some parts, runs fine for me even at my res (1920x1200) but I'll play around with some settings later and see what my FPS really is (for comparison/clarity sake, quick system spec is E6600, 2GB RAM, 8800GTX). Some textures do look a bit off, and some things could look nicer, but there are bits so far that genuinely look nice and there is a very strange and very different (but nice) feel to some of it. Took a few screenshots and promptly forgot to upload them because I was so tired.

I read some early impressions a few months back (EG probably) that said some people got a bit motion sick while playing it, and I can see why. The swaying is a nice effect but for some I'm sure it'll mean short sessions instead of long hauls AI seems good, feels a bit different as FPSs go, aiming feels different, already feels a bit unfinished in some parts. Not your usual FPS as far as difficulty and AI go, as humanji said the bad guys won't be sitting in the exact same spot the next time, it's no COD in that sense where if you've replayed a level enough you could do it blindfolded, and difficulty is definitely upped from your usual (breeze through it) FPS.

The lack of polish though, something I want to touch on, may not be as bad as some think. In some ways there is a gritty feel to some of it, a dirty feel, an unpolished and unfinished feel, something that I think in some ways compliments the scenery and the setting, it isn't a polished happy world. Ran into a few bugs or glitches but nothing major so far and nothing that impacted play too much, but it's early days and I suspect I will run into more severe ones later on. I want to get stuck in properly but I probably won't have time till the weekend

Dcully

I tried Gamestop this morning and they say its not released till Friday.

Branoic

yeah its not - the official release date in March 23rd. Looking forward to it! I'm not one to really care if the graphics are super-sweet or not.

Dcully

Likewise,i prefer graphics with great attention to detail which apparently stalker has.
Ive been playing wow the last 2 years and its graphics are not exactly amazing but the attention to detail is.
Add to this its great gameplay and thats what i look for in games.
Fingers crossed Stalkers gameplay hits the sweet spot

stephenmarr

how well will my system play this
its a
Dell Dimension 5150
Pentium 4 3.2 GHz with 2gb ram and a 7600gt 256mb card
would like to play it 1024x1028 at but can lower it down a bit

Ciaran500

Its should run it but expect to be stuck on low detail for most things.

kaimera

STOP TAUNTING ME.

God dammit.

It doesn't save my graphics settings nor my controls but I'm not sure if thats because everytime it locks up I have to do a hard shutdown.

Finally got the memory disk of yer man after the start and it locked up as I was coming back to the town

Nick_oliveri

Mine locked up but i was able to alt-tab succesfully. A lot of people on newer cards are complaining about the sky texture. Some say it isnt there!

Mojito

The game has just crashed for me yet again! So so many bugs in this you would never think it was in development for 5 years.

The game does have its moments where its fun but I'm getting a bit bored with running backwards and forwards all the time. I can't think of anything that has the wow factor with this game.

I hope they release a patch for this soon to fix up all the problems.

0ubliette

yeah, this should be arriving on monday i think, ordered off play.com for 27 euro. Im looking forward to it, as long as its not as absolutely unplayable as armed assault was.

Sierra Oscar

What is the multiplayer like?

When I played the Multiplayer Beta a few weeks back it was pretty terrible...the bugs just made it un-playable.

I hope that has changed.

0ubliette

Sierra Oscar wrote:

What is the multiplayer like?

When I played the Multiplayer Beta a few weeks back it was pretty terrible...the bugs just made it un-playable.

I hope that has changed.

i heard its pretty terrible. Standard deathmatch fare, and some CTF. Whoopdy ****.

Sierra Oscar

0ubliette wrote:

i heard its pretty terrible. Standard deathmatch fare, and some CTF. Whoopdy ****.

Well there really was nothing special in the beta version, the game modes were pretty bad and they had not even included many of the animations such as the firing animations etc!

And that was only 5-6 weeks ago!:eek:

Ciaran500

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17707486

Dynamic lighting vs Static lighting (DX9 vs DX8 basically)


Would like to see what difference object lighting makes though.

calsatron

Running it on an Athlon 64 3200, 2gigs ram and a 6800gt and it runs no problem with everything to max except the grass, boo to grass, if I have the dynamic lighting turned off. Turning dynamic lighting on however renders the whole thing unplayable at pretty much any settings bar the lowest.

