s.t.a.l.k.e.r. - clear sky

[brinstar]

premise: it is the future, chernobyl blew up AGAIN, only this time it left behind a swirling wasteland of mutants, radiation, and dimensional hazards. you are a guy who can somehow survive big radiation bursts, you ally yourself with groups of survivors who battle over territory and resources

fun game so far, though there is almost zero tutorial, making it difficult to get rolling. once you do, it's great. cool environment, good sound effects.

two thumbs up!


i also bought Penumbra - Black Plague but it is too fucking scary and i turned it off after 15 minutes ;\

[Drem]

no tutorial because the tutorial was in the first stalker game i'd imagine

i played the first one for a bit and it was pretty cool

[brinstar]

yeah i kinda figured

o well

[Durothil Skyreaver]

Good to hear. I am going to go buy this tomorrow as I enjoyed the first Stalker a lot.

[Durothil Skyreaver]

I'm getting raped left and right in this game. I really like the improvements they have made to the AI.

[brinstar]

yeah those motherfuckers are pretty sharp with grenades haha

just wait til you hit the Cordon, those military dudes absolutely rape

[Durothil Skyreaver]

I got mowed down by those bastards machine gun like 7 times before I managed to snipe the gunner with my scope AK. So far I have to rank the difficulty much higher than the original game. A very satisfying challenge.

[Drem]

man fuck that machine gun at the cordon. i came out there at midnight and couldn't see anything. took five steps and blam. did that a few times before i decided "maybe they want me to ignore this" and dodged the bullets matrix-style until i got away

the thing i like about this game is that it feels like a bizarre mixture of the real chernobyl zone, someone's imagination, and tarkovsky's film. the anomalies and throwing the bolts ahead you before you walk is lifted straight out of tarkovsky's film that has nothing to do with a radioactive meltdown or mutants, but names the guides "Stalkers" and they navigate the Zone, heading toward a room in the center that grants the user's innermost desire. which sounds a lot like whatever they're talkin about in this game with the "Wish Granter" at the center. also most of the anomalies are referred to in the film, though you never actually see any happen. like gravity anomalies and how the anomalies always change—opening up new paths and artifacts etc..

so yeah, this game is two thumbs up of rape after a terribly aimless beginning for people that've never played the original (me)

[baddwin]

I was playing the first stalker this week, i didn't know there was a new version out from last september. I will get a copy, i really like this game, it's a little more then the usual FPS. Btw, if you played the first game without the lastest patch (1.0005) its more difficult as armor and weapon really degrade. You encounter higher radion zone then the game without any patch.

=D

[baddwin]

I finally got Clear sky, there much improvement in the UI and th PDA. The mg at the exit of the swamp is very hard and suprising hehe. Well, i killed the bastard later on. I when back at nite going in the back of the base and raped all of them, i get a nice up grade assault rifle in the same time. If ever you do it, sell the gun at clear sky base, they give you 1.7k instead of 700 at the cordon trader (stalker base).

Its a fun game so far, i try to go the the Garbage, i get raped again, this time it was because of the grenade. This should be a very challenging game =D.

[Drem]

the MG in the beginning of the cordon? does everyone kill that? i never kill anything unless i absolutely have to and i try to knife most people i catch alone so i've got ammo out my fuckin ass atm

[brinstar]

it's weird, you can't actually kill or use that machine gun but if you do like he said and sneak in via the back side you can take out the whole camp. their weapons are really nice and you can make a good amount of money selling them

there's an actual quest that sends you there to get an experimental medkit, but aside from that i think most people clear out that base as revenge for getting sawn in half by that damn gun right when they zone in

[Drem]

i got that medkit quest hehe

this game's great. i honestly don't think i've played a game this fun since morrowind

the packs of blind dogs are scary k. and traveling at night or doing anything at night sucks/is great because it's actually pitch black on an overcast night

[10sun]

crashes like crazy.
Played for like 6 hours after installing and what do you know... reached a point where my saves were invalid b/c of a known bug that was fixed in a patch.
Patched... now my old saves are useless. So time to play again and hope I get my worthwhile artifacts again (the -bleed one is fucking awesome btw) and now I have to farm the fucking machine gun people in the Cordon for their guns, run up and sell them rinse and repeat until I can afford to purchase my suit upgrades again =(

[brinstar]

that exact same thing happened to me!

moral of the story: install -> patch -> play

[10sun]

motherfucker. the drive I had installed the game to died this morning. won't even spin up ><

[Drem]

i downloaded a direct play version by TOED and didn't have to install anything. it created its own registry entry with some smaller program and has another .exe to create the game's .exe on your desktop.

i was wondering earlier what everyone was talking about when they mentioned bugs in this game because after a week or so of play and getting to agroprom institute i haven't had a single problem save for one quest in the swamps where iw as supposed to repel an enemy counterattack. everyone in my crew died but i didn't fail the mission. it just has a yellow circle over the spot i need to guard indefinitely and nobody runs over to it to claim it so i don't know hwo to beat that quest. if that's a bug then it's the only one i've seen so far

PS there's a slew of mutants in agroprom that absolutely rape me. what's the best way to handle a massive crowd of those leaping jerks with exposed spines? i carry a .45 and a scoped machine gun only for weight/looting purposes but i feel like i should have a shotty for these retards

[10sun]

Shotgun w/ the cheapest shot.
Grenade launcher attachment for weapon + grenades.

Pick one.

[Drem]

i ended up beating them with about 80 .45 rounds. and that trip thru the underground was awesome. the psy-emission room was brilliant. i love being able to walk around in a new video game and actually not know what to expect. i turned the difficulty up to master and it's even more immersive. love it

but i finally have one gripe.... the night vision armor mod sucks ass. i was looking forward to it so bad because the nights are realistically pitch black.... but now that i finally got it i wish i had my 2500 roubles back. i see more with my fuckin mining lamp on

[10sun]

The second gen night vision worked wonderfully (purple).
First gen night vision sucks ass (green).