First Impressions

[Art Blade]

Psssst, PZ, in case he starts to post too much, I could still ban him.







^+-+ :-() ;)

[Ricamundo]

Thx guys. :-X I am really atarting to get into this game. 8) I already found a Black Kite. It was in a desk in a building near one of the fallen choppers(maybe same one?) Im using one of the military shotguns, (spas 12?) It seems to do a good job against those pesky bloosucker thingies, and i like a shotgun in a corridor/room over an assault rifle. I found and repaired an assault rifle that has a 4x scope, and have several other repaired weapons in my trunk.

I seemed to have run out of missions in the first map(Zolton or something?) so i paid a guide to take me to another map(again the name escapes me) Ive already been out zombie hunting, found some radio parts for the gun rapair guy, and taken care of a debt owed to bandits( now dead bandits) by another Stalker.

I discovered that you are NOT safe from emissions under a heavy concrete overpass that was only open at one end, doh! but luckily i was close to a road checkpoint that the ex bandits had held and had a safe room for the emission event.

There's definately an RPG feel to this shooter, with all kinds of side missions, and as mentioned, ways to get discounts by making the gun guys your BFF. ;D Its been days since i played either FO game, and ill tell ya, i dont miss those CTD's so common in them. STALKER does get jittery a bit out in the open, but its extremely stable, even after several hours of play. :-X One thing ive noticed tho, is it seems to take forever to start a saved game, although its very quick to reload after dying, but from desktop to game start must be a couple of minutes at least.

[deadman1]

Psssst, PZ, in case he starts to post too much, I could still ban him.







^+-+ :-() ;)

:o





^+-+

[deadman1]

Thx guys. :-X I am really atarting to get into this game. 8) I already found a Black Kite. It was in a desk in a building near one of the fallen choppers(maybe same one?) Im using one of the military shotguns, (spas 12?) It seems to do a good job against those pesky bloosucker thingies, and i like a shotgun in a corridor/room over an assault rifle. I found and repaired an assault rifle that has a 4x scope, and have several other repaired weapons in my trunk.

I seemed to have run out of missions in the first map(Zolton or something?) so i paid a guide to take me to another map(again the name escapes me) Ive already been out zombie hunting, found some radio parts for the gun rapair guy, and taken care of a debt owed to bandits( now dead bandits) by another Stalker.

I discovered that you are NOT safe from emissions under a heavy concrete overpass that was only open at one end, doh! but luckily i was close to a road checkpoint that the ex bandits had held and had a safe room for the emission event.

There's definately an RPG feel to this shooter, with all kinds of side missions, and as mentioned, ways to get discounts by making the gun guys your BFF. ;D Its been days since i played either FO game, and ill tell ya, i dont miss those CTD's so common in them. STALKER does get jittery a bit out in the open, but its extremely stable, even after several hours of play. :-X One thing ive noticed tho, is it seems to take forever to start a saved game, although its very quick to reload after dying, but from desktop to game start must be a couple of minutes at least.

Yes the startup is really slow for some reason, it might have to do with the fact that the game is loading as much of the current map as possible in advance in order to do away with loadtimes. The jitter you experience is just the game refilling it´s graphics memory with objects and stuff. I get that too eventhough I have 6GB of Ram  ????, you´d think that would be enough for the entire map  ::)

[PZ]

Psssst, PZ, in case he starts to post too much, I could still ban him.

^+-+ ^+-+ ^+-+

[Ricamundo]

I am enjoying the hell out of this game!  8) I found a walkthru which has helped a bit as well. Im still doing mish's in the second map, apparently called Jupiter. Ive aquired a better suit of armour, and some good weapons, and ive managed to find a couple of artifacts, one of which is called a Goldfish. This one is a keeper as it increases your carryweight, but it emits a ton of radiation. I had it in a pocket for 5 minutes then died. Doh! Now i see that ill need another called a Balloon, that counteracts the rads, but i havent found it yet, so the Goldfish is sitting in my trunk.

I still havent got the hang of the Veles detector yet. If i get caught in an anomoly, i take a lot of damage, and i rarely get an artifact for my pains. I have yet to find one anywhere else but inside an anomoly either. :-\\ I thinmk ill soon be ready to heat to the third map, Pripyat. That should be fun, and i can see ill be playing this game again and again, as i know i missed quite a lot of things in Creek, the first map.

[Ricamundo]

Have any of you guys gone thru the tunnels to get to Pripyat, or have you paid the guide to take you? I tried the tunnel route, assembling a team and away we went.

I have to say the tunnels were one of the most exciting and visceral areas ive ever experienced. Just an incredible eerie dark scary dark terrifying fun dark creepy dark map as you'll ever play. 8) Now im in Pripyat, and the main shelter/base of operations doesnt have a vendor to sell stuff to, so i hope there's some shop elsewhere, as my trunk is full of interesting assault rifles and sniper rifles. Ive no idea which are the keepers and which arent worth the bother, but this 50 kilo carry weight is a pain!

