I liked CS, especially the part until Agroprom, and Limansky+Hospital. And I did understand the final cutscene. But SoC was definitely better. Mods make both games better, and I didn't even try OL.
BTW, will someone kindly play the alpha? That would be great thanks.
I am downloading the alpha off of a torrent right now. Just go to a popular torrent site and to a search for Stalker. It's taking less than an hour to download. The torrent should be called Stalker_b1935,
Man I played the hell out of STALKER SoC, even when people said it was buggy as hell on initial release (it was, but never was unplayable for me). I picked up Clear Skies when it was released...but yea no go.
On initial install the game ran a tad slow on start up, then was fine afterwards. Settings set to full, all drivers updated, the game ran fine graphic wise - until glitches started to appear that kind of made it stall. Couldn't get past certain parts and whatnot.
Decided to patch the game, and once I restarted it, it ran at the speed of a power point presentation. What gives? o_O
FAQ here including some recommended user.ltx settings since there is no title screen, English translation here though I'm not sure how good it is.
It's funny because it feels exactly like a 2004-era STALKER, as if they you are back playing FEAR, plus an old lighting engine from the late 90s. Even after a minute or two you can see some of the interesting things they cut. The interface seems oddly gamey and less gritty like in the final game.
There are some stability fixes and patches out, but it's probably worth waiting for a while to see what the community can do with this. I would be giddy about the possibilities here but the upper bound is always going to be stability, and although I'm no software reverse-engineering expert, it seems like they will be limited without source code. Still, if they can get it set up where you can warp to a certain level, do some fighting and a couple quests, and have fun for 30 minutes, it will be pretty awesome. Will have to read the threads and play more tomorrow.
Don't forget YouTube if you don't feel like venturing in yourself.
I got a glitch in SoC after leaving the sewers, when you hear the Duty guys talking about a big fight. I immediately crash after their message finishes. Prevented me from finishing the game. Which was a shame, because I loved spending hours gathering money and gear for trips into the zone.
Ok, I'm thinking about trying out Oblivion Lost. The only time I've played Stalker before was with Stoll's pack. One of the features I loved the most was the pre-filling of stashes. Does Oblivion Lost have that?
I believe OL is like standard SoC in that regard - most stashes will have stuff in them once you "pick up" their location from a dead stalker, but a few are hard-coded to have specific stuff in them from the get go. Since you can get into the Army Warehouses much earlier on in OL, it makes getting the Merc M16-type rifle for most of the game a breeze, and if you're lucky you could also nab the G36 that appears in a stash there as well.
It's been a while since I've played OL though, so I could be wrong.
Ultimanecat on
SteamID : same as my PA forum name
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
I believe OL is like standard SoC in that regard - most stashes will have stuff in them once you "pick up" their location from a dead stalker, but a few are hard-coded to have specific stuff in them from the get go. Since you can get into the Army Warehouses much earlier on in OL, it makes getting the Merc M16-type rifle for most of the game a breeze, and if you're lucky you could also nab the G36 that appears in a stash there as well.
It's been a while since I've played OL though, so I could be wrong.
I always hate climbing all over some random spot, finding a really well-hidden stash, and then finding nothing in it because there's nothing in it until somebody tells me there's actually something in it. The STALKER games really should've always had every stash filled from the beginning. Hey, if I'm willing to edge past a burner, hop a radioactive pool, kill a bloodsucker, and crawl through some dark hole and do it all with the suit you start the game with, then I'd say I pretty will earned the slick artifact or nice gun hidden back there.
I thought CS handled stashes particularly badly, though. Getting stash locations from dead bodies was all well and good, but paying to find the other ones? That struck me as pretty lame for some reason. What self-respecting STALKER sells you the location of a stash for a couple hundred Ukrainian funbucks when the stash itself holds hundreds of funbucks worth of items? And the stash is right in area the STALKER always visits? Takes away all the mystery of wondering what happened to the guy who leaves a backpack worth of stuff jammed under some stairs in a mutant-infested area.
Clear Sky for $10 from Best Buy on BACKORDER. Might be worth grabbing if you're not in any rush.
