S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series Megathread: "A Typical Day In The Zone" - Games

[QUOTE=K1ngo64;47251493]Because it is a different experience every time you play it; especially with mods.[/QUOTE] That's it? Slightly altered experience and mods? That's really all there is to it?

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47251319]So, I finished Stalker: SoC last weekend after a friend gifted it to me after I mentioned I never played any of the games. So can someone explain me why is this game being praised like a newborn Jesus? I really want to know because I made my friend really sad after I told him the game is good on paper and shit on screen.[/QUOTE] 1. Shadow of Chernobyl is an old game. We're up to 8 years old now. It's very limited in scope without mods and a bit dead. An interesting experience the first time, sure - especially thanks to it's own engine, inventory systems, and generally how it is handled all around. 2. Did you get a Wishgranter ending? I did my first time and was rather upset at the game for thinking that it was my grand conclusion. In short, I shouldn't have rushed it. 3. How did you play it? Loud? Stealthy? Did you take time to take it in, or did you go gung-ho from point A to B? 4. Also understand that as a first venture and being eight years old in untested waters, SoC Vanilla is unbalanced as fuck. You'll be drowning in ammo and mowing people down if you have even basic conceptual understandings of shooters and inventory management. The game can rarely even threaten you and quicksave makes you even more God-Like. (There is another [B]very wrong[/B] end of the that spectrum though, we call that Misery.) That's my short version and I'm not even a fanatic. I'm sure others here can explain better than I. Another thing is, you went into it with hype. I went into it with a "wtf is this shit" after I picked it up on a Gamestop (wow PC game at Gamestop, thems the days) shelf and thought it looked interesting.

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47251537]That's it? Slightly altered experience and mods? That's really all there is to it?[/QUOTE] Maybe it's not for you then. Stalker is quite different compared to your usual fps games. It's world is cruel and gameplay is sometimes crappy, but the atmosphere and experience of being thrown in the middle of a dying world is great. The combat aspect of stalker games (mainly CoP, because rest have shit AI) is still my favorite of all games. You shoot someone in the head = he dies, you get shot in the head = you die. Great in it's simplicity.

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47251319]So, I finished Stalker: SoC last weekend after a friend gifted it to me after I mentioned I never played any of the games. I was not happy. The game ultimately disappointed me. After all that praise, I expected atleast a good game and I didn't even get that. Concept is cool as fuck, don't get me wrong. But almost everything else in the game felt meh at best. So can someone explain me why is this game being praised like a newborn Jesus? I really want to know because I made my friend really sad after I told him the game is good on paper and shit on screen.[/QUOTE] Only the die-hard fans will love it on a first play through. My best advice: Play it at least 2 times more, on Master difficulty. Read up on what the endings are and how to achieve them. There's different endings. It's easy to be fooled by a bad ending when there's way more. Also, installing some mod like ZRP won't hurt, either. It'll get rid of annoyances in the game (crashes, hold ups, micro-stutter etc.) and make the game more fluid. Updating graphics for a immersed playthrough wont hurt either, I suggest SWO 3.1 for a grim experience, where as SWTC gives you a really bright and lush zone. Last but not least, your 4th playthrough: Get some cool mods. Try them out. Common / popular recommendations are AMK, Lurk, OGSE, Freeplay mods such as Dooms Freeplay mod, Autumn Aurora 2, hell, try Complete just to experience the broad taste stalker comes in. Stalker is just one slice of bread. It's up to you to decide what to use as topping.

[QUOTE=Doit4tehlulz;47251529]Well, name a few games that you loved.....I'm genuinely interested.[/QUOTE] HL saga, ES games (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim), Fallout NV, Portal 1&2, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and some more.

Downloaded Sky Reclamation and it's the only time I've experienced bugs galore when I haven't before with Clear Sky. Now, the Makarov icons appear as nothing more than a small box in my inventory. Also, I used that pump-action American shotgun (whatever it's called). It's supposed to take 12x70 ammo (shot)... instead it took the 12x76 slugs. Whenever I fired at people it did absolutely no damage. I also couldn't switch to the shot ammo.

