Stalker. Convince me.

[KaosuHamoni]

The Stalker series. I am attempting to justify buying them on Steam, however, I have no idea what they're like, and if my computer can even run them.

I would rather only buy Clear Sky, and Shadow of Chernobyl, and get Call of Pripyat later, however, I may change my mind.

My computer has:-

An nVidia GeForce 8500 GT w/ 1GB
A Core 2 Duo @ 1.8 GHz
2GB Ram.
Windows Vista (Don't judge me...)

That's all you really need to know =]

P.S. This would be my first purchase... I have managed to restrain myself until now =P BFBC2 almost got me, but My computer is a hunk'o'junk, so yeah.

Edit: You've convinced me... Sorta. Seeing as how Clear Sky is the cheapest of the lot without the sale, I'll be ditching that and getting it later. That it, y'know, unless it's vital to the story. I shall be getting SoC and CoP =] (Also, I looked up a little bit of gameplay for it, and it looks a little shit compared to the other two. Also, uncanny valley wtf?)

 

[TheIronRuler]

The Stalker series. I am attempting to justify buying them on Steam, however, I have no idea what they're like, and if my computer can even run them.

I would rather only buy Clear Sky, and Shadow of Chernobyl, and get Call of Pripyat later, however, I may change my mind.

My computer has:-

An nVidia GeForce 8500 GT w/ 1GB
A Core 2 Duo @ 1.8 GHz
2GB Ram.
Windows Vista (Don't judge me...)

That's all you really need to know =]

P.S. This would be my first purchase... I have managed to restrain myself until now =P BFBC2 almost got me, but My computer is a hunk'o'junk, so yeah.

\

I'm with you, I;m curious about the Stalker franchise and I'm not sure which one to get.
Though my specs are much better with an Nvidia GeForce card of 320 GT, and a Double-core 3GHz processor. 8 GB RAM.
I can run it on ultra.
But I'm not sure if I should buy it, I like Oblivion, fallout New Vegas and Metro 2033, but I don't want this to be too much of a fps like Metro 2033 was (but it was AWESOME).

 

[Ghengis John]

The Stalker series. I am attempting to justify buying them on Steam, however, I have no idea what they're like, and if my computer can even run them.

I have no knowledge of this stalker game (well no first hand knowledge anyway) however, nice Firo avatar, good taste sir. Good character, good show.

 

[KaosuHamoni]

The Stalker series. I am attempting to justify buying them on Steam, however, I have no idea what they're like, and if my computer can even run them.

I have no knowledge of this stalker game (well no first hand knowledge anyway) however, nice Firo avatar, good taste sir. Good character, good show.

Hehe, I could say the same about you, with yo' awesome Spice & Wolf avatar. That be my favourite anime ^^ Cannot wait for season 3! (That is, if there's going to be one... T_T)

 

[Gralian]

Clear Sky is a prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl, which is the first game of the series. I would start with that as i personally found it to be the most enjoyable and the one with the least buggy quests.

Be warned, though, that playing Clear Sky will spoil the 'big reveal' in Shadow of Chernobyl.

 

[Continuity]

The Stalker series. I am attempting to justify buying them on Steam, however, I have no idea what they're like, and if my computer can even run them.

I would rather only buy Clear Sky, and Shadow of Chernobyl, and get Call of Pripyat later, however, I may change my mind.

My computer has:-

An nVidia GeForce 8500 GT w/ 1GB
A Core 2 Duo @ 1.8 GHz
2GB Ram.
Windows Vista (Don't judge me...)

That's all you really need to know =]

P.S. This would be my first purchase... I have managed to restrain myself until now =P BFBC2 almost got me, but My computer is a hunk'o'junk, so yeah.

Your specs are fine, I ran the original on an old Barton with a 7800GS.

As for the games themselves, they're good but they also lask polish somewhat, especially the first. To be frank I recommend you get CoP first (there isn't much of a coherent story between the games, or even in the games to be frank) as its the most polished and probably the best introduction to the series.
The first game has the best atmosphere and is the scariest, but it have bugs and hashed up plot up the wazoo.
Clear sky is alright but i'd say you definitely shouldn't play it first, you need to appreciate the series already before you can swallow clear sky.

Note on specs: Dont take my word for it, check for yourself:

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/

 

[KaosuHamoni]

Clear Sky is a prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl, which is the first game of the series. I would start with that as i personally found it to be the most enjoyable and the one with the least buggy quests.

Be warned, though, that playing Clear Sky will spoil the 'big reveal' at the end of Shadow of Chernobyl.

Hehe, never mind. The dude above answered this for me =]

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

Clear Sky is a prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl, which is the first game of the series. I would start with that as i personally found it to be the most enjoyable and the one with the least buggy quests.

Be warned, though, that playing Clear Sky will spoil the 'big reveal' at the end of Shadow of Chernobyl.

