Posts by JohnC

Kustom Kulture in a video game? I'm stunned. Someday I'll play it.

Fighting Force on the PlayStation. My god, what a beat-em-up. Astonishing mix of frustration and fun.

But there's lots of co-op games planned for the future.

So, shall we recap?

-4 player co-op

-Coming to PC

-Flamethrower

-Winshester Trench Gun

-Zombies

I will definitely preorder on STEAM.

I got Game Master, too.

A few of the questons were just too out there, and could've at least had a neutral choice. I had to pick between a strategy guide and the friggin' Kama Sutra when the only thing I've ever had next to my toilet was an ashtray.

Is it weird if it reminds me of the Mafia intro? Upped my anticipation, anyway.

Unless they borrow from WoW more with different attributes for different classes (mana for some, rage for others) this won't go well.

There is virtually no reason I would ever want to put a single point into energy when I'm building a Whirlwind Barb.

I guess that also clears up the Bandits and their uncanny powers. Reincarnation, teleportation, astroprojection, and the ability to produce unlimited squads regardless of strength.

Funny thing happened last time I cleared the Depot for the umpteenth time, though. Since I already killed the old Bandit leader, this time the leader appears to have been Senka, the mechanic's friend who's always sleeping in the corner. Never saw him as the power hungry type.

I've walked over some pits that were put out and burned myself good. No one seems to care if it's burning or not, they'll crowd around it anyway.

I love watching Stalkers play guitar... with their MINDS. Must be a rare artifact.

And how can you complain about random corpses? That's how I get my best l00ts.

Sounds like mine, so maybe fact. I can't even load my game anymore.

Huh. When you play it a second time, there's some more footage and YouTube keeps falling apart.

The map packs were free for Call of Duty 4 PC because nVidia sponsored the downloads. As far as I know they weren't going to do it if they couldn't charge.

Fallout 3 may be in a better state on release, but from what I've heard of Bethesda it won't have half the open-ended gameplay that Clear Sky offers. And considering Fallout 3 seems to be playing a bit of catch-up with Stalker...

Well I got back from the Dark Valley and then checked out Agroprom and did a job for Duty.

Quote

Holy mother of hell those underground portions are scary. I never want to go into a place like that again, but I'm guessing I'm going to have to.

Are there lots of places like that in the original Stalker?

Oh, and I found a way to circumvent the

Quote

scripted Bandit robbery. In front of the Flea Market there's a power station. Go in the back way to avoid the anomaly and look on the wall, there's a safe. Dump everything you're carrying, go into the cellar and put it back on. Still lose your money but it's a lot better than buying everything again.

Whoa, that's some heavy stuff. I've found a few corpses laying around in the middle of camp, one dropped dead because he stood outside

Quote

during an emission

.

Funniest thing is watching enemies run into anomalies. Sometimes they'll burn to death while they're shooting at you, and once a guy walked into a big one that picked him up, spun him around insanely fast, and chucked his corpse onto the ground a good fifteen feet away.

Oy. No, I'm not going that far. My point is they're both generic and neither one is a hotbed of fresh ideas.

But when was the last time anyone explored the creative space in a sci-fi game?

They do it so they can pull plot twists and magic powers out of their ass. Look at the force fields in HL2. Everyone else can walk through them, I can throw stuff through them, I can shoot through them, but I can't walk through them. Real scientific.

And the intro to Episode 1, the cheapest plot twist I've ever seen. "We screwed ourselves storywise the last time so a Vortigaunt did it. Yeah, they can do this now."

So really, while Treyarch in this case is trying to tell a compelling story within the confines of recorded events, the sci-fi crowd has far more freedom but doesn't make much use of it.

I'd love a science fiction game that WASN'T about evil aliens with a mastery of English coming to kill us and rule our planet for no apparent reason.

Yeah, I'm patched to 1.5.04.

The autosave was glitched, wouldn't load. So, I sacked up and ran through it again. Oh, the joy I felt when the Cordon loaded properly. Didn't come out quite as well as the last time but at least I got an L-85 from a dead Stalker.

Quote

The Emission

doesn't seem to be coming this time, maybe it's just a few seconds off though. I joined the Stalkers via

Quote

Father Valerian

so the Bandits are my enemies. Didn't even know you could be aliied with them.

Holy hell, epic developments from the Garbage.

Went out there, did some quests, got a good bit of work done, decided I'd head back to the Cordon, regroup, and save.

But I took the roadway, and

Quote

an emission

came. I couldn't get to the base because the npc's blocked the door. I thought it wouldn't matter which building

Quote

I took cover

in, but nope. Died.

Pissed me off good. But being the battered spouse that I am, I loaded it back up a little later and tried it again. Came out a little better, took the mountain pass route this time, can't wait to run to the base and patch myself up. Before it loaded the Cordon, it crashed.

I just hope the autosave's there.

Phew, finally things are looking up again. I found the rifle, was right in front of the tracks next to an anomaly. Can't believe I never saw it.

Also nabbed a SEVA suit, and earlier today I ambushed a few Military troops walking up the road. Made off with a full size AK and three AN-94's. Unfortunately the mutants seem to be pissed ever since I hunted them all, respawning constantly and swarming the road. Who knew a bunch of blind dogs and overgrown pigs could be so smart.

I got the STEAM version so it's patched to 1.5.04 too. I know I won't see it around for a while, and I also read it's so damaged it costs 9600 just to repair it, but I was hoping to use it to clear the

Quote

Military base guarding the road to the Swamps.

Invisible barriers are not cool. There's supposed to be a Vintar sniper rifle at the train wreck in the top left corner of the swamps. When I finally found a break in the fence, I couldn't run up the hill. Anybody know a way to get to it?