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As well as Chaos Rising (Another topic), I have recently received S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, and if anyone has anything positive to say about it, I'll be happy to hear it, if not, please don't post.

Never finished either SoC or CS, but I thoroughly enjoyed both before losing interest. Make sure you patch it, and save/quicksave often, it's rather buggy. If you haven't played it yet, be warned that it's rather brutal compared to most FPSes; if you have played it, you know what I'm talking about...


The TRS 301 is the best all around gun (counting when you get it (early), availability of ammo, its optional scope, and how long it stays great/decent (the rest of the game)), just don't fire it full auto or it breaks down fast. The Dragunov complements it nicely for longer range shots, and with ironsights the TRS 301 is good in close quarters too. One of the .45 ACP pistols works too, but I didn't like them in CS as much as in SoC.

It's generally agreed by STALKER fans that Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat are the superior games to Clear Sky. I never really finished it because I didn't want to risk the constant BSODs I encountered to eventually break my computer. Still, I guess I had a good time. Just hope that GSC has patched it and make sure to download the mods.

Oh, and it's a considerably tougher affair than SoC and CoP, as money's a bit harder to come by. That said, artefact hunting and perusing through anomalies is a must in Clear Sky and onwards if only to help keep your equipment in good shape. The VSS Vintorez is also a great sniper rifle that downs almost every enemy in the game with a single headshot. But from what I've seen, it appears to have a little bit more bullet drop than a bunch of other weapons.

Yeah, kids these days like Call of Duty and Gears of War. Let's be real honest here people, none of those games can match the brilliance, vision, and atmosphere of STALKER.

The vintorez's rounds travel slower, which is a problem when trying to hit anything at range. With a good deal of practice, someone could probably get it down pat, but the dragunov amounts to point and shoot at all but the longest ranges, with rounds that can drop exosuits. You do have to join freedom to get one, though. Odd, considering it's the duty merchant in SoC that sells them if you get in good with duty...

I loved SOC, but make sure you get the third party patch, its something like STALKER Complete 2009 or such. Clear Skies was Decent, Call of Pripyat actually did a good job of scaring the crap out of me in spots, I got about 5hrs into it then sorta lost interest though.

We don't always buy games based solely on reviews, we take in consideration the price, and since it's a quality series, you can't expect Clear Sky to be bad at all. Also, it was about $10... that could've had something to do with it.

Wasn't bad, but I would never have paid full price for it. I snagged the original from a Steam sale, and I just couldn't play through it, though that was mostly because the game failed to pique my interests. Despite playing a lot of tedious military simulators, I found the pace of this game just too slow-paced and dull to hold me. I suppose you could consider it an aquired taste - some people will love it right away, some won't. Of the latter, half of them will come around in time, the other half will shelf the game and move on. I consider myself part of the last group, but you might get some enjoyment out of it.

Alright, since my graphics card can run only old games at top efficiency, I had some problems with the game at first, but now, I like it a lot, very interesting, to me, at least, the first few levels are, so far. I have to run it at the very minimum graphics settings, but it still looks pretty good. Thanks for the advice on the saving, my only problem is the lack of checkpoint saves. :/

Learn to love the F5 key, my friend.

Though I'll admit, I'm terrible with my constant quick-saving. You can call me an un-abashed save-scummer.

Is this game like Fallout? Not really setting, but gameplay wise? Its pretty cheap on steam, I was thinking of getting the lastest, the Pripyat one, for $15.

Strangely, Shadow of Chernobyl is $20, while Pripyat is $15.

Karon wrote:Is this game like Fallout? Not really setting, but gameplay wise? Its pretty cheap on steam, I was thinking of getting the lastest, the Pripyat one, for $15.

Strangely, Shadow of Chernobyl is $20, while Pripyat is $15.

Which Fallout?

Its a RPG/FPS. You spend alot of time shooting stuff, but also alot of time running around looking for crap and what not. So it is similar to FO 3 and NV in certain ways. Though you never level up really, just get better gear as you advance to certain areas.

I liked Metro 2033 and Fallout 3 more then I did both Stalker SOC and CS.

The games are not very good the bots are dumb the guns do poor damage the plot isnt strong enough to keep me interested.

Fallout 3 and Metro 2033 are far better games to play then Stalker seris.

I just found STALKER very hard to follow, story-wise. If you miss one tiny little thing in one of your missions, or you go down a path or through a door that you weren't supposed to, and just keep playing, you can get horribly mixed up and scrambled -very- quickly. I had a habit of doing things my own way, and it really screwed me over and ruined the game for me. I guess the best way to describe it is 'linear without the guidelines'

It's plot is very much on rails, but the game tries to pretend it isn't by giving you plenty of room to explore and routes to take. Thing is, if you take any route or action aside from what the game wants during a mission, you'll never really progress the story.

Yak9UT wrote:I liked Metro 2033 and Fallout 3 more then I did both Stalker SOC and CS.

The games are not very good the bots are dumb the guns do poor damage the plot isnt strong enough to keep me interested.

Fallout 3 and Metro 2033 are far better games to play then Stalker seris.

1. To each their own, my friend.

2. True, but the bots aren't completely stupid, and then, you can't expect AI to run like real humans would in most games.

3. Which guns? To me, it doesn't seem like you got very far in the game, because, after the swamps, at least, most of the guns do a swell amount of damage.

4. Alright, I'll have to give you that one, the plot is a bit of a snore.

I only played 3 hours of SOC towhich I got the AK47.

AK didn't kill enemies very quikly and pissed me off when I would lay in a whole clip into a guy with not death

I played CS for about 2 hours.

Didn't get much other weapons other then the double barrel and pistol in CS but couldn't stand it as it was just like SOC and failed to captivate me storywise and wasn't much of an inprovement from SOC gameplay wise.

Bots were stupid enough to run right at me and no suprise get killed or they would just stand thier and take a while to realize I was shooting at them.

So I feel for this reason I dislike these games.

Yak9UT wrote:I only played 3 hours of SOC towhich I got the AK47.

AK didn't kill enemies very quikly and pissed me off when I would lay in a whole clip into a guy with not death

That's not the AK74m, that's the AK74/u, the pseudo-submachine gun version, which still kills things when you hit them. The problem is it doesn't hit them, and nothing hits anything when you fire full auto, unless the barrel is literally touching the target. The AK-74m is notable as being the first gun you get that actually shoots straight and actually brings things down. The AK-74/u is notable as "that thing you should pick up, unload, and drop, or keep and sell if you have the room".

I played CS for about 2 hours.

Didn't get much other weapons other then the double barrel and pistol in CS but couldn't stand it as it was just like SOC and failed to captivate me storywise and wasn't much of an inprovement from SOC gameplay wise.

Bots were stupid enough to run right at me and no suprise get killed or they would just stand thier and take a while to realize I was shooting at them.

That's because in the marsh they're focused on attacking your allies from Clear Sky. When you don't have a dozen allies to distract them, they're better.


Starting weapons are always terrible (because they're inaccurate), though a patched Clear Sky starts you with an AK-74m, and no ammo for it...

Once you get to the point where you have an AK-74m and plentiful ammo for it, things feel more satisfying than the "aim at center of mass and fire from ten feet away, miss every shot" you see with the starting pistol.