As long as you're not one of the rare unlucky few that had consistent crash issues, Clear Sky is a solid FPS with some surprisingly addicting action-RPG influence when looking for artifacts or upgrading your gear. Not as good as the original, but don't miss it because of negative comments.
After doing a bit of googling I see lots of complaining that Clear Sky only be activated 5 times due to DRM. Is that still the case or did they patch it out? I can't seem to find a definitive answer to that so I thought I'd ask here. Thanks.
If that is true, then it's news to me, and I've had to reinstall Clear Sky at least that many times - don't know if it counts as more than one activation if it's on the same machine, however. I don't recall any mention of it here or on the GSC forums, and the Stalker communities have been pretty good at sniffing out (and fixing many of) the issues in vanilla.
Clear Sky for $10 is a goddamn bargain. It doesn't really work as a stand-alone title, but it's still a good shooter with some great adventuring at its core.
After doing a bit of googling I see lots of complaining that Clear Sky only be activated 5 times due to DRM. Is that still the case or did they patch it out? I can't seem to find a definitive answer to that so I thought I'd ask here. Thanks.
You get 5 installs total, but if you uninstall and reinstall it on the same machine, I am pretty certain it doesn't count. If you install a new operating system, that counts as the same machine. Sad considering SoC had none.
<Insert general complaint about DRM>
<Insert reply with vague insinuations as to the possibility of piracy>
<Insert reply involving complaint using words "legitimate consumer," "Shouldn't have to," and "pie.">
Originally you could throw artifacts down on the floor to create anomalies for Burer to step on but that was removed and I don't think it was ever put back. Now it's much harder and you need several hundred of your favorite assault rifle rounds. Frag grenades and RPGs are also nice if you can spare them.
Ok guys, I've been playing Oblivion Lost. Just got to Burer. WTF? How do I kill this asshole?
Most dwarves don't have perfect protection, especially from the back; they can otherwise be taken out with grenades, and shotguns seem more effective than rifles. If you're talking about the boss one, though, I believe he specifically has to be killed with an activated artifact anomaly. Drag an artifact to your pistol slot and it'll be equipped like a weapon. Draw it and hold down fire until it disappears, and immediately back away - this creates a temporary anomaly from that artifact.
The only ones I was able to fool him into were burners and electros, and you have to do some finagling with the environment, but it is doable.
Edit: Beaten, and apparently not true for the latest version. See if you can blindside him, or use explosives if they're available.
If that is true, then it's news to me, and I've had to reinstall Clear Sky at least that many times - don't know if it counts as more than one activation if it's on the same machine, however. I don't recall any mention of it here or on the GSC forums, and the Stalker communities have been pretty good at sniffing out (and fixing many of) the issues in vanilla.
Clear Sky for $10 is a goddamn bargain. It doesn't really work as a stand-alone title, but it's still a good shooter with some great adventuring at its core.
Don't forget you can get the faction wars mod if you have Clear Sky to turn it into a massive pseudo post-apocalyptic FPS wargame between factions.
Question for all you STALKER fans out there. I finally got a gaming rig that's up to par (WOO!) so I can play games like The Witcher and Fallout 3 and whatnot, but I'm wondering if this game is worth the time. It looks like it has the potential to be really damn cool, but I've also heard a lot of wacky things about it. Is Clear Sky better? And is the vanilla game worth the time, or do most people just go straight for Oblivion Lost?
MundaneSoul on
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BarcardiAll the WizardsUnder A Rock: AfganistanRegistered Userregular
edited April 2009
i was in your situation and i went straight for oblivion lost... not clear sky
And is the vanilla game worth the time, or do most people just go straight for Oblivion Lost?
Ditto that - I'm going to start SoC for basically the first time ever (I've only played like...20 mins once before) since I've got spring break soon - is it advisable for me to go ahead and tack OL on top of it, or should I ease in first?
(On an off-topic note, Mundane, I just finished The Witcher, and it was quite an excellent experience.)
