Those who have followed the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series know that Clear Sky has been a bit of a ride to this point, the game has taken up challenges in becoming more graphically complex in delivery and also in attempting to put together the pieces prior to the original game, often is it that companies rush onto sequels or alternate realities but GSC has kept to their original developments and it seems like it should pan out well.
Players will step into the year 2011 and be faced with the events prior to the third campaign of Strelok to the Zone center, allowing players to have an alternative look at the original title through this early take on the situation and even play out their own fate by letting players become a mercenary in the field to find which avenue really offers the best reward for them in this zone war of factions.
For those new to the game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. allows people to fight and live out their game through each day, time cycles constantly and overall there is a strong RPGFPS element that is rarely found in gaming these days unless you go back to older titles (Fallout series, System Shock, etc) the visual system compliments this and the AI system also helps support this with NPC's working on independent thought cycles that have been given an updated since the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. hit the streets, any battle can change in the moment so going back later hoping to maybe side with another group might not work out since the outcome is not pre-determined. The company does admit for returning players, there is a direction later in the game that can be found where the game starts to force a singular path to stay in line with the original title though. It makes sense for a prequel trying to force a specific timeline though, I just hope that this time the game is capable of picking up a larger audience.
Here's a quick gameplay clip from Clear Sky for those interested.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky hits the Streets on September 5th 2008.
I thought the story was taking way to long to get going. I never did finish it. But I'll give this one a go anyway. I just want to play a good game, nothing worth while had been released lately.
As fun and interesting the series has looked (RPG elements, FPS shooting, horror elements), I haven't been able to get into it. Sure its immersive and big, but the pacing is too slow for my tastes. I'd only be able to truly get into it if I had a weekend with nothing else to do.
Ive only just started playing STALKER Shadow Over Chernobyl as my old pc would barely run it let alone with any high settings turmed on.
Well my first impressions had been what a load of rubbish , but since ive turned all those settings on to high my opinion has changed.
Graphicaly I find little to fault the game. Very atmospheric and personally I have no problems with the sound. Well ok maybe the guns all sound kinda the same.
My main grip is the utter waste of an opportunity as even now with patch 1.0005 installed and playing the game for the first time I'm finding absolutely loads of little bugs that's very annoying ad disruptive to any immersion into the games storyline.
1. Entering the Bar in the doortender says Dont just stand there! Come in. and then repeats himself. On leaving the bar he says it again !
2. In firefigt situations the enemys often walk about or crouch down with there back to you even after a couple of minutes have passed. Not realistic behaviour at all IMHO.
3. For the rest of the world some english dialog might have been nice at the risk of spoiling the russian feel of the game. Perhaps broken English but in a Russian accent would have made more sense to the rest of us non russian speakers.
4 The inventory once full is cumbersome to use with items onthe bottom row being unselectable.
5 The nights are too light although I believe there is a mod for this.
6 Missions are assigned automatically even while in the process of carrying out another mission meaning that compleating them on time can be a it tough.
7 The missin Get the pesudeo dog tail can be commenced fairly early on in the game at the traders request but they dont appear untill much much later in the game.
8 The PDA is a complete mess. I cant think why i didnt think of this earlier. While searching dead bodies you retrieve info which is supposedly added to your PDA but when u go to check theres no note of it apart from perhaps a marker on the map. Very disorganised tool for somthing that's supposed to organise our life.
I could go on and on and on but if your not bored already then you soon would be.
The shame is I DO QUITE LIKE THE GAME. Im just glad i dint buy it and swaped another duff game called Dark Messaih for STALKER rather than pay full price for it. Id recomend buy it on budget and look into the mods scene BEFORE starting the single player missions.
As for Clear skys im going to wait a bit. See if they get the creases ironed out and then maybe buy it on budget cos if anything the graphics team do deserve a well deserved clap on the back for the immersive and atmospheric environment they have created. well what ive seen of it anyway.
GAME DEVELOPERS AND PUBLISHERS TAKE NOTE. We the public are sick of buying titles that while great in many respects are not final products and lack the polished feel that older titles once had. You are releasing the games way way WAY too soon. I dont know if its unrealistic deadlines or lack of financial investment but please get some games in to beta test and find the faults. and then when there done get otheres to beta test some more !
So many of these games look great, read great but when you get to play them there over in a day or are handicapped by unlimited bugs.
IM SICK OF PAYING MY HARD EARNED CASH FOR THIS TREATMENT. And they wonder why piracy is rife !
I got about 12 hours into Stalker before I gave up. The game was pretty good.
The sequel sounds better to me because of the open-ended nature of it, and because the developers have had more time to refine the game's engine, but I'm personally going to pass on this game in favor of Far Cry 2, which looks fantastic.
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i was born near Chernobyl and i still couldnt play this game.