STALKER was probably one of the few rare gems out there that was made, though it contained many bugs (technical ones notwithstanding) that deprived the player of the true experience. I'm going to address some of my own pet peeves today. Hopefully, they'll be fixed in Clear Sky.
1. How you aimin' that gun, boy?
Okay, since when do we hold guns to the sides of our face? This is probably my first and biggest pet peeve with STALKER, since that when you pull out any main-handed weapon, whether it be the Viper 5, G36, or the SVD, it seems that you hold it right next to your face at eye level instead of shoulder point as most games like CoD4 or Crysis might do. It seemed a little too arcadey, and as such, it was kind of annoying to have that with me through the entire game.
2. Where's the big guns?
Okay, so the AK47 and G36 are in the game. But what about more reputable weapon companies such as Colt or H&K? They should have their weapons in there, and I would especially love to use a weapon such as the M4 or maybe the Barrett .50 sniper rifle? Hopefully, we'll get to see some more variety in Clear Sky, and see some decent re-do's of the current weapons.
3. What? I have to go back in... *gulp* Again?!
Okay, the Dark Valley is not the most inviting, friendly, and cheerful place in Chernobyl. Actually, it's quite the opposite. The place is dark, dead, and very, very quiet. The slightest noise will make you jump, and you'll always want your flashlight and nightvision on. Not to mention that the lab you have to infiltrate also has some bugs (for me), such as the monster on the bottom level not spawning and me having to start all over again, or sometimes the door doesn't open even after I put in the right passcode. Either way, having to go through a grueling experience again and again (Agropom Sewers, ugh) is not fun.
4. You lean against the wall, not stand next to it.
Some of the AI in STALKER, is, at times, very smart. Unfortunately, it also has some kinks (grenade detection is nonexistent). Also, they like to seem to crouch in front of the wall. You know, on the side that the bullets fly at them, instead of hiding on the other side and letting them impact on a wall.
5. Bloodsucker-radar system
This might seem stupid, it may not. I cannot stress how many times a Bloodsucker can jump you, especially at night. They need some sort of radar system that can detect incoming Bloodsuckers, as it's not really that easy to spot them (only their breathing gives them away) due to their natural camouflage. Usually when you notice that they're there, milliseconds later, they start slashing you. Not pretty, especially if there's more than one, which is plausible about half the time, in places like the Red Forest and Rostok. As a gist of how hard it is, go hunt a Bloodsucker at night. You'll see what I mean. The only thing that gives them away at night is their breathing when they're REALLY close to you, or the blood-red of their eyes mixed with the blur of their camouflage movement.
6. Give the modders something to work with!
Modders, clever beings as they are, figured out a way to mod the files without having to use an SDK, by extracting and modifying current game files. This allowed creation of amazing mods such as the Oblivion Lost mod, Priboi's Story, and many more, which took the original raw data (zombies, mutants, dwarf-thingys) of the game that was locked away and put them back into the game, or even added another story to the game (the case of Priboi story). This also allowed modders to create incredible graphics enhancing mods that enhanced the game experience even more. But, however, it was all done by hand by the modders themselves. Introduction To Modding can be found on the STALKERFiles forums here.
7. Optimize!
Okay, vanilla STALKER without patches or mods looks absolutely terrible. It also runs less than satisfactory even on decent systems. It's always wiser to optimize the game before it launches for decent performance on many systems (much like how Blizzard optimized Warcraft 3 so it can run on my 9-year-old computer that my dad has). Though there are some games with worse optimization (Crysis! Why?!), it's one of those unwritten rules in PC gaming. It has to work decently on a 3-year old system at the very least. :| However, knowing the time constraints that PC developers often have, it's not too far-fetched that they won't be able to pull it off before release.
-C0m1
Note: In the Dark Valley, across the street from the main Bandit base which you're supposed to raid, there's a small house. Don't go in that house. Really. On the second floor is the body of a bandit. Sure, he's got some pretty average or less-than-average gear on him, but it's what happens next that I recommend you to stay out of. You WILL get jumped by a Bloodsucker as soon as you loot/locate his body. Just a warning. Make sure you pack some decent lead on you before trying that house. The first time I had this happen to me I was scared out of my daylights. The fact that it was nighttime didn't alleviate the situation much, either.
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