[QUOTE=LoNer1;47251577]My best advice: Play it at least 2 times more, on Master difficulty. Read up on what the endings are and how to achieve them. There's different endings. It's easy to be fooled by a bad ending when there's way more.[/QUOTE] I don't think two playthroughs vanilla are needed after a first. Only two in total, I'd say. A blind one is good for the first run, but you'll wind up like me and get a Wishshitter ending and be dissatisfied. Also hardest difficult required for technical reasons I don't feel like explaining. A second run should be aiming to get one of the two actual endings on the hardest difficulty. Further runs should be for mods. Start off with one small in scope, and branch out to full on Slavic Insanity Simulators like SOUP. If you go into something absurd like that without really, REALLY understanding the game mechanics, you're going to get fucked sideways with a diet sausage. I could almost recommend breaks between the games too, because there's a leap from SoC to CS, and a smaller leap from CS to CoP in terms of mechanics and AI. Artifacts get totally overhauled too, as well as means to hunt them. As is well known here, SoC is a great introduction, CS is the neglected and unwanted middle brother, and CoP has the excellent foundation.

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47251584]HL saga, ES games (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim), Fallout NV, Portal 1&2, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and some more.[/QUOTE] Stalker is the game you're searching for, you've not found the click yet, though. I've read a nice article about STALKER. Its from a while back. The author said the click wasn't there the first 4 times. After the 5th, he instantly loved the game. For some it's on their first play. Others will need to repeatedly come back to it to finish it / try it once more. It does have a certain uniqueness to it that makes you come back. Just try it a few times more. Don't expect a lot from the game, like others said, it's pretty old already. But, it'll surprise you unlike any other arcadey go-to-this-point-to-assasinate-X game.

I wouldn't say I was hyped. I barely get hyped about anything (HL3 is an exception). I expected the game being able to hold it's own pants up. That's not much. And it still failed me. I did two vanilla runs. One with the wishgranter ending, second with the good ones. And for the info, I don't take mods as a legit answer why the game is good. Mods are supposed to enhance the experience, not make it.

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47251719]I wouldn't say I was hyped. I barely get hyped about anything (HL3 is an exception). I expected the game being able to hold it's own pants up. That's not much. And it still failed me. I did two vanilla runs. One with the wishgranter ending, second with the good ones. And for the info, I don't take mods as a legit answer why the game is good. Mods are supposed to enhance the experience, not make it.[/QUOTE] You played through the whole game twice and you're saying you didn't like it? It must have pulled you in to some point if you even finished it once. [editline]3rd March 2015[/editline] And you still didn't say what you didn't like.

[QUOTE=proch;47251327]I love stalker but honestly that doesn't make me care for Ukraine And I wouldn't expect anyone who enjoys, say, the Witcher, to like Poland, on the other hand. In fact I'd discourage it.[/QUOTE] I guess we differ in that then.

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47251584]HL saga, ES games (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim), Fallout NV, Portal 1&2, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and some more.[/QUOTE] Play it with an overhaul mod now. You may like the sequels better. Clear Sky is very fun, but plays a lot differently by adding the ability to join factions. Call Of Pripyat is immersive as fuck in my opinion and I like it a bit more than SoC.