Soo... I'll take that as a "Yes, you should get them!" =P Question is though, can I run them at a decent FPS?

Yeah, you can run them just fine. Probably not on the highest settings, but they'll run.

 

[GiantRaven]

Clear Sky

the one with the least buggy quests.

What? Clear Sky was easily the buggiest of the three games, or it was it was released, and I know that GSC sat on their collective ass and twiddled their thumbs rather than push patches out in a timely manner.

If I was to recommend anything with the Stalker series, it would be to completely avoid Clear Sky. The other two games are much much better. They're also a metric fuckton more engrossing and atmospheric, as well as not having a bunch of irritating gameplay mechanics, such as the bandits that mug you, the homing grenades, and enemies that are much more resistant to bullets than you are.

 

[GrimSheeper]

The STALKER games to me were what Fallout 3 wanted to be but couldn't accomplish. They're still buggy as GSC Gameworld is a small studio and cannot do that much pre-release testing but the fans have done a tremendous job putting out fixes and enhanced editions and really, these games are worth it just for the mods alone. People are putting so much effort into it it's unreal.

That and you get this unique narrative and setting to a not too bad plot that has a lot of depth to it if you start looking and put the pieces together and you can get six different endings, four of them essentially bad but still endings in their own right. The fighting is a bit iffy but it's really not a gamebreaker, it's just more challenging than in other games of the FPS genre, enemies take a good few more rounds than in Call of Duty for example.

I don't even know what's there to convince, really. Either you own the STALKER franchise because these games are just really damn good and have so much atmosphere and a unique setting (really, name one other game that uses alternate timeline Chernobyl as setting and I would be grateful for that) and the sequels feel like the developers really listened to fans and improved upon what they had and it's 70% off on steam and just buy it already.

 

[internetzealot1]

(realistic mod will make you shit your pants)

What, does that make the game harder?

 

[Gralian]

Clear Sky

the one with the least buggy quests.

What? Clear Sky was easily the buggiest of the three games, or it was it was released, and I know that GSC sat on their collective ass and twiddled their thumbs rather than push patches out in a timely manner.

If I was to recommend anything with the Stalker series, it would be to completely avoid Clear Sky. The other two games are much much better. They're also a metric fuckton more engrossing and atmospheric, as well as not having a bunch of irritating gameplay mechanics, such as the bandits that mug you, the homing grenades, and enemies that are much more resistant to bullets than you are.

Shadow of Chernobyl was the worst of the lot for me - remember when you have to go up north to the barkeeper? Well, the game bugged out to the point of not actually letting me travel up north for whatever reason and so i was permanently stuck in the first early section of the game until i was finally able to remedy that. I've also had quests that never updated in the journal and quest items not appearing full stop. I never came across homing grenades or bullet resistant enemies when i played it through from start to finish clocking in at around 26 hours. One problem that i did have with Clear Sky however was the fps going crazy in many different locations. It could be 70+ in the swamp, and as low as 30 back at the camp. Sometimes there were massive dips of that magnitude at seemingly random and very specific locations on the map even though there wasn't anything that wouldl cause that to happen. But i'd rather deal with framerate issues that game-breaking bugs such as being unable to even continue the main quest. Call of Pripyat was alright but again i had some issues like it not registering when i picked up an artefact, and i found it sometimes had confusing level design - that wide open space you start out in for example and have to cross some toxic waste to find an artefact at the top before some guy tries to take it from you was so incredibly frustrating the first time, that i spent forever working out how to navigate the terrain. I shouldn't have to do that. Clear Sky felt more linear and more focused.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

Hmmm, I still have SoC gathering dust on my shelf... I was really excited about the game coming out, what with it being based on Roadside Picnic and all the incredible announcements the devs were making about smart AI and realistic ecosystem. Then I got the game, died about a hundred times in the very first mission, and have been meaning to come back to it ever since.

I guess the gist of what I'm saying is: be warned. The game has a cool atmosphere, but it's hard. If you're not one for a challenge, steer clear.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Great games! I absolutely love the atmosphere, and the AI can be a real challenge on the higher difficulty settings. Mods like Oblivion Lost make the original Shadow almost perfect.

If I was to recommend anything with the Stalker series, it would be to completely avoid Clear Sky. The other two games are much much better. They're also a metric fuckton more engrossing and atmospheric, as well as not having a bunch of irritating gameplay mechanics, such as the bandits that mug you, the homing grenades, and enemies that are much more resistant to bullets than you are.

Yes, that too. There was one instance when I managed to clear an exit point of a map, with only a handful of bullets and a single med pack left. I left the map, and was greeted by half a dozen bandits. I managed to escape back, whereupon I found out that enemies respawn rather quickly. Yeah, it can be unfair...
Oh, and the part with the machine gun: when you first leave the swamp level to go to the Gordon (the first level of Shadow), you're greeted with a machine gun. Here's something the game doesn't tell you: you cannot get down from your spawn point atop the hill - you will always get killed. You're supposed to go back, even though Clear Sky, your starting faction, is no longer friendly towards you. I gave up on that game for a while after that...

