[Zardon]

Originally Posted by dsdsdk

Why would the game be to blame when in runs fine in XP, but when you put it on Vista, saving crashes it... Drivers are also far from optimized when looking at performance.

The game is to fault. its not a problem with Vista. not in this instance anyway. The game makers have already acknowledged it. A patch is already in the pipeline. Won't really affect me ive deinstalled it already, got bored in the hour I walked around.

[BlueMak]

What's with the radar? You can always see all people near you in that? Takes a bit out of the difficulty, doesn't it?

[.AMD.ALPHA.]

Hello everyone. I have been waiting for the game like most people and was sad to hear that it would delayed from the end of last year to right now, but from the reviews and video reviews, there seem to be some glaring bugs, but there is a patch coming to fix this problem. Even though the game is dated it still has a great engine and the game world looks beautiful in a haunting way.
I don't have the game yet, but I will try too soon.

[OmegaRED]

Originally Posted by BlueMak

What's with the radar? You can always see all people near you in that? Takes a bit out of the difficulty, doesn't it?

Enemies aren't on radar, just neutral people.

[dsdsdk]

Z, about 12 hours... didnt do that many side missions..

[dsdsdk]

Enemies appear on radar when you see them.. they dont stay there for long if you dont "keep contact"..

Here are some vids 1920*1200 with ~4AA.. smooth play. The vids reveal absolutely nothing.

http://peecee.dk/uploads/0307/hg4.avi
http://peecee.dk/uploads/0307/hg5.avi
http://peecee.dk/uploads/0307/hg6.avi

btw, some other things to note is the daycycle and fractions fighting eachother.

[Zardon]

Originally Posted by dsdsdk

Z, about 12 hours... didnt do that many side missions..

So did you like it? what would you give it out of 100%? Im curious because you are one of the few here I think at this point who has beaten the main game. Worth a purchase to anyone reading this ?

[.AMD.ALPHA.]

For the russian in the game, is there a translator or a subtitle option>translator option?

[dsdsdk]

I liked it... maybe cause I see it as an oblivion style fps, where you recieve a mission and complete it (PDA helps keeping track of missions). Loading areas are a bit irritating, but nothing bad. Yes areas are fenced in, but they're still quite large.

I'd give it a solid 90/100. +Good gfx, perfect sound, good gameplay, best fps AI i've seen.

There's 7 different endings to the game.. i've only tried one (which I didnt get the point of :-) ). I'd recommend people to take more sidemission than I did.

[dsdsdk]

AMD.ALPHA, nope.. all the stuff you need to hear is in english. NPC speak russian to each other, some radio-ambient-talk is also russian.. and when they yell at you cause to havent holstered your gun :-)

I dont know russian but it didnt affect the game..

[Dark Lord]

some of the things with this game are really pissing me off.

i just spent about 20 mins in this damn section because they dont have any lights in this area with static lighting. i was litteraly shooting at the muzzle flash and hopeing for a kill.

static


dynamic

[OmegaRED]

Why didn't you use your flashlight? It's the "L" key.

[Mr cairo]

will admit i probably would enjoy this game a LOT more if they had removed the RPG elemets of the game (especially the trade) ... must confess to preffering mny FPS in the HL/HL2 Doom Quake style .... the RPG bits dulled the game for me

[ptsigas]

amd athlon 4400x2 @2.62ghz
620W seasonic psu
2 ati 1900xt radeon (no OC on them)
2gb ocz pc4000
a8r mvp 32 deluxe mobo
Creative Xtreme Gamer SC- game mode (on)
====================

so i bought stalker today installed it ...and noticed it takes a VERY long time to load a game- ok 3 min - might not seem long..but mabye my impatience doesnt help.

