ethanThomas

Down in the Zone (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.)

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I said come in, don’t stand there!

Hello, hello. I figured I’d start a thread for the discussion of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of games. Have you played any of the games? If so did you like them?

I have some information that might be of use to you. If you’ve heard of the game but haven’t played it yet, the first game (Shadow of Chernobyl) is available for USD$20 on

Steam or at your friendly local retailer. I would recommend installing the STALKER Complete 2009 mega-mod since it makes the game look much better, it also fixes many of the bugs and issues that the devs weren’t able to fix. One word of warning: even with the mod installed, this is still a game that might not be your cup of tea. I rather love the game, but I certainly understand that slogging around in a radioactive hellhole is a bit of an acquired taste. If you’ve already played SoC and either completed it or quit in frustration, revisiting the game with the mod installed would probably be worth your time.

Okay, that’s it.

Get out of here stalker!

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I don't think I ever actually bought the game. After trying it out, it was just too dysfunctional both in design and performance. But I love the idea and atmosphere. I might buy it now at some point and try this.

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Rather improbably, the game only ever crashed twice on my PoS outdated gaming rig, perhaps because I had some settings right down.

I absolutely loved the harshness of this game, because I only ever felt it was punishing me for bad decision making, poor foresight and lack of observation. Successfully hunting snorks in Yantar was also quite satisfying, as were some of its narrative quirks. Amnesia is a really big cliche, but they used it nicely at some points, especially in

giving you an incentive to loot Ghost's body as if he'd been a total stranger, then later revealing that he'd been one of your closest friends

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I played Stalker: Clear Sky, and enjoyed it throughly. I actually found it to be quite similar to Far Cry 2.

Except I never wasted half a clip shooting hallucinations in Far Cry 2

Yes it is brutally unforgiving, but that's what quick saves are for.

I just wish it had more mutants and less human enemies.

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What a coincidence! I bought the game a while ago, but for some reason I never played it for more than a couple hours. Yesterday I decided to try it once more, and spent most of the day playing it.

I love the atmosphere and the environment the game is set in. Every area seems to have its own story, even if it isn't explicitly told. It's a bit punishing at first (the reason I never played it for very long in the past), but once you do a few missions and start to get some better weapons, things start going along much more smoothly.

I love how, during some of the story missions, the game changes from a hardcore, semi-realistic shooter to a sort of survival horror game.

I went into the first brain scorcher mission with less ammo than I should have; I spent a lot of time scavenging what few bullets the zombie stalkers had and resorting to my knife.

I'm now looking forward to unraveling the mystery of the Zone, and already have a copy of Clear Sky.

EDIT: Holy shit. I just looked at the details for the Complete 2009 mod. That's fucking awesome.

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I'm currently playing through the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R game for the very first time, with the "STALKER Complete" mod installed.

I absolutely love it so far. Very atmospheric and mysterious. It also gives me a similar feeling to when I play Fallout 3. I take out a sniper rifle, stay low in the grass, and explore the zone. Good times.

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Now I've got "Down in the Park" by the Foo Fighters stuck in my head, and lyrics are strangely fitting...

Down in the park were the marked men meet the machine and play "Kill by Numbers"

Down in the park with a friend called fire...

I was in a car crash, it wasn't the war, but I've never been quite the same

Little white lies like I was there...

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I think respawning killed it for me. It was ridiculous. There was a place where enemies would keep respawning so quickly you didn't have time to collect the loot from the ones you killed. It didn't fit the atmosphere. The Zone shouldn't have an army of thousands of mercenaries coming from this one place all the time.

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I loved the game. It was Stalker that made me upgrade my computer (I still have that same system and it still plays most games well enough, only the motherboard is different because the old one failed).

I am planning to play it again with the Complete mod, even downloaded it once, but had to delete it when I ran out of disk space. Have to finish some other games and delete them (Or get a new hard disk. :deranged:), then I can go back to Stalker.

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I too am a big STALKER fan. I even did a brief stint as a QA tester for it during its development (before the studio nearly fell apart and scuppered our lovely contract).

The survival horror parts are my favourite, although I also grew to love the careful and deliberate wasteland warfare - cite previously mentioned atmosphere (in my early teens I was in the army cadets, and so spent a fair few summers lying down in tall grass while clutching a rifle. STALKER is the closest a game has ever got to nailing that nostalgia for me).

I want to upgrade my PC before replaying or moving onto Clear Sky, so I can see it in all it's glory. I had to turn off too many settings the first time.

Oh, anyone that hasn't done so should read Roadside Picnic, the novella that inspired the Tarkovsky film that inspired the game. Here's a free PDF. I'm hoping they will make more of the anomalies in the next game - they are what makes The Zone, the Zone, and Roadside Picnic does a wonderful job of freaking you out with them.