OL is kind of a different game so if you play the original first and love it, you can go back and enjoy OL. Most people don't like Clear Sky as much but it has a pretty graphics engine.
Just checked, the mod pack link is still there. Thanks for the plug, Snofeld :^:
Anyway, for your first go-round I'd suggest playing Shadow lightly modded; the ZRP is fine for a first playthrough, my mod packs go a bit further (Partial is probably the most newcomer-friendly). Vanilla Stalker can be pretty rough, since some features that feel like they should be there simply aren't, like being able to sleep or repair equipment.
Oblivion Lost essentially reworks Shadow in several major ways, and is bound to be challenging to people who aren't familiar with Stalker. I'd save it until you've cleared Shadow at least once.
Clear Sky, technically a prequel, contains a lot of improvements over Shadow - deeper trading, repair systems, fast travel between camps - but has kind of a wonky faction warfare system and is crazy hard. It also sometimes goes Call of Duty and has you fend off waves of enemies in scripted sections, which can be taxing. Still, it provides a compelling adventure and is worth looking into. You can safely go through Clear Sky vanilla the first time, though I'd suggest grabbing one of the smaller mod packages, or at least something to make enemies less accurate with grenades.
Yeah, the mod compilation you've put together looks pretty fantastic, Stolls, so I'll probably go with that at first as well. Does it work with the latest official patch?
I am the worst with scary games; I dread playing them. The first time I went underground was pure terror, as with every single goddamn time after that.
too bad I don't have my save but oh well. now redownload it fast steam. Want to play with the mod pack the OP made and then maybe OL after that.
Stolls, I don't know if filefront will survive, but have you thought about using their STALKER section to host files? Or maybe see where they moved to.
Yeah, the mod compilation you've put together looks pretty fantastic, Stolls, so I'll probably go with that at first as well. Does it work with the latest official patch?
Play that motherfucking game NOW dude. It's the best one.
Posts
Me too! Impressions please.
Imagine if 3D Realms released all the builds of Duke Nukem Forever, FUCK that would awesome. Like seriously, thinking about it makes me hot.
Apparently it is a lot more wide-open and vehicles are actually pretty necessary. I will play this at some point.
BTW, will someone kindly play the alpha? That would be great thanks.
Here: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4741641
or the somewhat more complicated GSC forum FTP link: http://gsc-game.com/index.php?t=community&s=forums&s_game_type=xr&thm_page=1&thm_id=17037&sec_id=16&offset=0
Is the alpha "stable"?
On initial install the game ran a tad slow on start up, then was fine afterwards. Settings set to full, all drivers updated, the game ran fine graphic wise - until glitches started to appear that kind of made it stall. Couldn't get past certain parts and whatnot.
Decided to patch the game, and once I restarted it, it ran at the speed of a power point presentation. What gives? o_O
FAQ here including some recommended user.ltx settings since there is no title screen, English translation here though I'm not sure how good it is.
It's funny because it feels exactly like a 2004-era STALKER, as if they you are back playing FEAR, plus an old lighting engine from the late 90s. Even after a minute or two you can see some of the interesting things they cut. The interface seems oddly gamey and less gritty like in the final game.
There are some stability fixes and patches out, but it's probably worth waiting for a while to see what the community can do with this. I would be giddy about the possibilities here but the upper bound is always going to be stability, and although I'm no software reverse-engineering expert, it seems like they will be limited without source code. Still, if they can get it set up where you can warp to a certain level, do some fighting and a couple quests, and have fun for 30 minutes, it will be pretty awesome. Will have to read the threads and play more tomorrow.
Don't forget YouTube if you don't feel like venturing in yourself.
It's been a while since I've played OL though, so I could be wrong.
I always hate climbing all over some random spot, finding a really well-hidden stash, and then finding nothing in it because there's nothing in it until somebody tells me there's actually something in it. The STALKER games really should've always had every stash filled from the beginning. Hey, if I'm willing to edge past a burner, hop a radioactive pool, kill a bloodsucker, and crawl through some dark hole and do it all with the suit you start the game with, then I'd say I pretty will earned the slick artifact or nice gun hidden back there.