 

[Pappytech]

Huh. Sounds like a good game. I'll probably pick up S.O.C. then.

 

[Caveworm]

I purchased the first when it came out. Bug ridden, broken mess of a game.

Great game underneath. Patched no doubt. I say go for it!

 

[GiantRaven]

Shadow of Chernobyl was the worst of the lot for me - remember when you have to go up north to the barkeeper? Well, the game bugged out to the point of not actually letting me travel up north for whatever reason and so i was permanently stuck in the first early section of the game until i was finally able to remedy that. I've also had quests that never updated in the journal and quest items not appearing full stop.

Oh wow, that sucks. I guess everybodies experience is different. The worst I ever had was accidently screwing the game up by leaving the first underground section through the wrong exit and causing a bunch of quests to not start.

I never came across homing grenades or bullet resistant enemies when i played it through from start to finish clocking in at around 26 hours.

The homing grenades weren't overly noticeable but it's a bad gameplay mechanic to always have grenades land at a player's feet, even if they move out of the way (causing the the grenade to move in mid-air). The bullet soaking may have been due to difficulty level though - I remember reading somewhere that the difficulty levels were bugged in that, instead of leveling the playing field and giving everybody the same amount of health, it just took down your health and buffed the health of every enemy.

One problem that i did have with Clear Sky however was the fps going crazy in many different locations. It could be 70+ in the swamp, and as low as 30 back at the camp. Sometimes there were massive dips of that magnitude at seemingly random and very specific locations on the map even though there wasn't anything that wouldl cause that to happen.

For me, that seemed to happen when there were more NPCs around, and considering that Clear Sky was the most populated Stalker game, that was a lot.

Call of Pripyat was alright but again i had some issues like it not registering when i picked up an artefact, and i found it sometimes had confusing level design - that wide open space you start out in for example and have to cross some toxic waste to find an artefact at the top before some guy tries to take it from you was so incredibly frustrating the first time, that i spent forever working out how to navigate the terrain.

NPCs can steal your artefacts before you can pick them up? I had no idea that could happen.

Oh, and the part with the machine gun: when you first leave the swamp level to go to the Gordon (the first level of Shadow), you're greeted with a machine gun. Here's something the game doesn't tell you: you cannot get down from your spawn point atop the hill - you will always get killed. You're supposed to go back, even though Clear Sky, your starting faction, is no longer friendly towards you. I gave up on that game for a while after that...

Oh god, I'd forgotten all about that. That whole section was absolutely terrible. Putting something into the game that the player so clearly needs to have prior knowledge of (but obviously doesn't, therefore getting murdered over and over) is ridiculous.

 

[Gralian]

One problem that i did have with Clear Sky however was the fps going crazy in many different locations. It could be 70+ in the swamp, and as low as 30 back at the camp. Sometimes there were massive dips of that magnitude at seemingly random and very specific locations on the map even though there wasn't anything that wouldl cause that to happen.

For me, that seemed to happen when there were more NPCs around, and considering that Clear Sky was the most populated Stalker game, that was a lot.

That's not quite what i meant though. I mean you could be out in the swamp, with no people or enemies around whatsoever and have it at 70 fps, then step in one particular spot in the same area and all of a sudden you spike down to 30fps, and it stays like that until you move from that one specific area again. Also, sometimes looking in a specific direction like north / south / east / west resulted in vastly different frames per second. it really was strange. I could look north into nothing but swamplands and get 60 fps and then turn around to look south into more swampland and get only 40 fps, and then back to normal when i turn around again. I'm not sure why this occured but i know i wasn't the only one to experience this.

Call of Pripyat was alright but again i had some issues like it not registering when i picked up an artefact, and i found it sometimes had confusing level design - that wide open space you start out in for example and have to cross some toxic waste to find an artefact at the top before some guy tries to take it from you was so incredibly frustrating the first time, that i spent forever working out how to navigate the terrain.

NPCs can steal your artefacts before you can pick them up? I had no idea that could happen.
[/quote]

That's not what i meant. After you pick up the artefact (i think it's a wheel at the top of a ship or something like that?) and go to leave, a stalker walks up to you and demands you hand it over or die, as part of a scripted event. I think that's what happens, anyway. Last time i played it in earnest must be a year or so ago.

 

[Ghengis John]

Hehe, I could say the same about you, with yo' awesome Spice & Wolf avatar. That be my favourite anime ^^ Cannot wait for season 3! (That is, if there's going to be one... T_T)

Why thankyou, the sentiment is shared. I've even read a couple of the books by this point. ^^

Frankly, for the most part they never make enough of anything I like.

Oh baccano! season 2, where are you?!? Spice and wolf season 3?

At this point I guess I should just happy more berserk is on the way.