STALKER Clear Sky - Still getting it?

so many people here are SOOO independent and don't pay attention to reviews. go rebels~!

i actually do care about reviews, because i like purchasing good games, and i feel that reviews are one of the many things i take into account in making decisions regarding which games to purchase. since stalker: cs is getting only decent reviews, i'm going to wait for what gamers here say about the game before making a decision. if it had gotten great reviews (or even very good reviews), i'd have bought it without hesitation.

JnWycliffe

Reviews are opinionated so their idea of a good game doesn't necessarily mean our idea of a good game. For example, I thought Gears of War was a terrible game. I wouldn't even give it a 5/10. Or Oblivion. Or Bioshock. It has nothing to do with rebellion.

[QUOTE="JnWycliffe"]

so many people here are SOOO independent and don't pay attention to reviews. go rebels~!

i actually do care about reviews, because i like purchasing good games, and i feel that reviews are one of the many things i take into account in making decisions regarding which games to purchase. since stalker: cs is getting only decent reviews, i'm going to wait for what gamers here say about the game before making a decision. if it had gotten great reviews (or even very good reviews), i'd have bought it without hesitation.

GodLovesDead

Reviews are opinionated so their idea of a good game doesn't necessarily mean our idea of a good game. For example, I thought Gears of War was a terrible game. I wouldn't even give it a 5/10. Or Oblivion. Or Bioshock. It has nothing to do with rebellion.

don't take it personally. i'm sure some people are quite genuine in their desire to form their own opinions about games, but i'm equally certain that there are some that simply say this to be kewl.

i for one see nothing wrong with taking reviews into consideration. yes, of course reviews amount to opinions, but some people's opinions can be very informative, and professional reviews tend to be more informative than anything else. the only thing more informative, imo, are demos, but if there aren't any demos around, the next source i'm taking into account are reviews, whether professional or of those by fellow gamers.

i totally agree that gears of war and oblivion suck (though i think bioshock's a good game, all in all), but i'm not taking reviews into consideration to form my opinion; i'm taking reviews into consideration in trying to decide which games to buy, because i'm not going to buy every single game that's released. i have to be selective, since my hard drive can only take so much (and my wallet as well), so i'm going to read reviews and hope that it helps me decide whether or not to purchase a game. sometimes, you find out that games you purchase based on reviews suck, but no system is fool-proof. only way a screening system can be fool-proof is if you happen to only purchase games that are good, and i doubt that there's anyone that hasn't purchased one disappointing dud at least once in their lifetime.

"It starts well and differently, with a Battlefield-like capture point tussle set in a huge swamp. As soon as you're out of there, though, it's business as usual. You're free to wander as much as the game allows -- that darned barbed wire remains indestructible -- but to feel like you're achieving anything and to unlock most of the brand new areas, you need to follow the core missions. The tale's a prequel to the first game, so you're hunting its protagonist as he sets up its events -- so there are few surprises, bar a little reshuffling of road and base locations. While the original managed mystery and suspense despite dodgy translation and incoherence, the narrative here is as engaging as a loft insulation conference." -IGN

**** theres a darned barbed wire, I wished to walk forever and ever without bumping into any barrier. **** its a prequel and it has a story deeply intertwined with the first one.

If you guys want, I coudl do that to all review out there. STILL FREAKING GETTING IT! Reviews are still one man's opinion.

"It starts well and differently, with a Battlefield-like capture point tussle set in a huge swamp. As soon as you're out of there, though, it's business as usual. You're free to wander as much as the game allows -- that darned barbed wire remains indestructible -- but to feel like you're achieving anything and to unlock most of the brand new areas, you need to follow the core missions. The tale's a prequel to the first game, so you're hunting its protagonist as he sets up its events -- so there are few surprises, bar a little reshuffling of road and base locations. While the original managed mystery and suspense despite dodgy translation and incoherence, the narrative here is as engaging as a loft insulation conference." -IGN

**** theres a darned barbed wire, I wished to walk forever and ever without bumping into any barrier. **** its a prequel and it has a story deeply intertwined with the first one.

If you guys want, I coudl do that to all review out there. STILL FREAKING GETTING IT! Reviews are still one man's opinion.

kalossimitar

I would love for you to do that to the entire review. Thank you.

i for one see nothing wrong with taking reviews into consideration. yes, of course reviews amount to opinions, but some people's opinions can be very informative, and professional reviews tend to be more informative than anything else.

JnWycliffe

I think professionist reviewers must have some gaming skills.

Just check out the Clear Sky forum on Gamespot: everybody agrees that the AI is extremely smart, but the game is not as difficult as the IGN review tells us it is.