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47251319]So, I finished Stalker: SoC last weekend after a friend gifted it to me after I mentioned I never played any of the games. I was not happy. The game ultimately disappointed me. After all that praise, I expected atleast a good game and I didn't even get that. Concept is cool as fuck, don't get me wrong. But almost everything else in the game felt meh at best. So can someone explain me why is this game being praised like a newborn Jesus? I really want to know because I made my friend really sad after I told him the game is good on paper and shit on screen.[/QUOTE] To start with, I just want to say that I, along with most people here I'm sure, respect your opinion. I will, however, now try to explain why people keep giving STALKER so much praise. This is my opinion on the matter, and I'm sure some of the more experienced stalkers in here will be able to explain in further detail what truly makes this game (series) so unique. First things first, the atmosphere of the game is absolutely and positively incredible. Everything from the attention to detail in the level design to the music and ambient noise really sells the zone as a real, dangerous, and scary place. From the moment you step out of that bunker in the first part of the game you are immersed and fearful for your life. Second, the very impressive a-life mechanic. In most open world games, like the elder scrolls, the world is more or less static unless directly influenced by the player himself. Nothing in the towns of oblivon, for instance, really changes unless you decide to murder people or complete some sort of event. In the end, the world revolves around YOU, which in a game trying to make you feel like the chosen one isin't necessarily a bad thing, but it does make the world feel dead and artificial. This is not the case in STALKER. In stalker, you are nobody, just one insignificant life among all the other insignificant fates who inhabit the zone which helps sell the misery, fear, and the dread of the place. Sure, you are 'the marked one' but the people, mutants , and the zone in general sure don't give a shit. You are not the center of the universe, you are not in control, and the STALKER franchise is here to remind you of that fact. To emphazise this, the a-life mechanic essentially allows all the npc characters and wildlife to just go about their daily routine without you having to be around. You can walk by a camp of stalkers one day, and return to see a bloodsucker munching on their corpses that same night. A household full of bandits might be taken out by a lone wanderer while you're out doing god knows what in some hell hole. The various factions might have multiple skirmishes without you ever realizing. And all that is left in the game that even hints of this happening is the corpses you find and the sound of gunfire in the distance. It's incredibly unique, and I can't name another game that manages to pull this off. Third is the brutal gameplay. Although you are in a place with mutants and anomalies that just casually piss on the laws of nature, you are still (again) just a guy. You are no super hero. You will die if someone shoots you... There is no regenerating health here, medical supplies are rare and expensive, and even if you manage to survive an encounter with some trigger happy bandits you might just bleer to death. You die extremly quickly in this game since the combat has a higher focus on realism. And sure, you can get better armor later in the game, but even then you still die quickly and no exoskeleton is going to protect you from a headshot. Hell, the gunplay actually simulates stuff like the bullets drop and speed, so no hitscan weapons here. And since you will mostly be using old, used weapons that have been imported into the zone from the outside world, you will likely have your weapon jam on you at the most unfortunate time. And with all of that going on, you'll still need to carry food and anti rad medicin with you so that you dont starve to death or get fried by radiation. The game focuses on putting you in 'here and now' moments where you have to take difficult decsions. For instance, maybe you come across a dead bandit with supplies you could sell for a profit, which you need in order to get that much needed armor upgrade... but taking his stuff would mean that you are overencumbered and can't run for as long as you normally can, which puts you at a disadvantage in a gunfight. That's a signicant choice that drastically changes how you play the game and how you approach encounters with hostile npc and the game is full of these gameplay moments, across various situations! In Skyrim you just insta travel to the nearest town and unload 60 kg of cheese unto some poor merchant. That's boring. So, that's why I believe STALKER is so very special. Sure it's janky, the english localization is hilariously bad, and it has loading screens between areas. But it's still a unique and incredible experince that no other game can provide you with. Sorry for the long and poorly written wall of text.

i need to play stalker on master some time

[QUOTE=simkas;47251733]You played through the whole game twice and you're saying you didn't like it? It must have pulled you in to some point if you even finished it once. [editline]3rd March 2015[/editline] And you still didn't say what you didn't like.[/QUOTE] I'd like explain properly but I'm on a phone and FP performs poorly on phone. For one, I expected game about fucked up shit and fighting fucked up shit in immersive world filled with feeling of helplessness and despair. Instead I get to be a motherfucking errand boy, fighting 99% of the time humans in a world where the biggest threat were humans. Whyyy? And the worst part was that some parts WERE exactly how I pictured them. Namely Lab X18, Lab X16 and the underground area where you turned off the Brain Scorcher. Those parts were awesome! Creepy, immersive with strong feeling of "This shit ain't right!" And after each of those, back to shooting humans it was, yay.

B-but ... it says you're on Linux, chrome ..

[QUOTE=LoNer1;47252158]B-but ... it says you're on Linux, chrome ..[/QUOTE] FP seems to fuck up the OS recognition most of the time when I'm on phone, no idea why.

Well FWIW the game didn't click for me when it came out in 2007 - I think I was busy with Bioshock, Crysis and MW. I didn't get into STALKER until I played Metro 2033 and loved it - then discovered 4A games was made from veterans of GSC, who made STALKER. I did play the games out of order - when I decided to try again I played CoP, since there was a lot of talk about Misery coming out. Just to set the scene, let me give some detail: In Zaton, walking through the small area that has the building with cartoon type characters on them It's getting dark, and a thunderstorm is rolling in Oh shit, a couple mutants are charging right at me! Empty the one clip I have from my assault rifle, and 2 more are still coming switch to pistol, finish off the last two I loot a nearby building and find some ammo and bandages rain is falling hard, I see lighting everywhere cue the creepy music I take in the atmosphere and reflect on what it actually happening I realize I've only just begun this adventure Holy shit I love this game..... Hooked ever since. As much as I love the Half Life series, I gladly pass up a new installment of Gordon's adventures just to see a fully realized, fully funded, and beautifully executed STALKER 2.

