S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Because we haven't bashed this game enough y

[KodiaX987]

Just making it past the first combat encounter made me realize a few things about this game:

-Despite running at 800x600 and absolute minimal settings, I can barely average a 20 FPS in open air and 12 FPS in "detailed" situations. Plus the split-second screen tears that appear a couple of times every minute.

-Enemies are psychic. I can approach someone while crouched and moving very slowly. Despite my noise meter reading ZERO, the enemy manages to notice me, turns around and shoots me dead.

-Enemies are able to survive EIGHT bullet wounds to the chest at point-blank range.

-Enemies are able to survive a STAB IN THE FACE.

-Enemies are able to survive a shotgun at point-blank range.

-Emptying your clip on an enemy will cause him to flinch for about a second, then he'll fully recover and shoot you.

-You need about 2.5 seconds to reload a handgun. Enemies need 1 second.

-The AI is so absolutely horrific that your teammate will attempt to fire his shotgun at someone who is A HUNDRED FEET AWAY.



S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Thank you for helping Torrent sites stay in business!

[Weeaboolits]

http://www.vedrashko.com/uploaded_images/stalker-753377.jpg

This one? Or is there another?

[ABDUR101]

It doesn't get any better further in, sadly. Eventually you just find one or two assault rifles/sniper rifles and headshot everything you come across, instant kill. Infact once I realised how powerful headshotting was in Stalker, thats all I ever did. I found a really good, automatic sniper rifle, and a very powerful sniper rifle; but since headshots are headshots, I went with the automatic and had an assault rifle for close to medium range.

That game just wears thin really, alot of hoofing it, alot of running into the same shit; that game makes me think clearing minefields in Uganda would be more fun.

Sadly, the pictures they showed of the game made it look ALOT better; the engine looks extremely dated; and sadly that doesn't play in it's favor when it comes to fps on systems more than capable of playing Oblivion at a decent clip. I also suffered the 'screen stuttering', my only guess was it occured when new 'pockets' of the game were being loaded, such as npc camps and new spawns. Which is really quite sad, because everytime you goto a new area, you have to go through a loading screen.(I was under the impression it was an entirely seamless gameworld).

I did'nt bother with multiplayer, the singleplayer was ok for abit, there were some cool moments; and I think if Stalker had been released when it was supposed to be(instead of the delays), it would have still been just an "ok" game.

[Solstis]

If that's the game, I would have avoided it based on the boxart alone. Ugh. It looks like two different artists worked on it, and never ever met or spoke to one another.

[KodiaX987]

On 2007-06-19 22:55, ABDUR101 wrote:
I also suffered the 'screen stuttering'

Did you get the same graphical glitches in other games after you installed it BTW? Because after playing STALKER, I fired up EVE Online and started getting screen tears there as well. I'll do further tests when I get home tonight but a second opinion is always helpful. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[Axispoint]

On 2007-06-20 04:40, KodiaX987 wrote:

On 2007-06-19 22:55, ABDUR101 wrote:
I also suffered the 'screen stuttering'

Did you get the same graphical glitches in other games after you installed it BTW? Because after playing STALKER, I fired up EVE Online and started getting screen tears there as well. I'll do further tests when I get home tonight but a second opinion is always helpful. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif



Did you reboot before playing EVE Online (from when you shut down STALKER)? I've gotten tearing before from going from World of Warcraft to City of Heroes (without a reboot...with a reboot, I never got it again).

[Niered]

On 2007-06-20 01:27, Solstis wrote:
If that's the game, I would have avoided it based on the boxart alone. Ugh. It looks like two different artists worked on it, and never ever met or spoke to one another.



Thats not the boxart I saw shipped with it, the REAL boxart is actually pretty cool:

http://www.ngc6544.de/images/uploads/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.BAND1DIEOFFIZIELLEVORGESCHICHTEZUMGA ME_296.png

[KodiaX987]

Great news! STALKER fucked up DirectX!

This is what you get when game developers are too fucking lazy to ask the user whether to update DirectX or not. Instead, I run DXDIAG only to find a shitload of additional DLL files created the same day I installed the game. How convenient! And since that same day, I haven't been able to run a single game because of horrible screen and texture tearing!

And because MS, for reasons logic can't explain, decided not to include the option to flush DX9 so I can reinstall, I'm forced to run a homemade BAT file that will delete DirectX 9, read off my Windows CD to input DX8 instead, so that I can fool the DX9 installer into thinking DX9 does not exist and this way reinstall a clean version of DX9.

Game developers, STOP FUCKING WITH DIRECTX. I WILL UPDATE THAT SHIT WHEN I WANT, THE WAY I WANT. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

[Weeaboolits]

That's pretty messed up that it doesn't even ask you if you wanna' update or not.

[KodiaX987]

After countless reinstalls of drivers and programs, I have come to the conclusion that STALKER has physically damaged my graphics card.

I cannot boot up into either of my two Windows installations. Black dotted lines appear on screen at regular intervals. Moreover, DLshadow pointed me out to this very relevant piece of information on the STALKER Wiki article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Chernobyl#X-ray_graphics_engine):


Alternatively, the shader engine used by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. replaces critical .dll files within DirectX which, if tampered with, may cause complete graphical failure.

So guess what happened when I tried to reinstall DX9!

Thank you GSC game world. You fucking communists have destroyed an otherwise healthy graphics card. I hope Al Qaeda learns of your existence and works to end it.

[Weeaboolits]

Oh, gall... What the hell were the designers thinking? They've no business makin' PC games... http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif

[Sord]

ah man that sucks http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif Having .dll files screwed over is a real pain in the ass. reinstall time, unless you had a restore point. It's damn sad when you have to make restore points before installing a game.

[sprky585]

On 2007-06-20 20:13, KodiaX987 wrote:

I hope Al Qaeda learns of your existence and works to end it.

i'm sorry to break the sorrowful theme of the thread, but that's fucking hilarious

[McLaughlin]

Indeed. That one's going in my Word document of awesomeness.

[ABDUR101]

Ya know, you'd think there'd be something illegal about a game altering .dll files for DirectX. If it can't add new libraries rather than altering existing ones, it should'nt be allowed through by the publisher. Had I known Stalker did that, I would'nt have even fucked with it. Thats some bullshit really; that really pisses me off.