Why do you guys like STALKER so much??

[Maximilian]

I dont get it i really dont... game of the year 2007 some people have said... wow! Thats a pretty high pedestal to put the game on considering all the good games that were released in 2007.

Ive played it, i didnt complete it but i came close, it just wasent all that great. The loading between areas was a PITA, and it wasent there with oblivion, theres only like 7 different creatures in the game. With a mutated radioactive crazy "zone" i would have expected a LOT more than 7 damn creatures, some of them even look alike, sure theyre interesting but seriously there should have been more, 20-30 maybe with 10 being rare found only underground tough to defeat creatures. The visuals were OK, not great, not terrible they were sufficient. The whole anomaly thing i expected more from, theyre just little graphics that hurt you.... i was expecting maybe a hole in the ground with teeth in it, or one with tentacles or i dunno... something other than pretty lights that hurt you. Also completing some missions for the dukes faction turned the other faction against me, yeah ok it makes sense and its realistic if me and a couple of duke guys run in and kill them all i imagine i wouldnt be their favourite person in the world but there should be some workaround so i can regain their trust, it is a game after all. Plus you have to go all the way back to base to complete the frickin quest and get a reward, thats a real pain ad well.

Overall my main problem was with the zone overall, they said "Living-and-breathing world: virtual monsters and stalkers migrate around the Zone, similarly to the player they are preoccupied with day-to-day things ? feeding, fighting, looking for prey, trading, sleeping, taking rest" Its not living and breathing, i get attacked by the same pack of things that look similar to dogs every time i enter the dukes camp, i always seem to find the same creatures in the same places. Just looking through the manual at some of the names of the anomalies, theres like 20 different ones that all sound pretty interesting but from the game i can remember coming accross 3... That gravity thing that sucks you in, the electric along the floor one, and some green puddle of goo that hurts. Thats about it, what the hell happened to all the other ones?? I get the feeling that some of them look the same but do more damage and were given a completely different name to artifically enhance the amound of anomalies, maybe im wrong but i suspect that was the case.

Nah, i just dont get why some people think its so awesome and brilliant, it dosent click. It couldve been awesome IMO but turned out to be merely average. Why do you stalker fans like it so much??

 

[DangerAardvark]

It's original. It's atmospheric. And it blows open a promising new sub-genre in the FPS category.

 

[ZzZGuy]

When you first play, you don't know if that creepy noise in the background is going to come and kill you.

 

[ja1484]

Because it's incredibly atmospheric, original, and fun?

And I agree, GOTY 2007.

 

[Maximilian]

Do you three like FEAR?

 

[sandorski]

Atmosphere!

I somewhat like Fear. It too had very good Atmosphere, but had long dull spots and seemingly never-ending hallways. Fears' biggest weakness is that it's more frightening moments were too far apart. Other than that when it did do something frightening it did it very well.

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Do you three like FEAR?

I though FEAR was fun until about halfway through. I never finished it.

STALKER was great the whole way through, and if I could get it to load save games properly, I would play through again.

 

[Maximilian]

Hmm im seeing a pattern here, i thought FEAR sucked balls.

 

[Zenoth]

Soviet.. Soviet, oh dear Soviet.

Look, it's simple, it's a matter of personal taste. It should be enough of an explanation. Gaming is subjective, and I'm pretty sure that you haven't just learned about it from this very post.

 

[andrei3333]

Half Life two is all soviet if you guys never knew...all the writing on the walls is in Russian and i can read it all...makes the game feel nicer for me...i am assuming the programmers were all russian

i hate the game btw, its slow and boring puzzles are just annoying

 

[ja1484]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Do you three like FEAR?

I can't speak for the other two, but I thought FEAR was generic and boring. After playing the demo for the original, I haven't bothered with it since.

 

[RS8]

Fear got old quick. Crysis isn't half as good as STALKER.

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: RS8
Fear got old quick. Crysis isn't half as good as STALKER.

I liked the controls and gameplay of Crysis better, but STALKER wins hands down for atmosphere and difficulty. Crysis on Delta <<<<<<<< STALKER on novice :laugh:

 

[kirilus]

The Zone is not for everyone, many people avoid it.

I installed STALKER for the fist time about six months ago. Didn't like it very much, but I felt it was different from other games, it was not cartoony like most mainstream games. After recently upgrading my PC I installed it again and read the tweak guide - the game is truly beautiful. I also watched the "Stalker" by Andrei Tarkovsky and studied the Chernobyl accident. I think that if you simply play the game as you would play COD of HL2 (like a regular shooter) without allocating any time on familiarizing yourself with the settings, storyline, idea behind the game, etc. - then STALKER may not seem a good game. But if you know (or at least cared to find out) why the character has bolts in his pocket, or that the idea of the Zone and Stalkers existed long before the Chernobyl accident... then you will see the game in a different light. Unfortunately, since Deus Ex the game world is dominated by brainless shooters and RPGs and the general public becomes more and more hostile to releases such as STALKER.

 

[Kromis]

Originally posted by: Soviet
i was expecting maybe a hole in the ground with teeth in it, or one with tentacles or i dunno...