I thought CS handled stashes particularly badly, though. Getting stash locations from dead bodies was all well and good, but paying to find the other ones? That struck me as pretty lame for some reason. What self-respecting STALKER sells you the location of a stash for a couple hundred Ukrainian funbucks when the stash itself holds hundreds of funbucks worth of items? And the stash is right in area the STALKER always visits? Takes away all the mystery of wondering what happened to the guy who leaves a backpack worth of stuff jammed under some stairs in a mutant-infested area.
At least wait until he's dead, then you can paw through his belongings.
As long as you're not one of the rare unlucky few that had consistent crash issues, Clear Sky is a solid FPS with some surprisingly addicting action-RPG influence when looking for artifacts or upgrading your gear. Not as good as the original, but don't miss it because of negative comments.
Clear Sky for $10 is a goddamn bargain. It doesn't really work as a stand-alone title, but it's still a good shooter with some great adventuring at its core.
You get 5 installs total, but if you uninstall and reinstall it on the same machine, I am pretty certain it doesn't count. If you install a new operating system, that counts as the same machine. Sad considering SoC had none.
<Insert general complaint about DRM>
<Insert reply with vague insinuations as to the possibility of piracy>
<Insert reply involving complaint using words "legitimate consumer," "Shouldn't have to," and "pie.">
Most dwarves don't have perfect protection, especially from the back; they can otherwise be taken out with grenades, and shotguns seem more effective than rifles. If you're talking about the boss one, though, I believe he specifically has to be killed with an activated artifact anomaly. Drag an artifact to your pistol slot and it'll be equipped like a weapon. Draw it and hold down fire until it disappears, and immediately back away - this creates a temporary anomaly from that artifact.
The only ones I was able to fool him into were burners and electros, and you have to do some finagling with the environment, but it is doable.
Edit: Beaten, and apparently not true for the latest version. See if you can blindside him, or use explosives if they're available.
Don't forget you can get the faction wars mod if you have Clear Sky to turn it into a massive pseudo post-apocalyptic FPS wargame between factions.
i also had the witcher on this new rig, so pretty
Ditto that - I'm going to start SoC for basically the first time ever (I've only played like...20 mins once before) since I've got spring break soon - is it advisable for me to go ahead and tack OL on top of it, or should I ease in first?
(On an off-topic note, Mundane, I just finished The Witcher, and it was quite an excellent experience.)
Get it from the OP (assuming the link there still works) and trust me, it won't make huge changes that'll ruin a first play-through.
Anyway, for your first go-round I'd suggest playing Shadow lightly modded; the ZRP is fine for a first playthrough, my mod packs go a bit further (Partial is probably the most newcomer-friendly). Vanilla Stalker can be pretty rough, since some features that feel like they should be there simply aren't, like being able to sleep or repair equipment.
Oblivion Lost essentially reworks Shadow in several major ways, and is bound to be challenging to people who aren't familiar with Stalker. I'd save it until you've cleared Shadow at least once.
Clear Sky, technically a prequel, contains a lot of improvements over Shadow - deeper trading, repair systems, fast travel between camps - but has kind of a wonky faction warfare system and is crazy hard. It also sometimes goes Call of Duty and has you fend off waves of enemies in scripted sections, which can be taxing. Still, it provides a compelling adventure and is worth looking into. You can safely go through Clear Sky vanilla the first time, though I'd suggest grabbing one of the smaller mod packages, or at least something to make enemies less accurate with grenades.
I'll try Stalker Mod Compilation V1.25 then.
Edit:
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Please try later or upgrade to sendspace Max™ to enable guaranteed slots and instant, fast downloads.
Edit 2: It's downloading now
Edit: Damn it, MediaFire doesn't want to upload either. All right, trying something else.
I am the worst with scary games; I dread playing them. The first time I went underground was pure terror, as with every single goddamn time after that.
too bad I don't have my save but oh well. now redownload it fast steam. Want to play with the mod pack the OP made and then maybe OL after that.
Play that motherfucking game NOW dude. It's the best one.