Seems very ram dependent as well as a lot of people are getting regular stuttering with under 2gigs as stuff gets shunted about.

Played it through to the end now, have seen three different endings.

Personally I thought it was treeemendous, I can remember the Chernobly accident quite well and being told at school that the milk was off due to the cows potentially being radioactive, watching the news at night about the "huge cloud of radiation drifting across Europe" etc etc.

The plant itself and the sarcophogus are very accurate and evocative but theres a fair bit of license for the rest of the stuff.

Personally I wouldn't pick it up if your a pure FPS fan as its more about atmosphere and exploration, oh and the plots terrible as well.

quarryman

calsatron wrote:

The plant itself and the sarcophogus are very accurate and evocative but theres a fair bit of license for the rest of the stuff.

you mean there was no flesh eating mutants after the accident?

Hercule

After "acquiring" the game a day ago now and i can safely say i dont like it.

I would go as far as to say "i am glad i did not pay for it"

PROS:

• Graphics are strong indoors - some of the best indoor locations i have seen yet
• Atmosphere/sound is spot on, brooding and eerie - had a few scares already with those invisible bastards etc.
• Some of the litttle touches like soldiers waffling away in russian/playing guitar are effective and add to the "feel" of the game
• Weather Effects are the best ive seen in any game EVER

CONS:

• THE GAMEPLAY explained below

1. Weak gunplay -> The guns are some of the most unsatisfying guns ive ever used in an FPS - really .Even the rifles or shotguns are annoyingly tinny sounding and lack punch in most situations.
2. Some severe hitbox issues see guns miss/pass clean though things you are shooting at especially when using the ironsights of a gun at mid->long range
3. The combat AI of the human characters is terrible - they use cover well but short of that they simply lock themselves behind a box and shoot around a corner until u flank them or shoot them back - the animal AI has nice features which work well in nearly all situations
4. Things that on paper sound like epic gunfights turn into a mess of NPCs standing in lines or bumping into each other eg. Near beginning u move in with a group of fellow stalkers against a load of military soldiers in a big factory complex - turned into an american civil war style gunfight with lines of units shooting at each other until one side was all dead
5. The NPC interaction is your usual text-filled RPG fair with no real character interaction and the odd "wall of text" mission guidleine which im sure most people ignore. NPCs also have a habit of standing around while rabid dogs chew away at their feet
6. The interface is weak - simliar to diablo but i havent found any method of "hotkeying" so i have to go into the menu EVERY time i want to heal/change weapons - pain in the hole
7. Character models/outdoor locations look grainy/weak without blasting lighnting showering them in light
8. Also - (im surprised to see myself say this) the lack of scripting or set-pieces makes the game seem bland and hollow - im not asking for Quake 4 over-the-top linearity but a little action would have gone a long way

In my eyes the entire gameplay mechanic is sub-standard. I had high hopes for this game i had really been following its developement for a while but ultimately i fidn the game completely unsatisfying

the reviews i have read seem to be the result of back-handers - no way this game deserves anything above 60% ****e FPS like this comes out every week on PC this game is nothing special - Controversial!

humanji

Hercule wrote:

After "acquiring" the game a day ago now and i can safely say i dont like it.

I would go as far as to say "i am glad i did not pay for it"

Just to be petty, I'm kind of glad you didn't like it, since you stole it, but that's just me.

Don't know what you're talking about with the combat AI, I had guys flanking me and others trying to flush me out with grenades at times. In some of the tunnel maps, they even made their way behind me to attack from two directions.

And I've yet to see an NPC do nothing when an animal is near by.

koneko

A boar ran into the camp when I was completing a mission. The guy on the path started shooting it, suddenly all the other (good) NPCs pulled out their guns and got all panicked. It was adorable.

MOH

Just ordered it. For anyone's who's interested, cheapest I found it online was Eur 23.49 as follows:

Standard version is on pre-order for GBP 17.99 at both Play.com and Blahdvd.com - but while Play convert to Sterling at 27.99, Blahdvd convert to 26.49.

Then if you sign up to Blahdvd through one of the links here
you can get a voucher for GBP 2 (EUR 3) once you spend a minimum of Eur 15, so final cost for Stalker is Eur 23.49.