I would totally think a Sarlacc Pit would fit the bill just nicely as well.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Soviet
Hmm im seeing a pattern here, i thought FEAR sucked balls.

i think FEAR is fair ... tolerable ... i am playing the expansions right now - in- between my "serious" games .... and STALKER is my GotY

i like RPG/FPS hybrid ... i like the freedom to explore without some flashing sign telling me to "talk to Sovietsky" or a big red-needle 'compass' pointing me to my next 'adventure'

If you load the *same save* you will often get the same results ... but everything subtly shifts ... as from Day to Night

the Atmosphere and attention to detail is exceptional and the story - although predictable - is sufficient to carry the other elements. Although some of the SQs were silly, some were pretty good and served to advance the story and your character without leading you by the nose in other shooters - ala Doom3 .. look up, down or blow something up to proceed.

i also like the way my Stalker "leveled up" and gained "skills" and "abilities" to use improving weapons without a damn "point allocation tree". i could sense the 'ten-sided dice" clicking - in the background - 'miss...miss...miss' and then as my character advanced .. more 'hit...hit...hit'

... and the 'factions' you could join or remain neutral ... it was a kick looting the dead from both sides during a firefight - and healing both sides's soldiers

i could go on

oh yeah, the loading ... it's only because of your rig; you might think 'upgrade'
-STAKLER is awesome with full details and the HDR lighting .. it is a breathing and living world ... far better than many previous attempts including Oblivion.

 

[Piuc2020]

I've given the game a try a few times but it's just seems hard to get into, I installed the Float32 shader mod and it made it look pretty darn great and atmospheric, I really want to like the game but I just can't get into it, but the premise sounds pretty interesting. Is this something like those RPGs you need to spend 5 hours before you start having any fun at all?

Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't appreciate slow games or reading through a lot of text (my last paragraph, nuff said) because I love the RPG genre and some of the best RPGs I've played started extremely slow but still... STALKER doesn't seem to do it for me.

As for GOTY 2007... of all the games I played last year... I still think Phoenix Wright Trials & Tribulations (DS) and it's prequels are the best games I played last year on any platform but whatever, this is about PC Games

 

[imported_Imp]

Stalker as a game is excellent in terms of mechanics and playability. What seals the deal for me is the story. Chernobyl? That has to be one of the "coolest" and most "out of this world" places on earth, and they managed to form some mysterious yet believable backstory to it.

 

[Dorkenstein]

I never got very far at ALL in this game, looking forward to playing it again.

 

[Zenoth]

And the fact that most of the textures they used in the game (in the vanilla game, at least) were taken on their numerous trips to the very Exclusion Zone of the real Chernobyl area. Also they've modeled a lot of the game's props/entities by inspiration of the pictures and videos they took to help make the atmosphere and locales feel and look as believable as possible. They freakin' risked their lives due to potential radiation exposure to do that game by going there (the risks were surely minimal due to the areas known to tourists and the military patrols there, and so on, but still... a darn nuclear reactor freakin' blew up around there, I know I myself wouldn't go there at all).

When you play the game and you tell yourself "this one was inspired by the very worst of all the human-made disaster to have ever occurred on our planet" you just feel... how can I say... wrong? It certainly gives me shivers back my spine to think that some of the abandoned houses I enter in the game were modeled exactly after a real one, the exact same one, taken in pictures and videos, just knowing that someone, or a family lived there once, and that the place is just filled with radiation dust... it just adds to the whole experience. I think that is the main point of the game; its atmosphere, like no other FPS'es around.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
I've given the game a try a few times but it's just seems hard to get into, I installed the Float32 shader mod and it made it look pretty darn great and atmospheric, I really want to like the game but I just can't get into it, but the premise sounds pretty interesting. Is this something like those RPGs you need to spend 5 hours before you start having any fun at all?

Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't appreciate slow games or reading through a lot of text (my last paragraph, nuff said) because I love the RPG genre and some of the best RPGs I've played started extremely slow but still... STALKER doesn't seem to do it for me.

As for GOTY 2007... of all the games I played last year... I still think Phoenix Wright Trials & Tribulations (DS) and it's prequels are the best games I played last year on any platform but whatever, this is about PC Games

Yes ... about 5 or 6 hours till you get the hang of it ... it is unlike a pure FPS ... actually much closer to RPG; the RPG elements are just "hidden"

You are probably still in the [hidden] tutorial

 

[tigersty1e]

Atmosphere.

This was a real-life event.

Sure, this game could've used tweaks here and there, but c'mon. This game was about Chernobyl!


Maybe not game of the year, but definitely a top 10.



This game reinforces what I love about PC gaming. This style of game is eons away from the console.

 

[kirilus]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020

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C2D E4300@3.25 Ghz | VT HD2900xt/Sapphire 2900Pro | Gigabyte P35-DS3P | OCZ 850w | 2x250GB Seagate 10.2 SATA/WD 120.0 GB IDE | Corsair XMS2/OCZ 2 x 2GB PC6400 | Philips SATA DVD-RW | Thermalright Ultra-120/Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F | Logitech Wireless KB + Mouse | Lexmark x2580 | Audigy 2ZS | Klipsch 4.1 400w/Plantronics DSP-500 | Samsung 205BW 20"@1680x1050/ACER AL1917w | Samsung A437 DUN/AT&T Wireless 'net | 2GB Flash |Sony MD| Vista-32 Home Premium/WinXP-32 | 13090 3DMark06

Heh, you forgot to include the name of your mouse pad and the browser version.




For all who care about the real STALKER story: you guys keep saying Chernobyl, Chernobyl, Chernobyl... and I keep telling you that it was not the primary inspiration for the developers. The ZONE (anomalies, artifacts, stalkers, etc.) as an idea was created by two Russian writers (brothers Strugatsky) long before the Chernobyl NPP blew up. In the former Soviet Union the area of the disaster has become analogous to the Strugatskys' novel but these are two different things.

 

[BFG10K]

It was game of the year for 2007 for me.

In particular the atmosphere was what really gripped me, the feeling of total isolation in a desolate landscape with nothing but you and your gun.

Also being able to explore every dark corner was great, plus the weapons absolutely kicked ass. :thumbsup:

 

[olds]

I liked Stalker.
FEAR was good until the invisible ninjas.
I loved COD4
Crysis is Ok.