( i defrag and virus every second day)- paging file is set on both drives c and d

now i cannot run the game with full dynamic lighting which is annoying- the fps drops so LOW- (i mean oblivion runs so nice hehe).

the game doesnt support dual core processors- doenst help much- hopefully with a patch this will be corrected.

aside from HDR off- the gfx are very nice indeed. (but with some ppl and dual cores...when you attack for instance there is a lag in between (not stuttering), youll notice the shadow swinging but your model isnt hehe)

the enemies for some reason did not attack me on the first quest..and when i killed the bandits- the sterlok guy was nowhere to be found.- the intro movies are messed up..running sluggish at times.

game is running pretty nice iwth hdr off and AAX6 +AAA quality AFX16 HQAF=on

the amount of details so far that i have seen is very nice though- just the game is choppy here and there. all sounds dont match the movements..

but all bugs/glitches aside- i really like it so far!! gonna wait a bit for a patch though- some ppl are playing smooth as butter...im playing smooth as rusty nails stuck on tar..

right now i would give it a 7.5/10 (with a patch that resolves these issues and furthe immersion with the plot and land) the score might land a 9/10 in my books. would get a 10 if you could make more classes (not wizards lol) such leader (commander), mabye organize gangs- drug deals- warhero etc some stuff like that- i have not noticed any females in the game either (i havent played long mabye 30 min)

=============
right now worth the wait?- i would say yes- Hl material..considering valve STILL HASNT FIXED THE SOURCE PROBLEM- way better..yes i have said it- im a hardcore Hl fan (i would sleep with gman..hell id even date nhilanth!) but this game runs way better!
-========

game on folks game on- oh take shadows of grass and set lighting to static- fps raises mad!!

[jasonbourne]

Originally Posted by Zardon

Yeah i hear it hasnt even been optimised for vista yet and will be fixed in a new patch. It crashes everytime I hit save in vista which is a lovely experience.

I wandered about in it for an hour or so without saving and I have to say i am disappointed with it. Not saying its a bad game but its nothing I would sit and play. Reminds me of oblivion in the future for some reason.

zardon im also running the game on windows vista ultimate and i never had a crash ,are u overclocking your 8800gtxs i heard some people are having some serious problem with this game running it with a 8800 including crashes ,artifacts and slow perfomance.

[Sandok]

Originally Posted by ptsigas

right now worth the wait?- i would say yes- Hl material..considering valve STILL HASNT FIXED THE SOURCE PROBLEM- way better..yes i have said it- im a hardcore Hl fan (i would sleep with gman..hell id even date nhilanth!) but this game runs way better!

What source problem? HL2 runs prefectly....

Anyways, for the moment, I'll only say one thing... STALKER is way too resource heavy for the average visuals

[Zardon]

Originally Posted by jasonbourne

zardon im also running the game on windows vista ultimate and i never had a crash ,are u overclocking your 8800gtxs i heard some people are having some serious problem with this game running it with a 8800 including crashes ,artifacts and slow perfomance.

No, no and no. It runs fine, until you go to save normally (like kakarot said). ive confirmed it on two machines. Who_knows has the same issue and its a rampant issue on their own forums with people dual booting into XP to play it right now. One of the team has even said there are some serious issues with Vista which they are working into a patch which should be released in the next week or 2. Even guys on ATI HW are experiencing it...

i guess you must have that magic ingredient right now for it to work on vista, whatever that is

Even sites like gamespy mention the issues http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/stalker-.../774087p1.html

"Our biggest problem, as mentioned at the outset, is that we've had trouble keeping S.T.A.L.K.E.R. running for any extended period of time. Trying to navigate the game's menus, whether it's to change keyboard settings or simply save the game, has repeatedly caused the game to shut down and return to Windows every two or three times we've tried, resulting in countless amounts of lost gameplay. Regular attempts to save the game have resulted in the game simply quitting every five or ten minutes. And, every time the game has quit on us, all of the video and keyboard settings have reset to their defaults, so after the 20th unceremonious shutdown, we simply gave up on trying to adjust the settings and plowed ahead at 1024x768.