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Recommendation seconded. One of my favourite books from the Strugatskys, actually, and almost no one writes better sci-fi. The movie is also great (but extremely slow paced), if you can find it.

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Recommendation seconded. One of my favourite books from the Strugatskys, actually, and almost no one writes better sci-fi. The movie is also great (but extremely slow paced), if you can find it.

Found it. Buying now.

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I'm reading the book now, it is good, at least the first thirty pages are. Thanks for the link Dan.

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The complete mod certainly looks nice but graphical updates are not what i would put on the top of my list. If you are interested in getting the most out of STALKER then Oblivion Lost + Arsenal 2 is the mod you want to get.

It fixes many of the problems with the game and makes it much closer to the original concept of the game

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The complete mod certainly looks nice but graphical updates are not what i would put on the top of my list. If you are interested in getting the most out of STALKER then Oblivion Lost + Arsenal 2 is the mod you want to get.

It fixes many of the problems with the game and makes it much closer to the original concept of the game

The complete mod is not just graphics, but many small changes without completely changing the game.

Oblivion Lost has drivable cars, right? I'm not sure how well that fits into a game that is not designed for that. I think the areas in Stalker are rather small actually: originally it was supposed to be one huge area with no loading if I remember correctly. Cars would fit well in larger areas. I don't think a mod can really make the game true to the original concept (the game was originally called Oblivion Lost actually, wasn't it? and the team was completely changed in the middle of development?) and something that only goes half-way doesn't appeal to me.

Still, I might give it a try after I've played through with the Complete mod (but I have to clear some of my backlog first).

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I played STALKER for a couple of weeks almost a year ago. I love that game. LOVE it. I got to a point where I was stuck though, and didn't really get any further. Got sidetracked by other games.

I made very little inroads into the main storyline actually, just did a whole bunch of side quest stuff. I've never had as much fun with side quests as I had with STALKER.

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Dude. you don't quit a game you love just because you get stuck. That's like getting a divorce from your wife over a quibble. if you truly love her then you love her until she dies then you move onto the next game.

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Dude. you don't quit a game you love just because you get stuck. That's like getting a divorce from your wife over a quibble. if you truly love her then you love her until she dies then you move onto the next game.

Ah well, in my defence I got sidetracked, I didn't quite quit it. So, I'm more like the heartless jerk who fools around behind his wife's back with other games, always planning to come back. Kinda.

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Dude. you don't quit a game you love just because you get stuck. That's like getting a divorce from your wife over a quibble. if you truly love her then you love her until she dies then you move onto the next game.

In his defense STALKER would probably be better compared to a girlfriend who is fascinating and beautiful, but also a little nuts:deranged:. Sometimes you can work it out and move forward. Other times it's best for both parties if you just take both a short break from each other. And unfortunately sometimes you're both better off accepting that what you had was good while it lasted, but it's gone now..

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I would recommend installing the STALKER Complete 2009 mega-mod since it makes the game look much better, it also fixes many of the bugs and issues that the devs weren’t able to fix.

This has reminded me to come back to the game again. The mod seems excellent after a short time's play, but the shader add-ons caused me some very weird glitches. Going into [Stalker folder]/gamedata/shaders and then zipping up all the content before deleting it (except for the zip) left the mod intact except for the visual effects stuff.

It means you still get all the textures, game fixes and other stuff, but I was seeing these weird vertical black bars - like giant barcodes - moving over the scenery around me.

I guess it's because my gfx card might only be Shader 2.0-capable? Regardless, small tip for you if you experience the same problem.

Thanks also, Dan, for the book recommendation. Been able to read that using Adobe Reader Lite on my Nokia phone and it's really good so far.

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This has reminded me to come back to the game again. The mod seems excellent after a short time's play, but the shader add-ons caused me some very weird glitches. Going into [Stalker folder]/gamedata/shaders and then zipping up all the content before deleting it (except for the zip) left the mod intact except for the visual effects stuff.

It means you still get all the textures, game fixes and other stuff, but I was seeing these weird vertical black bars - like giant barcodes - moving over the scenery around me.

I guess it's because my gfx card might only be Shader 2.0-capable? Regardless, small tip for you if you experience the same problem.

Thanks also, Dan, for the book recommendation. Been able to read that using Adobe Reader Lite on my Nokia phone and it's really good so far.

I think this might fix your problem if you want to give the upgraded shaders another shot:

go into user.ltx and change the r2_sun_near and r2_sun_near_border to this:

r2_sun_near 20

r2_sun_near_border 1

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I think this might fix your problem if you want to give the upgraded shaders another shot:

go into user.ltx and change the r2_sun_near and r2_sun_near_border to this:

r2_sun_near 20

r2_sun_near_border 1

Oh thanks, ethan, I'll try those later.

What do you think's causing the weird bars then? I don't have anything non-standard like "God rays" (caustic lighting) switched on, just what's set in the mod when you've unpacked it. :erm:

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