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47252064]I'd like explain properly but I'm on a phone and FP performs poorly on phone. For one, I expected game about fucked up shit and fighting fucked up shit in immersive world filled with feeling of helplessness and despair. Instead I get to be a motherfucking errand boy, fighting 99% of the time humans in a world where the biggest threat were humans. Whyyy? And the worst part was that some parts WERE exactly how I pictured them. Namely Lab X18, Lab X16 and the underground area where you turned off the Brain Scorcher. Those parts were awesome! Creepy, immersive with strong feeling of "This shit ain't right!" And after each of those, back to shooting humans it was, yay.[/QUOTE] Judging by your words, you expected Stalker to be a russian Half Life with lots of creepy stuff. But it's not. Thankfully.

sounds to me like you pre-hyped yourself

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47252064]I'd like explain properly but I'm on a phone and FP performs poorly on phone. For one, I expected game about fucked up shit and fighting fucked up shit in immersive world filled with feeling of helplessness and despair. Instead I get to be a motherfucking errand boy, fighting 99% of the time humans in a world where the biggest threat were humans. Whyyy? And the worst part was that some parts WERE exactly how I pictured them. Namely Lab X18, Lab X16 and the underground area where you turned off the Brain Scorcher. Those parts were awesome! Creepy, immersive with strong feeling of "This shit ain't right!" And after each of those, back to shooting humans it was, yay.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't sweat it. Yeah the Xlabs are definitely pretty creepy and I'd love to see more of that stuff. Stalker's a pretty niche game honestly. My first playthrough didn't even survive that long because I ended up with completely game-breaking bugs that prevented me from traveling into the army warehouses. Ended up still loving it though for some reason, despite the bugs.

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47252064]I'd like explain properly but I'm on a phone and FP performs poorly on phone. For one, I expected game about fucked up shit and fighting fucked up shit in immersive world filled with feeling of helplessness and despair. Instead I get to be a motherfucking errand boy, fighting 99% of the time humans in a world where the biggest threat were humans. Whyyy? And the worst part was that some parts WERE exactly how I pictured them. Namely Lab X18, Lab X16 and the underground area where you turned off the Brain Scorcher. Those parts were awesome! Creepy, immersive with strong feeling of "This shit ain't right!" And after each of those, back to shooting humans it was, yay.[/QUOTE] Well really you set that expectation up or got the game poorly explained to you. The zone does threaten you on all fronts but expecting to deal with mostly mutants and have a 100% horror game is not the way to go at all.

I personally dealt with more mutants than humans in my SoC time.

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47252064]i made up a bunch of expectattions for this game without playing it and it totally didnt meet them wtf?[/QUOTE] Basically what I'm getting from your posts. Stalker is probably ruined for you now, but in the future don't go in to a game with expectations based on other people's opinions, especially if they present it as the best game ever.

I prefer the humans being the dominant firefights. Part of why I like stalker is the pacing, the horror elements never feel overplayed or exhausted to me.

You know, for a game called Clear Sky. It sure as shit rains grenades everyday.

