Heh, you sure take advantage of that widescreen monitor, don’t you. :)
Yeah, especially when watching Ong Bak 2 in 1080p, all that sweat and blood of Tony Jaa, uuuargh! : )
Damn, your prices are better than ours. :(
I started the game and it’s very strange so far. Five minutes into the game and I’ve already found an AK-74. Soon after I found a stash with the equivalent of an HK-416 (one of the best weapons in the first game). I don’t get it, I’m used dealing with enemies only with a pistol and crappy shotguns in the beggining of STALKER games, and suddenly the whole weapon progression has gone mad. And what’s up with the crouch-move animation of other stalkers?
I’m not saying the game is good or bad (I can’t really say, I haven’t played a lot yet), I’m just surprised. The UI is much improved, I haven’t seen a bug, and the engine seems more optimized (at the same setting I wouldn’t get the same performance with Clear Sky). Still love the combat, I’m playing in veteran and if I don’t use cover I die very quickly.
Two games is enough with the silly weapon progression. Makes much more sense to start with a rifle. You’ll be short on ammo for anything other than the 5.45x39mm guns though, at least for a while.
Veteran was good without too many grenades getting chucked around, but the whole game has less combat against humans so it’s easier in that regard. The design has changed a bit. More relaxed.
So it has taken me a couple of fights to get used to medkits not taking full effect immediately. Also, are shotguns more powerful in CoP? I never really used them in the previous games once I could consistently keep my assault rifles stocked with bullets. But I have found shotguns to be particularly devastating during the early goings in CoP. I shot one bandit with the regular pump-action that sent him flying ten feet into the air. Serves him right for trying to steal my artifact.
Not sure if this problem affects everyone but for some of us the gun and footstep sounds are extremely low volume or can not be heard at all. A Japanese guy has released a fix on his website (http://arikai.com/)
The file - http://arikai.com/stalker/files/cop_sound_volume_mod.7z
Extract the file and copy the “gamedata” directory to your main STALKER COP directory.
$10 off as a loyalty bonus? And the game was only $30 anyway? After all the crappy high prices for new games and DRM bitching, GSC have just ensured I’ll buy every game they ever release.
i was up until about 2 am last night playing this.
i had forgotten how tense this series is
great atmosphere
They’re not doing you a favor, just being fair about it. The engine is mostly the same and they didn’t spend a single minute fixing the wonky animations or harmless glitches that have been there since 2007. Kind of like an expansion pack.
But it is much more stable and bug-free, not to mention well-designed and packs enough content in there to easily make it worth $40.
Well, it’s called Stalker “subtitle”, instead of Stalker 2. CS and CoP are from the beginning “expandalone”, games between expansions of the original game and full blown sequels, and also with price between an expansion and a full game.
Now, if only the publisher of Bioshock 2 would have the same honesty and put a more sensible tag price for their “expansion” (same engine, same art assets, overall the same mechanics).
Fuck yeah, man! Next, let us rage against Activision and Infinity Ward for having the audacity to charge us $60 for Modern Warfare 2! Same engine, a few reused assets, and same mechanics as Modern Warfare 1. It is an expansion pack at best!
p.s. Don’t get me started on Gears of War 2…
I am not sure if you are sarcastic or not, but he has a point. Bioshock 2 especially is just an expansion really.
I was being sarcastic, because Naeblis’s and your contention that Bioshock 2 is a mere expansion as far as new content goes is ridiculous.
If you are gonna say that, then you’d have to call sequels like Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War 2, Mass Effect 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Dirt 2, Overlord 2, and Assassin’s Creed 2 expansion packs as well. Why, all of the above use the same engine, reuse some assets, and have similar mechanics!
Give me a fucking break.
I consider Modern Warfare 2, AC2, ME2… to have so much new content they I do consider them full blown sequels. From what I played of Bioshock 2 (ok I admit, just first few hours) it does feel more like an expansion. I haven’t played the rest of what you listed.
Take it easy.
Oh come on!
/rolleyes.
Yeah, there are some sequels that improve and change from the original game more, and others change and improve less, but especially Bioshock 2 is giving me a expansion feeling. A very fun expansion, with even more visceral combat and intriguing plot, but still an expansion. Same engine, with same models and textures, same type of scenario with the same layout philosophy, same overall style, enemies and plasmids that appear again, same turrets and cameras to hack, same money system, same shops, same upgrade machines, same consumable items, same Big Daddies to fight (ok, one new), same Vitachambers, etc.
I suppose you could say they are following the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” motto but it feels like Bioshock 1.5.
Sorry for the offtopic, there is a nice Bioshock 2 thread down there…
I don’t know, I liked the early encounters in the first two games. You had to improvise tactics with your pistol and sawed off shotgun, and, most of all, not having all the cool toys from the beggining encouraged a sort of exploration that ,coupled with how the environments in stalker are, was a big part of why I liked the games.
I also enjoyed quite a lot every encounter against humans, do they come more often later on in CoP?
Yes they do but nothing near Clear Sky levels. You’ll also still have more exploration than you can shake a sawed-off shotgun at. Technically a rifle isn’t the best choice against mutants so there is still some weapon progression.
Care to expand on that without any spoilers whatsoever? The thing I loved about SoC was the atmosphere and the setting, to the point where I almost didn’t notice the bugs.
I just started playing today, and I am loving it.
Minor Quest and Exploration Related Spoilers:
The first mission I took was to find the missing Stalker named Tremor, ok, I thought, thats a fine place to start. Find a dude. No big deal. On my way to meet up with Grouse, the guy who’s going to help you find the kid, a voice comes on saying, “Emission imminent.” Well fuck. I remember emissions from AMK, and they are pretty much instant death to anything not under shelter. Grouse is at least 100 feet away, I’d imagine it’s 50/50 whether this quest leads to cover or not.
Either way, the Emission overrides my current quest, with a new quest to “Find some goddamn cover” and point out the nearest cover. Oddly enough, the nearest cover is a 100 long foot chasm in the middle of the goddamn ground. I run over, not knowing how long after the announcement the actual emission occurs. It’s at least 100 feet deep, and there are rock shelves that make a nice little hop down to the bottom. As I descend, I begin to realize, there is no way to leave the same way I came. Balls. When I reach the bottom there is a car with a locked metal box in that gets added to my inventory, next to that, an entrance to a cave. The ground begins to shake and sky is going red. So I make a break for the cave. This is when I hear the familiar growl of a snork.
The cave is tiny. more cramped that most caves you’ll find in this kind of game, and my flash light is mostly pathetic. The forks in the cave could obviously lead you in circles, and I imagine that we’re not dealing with a lone snork. I pulled out the sawed off shotgun, and remembered what it was like to have real tension in a game.
End Spoilers