S.T.A.L.K.E.R is G.O.L.D

I assumed the plot of Strelok and the monolith were interconnected. Frankly, if the game took 6 years, it should have been better put together.

Don't even get me started with the multiplayer.

Quote from Aggressor

much text

play gothic 3 different scenario, same approach, sucks as hell, is mastered by Dark Messiah (same release date)

I wanna play Stalker and don't think it sucks as much but tbh i think a streight forward game often is much more intense and gets a whole different audience as the example above (g3/DM) shows.

Is there an ETA on the SDK?

Got the game yesterday, its great altho all the walking is rather boring.

Game runs great for me altho i had to turn off dynamic light to keep it playable in combat.

Played for hours non stop, havent experienced a single crash or serious bug.

Cool game.

Hmm, when Dark Messiah was described to me the words linear and scripted were used several times.

Quote from mabufo

I assumed the plot of Strelok and the monolith were interconnected.

Well, there's no reason for that actually.

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You get both quest branches at approximately the same time (after finding Ghost) and then you have a choice of backtracking to the Guide or going straight to the NNP. Since we're used to the practice that "ending area" equals "end", you chose the easier option. Which wasn't the correct one.

I hope they make more games with twists like this.I have no idea when SDK will be available. I'd really like to see it.

The visuals in the game depend greatly on the settings. Just putting your lighting to static makes the game look like HL2, whereas full dynamic with max texture resolution makes it the best looking game there is. Try walking through industrial halls in the middle of the storm.

Oh, and Gothic 3 is quite unlike Stalker. Didn't like it much either.

I juzt got the ghost suit - gives health if you are wounded no need fo medpackz

Oh I don't like the game now on some way..

In the beginning it was all excellent.. you could walk long in the zone and explore all around..

When I got to the Chernobyl NPP all just went upside down! All changed at the time so fast I couldn't explore anything there..

ow lets all wait for stalker 2.

I played through it, got a real crap end. Some comments on the whole thing:

I apperantly missed that second thing Aggressor mentioned in his post above mine and thus couldnt finish the game properly. I tried to run back to that spot and also look for the guy in cordon but the it really disappeared apperantly. And without it I cant finish the game in a proper way.

This sucks. Open ends fine, but it should be fair and this is not. I couldnt know that the single mission was really that important. If it is, the game should make it clear to me that it is. Or give me a second chance to do it at a later time when I figured out my mistake, it did not.

Open ends should still be rewarding. Players spend hours playing it through, you dont want to present them with the worst crap end there is for all their trouble. Certainly not if they really tried to complete the game well and not rush through it but just didnt knew they forgot one little thing. Thats bad.

The actual powerplant at the end was kinda disappointing. A couple of corridors and before you know it youre in the actual reactor. I didnt even notice until I took a second look, thats not cool. Its fucking chernobyl itself, it must be the climax, most mindblowing impressive thing there is. Not a bunch of concrete corridors with a lot of crates and sand.

World also isnt as big as everyone says it is.

All in all the game is like Far Cry mixed with HL2 for me. Same colors and theme almost as HL2, same type of monsters mixed with soldiers and factions like in both FC and HL2 and same open environments as FC, more or less.

Also had a strong killzone feeling at times, especially in the city.

Anyway, ill prolly play through it again in top speed tempo just to see the end. I also figured out modding so going to try and make my own super weapon just for fun.

Game pretty boring and bland, I don't even feel like finishing it. The AI is so robotic, there is no fun factor when fighting against them at all. Having to use band aids every second you fight is so annoying.

5 outttta 10 on this one.

Quote from Dark

Game pretty boring and bland, I don't even feel like finishing it. The AI is so robotic, there is no fun factor when fighting against them at all. Having to use band aids every second you fight is so annoying. 5 outttta 10 on this one.

Everyone his opinion ;x

Quote from Dark

Game pretty boring and bland, I don't even feel like finishing it. The AI is so robotic, there is no fun factor when fighting against them at all. Having to use band aids every second you fight is so annoying. 5 outttta 10 on this one.

Man the AI rocks in this game soo much. They intelligently take cover, never sitting out in the open once a firefight starts. You can sneak around and make them fire (and look if you watch their head anims) on outdated positions. They are aware and react to the beam from your flashlight. You can hide in the shadows and take them out unawares.