[deadman1]

There are no vendors in Pripyat, so you´ll have to go back to either Zaton or Jupiter in order to sell your loot. Have you tried upgrading your armor? I know you can get up to 10 kilos of extra carryweight that way, and you might also look into buying an exoskeleton as they will allow you to carry more if I remember correctly. The only drawback with one of thise is that you wont be able to sprint untik you´ve upgraded them to tier 3, and for that you´ll need to find the tools for calibration and give them to either mechanic. Those tools can be found in Pripyat btw.

[Ricamundo]

I bought the Seva (?) body suit from the vendor in Jupter for 25,000ru when it became available, and i did have it upgraded by the Scientist in that Lab as well, but my carryweight is still only 50 kilos., altho i can carry up to 59.9 kilos and still walk, but i cant run. its funny, @ 60.0 kilos i cannot move an inch. ^+-+

On the first mish i killed a sniper on a rooftop who had an experimental weapon, that i now have in my backpack. I cannot remove it, so to whom do i hand it over to?

[deadman1]

I bought the Seva (?) body suit from the vendor in Jupter for 25,000ru when it became available, and i did have it upgraded by the Scientist in that Lab as well, but my carryweight is still only 50 kilos., altho i can carry up to 59.9 kilos and still walk, but i cant run. its funny, @ 60.0 kilos i cannot move an inch. ^+-+

On the first mish i killed a sniper on a rooftop who had an experimental weapon, that i now have in my backpack. I cannot remove it, so to whom do i hand it over to?

The SEVA suit is only really useful in the tunnel from Jupiter to Pripyat, I have a modified Sunrise suit that has been upgraded by Cardan at Zaton to carry 60 kg. As for the gun you need to take that back to Zaton and show it to Cardan.

[Ricamundo]

Something a bit odd happened while i was in Pripyat. I noticed that the little icon for the missing helocopter crew that had been lost in Pripyat is now not there. The mish is still listed in the mission log, i think its part of the main mission, but the icon is gone, and i cant remember exactly where it was.

Ive taken the experimental gun (Gauss?) back to the gun guy in Creek, and i also brought him some calibration tools, but the tools are still in my backpack for some reason. Apparently he still needs basic tools i think he said. (sigh).

He did give me a keycard to some place so thats where im headed next.

I cant say im all that impressed with the Pripyat map. the first 2 maps are fully populated, so you have someone to banter/trade with, but Pripyat is all but deserted, except for a few zombies and random Monolith squads, and stray dogs. The laundromat has i think 4 soldiers in it, as the squad i joined to root out the sniper on the roof are all dead. its also kind of odd that you can find all sorts of new (to me) weapons in Pripyat and no one to sell them to. :-\\

[Art Blade]

I think the basic tools (at least there is a box) are in a train wagon to the left on exiting by the front of the station, there is a light (high voltage anomaly) in that wagon moving back and forth inside, I think you can jump onto the train from a bridge, get inside, avoid the anomaly and grab the tool box.

And yes, the tunnel was outstanding, the first time was really frightening and intense, the next couple of times I replayed it because of how cool it was. :)

[Ricamundo]

Thx guys. I was on that train with the electrical anomoly a while back but iu was looking for artifacts (and trying not to die) and didnt notice any tools in there, so ill check it again when i go back to the Jupiter map.

[deadman1]

Thx guys. I was on that train with the electrical anomoly a while back but iu was looking for artifacts (and trying not to die) and didnt notice any tools in there, so ill check it again when i go back to the Jupiter map.

The toolkits at Zaton are located at the sawmill and the mercenary camp. I think the ones you need are the ones at the sawmill, just beware of all the zombies there though.  >:D

[Ricamundo]

Yep, i visited the sawmill yesterday, and i had a chance to break in my new assault rifle, i think its a G37?? There's so many weapons i cant remember them all. ;) Anywho, after i offed about 20 or 30 zombies, i found the tools, and gave them to the drunk guy, who is on the wagon now, so i have no use for all the vodka i was hording to give him. ^+-+

Anywho, i also picked up the exo skeleton i had ordered, and had it, and all of my main weapons totally modded out by the now tooled up ex drunk. ;D Sweet! So now my carrywieght issue is gone, as its now a whopping 90 kilos up from 50. I also grabbed the mod that allows you to sprint. I aslo have the now repaired Gauss rifle and some batteries, so ill give that gun a try the next time im up against a big time baddie. 8)

Im back in the Jupiter map to finish off the Zele Detector mish, and sell of some stuff, then back to Pripyat where i think the main mish picks up again.