If you're buying something else too, you could go for the GBP 5 (= EUR 8) voucher option from the link. But you can only use that if you spend at least EUR 50

NB: You can only get the voucher when you sign up with Blahdvd through the link, it sends it by e-mail to the address you sign up with, and also says it's non-transferrable (don't know if that's true or not). So if you've signed up with Blah before, you may need to do so again through a new e-mail address and order through that address.

Mojito

Just shows the lack of good new games to come out on the PC for a while when this gets reviews of 80%

This game will quickly be forgotten by the summer. It will never be a classic

Dcully

Some severe hitbox issues see guns miss/pass clean though things you are shooting at especially when using the ironsights of a gun at mid->long range

Are you sure about this?
The reason i ask is when red orchestra was released first all the new players to the game said the very same complaining about hitboxes weapon accuracy etc.
It turns out they were used to your run of the mill arcadey weapon ballistics like BF2,CS etc etc where as RO has realistic ballistics,bullet drop over distance,no crosshair just you and your ironsight etc.
It takes time to adjust.
Any reviews ive read say stalker is similar to RO in this respect.
Just wondering have you played realism fps titles like red orchestra?
Im not being a smart ass here ,just a genuine question.

I havent played Stalker yet but plan to pick it up later today so cannot comment.

SeantheMan

Torrent is out for it if anyone uses them
Works perfectly


The game itself..well, bit of a let down, though im only 2 hours into it
Not impressed in the slightest by the accuracy of the weapons
Also theres too much text to be reading when talking and in the PDA

I also find the PDA and Inventory quite messy

It seems a lot like Deus Ex with better gfx set out in the Chernobyl zone

Ill still give it another few hours before makin my mind up

Wouldnt pay 50 quid for it at this stage

Sierra Oscar

Quite a few negative reviews coming from actual customers at the moment....I am going to keep my eye on metacritic.

mewso

€39.99 in HMV and €42.99 for special edition. Stay away from GAME - €55 for ordinary version.

tman

SeantheMan wrote:

The game itself..well, bit of a let down, though im only 2 hours into it
Not impressed in the slightest by the accuracy of the weapons
Also theres too much text to be reading when talking and in the PDA

only about an hour into it myself and i'm thinking the same, I had to restart it on novice because the accuracy of the weapons is so crap... (or perhaps it's me that's crap:o )
i'll stick with it as well though, it definitely has potential.

neGev

The weapons and hitboxes are fine, it's players used to generic FPS's that think there's something wrong. Yes, it is actually difficult to hit someone with a crap pistol from 50 metres away.
The weapons later on are much better, it's pretty much the way you level up in this game.

The AI is also excellent. You actually have to be on your toes during combat or you'll be flanked before you've realised what's happening.

tuxy

neGev wrote:

The weapons and hitboxes are fine, it's players used to generic FPS's that think there's something wrong.

Are you sure? At point blank rang when you open up full auto, the first shots seems to register then they flinch when hit and loads miss even though you are right on top of them.

Hercule

yeah i dont feel to guilty about not paying for it - at the same time i never said i stole it - i got it given to me by a friend - (small difference i guess )

I have been playing all kinds of PC fps games for years so i know the difference between a good and a bad hitbox - in this game what we are seeing is not "realism" - the whole Big Bullet/Little target thing in most FPS games adds to gameplay regardless of realism - some games like the original Call of Duty can do both the realism and the gameplay - my problem is that even with an assault rifle a 3 round burst often passes clean through and out the other side of targets heads/shoulders - it seems the guns are more accurate when not using the ironsights also.

having said that i have been forcing myself to play the game because i think there might be something decent about it i left undiscovered - from this i can say the game is a little bit better, the neat little unscripted events that occur
when waltzing around the place are enjoyable and unpredictable

Im still certain that the gameplay in my opinion is flawed and agree fully with Mojito when he says

Just shows the lack of good new games to come out on the PC for a while when this gets reviews of 80%

This game will quickly be forgotten by the summer. It will never be a classic

neGev

tuxy wrote:

Are you sure? At point blank rang when you open up full auto, the first shots seems to register then they flinch when hit and loads miss even though you are right on top of them.

No idea, any time I've opened up on anyone at point blank range, they've gone down in 10 bullets or less, assuming I'm using a decent weapon.