Also, yesterday a patch was launched, and fixes some of the problems mentioned in the review, like that moment when you loose all your items. Here's some of the changes:

• Added use of special cover during fights.
• Improved dynamic lighting.
• Changes to combat balance: some enemies are now stronger.
• Changes to economic balance.
• Added secondary objectives.

• Improved sorting of secondary objectives in the PDA.
• Added the ability to communicate with storyline characters, squad leaders and guides without holstering weapons.
• Added description of stash contents when purchasing information about the stash.
• Added additional information to pop-up tips in the PDA.
• Changed traders' item stocks in certain areas.
• Changed life simulation balance (event intensity, mutant strength).
• Added the opportunity to get your items back after being mugged at the Garbage. Only part of your money is now taken when you enter/leave the Garbage.
• Added rewards for joining factions.
• Changed the PDA log message filtering system.
• Added flares in Limansk and the Red Forest.
• Increased reward for capturing enemy bases in the Faction War.

• Game optimization (approximately 5% improvement).

• Game loading speed increased by 10-15%.

[QUOTE="Helbrec"]Damn.... its got like 7/10 I wont be getting it... the first one sucked anyways.leper-messiahs

WOW, your loss, you are not getting it because ONE reviewr gave it a 7 (Which is not terrible BTW)? What about 3 reviews giving it 88, 88 and 92 prepectively? Only 10% of all reviews are even in, and is still averaging around 80%. Really ignorant and close minded. The first Stalker had some giving it bad reviews and others calling it a masterpiece, it is a game that devides opinions because it is more difficult and not mainstream, hold your hand treat you like a 5 year old shooter. Reviews today are USELESS, any game that gets any advertising gets 9 and above all the time now, if a game is more hardcore and complex reviews whne about it. CS is a game that is AI driven, and tries to convey how hard it is to survive the zone, it is not a FPS, it is a FPS/RPG/Survival, seems a few reviews misunderstand it and give it a lower score then it deserves, same thing happened with the first Stalker game, which now has sold over 2 million and is considered a classic. You need to scavage, me smart and the AI is brutally smart, this is not an easy, run of the mill linear console shooter that holds your hand, it is a hardcore game that stresses intensity, as you can die at any turn, and for that I am thankful At least GSC are willing to try a inject something fresh into the genre, Stalker really is one of a kind game, that sometimes is misunderstood. Seems even some reviewers don't get it.

QFE!!! (Quoted For Excellence) :D

Well said, STALKER is indeed a classic.

Are you still going to get the game even though it got a score of 7.0 on IGN?

http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/906/906864p1.html

biggest_loser

Of course, I learned long ago not to trust game reviews.

I never ever pay attention to reviews anymore....

I go to the forum and talk to those who already are playing it...

In 16 hours I'll be D/Ling it from Steam...

And as someone already stated the first patch is a doozy....!!!

Im sorry i meant to say is I would rather be killing mutant aliens in america then throwing nuts and bolts at invisible radition walls... That is all.Helbrec

I find the comparison of CS and F3 a little strange. I hope your not thinking that F3 is going to be in the same league as Stalker as far as gunplay. F3, and the devs have acknowledged, that the gunplay is going to be pretty weak and people should not expect an awesome shooter, it is an RPG first and foremost.

don't take it personally.

JnWycliffe

LOL, after you accuse those of ignoring reviews of being "rebels." Nice try.

[QUOTE="JnWycliffe"]

don't take it personally.

Gooeykat

LOL, after you accuse those of ignoring reviews of being "rebels." Nice try.

nice try? what was i trying? i care very little to play nice with strangers, so believe me when i tell you i wasn't trying anything.

[QUOTE="Gooeykat"][QUOTE="JnWycliffe"]

don't take it personally.

JnWycliffe

LOL, after you accuse those of ignoring reviews of being "rebels." Nice try.

nice try? what was i trying? i care very little to play nice with strangers, so believe me when i tell you i wasn't trying anything.

Gee, I think its pretty obvious what you were trying, to back off your original condescending statment of that those that ignore game reviews are trying to be "rebels."

[QUOTE="JnWycliffe"][QUOTE="Gooeykat"][QUOTE="JnWycliffe"]

don't take it personally.

Gooeykat

LOL, after you accuse those of ignoring reviews of being "rebels." Nice try.

nice try? what was i trying? i care very little to play nice with strangers, so believe me when i tell you i wasn't trying anything.