The only dodgy thing I have seen from the AI is that they occasionally bunch in doorways struggling to get through. I put this more down to bad level design and enemy placement than poor AI though.

Sure the game has many flaws but it also oozes goodness in so many ways.

Yeah, I should accept the fact is a 4-5 year old game too. I keep forgetting, I shouldn't rate it anyway when I havnt beaten it.

they wishes n they ,their wishes and their biggest and hugest wish, was to see money raining in their homes in Ukraina.. sadly but true it is.

I promes they made the end because they wanted money,! they wanted money, money is the crizzack and they wanted the money, they got paid but still wanted. A game that made money yes it did, but the thing with this game is that when u finish it it's like over and you know you did it, but they did and the money finished that.

Quote from Dodger

seriusly wtf was wrong with the end?"wtf tha was tha worst pimp. rappa come here! come closa.�. I knizzay you have waited long time.. yo gizzle is here.." this stupid russian voice talked to me over and over!

"why do u stand there? come in!"

rofl!!

wtf was that? you know what I'm sayin?

I tought the game hacked but It didn't.. I understood it should be so.. I entered the blue ice thing and then suddenly money start raining gold coins inside the factory reactor complex map?

How many fingers am I holding up?

Quote from ShaDoW

How many fingers am I holding up?

Hahaha, I haven't laughed so much in weeks

***SPOILERS***

I seem to have gotten 2 completely different endings to everyone else. I have never come across the wish granter as far as I know, but I did find the C-conciousness experiment and the explanation of what the zone was, and ended up becoming becoming part of it.

Second ending (I think it was an ending?) I just ended up running about Chernobyl with some kinda weird shit white flashing nuclear pulses that eventually ended up killing me (wth is that all about).

How many endings are there does anyone know?

That second ending (well I don't think its a real ending) might have been because you didn't get inside the Chernobyl power plant before the timer ran out (which starts when you come near it).

The only real endings in the game are the five you get at the wishmaker, which gets you a different ending based on how you played the game (good or evil, rich, etc...) the other two endings are at the C-Conciousness which is based on whether you join it or shoot it.

I shot it, then during the rather long conversation you have with it, it asks you whether or not you want to join with it. I said no and it placed me outside the plant again. Whereupon I eventually got wiped out by the weird pulsing stuff I mentioned above.

I was kinda wondering if this was an ending or not? *shrugs*

No, it was not.

[omgspoilers]You need to shoot the shit out of monolith guys around, till portal opens. Step in and repeat the process ... around 20 times.

Quote from Hourences

I apperantly missed that second thing Aggressor mentioned in his post above mine and thus couldnt finish the game properly. I tried to run back to that spot and also look for the guy in cordon but the it really disappeared apperantly. And without it I cant finish the game in a proper way.

Strange. I think it's a bug, since my friend also had it - you don't get the Guide quest after you loot Ghost.

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Open ends fine, but it should be fair and this is not. I couldnt know that the single mission was really that important. If it is, the game should make it clear to me that it is.

Hmm, I somewhat disagree, though it's debatable and depends on what kind of game you're making. Yes, conventional game development practice says that you need to put challenges before the player, but in a nature to make them fun to overcome - not too easy, and not too hard. Everything should flow fluidly in a way so as the player would have an illusion of accomplishment, eventhough we held his hand most of the time. This belief stems from the axiom that fun is the quintessence of computer game. Everything is subject to fun; if playing your game is not fun, then the product is deemed a failure.

But is this necessarily correct? Warren Spector had an opinion article half a year back in Escapist Magazine (can't be arsed to find it ) where he stated that games will be viewed as purely entertainment tool, inferior to art and lacking recognition, until we start to make games which have more to their internal value than pure fun. Games which carry political and social connotation, games that are played not with mere enjoyment in mind. Games which will even irritate players to hell to achieve their goal of presenting a particular idea.

Anyway, we seem to differ even in the very basic notions of what a correct decision-making structure in the game should look like. To some, any backtracking is a nuisance and they want to steam ahead to the end. To others, carefully examining all the nooks and contemplating hidden meanings is the proper way. Because of this it's impossible to devise universal postulates of the game flow. This is why we have very different games on the market. I look forward to seeing even more radical approaches in the future, though the reliance on big publisher's capital is a huge problem here.