Released. Reviewed.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/stalker/review.html?sid=6167650&tag=topslot;title;1&om_act=convert&om_clk=topslot

Yeah I've been playing it for the last couple of days. It's good, but it runs like crap on my computer. Even at 800*600 with all settings to low it still probably only gets around 20 fps, and that's being generous.

STALKER went gold already on 2nd March...

Looking forward to play it after... well, you know, I get it.

I'll probably get the Russian version. Originals are always more enjoyable than translated games. Neh neh.

it's amazing.

I must have it!

Why the eff are all the guns so stubby?

I don't get it. Why would it run slowly? It looks like absolute CRAP!

Source looks a lot better IMO, maybe even CoD.

Specs?

Athlon 64 3400+, 1.5 GB RAM, GeForce 6800GT

God I miss 2004 when this was state-of-the-art

are you judging the graphics from screenshots released back in 2004 of the game running in DX8 mode? or maybe that ancient leaked alpha

From the pics in the link in the first post.

yeah I was just looking at them... It looks like CoD 2 :\

It looks better than that in-game; I dunno. Like for example what the hell is wrong with the player's hand in the first picture? It's not like that in the actual game.

Anyways I think more of the slowness results from the dynamic lighting (which is very nice) and the big environments.

Gameplay > Graphics

A64 3500+, 1 GB RAM, GF 7950GT

Here's hoping it's more GPU dependent than CPU.

totally agree and it sounds as though the gameplay is pretty solid...


but I have similar specs to kyle so I'm not looking forward to playing this on my system...

Oh it's perfectly fine as long as you turn everything down, I mean sure it doesn't look as shiny as it would at 1280*1024 with everything maxxed out (I set it on this to see; it's a very pretty slideshow), but the gameplay is very solid.

One down, two to go...

Bring on DNF!

So is there a demo somewhere?

Does it have good sound?

I thought HL2's sound was meh.

not really.

It's an alright game.

The dynamic AI doing stuff things are cool. I walked in on a small war between two groups of guys at a car park I wiped clean a little earlier. And a bunch of hungry monster dudes attacked the start town once. That was awesome to see.

The graphics I'd say are better than source by far, and a bit better than CoD2. It runs like **** on my comp though. I have to tweak some stuff then I'm going to give it another shot. Seems like a good game so far though.

I really hope I can run this

I didn't touch any of the graphics settings, it looks and runs pretty nice.

And the very beginning already reminded me of FEAR (maybe all new game engines just happen to remind me of each other), HL2 (devastated buildings in Eastern Europe), Fallout (conversations), SS2 (the inventory system) and RTCW (guys with beards... um, yeah.).

I hope it's gonna get better though, but I don't think it's gonna be the über adventure it could probably have been or whatever.

I'm ****ing tired of dying so much. Those army guys kick my ****ing ***.

I can play Vanguard just fine on:
Intel P4 3.2 GHz
512 MB RAM
ATi Radeon x550 256 mb

Since vanguard is such a demanding game, im sure kyle90 could run it on his comp..

What does vanguard have to do with anything? O_o

Its F'n amazing. I played it at a friends hosue yesterday for 2 hours and we saw lots of awesome stuff happen. I remember watching my friends dead body being dragged away to be eaten by a pack of dogs.

I'm playing this game with everything at maximum and I get like 100fps. Much higher than any other 3d game with big environments. The graphics might not be oblivion quality but they do get the job done, it's much more dirty than any other recent game. And for a change nothing looks like plastic.

The gameplay is a bit of mixed bag. It's no FPS but neither a RPG. It's neither fish nor meat (is that even an expression in English?). Quests are EXTREMELY generic. The controls are rather clumsy. (example: to lie down and snipe you have to hold 3 buttons and than press another to actually fire :S)

The dynamics are great. NPCs just roam the lands and factions fight each other to control strongholds. Which can lead to a lot of surprises when you wonder in to what you think is a friendly camp and come to the conclusion everyone's dead and a lot of guns are suddenly aimed at your head.

The ambience is great as well.

There are some quirks, like the game not pausing when you are looking in your inventory, which basically means that if you look inside your inventory (or using your pda) anywhere else than in the begin area you are dead. Some weird graphical errors which I'm still not sure whether they are bugs or anomalies. And currently I'm stuck in a piece of scenery because I quicksaved at the wrong moment. So as long as there are no cheats released I'm screwed. (Because some designers still don't understand that you need at least two quicksave slots but preferably three.)

All in all I'd rate it 3.5 out of 5. It's good, but not great.

What the HELL kind of computer do you have? Dual 8800GTX's?

i get stutters on my athlon 64 3200+, 1GB ram, and 6800GT on medium settings. i got through the first couple jobs and it looks like a lot of fun. i think that the weapons wearing down is a nice aspect of it. as it wears down it'll jam up and such, gotta choose your fights so the gun doesn't wear down then you really need it.

Does it have co-op?

That would be thuper

I'm fairly certain they did it like that on purpose.

I ... I can't really look at screenshots like this...



...and say "IT LOOKS SO UGLY". You have to be one snobby elitist to say that. Oh well.

Then again, with GF6600 it eats too much framerate to keep dynamic lighting on. But it's good enough for me with static lighting.

(And it's getting promising)

^ Can you walk over all the way to that far hill?

If you can: GLORY!

FGR... that looks like FarCry with a cloudy sky and crappier trees.

I admit it looks good, and is worth the 40 bucks CAN you need to buy it, but I'll still wait for a price drop to get it. It still looks dated to me, though.

That's because it is.

Comparing STALKER to Far Cry is apples and oranges. One is pine and forest, the other is all tropical.

I can see why people say the graphics are dated, but I also remember how in 2004 such graphics were considered best ever, and naturally graphics of this year will be considered dated in 2010, but I will always find them good looking (well, if they are, and in STALKER's case it pretty much is). Or something. $_$