Thread: Stalker clear sky.

So I got it yesterday (yeah before the release date), although unfortunately I hadn't realised it had arrived until long after I got home from work.

But anyway, on to the game.
Gameplay is a VAST improvement on the original, the HUD and inventory are much improved (I have reservations about the PDA though). You also feel a much greater involvement with the NPCs and your surroundings, there is a hell of a lot more dialogue (although the ambient VA is pretty crap). There is a lot more stalkers in the zone (this is both good and bad), which makes combat a lot more interesting, but takes away a lot of the atmosphere.

The upgrade and repair system is awesome, although as fas as I can see, the only upgrades worth while are the accuracy and flatness upgrades (depends on what you are wearing with armour). The upgrades do make a noticable difference, although it doesn't appear to change the models unfortunately.

The invisible artifacts are an interesting idea although I've yet to try searching for one (press O when holding a one handed weapon, to bring out your detector).

The economy is also a lot more thought out this time stuff is quite expensive and enough Ru is hard to come by (make sure you visit the clear sky trader for rewards whenever you complete objectives in the marsh (that 4000Ru reward really helps).

Max carry weight seems better now, its still 50Kg, but items weigh less now, just don't overload on ammo.

The game has bugs, but I didn't really notice them. So far I've olny got to cordon and going onto garbage as my next objective, but I'm definately enjoying the game, I can't wait to see what mods come out.

Beat the main story overnight. I mean really. SoC was better. :/

It looks a bit better, that's the only positive thing I have to say about this game.

All of the bugs that were in Stalker made it across to this game, plus many more. A patch was released on day one to fix a whole page long list of game breaking bugs, but I'm still constantly getting crashes and BSODs from this game after just 15 minutes of play. Not only that, the quest system sucks even more this time around.

In this day and age, I just don't have patience for games that lack even a basic level of polish.

Originally Posted by AKofC

Beat the main story overnight. I mean really. SoC was better. :/

I went into limansk with a SGI 5K, 200 rounds of ammo and the clearsky armour. I was crapping myself when I got to the hospital. It sucks thatyou can't go back from the hospital or even limansk. I'm having to use a much earlier save.
I find that the story is too linear and too much about fighting others and as a result lacks a lot of the original's atmosphere.

Word to the wise once you get to limansk, you can't go back, there are no traders or mechanics so whatever you have or pick up is all you can use till the end of the game. I haven't been to the NPP yet , but I'm assuming you can only find russian weapons there as well. So do everything you want to and equip yourself before entering limansk. I recomend the Vintar BSS and the sniper equivelent, bring lots of ammo (as much as you can carry, ditch everything else apart from medkits and anti rads). When you reach limansk, you should only loot for ammo and healing items (if you find a weapon in better condition than your, take that one and ditch the other, remember to unload weapons before you dump them).

Originally Posted by MadDogMike

It looks a bit better, that's the only positive thing I have to say about this game.

All of the bugs that were in Stalker made it across to this game, plus many more. A patch was released on day one to fix a whole page long list of game breaking bugs, but I'm still constantly getting crashes and BSODs from this game after just 15 minutes of play. Not only that, the quest system sucks even more this time around.

In this day and age, I just don't have patience for games that lack even a basic level of polish.

I disagree, the gameplay. AI and animations have been massively improved on. Sure there are a few issues caused by sloppy coding, but thats expected in a first release.

Sloppy coding should never be expected. I don't care how much better the animations are if the game gives me the blue screen of death every 20 minutes.

Originally Posted by IGN

And while the basic approach and concept of the game is still as original and interesting as ever, the rough edges make it at best unpleasant, and at worst nearly unplayable.

If you don't get these game breaking problems, you must be one of the lucky 10%.

Originally Posted by MadDogMike

Sloppy coding should never be expected.

You are right, it shouldn't, but when most new releases have game breaking bugs out of the box these days, its expected nonetheless.
Its happened with this game, with the previous game and many other games. Developers rush their games out the door to meet the release date so that it can start selling (remember its the publisher that sets the release date, the developer has to do the best they can in the time they have), they can then start work on patching it and fixing the bugs and even if they spent the time to go over it before release it would still ship with some bugs.

I have the occasional CTD with this game, sure its annoying and I have to quick save a lot, but its not like I didn't expect it. I'm going to just have to wait until some patches are released. In the mean time I'm going to enjoy playing a fun game that has many more layers of polish than the previous.

I haven't BSOD'd once, so I'm guessing that it might be your computer that has a problem running the game.

It's not my PC, it's a common problem with Stalker: Clear Sky. I have never had a BSOD on Vista before, but this game gives them to me constantly. It happens with such a high frequency that I know that I'm going to get a BSOD every time I play the game. In fact, I haven't even quit the game from the main menu before.

I just played it for about 40 minutes before the BSOD this time. That's my longest uninterrupted play yet.

EDIT: It's caused by memory leaks when using dynamic lighting apparently. You don't use the static lighting option by any chance do you?

Nope, I run at full spec, I've even tried modding the game to use DX10 shaders (to no noticable effect though). I run XP however so it may just be a case of poor vista support (which isn't suprising).

I agree ....it has endless replayability; like being victorius with each faction. Im playing Age of Conan till it comes out, cant wait much longer...yeah