In talks with THQ, it appears the most likely cause of our problems was our choice of test machine: a high-end rig running Windows Vista with a GeForce 8800 GTX video card. Reportedly, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was designed for (and will run far more stable under) Windows XP, and NVIDIA's Vista drivers for the 8800 series are still evolving (we tried both the official drivers and 32-bit beta drivers, with similar results). A patch is expected soon, with better Vista compatibility as one of the goals, but for now, this just goes down as another notch in the "it's not quite time to upgrade to Vista" argument.

It's a shame that we've had so many issues, because when it's running with all the details cranked up, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a pretty attractive game. It won't produce jaw-dropping ooohs and ahhhs like games like Far Cry or Half-Life 2, but it's an interesting, gritty world you've been dropped into, with advanced physics and dynamic lighting providing both weight and drama to the world. "


Gamespot http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/action/sta...ink%3B1&page=2

"We also encountered issues while running the game under Windows Vista, from quick loads not working to the game becoming unstable and crashing. THQ and GSC Game World are working to deliver a patch for some of these issues, but it's a pity that the game shipped with them. Considering that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was already years overdue, another month or two in testing seems rather paltry, especially to provide support for Windows Vista. "

[Zardon]

Originally Posted by Sandok

What source problem? HL2 runs prefectly....

Anyways, for the moment, I'll only say one thing... STALKER is way too resource heavy for the average visuals

Yes the source engine is so evolved, smooth and proficient now, I wouldnt honestly even put it into a comparison with the engine in STALKER - they arent even in the same league let alone class (and incidentally the source engine is flawless on both XP and Vista so special kudos to valve on the quality of the coding). STALKER has a decent engine but its clear to see it hasnt had the development time that Source has. There are stalls on sections loading as well as minor hangs when moving into different locations. To be honest I wasn't blown away by STALKERs engine, although its decent enough to enjoy the game.

[jasonbourne]

maybe i spoke too soon zardon,the bleeding thing just crashed on me when i saved the game .

[Zardon]

I am sure this time next month it will be sorted. Pretty sloppy though, gotta say, especially after the time its taken to get to retail.

[Vikingod]

Got to hammer around on it for a couple hours last night. I actually had a good time. I can definetly see the oblivion comparisons, which I think is a great thing. The quests seem interesting and the AI is freaking great. I actually just found myself watching soldiers fight bandits, and the dogs get chased around by the boars, was pretty neat to watch. I actually find the gameplay to be difficult, which is great considering I breeze through most games. Performance on my system is great, so long as I have "object dynamic lighting" on (which uses the DX9 renderer, with light mapping). I think the game is beautiful and the world is well designed. The atmosphere is possibly the best I've seen since far cry. I love the weapons.

Gripes? The PDA/quest system needs major work, I honestly can't see how this slipped through the cracks. I can already see that story is secondary, and I don't really care about any characters so far. This is a big deal for me. I love a story in a game, even if its not a great one (ie. Far Cry).

Over all, most of the reviews I have read give the game about a "85" rating, which I think is very appropriate. The game isn't "great", but it is good, and a lot of fun. I would actually love to see them take the engine, polish it up a bit, add a good story with decent characters, and release a sequal in a years time.

[Sandok]

Hmmm I got a little question and if anyone knows the answer, I'll love you

What's the Console command to get rid of the hud for some nice screenies?

[dsdsdk]

sandok, type "help" in the console, use Page Up..
I only skimmed it, but couldnt do other than remove hud_crosshair..

[dsdsdk]

Zardon, how can a game be at fault when it works fine in XP but not Vista. The game is the same and it accesses resource the same way.. 32bit is 32bit. dx9 is dx9 and so on. Executing code should be the same on XP and Vista, but Vista crashes the game.

