S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

[shamus21]

Any one at Hexus had the pre-order of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky yet, dropped into the the letter box.

There is a Patch out already 3-9-08 54meg not a good sign, looks like the same old problems with this lot.

[Ferral]

Eurogamer has a review up already for it. Apparently it is extremely difficult and certain items don't appear where they are supposed to. Go to get said item which just so happens to be in an extremely toxic area also.

Also at times you will have virtually no money making upgrades to weapons and required suits. This comes down to having to cross borders and you can either fight it out or haggle with the guards. Trouble is though they take all your gear except a pistol which is barely enough to survive. Another thing mentioned is that after giving up all your gear if you kill said guards / bandits and search their corpses your gear is gone!

Sounds to me it is extremely buggy already (same as the origional) from the box. Think I'm going to give this one a miss as the origional was nowhere near as good as I was hoping it to be.

[dangel]

From all the reviews i've read it sounds pretty flawed. Damn.

[TheReaFireblade]

Mine's on its way. Should get it tomorrow, hopefully

[noTHINGface]

Got mine yesterday. Had it on pre-order for ages since I loved the first game. Looks real pretty but I've not really been able to play it that much since I am unable to load my save games any more, crashes a plenty. There's a lot more combat and everything in the zone (that I've seen before it crashed) was plenty more viscous! I was torn apart by a pack of pigs on my first go.

I applied the 1.01 patch so I've un-installed and am re-installing now and will try without applying the patch. I didn't encounter too many problems running the first game but this aint stable at all...

[shamus21]

Got mine yesterday. Had it on pre-order for ages since I loved the first game. Looks real pretty but I've not really been able to play it that much since I am unable to load my save games any more, crashes a plenty. There's a lot more combat and everything in the zone (that I've seen before it crashed) was plenty more viscous! I was torn apart by a pack of pigs on my first go.

I applied the 1.01 patch so I've un-installed and am re-installing now and will try without applying the patch. I didn't encounter too many problems running the first game but this aint stable at all...

So 1.01 patch was more of a problem and did not realy fix anything.

[r_j_k_p]

is there any difference between the russian version and europe one?

reason i ask is because the russian one was released ages ago!

[noTHINGface]

So 1.01 patch was more of a problem and did not realy fix anything.

It does give a helping hand to performance and also assists the balancing a little, but it also introduces a killer bug that will crash the game and corrupt your saves(!) There's a thread on the GSC forums about this including some user generated scripts to stop the 1.01 corruption. There's also word on another patch being released today but nothing was confirmed in their forums.

I've been playing some more and its almost as if GSC/Deep Silver didn't bother with any optimisation at all! Some areas play smooth and look great but others, including the clear sky base camp can result in a slide show with the same settings.

Combat is flawed, NPCs pushing you out of vital cover during firefights, and like the first stalker it doesn't take many hits to be killed. It also doesn't hold the foreboding atmosphere as well as the previous title, sure it's still bleak but, I don't know, it doesn't 'feel' as dour and scary as the original in some way.

On the plus side, maps are much larger, visuals are improved, character models and animation is improved, there's much more 'life' in the zone and I can only hope that the next patch sorts things out before the modders can really get stuck into it.

[funke_munke]

I loved the first one and as before I'll be waiting a few months for them to iron out the bugs before purchasing

[noTHINGface]

I've managed to get into Cordon using the script fix and it is kinda growing on me. It's kinda nice to be back in Cordon, a prettier Cordon at that plus there are a few surprises there.

[TheReaFireblade]

Mine's on its way. Should get it tomorrow, hopefully

I didn't
It had better be here in the morning, or Royal Mail will be getting a proper earful

[noTHINGface]

I didn't
It had better be here in the morning, or Royal Mail will be getting a proper earful

Who did you order it with btw? I ordered with Game and got it morning of release (not trying to rub it in or anything)!

I've been paying with the weapon upgrades, its fun to mod up your favourite weapon but it's a touch annoying that you have to visit a weapon tech just to attach a scope to your gun. I'm not finding the faction war as intrusive as the reviews I've read made out. So far I've been perfectly able to take no part in the battles to get on with side missions, I like being able to just walk about the zone doing pretty much as I please and quite like the grind of doing weapon runs to the trader for extra poppy.

Another point lost though; why are mutants marked on your PDA map?! I can understand other stalkers/bandits but why blind dog packs etc?

I like to play without the cross hair and aim using iron sights. You can turn them off in the menu (or console) but next time you start the game they're back. Also, you cant aim down the iron sights of the pistol any more, that causes me some issues

[killersuzuki]

I resisted it @ £17.50 pre-order
don't tempt me with it, now it's more expensive
;}

[TheReaFireblade]

Who did you order it with btw? I ordered with Game and got it morning of release (not trying to rub it in or anything)!

Play. It's the RM's fault though, 'coz Play sent me an email in the early hours of Thursday morning to say it had been sent, so I assume it was sent pm Wednesday sometime - such that I thought it would get here Friday?

I never got it today either though

[AdamAnubis]

I've not played much yet, but so far enjoyed it. I've not fully grasped the whole weapons and how to upgrade, the trade system etc yet either. It looks nice though, certainly gives across the right atmosphere. I was expecting it to be really crap from the reviews i've seen, but so far not come across anything that has made me want to throw it out of the window

[CooperXS]

Really tempted cos first part was really great. Though I just bought it recently for 4 pounds del. at amazon and all the patches were already introduced.
I guess I'll wait a month or two and grab a cheaper copy. game should be pretty much matured by that time.