S.T.A.L.K.E.R Part 2.0

So I've had a few hours of S.T.A.L.K.E.R flowing through my bloodstream/brain and I'm loving it.

The installation took the usual 10 minutes or so and appeared to be successful. Then I unfortunately had to disappear for a few hours shopping until I could try it out - but the wait was worth it.

I don't know if it's my setup or not, but the initial loading seems to take forever. Maybe it's Vista working out if it should bother running the game at all. Once you're into the game, things start to get interesting. There was an FMV cut-scene right at the beginning, something that I've not seen in many years in games. Though it stuttered throughout, skipping many frames, becoming out-of-sync with the sound. On the subject of sound, the game has a great orchestral score which will surely win awards.

The learning curve is nice and easy, throwing you straight into a simple mission, requiring you to talk to a few characters prior to eliminating 7 enemies in a car park. I'll keep this review short and sweet though, as I need some sleep - so, starting with the good points (and there's a lot of them) - relevant screenshots are linked to:

• The Russian (I think) voice-overs are great and add a bit of authenticity to it all
• The voice-over switches to English in a Russian accent when you begin communicating
• The bump mapping is supreme, out of this world and I spent 10 minutes staring at it all
• It feels like Half-Life 2, but with that RPG element thrown in for good measure
• Your fellow STALKERS wield guitars at the end of a battle to wind down
• Radiation is present everywhere, causing you to go 'funny' in close proximity
• Fire looks like, well, fire
• The clouds look real - and cast shadows on the ground
• The lighting is fully dynamic and it shows
• The binoculars are actually useful

The only other annoyance is the physics in the game. They're good, but not fantastic. Whereas in Half Life 2 you can pretty much pick-up anything and throw it at someone's head, in STALKER you can barely move anything. A few crates will budge if you run into them, but they wont smash if pushed off of a ledge. Ah well.

Overall STALKER feels very polished, which is quite surprising considering it's new - but then again, the long development time probably allowed them to bring it to a shine. I've found myself adapting to it very easily and I'm finding it a lot more enjoyable than Oblivion. That's not to say Oblivion is shite, just that S.T.A.L.K.E.R (with the p.e.r.i.o.d.s) rocks my boat that little bit more.

You'll probably find me rambling on about STALKER a lot more over the coming weeks, so be prepared.