Gee, I think its pretty obvious what you were trying, to back off your original condescending statment of that those that ignore game reviews are trying to be "rebels."

again, what was i trying? i made a generalization; most people fit into the generalization; some people don't. i was making fun of people who do fit into the generalization. what exactly are you accusing me of? am i scared of GodLovesDead? did i feel threatened by him? what's he going to do to me? hate me? report me to the mods? if he feels unfairly accused of this, then he doesn't have to take it personally, because it just may be that the generalization doesn't fit him. if he persists in taking it personally, what do i care? i already told him he doesn't have to take it personally if my generalization doesn't fit him; what more can i do? what was i trying? really? make some sense, man.

I have a tendency to not get games with lower review scores, and even look at games that have higher review scores than I expected, Bioshock is an example, and I was pleased with it. Call of Juarez was a late example of the former, and again for a good price well worth it.

I just got clear sky, first 2 hour impressions are - these reviews who scored it 70% or lower are full of crap.

I usually buy when a high community average corrolates with the reviewers averageclaytoma

Good thinking.

Its IGN Au.

As far as im concerned they are terrible, they couldent even churn out a decent Crysis review, and whinged that a 8800GTX needed to be SLi'd to run it at visually appealing settings - for pretty much the entire thing.

I bought the game on the 4th, and its great. No, its awesome.

One big problem.

It is buggy . I patched it before I started playing and I hit some snags. First it was a broken side quest.

Now a major one - i got a memory leak problem with it, which corrupted my quicksave file.

So now whenever I play the game it stutters a little now and again, and crashes after 10mins of play. If I load a quicksave file it crashes all togther.

And yesterday it was playing perfectly.

*sigh*

Anyone know where the Clear Sky savegame directory is? I know where SoC is, but cant seem to find CS's.

If your using Vista, the saved games are in C:/Users/Public/Public Documents/STALKER-STCS/savedgames.

Been playing Clear Sky over the last couple of days and I'm enjoying it more than I did SoC.

The AI really is a lot smarter and the combat is harder. No longer can you run into a bandit or military camp like Rambo and gun everything down with ease. Attacking them now requires a bit more thought, which is good. The Zone is also more dangerous, so you tend to be more alert of your surroundings.

For those reasons alone I would say: CS>SoC.

DX10 looks great, and the rain effect looks brilliant. Also has a nice post-processing effect when you reload and night time is pitch black. I could comment on other things but it is better that you experience everything else for yourself.

The dialogue isn't up to much but that can be overlooked.

As far as the reviews from PC Gamer and IGN are concerned, the game would need to fall on it's face towards the end, cause what I have played so far has been great.

If your using Vista, the saved games are in C:/Users/Public/Public Documents/STALKER-STCS/savedgames.

Been playing Clear Sky over the last couple of days and I'm enjoying it more than I did SoC.

The AI really is a lot smarter and the combat is harder. No longer can you run into a bandit or military camp like Rambo and gun everything down with ease. Attacking them now requires a bit more thought, which is good. The Zone is also more dangerous, so you tend to be more alert of your surroundings.

For those reasons alone I would say: CS>SoC.

DX10 looks great, and the rain effect looks brilliant. Also has a nice post-processing effect when you reload and night time is pitch black. I could comment on other things but it is better that you experience everything else for yourself.

The dialogue isn't up to much but that can be overlooked.

As far as the reviews from PC Gamer and IGN are concerned, the game would need to fall on it's face towards the end, cause what I have played so far has been great.

Tresca_

Agreed on the improved combat, and nighttime is fantastic now - pitch black with the flashlight is amazing. Really sucks you in.

They fixed all this stuff already fix a patch apparently - why didn't they do that in the first place before the release. biggest_loser

They actually did that before the release. The patch was available on September 4th, while the game launched on 5th. Only the Russian version was released earlier.

Basically, this means that the review build was broken, and that's why the game got low scores. Same thing happened to Overlord and Company Of Heroes, and those games had the review score modified on Gamespot.

Farrrk.

The patch does fix things, but the game is still pretty bugged.

I tried fixing the memory leak error, no dice so far - removing saved games, reinstaltting, cleaning registery.

Dammit.

Its STALKER SoC all over again :(

Might try removing specific saves or something, but honestly im not sure.

I'll probably be stuck waiting for the next patch.

If I didnt have UT04 maps due next week i'd look into it some more, but eh, I have spent too much time today trying to fix it.

Farrrk.

The patch does fix things, but the game is still pretty bugged.

I tried fixing the memory leak error, no dice so far - removing saved games, reinstaltting, cleaning registery.

Dammit.

Its STALKER SoC all over again :(

Might try removing specific saves or something, but honestly im not sure.

I'll probably be stuck waiting for the next patch.

If I didnt have UT04 maps due next week i'd look into it some more, but eh, I have spent too much time today trying to fix it.

skrat_01

wow, looks like i will be waiting this time around for this to get fixed before picking it again