One little thing about selling stuff that is kind of a pain is if you have picked up a lot of ammo over time, and you want to shift it from say, your backpack to your trunk, or back again to sell it, is that you cant just click on the icon and shift the whole thing at once. It just moves in dribs and drabs, sometimes as little as 3 bullets/shells at a time, some times, 30 or more at a time. I had 1500 rounds of something i wasnt planning on using in my trunk in Jupiter, and i spent about 30 minutes moving  all of this excess ammo to my backpack in order to sell it all. Sheesh. :-\

[Ricamundo]

I finished the game today. it ended rather suddenly, with a few rather unnescessary cut scenes, and a too brief run thru pripyat with a few other soldiers to the LZ where a couple of choppers awaited. I did see a window that asked me something like this is a point of no return you cannot go back to pripyat, or something like that. I assumed i would be deposited somewhere to roam freely as the game advertised but i guess i chose wrong and the far too long ending sequences started.

All in all a fantastic open world game, with lots of missions, loot, places to explore and people and various freaks to meet or kill. 8) I read a review at gamespot, in which the revewer pretty much hit the nail on the head with regards to the Pripyat map, in that the tunnels leading to Pripyat were incredibly intense and atmospheric, but once you reach pripyat, it was a bit of a letdown, which i agree with 100%

I definately will  start a new game very soon, but i think i'll play FO for a day or 2, and see if i can get at or near the end, or to wherever i get fed up enough with the CTD's to want to quit it again. ^+-+

[Art Blade]

If you chose not to take the chopper, you can thereafter do what you like, kill and loot, buy and sell.. the guys at the base will greet you and you'll hear people talk about you.. the guy in the base will repair your gear for free! So drag all your stuff there, have it repaired for free, and go sell it somewhere else :) You can get an awful lot of money like that.. and it is nice to be able to walk around everywhere (but the tunnel) :)

[Ricamundo]

Thx Art. ;) I've just started a new game. I hadnt intended to start just yet, but i followed that link to a STALKER mod site, and installed a carryweight mod that i wanted to try out. Sweet! I can now carry 150kg and run, 200kg walk only, if i understand the readme. im still very light, and when an Emission warning sounded, i was able to run non stop back to the ship without tiring. A nice bonus! Now all i need is enough Ru to buy a decent weapon and better armour. Nothing like a crap AK that isnt even @ 100% repair and only 2500 Ru for a slow start. ????

[Ricamundo]

That carryweight mod has been a huge bonus on this, my 2nd playthru. Ive made close to 500,000Ru, with some loot to sell yet. I've bought several weapons and a combat armour suit from the guy on the Sverdosk(sp?) but because i have the carryweight mod, i didnt bother with the Exo skel suit this time.

SLOILERS...

On this playthru ive discovered pretty much all the hidden weapons, including a stash with a weapon in Pripyat high up in an apartment building that you can only reach by climbing that tree anomaly that grows between 2 apartment highrises. 8) I opted to stay in Pripyat this time, to have a good look around, and was happy to see some Stalkers show up at the laundry. Now Pripyat is a bit more like the other 2 maps, although i havent seen any bandits yet.

Only 1 thing annoys me a bit, and thats the constant stuttering frame rates while walking/running in outside areas, but that is probably my rather weak PC's fault, i suspect.
This is a great game that has basically made me abandon both FO games, although i want to play them a bit more until STALKER CS arrives. cant wait for that one. :-D

[Art Blade]

Although I wouldn't say that my rig was weak I still have those stutters.. so it's more likely bad programming.

[Ricamundo]

After Googling about the stuttering issue you seem to be right Art. its a common problem. However someone suggested turning down a few things in the Advanced Video options. In mine, i noticed the grass detail level was right up, which kind of made sense, as the stuttering seems to be much worse in the Zaton and Jupiter maps, with all that grassy, shrubby landscapes. I turned it down to minimal along with the texture level to about half way. I'll have to see if that helps.

[Art Blade]

when playing recent titles such as NeedForSpeed:HotPursuit or Borderlands or TestDriveUnlimited2 at maxed-out graphic settings without stutters it makes me wonder how the heck some people manage to program some things so badly that you think your rig was a rotten piece of junk.

[Ricamundo]

Well, my PC is almost 3 years old, and because its XP, i'd have to replace pretty much everything to make it a worthy upgrade. Im hoping i can get another year or so out of it, then just buy a new PC with W7.

[fragger]

It'd be interesting to analyze the coding in various games. Some, like the ones Art mentioned, are probably very slick, modular and efficient, while ones like CoP are probably more reminiscent of spaghetti. If that's the case, no amount of whizz-bang hardware is going to make a lot of difference.

I have an aging PC too and on my machine CoP stuttered like crazy in outdoor areas even with graphic options turned down pretty low, whereas FC2 runs smoothly with most stuff set to medium or high, so there you go.

[deadman1]

Well, my PC is almost 3 years old, and because its XP, i'd have to replace pretty much everything to make it a worthy upgrade. Im hoping i can get another year or so out of it, then just buy a new PC with W7.

I think your vidoecard is the biggest issue here mate, without knowing your exact spec I think you can get a huge boost in performance just by replacing it with something like the Nvidia gtx 460. As for the rest of the computer you can always do what I do and replace 1 or 2 parts at a time, just because you run XP that shouldn´t be a problem other than XP:s limitation of max 3 GB RAM. Just be sure to check that your power supply are strong enough.