You could try this:
The March 2007 Windows Vista Application Compatibility Update is a package of software updates that address common application compatibility issues in Windows Vista. When you try to install and run certain legacy games or applications in Windows Vista, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms: The game, the application, or the firmware may not be installed correctly, may cause system instability, or may not work correctly.
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=27861

<- the above states Vista having at least some form of problem with compatability.. since the patch is for Vista, it must mean something is wrong.. I'm not saying it cant be solved at the other end, it prolly can.

[BlueMak]

I love the setting of this game and the idea of having a hybrid FPS and RPG. As soon as there is a patch out I will order this game.

[Pluvious]

I use XP home and I'm experiencing lockups every 5 or 10 mins. Have to do a hard reset to escape out. Runs GREAT with most everything maxxed out, but the random crashing is killing it for me. I've tried turning off ATT tool which in one forum was supposed to fix it.. Not sure what to do now.. At this point, its pretty much useless. Anyone have the link to the offical forums so I read their support/help section. I'm not the only one with this problem it seems.

I'm about DONE with PC's gaming at this point. I'm sick of having every game have tech problems. Guess I'll stick to gaming on my 360. Pop it in and just play.. the way its supposed to work.

[jasonbourne]

random crash here as well , 8 years on the make and they cant get it to work right .

[Sandok]

I got a damn annoying bug... I play the game fine, no problems but say I reboot my PC after quitting the game, well, I can't play ANYMORE.

Error messages and everything (not a real windows image, etc.) come up and I have to reinstall teh game to play... Sucks

[>GSXR<mrbusa]

Well,
After a day of random playing I have experienced my first problem with the game. All of the sudden the sun shadow, grass shadow, lighting distance, and shadow quality tick boxes and sliders are not working. The game runs fine and I have experienced no crashes or lockups. The model shadows and grass shadows now look really blocky and like they are on lowest detail.

I just searched for some servers that I have some decent pings on and there were two that I had a ping under a hundred. I thought by now there would be allot of US servers up and running.

One very important thing I did notice is one of the servers i tried joining was a different version of 1.0001. I am almost positive that it is not a Mp beta server, I never saw that version the whole time I played the beta. Maybe someone has heard something of a patch being tested already???

[Zardon]

Originally Posted by dsdsdk

Zardon, how can a game be at fault when it works fine in XP but not Vista. The game is the same and it accesses resource the same way.. 32bit is 32bit. dx9 is dx9 and so on. Executing code should be the same on XP and Vista, but Vista crashes the game.

No. Vista doesn't "crash" the game, thats a ludicrous statement. You mean to say the game "crashes" on vista. XP and Vista have different coding under the hood.... and it is up to the game makers to make sure that all the kernal calls and coding are accessing both platforms correctly - if you think XP and Vista have the same "code accesses" then I think you need to really research the differences between the older os and the new one. Supreme Commander can run fine (better even than on XP), Half life 2 can run fine..... shall I list the 200 games ive tried that can? What about a 3 to 4 year old game like Hitman 2 which runs perfectly on the new OS? Should "vista crash it too?" Or is your theory that Stalker is using some radical new technology that is only working right on XP, while Vista, the NEW os is outdated and "broken". Don't let anti Microsoft feelings cloud your judgement.

I mean going on your theory, Driver Heaven could release a new version of Driver Cleaner tested on one machine because we couldnt be bothered, then when user 2 reports it crashed on his machine, we say "not our fault it works on Joe's pc, so its your computer that is at fault". Software applications are coded for an operating system, not the other way around, if people cant be bothered testing something thoroughly then you don't blame the OS its running on, you blame sloppy coding and a lack of testing. I heard similar cries many years ago when people were moving from windows 98 to XP.

STALKER is buggy, it hasnt been tested properly on Vista (and many would say it hasnt even been properly tested on XP, even the DHers are seeing crashes here!), and the makers are releasing a patch to fix bugs, crashes and hundreds of other issues, which incidentally ARENT all related to using Vista. Why are we even debating issues that the game makers have already acknowledged?