From my experience with these games, I think that the best game is the kind that's a combination of open play and FPS gaming. These FPS/RPG hybrids that require you to interact with NPCs and gather gear and artifacts - I'm not into them.

Games that hold your hand as for the missions you do, but not how you acheive them. Personally, clicking on pre-made dialogue and an interface for gathering supplies ruins a lot of the immersion - combat should be the priority.

I think *you*, my kind sir, are wrong. Steam even sells a bundle of TF2 + Garry's Mod if I recall correctly.

*checks* Yes, it says so on the garry's mod web site.

I knew what I was getting into, it just turned out different than I expected. There's a lot more RPG in the game than I anticipated.

I have plenty of experience with open-ended. Played all of the GTAs...Crysis - a game that didn't have all these extra elements to it, most of it was primarily the combat.

Anyways, I still am really early in the game, just wanted to express my initial thoughts...

All I'm really saying is that I want more fighting instead of scavenging or interacting...

Not anymore, but I played that so much back when I wasn't really a "gamer".

A fine game indeed. Difficult, though.

"Revolutionary" isn't exactly the word-choice I was intending, more along the lines of "GOTY". Just having an innovative concept doesn't automatically make the game. I'm not saying the game was bad, it was excellent. I just thought the praise was a bit bombastic and it was made out to be more than what it really was.

When it comes to video games, I'm not the brightest star in the constellation. I had trouble in many parts figuring out what exactly I needed to do, let alone executing it. Even in HL2, I have trouble with the physics puzzles, and figuring out how to get a door open, or something along those lines.

One spot, as I recall, involved a two panels at a 45 degree angle from a wall. I had already portaled myself past a barrier about ten feet high, and behind that barrier up high was a cannon firing those energy balls. Next to that cannon was the receptor that needed to be powered. Using those panels and a portal I had to redirect the energy ball to the receptor....I couldn't figure it out. So what I ended up doing was portaling it so that it hit the wall in a random direction and then began bouncing everywhere....including hitting the receptor.

To be honest, I didn't really see what the fuss was about. It was a simple puzzle game with some nice dialogue. But nothing revolutionary, as there were many prior puzzle games with a similarly exotic theme.

Hey, this is the same guy as "siddhartha211"...i have a bunch of accounts, whatever

Anyways, I've started playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. recently, and aside from the fact that it looks like crap on my low-end system, it's not been exactly the experience I was hoping for. I only got into a couple combat sequences so far, most of my time has been spent talking with NPCs, gathering goods from bodies or stashes, or traversing the terrain to reach an objective. Maybe it's a bit too early to jump to conclusions, but the way the story is presented - through bits and pieces from NPCs, isn't particularly the most effective way of communicating the plot. I always used to scorn linearity in my forum posts, but I never really played an FPS as open as this one. Perhaps it's just the RPG elements that I'm not too enthused about...I don't really have a problem with an open map as long as I don't have to run long distances (which I do) so much as the fact I need to gather supplies, ransack corpses, find food, vodka, bandages, talk to NPCs and get quests to do - all these extra tasks that take me away from the battlefield where I'd rather be.

Yeah, so, here goes another topic on linearity vs. open-endedness...