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

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  • Title: S.T.A.L.K.E.R Part 2.0
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  • Summary: S.T.A.L.K.E.R Part 2.0
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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:

Alongside the good points there are only a handful of minor bad points - the first being slow-down. Usually I'd put it down to the settings being too high, but it's not consistent and hard to emulate. I think it's to do with the game and Vista both being new - and the fact that the game doesn't state that it supports Microsoft's latest O/S.

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.

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Comments

Thats normal mapping! ;P

Adamskii's


The 'bump mapping is supreme'? If so, it's feckin' bo. There's no obvious textures on walls any more.

Matt


LOLz nevermind! I mean I think its all normal mapping for walls these days.

ADAMSKII


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