Okay, to anyone who took their time to explain why the game is so praised, thank you. With lot of you, I also agree. Lot of gameplay mechanics were done right. But also lot of them were also wrong and annoying. [B]Please, keep in mind that I'll be criticising the game for what [I]I[/I] didn't like. This is only my own opinion how I see things. So, please, don't get offended as it isn't meaning of this post. And if you feel like sending me hate messages, death threats and such, do it via PM and don't flood this thread. Thanks.[/B] Humans main enemies despite the fact we were located in super dangerous zone where fucked up shit happens. Humans were fucking everywhere. And to add cherry on top of this shit cake, NPC respawned after loading the game or entering the level, completely fucking over the whole "NPCs have their own life". Sure they do. Actually, their lives are so interesting that the will respawn them and make them walk by their own corpses. Really immersive. Oh, you cleared this heavily guarded camp and stored your shit there so you could go and sell the loot? Tough luck, chump. The thing about being and only being dude which no one cares for. That's right, I am only some dude. That fucking dude who got from old jacket and shitty Makarov to G36 and Desert Eagle-wielding, exoskeleton-wearing motherfucker who murdered half of the oh so dangerous Zone on his own so you might as well start giving a shit and stop treating me like I don't which way to hold a gun. Exploration? Oh, you found this well hidden loot crate but you didn't know it was here? Well then fuck off, mate, nothing for you here. So you give me sandbox game and then you ultimately discourages me from exploring on my own? Fucking A+. Despite the large weaponry and quite thoroughly worked up gun customisation, the guns are dumbed, both damage and accuracy wise, down for cheap game progression feel, rendering majority of firearms useless. Anomalies are nothing more but death traps. Several types, all do the same, decrease health. Wow, how original is that. Most of the time their placement feels random like devs were throwing darts at the game map where to put them. And NPCS doesn't gove a shit about them. I literally in one specific case watched an NPC calmly walk into anomaly and die to it. Artifacts are apparently hot shit here that everyone wants. Then why are they practically lying on the road. Why are bandits attacking someone and then don't even bother taking the artifacts? And why are they even fighting? They could just go, collect artifacts, sell them and swim in dosh. Two god damn traders in whole game. Wanna sell shit? Time backtrack around the whole fucking world and fight all the shit you already fought. I'm fine with low inventory limit that encourages careful inventory management. What's that? Weapon and armor degradation without abbility to repair it? Oh well, guess you gotta throw these expensive pieces and all the ammo for it away and replace them with shitty, inaccurate, half-damaged weapons. Brilliant. And finally, the complete killer of this game for me: the story. -Bring this from here -Bring that from there -Go here and bring that guy more shit from all around the map -Go there and flip some switch, Iunno -Go in there and the end. No one tells you properly why, no one explains you anything and you can't even read the documents you deliver. You're barely more than a hired delivery guy, how fucking immersive that is. You wouldn't even know YOU are Strelok of it wasn't for that one random mission to receive location of the decoder. Oh, so I'm Strelok? Fucking anticlimatic really. And the ending... Anyone of you ever heard of [I]Deus Ex Machina[/I]? Let me explain. Basically in ancient Greece, when play in theatre would start getting really complicated, seemingly almost unsolvable by a mere mortal, an actor representing a god (deus) would be lowered into the scene using crane (machina, explaining everything, why, when, who and where. Sounds familiar? I'm sure it does because that's literally ending of SoC. 15 minutes of some superbeing talking his jaw off, hitting the final nail on the coffin this game put itself into for me. All of this makes for a pile of shit this game represents. Good ideas, retarded implementation. And the most used contrary argument I've heard is "mods", followed by "settings". Sure, setting is good and feels like it has lot of interesting things to tell and explain except no one tells you anything at all. And saying the game isn't that bad modded is like saying drinking HF is not that bad if you replace it with water. Sorry for all of this hate text, I just wanted to specify what I don't like. It took me almost 2 hours to do so and even now, there's much more I could sy and specify but won't because again, shitty phone. 1:45am. What am I doing with my life?

[QUOTE=Dom Pyroshark;47253241]And finally, the complete killer of this game for me: the story. -Bring this from here -Bring that from there -Go here and bring that guy more shit from all around the map -Go there and flip some switch, Iunno -Go in there and the end.[/QUOTE] 90% of what you mentioned can be fixed with mods, but let me touch on this piece in particular. [B]Half-Life:[/B] Gordon, do the things! The important thing. Y'know. Oh wow, G-Man. Meta shit. End. [B]Half Life 2:[/B] See above. [B]Morrowind:[/B] A harrowing tale of self-discovering as a reincarnated God in which you do fetch quests and kill stuff so you can finally do the big bad kill stuff. [B]Oblivion:[/B] A harrowing tale of self-discovery as a shitty errand boy to a dragon guy in which you do fetch quests and kill stuff so you can watch a cutscene of dragon guy doing the big bad kill stuff. [B]Skyrim:[/B] A harrowing tale of self-discovery as a Demigod in which you do fetch quests and kill stuff so you can finally do the big bad kill stuff. [B]Fallout 3:[/B] A riveting tale of self-discovery to track down Dad or something in which you do fetch quests and kill stuff so you can finally confront the big bad. [B]Fallout NV: [/B] A riveting tale of self-discovery in which you track down some guy that shot you or something and try to find your past, and wow look a Casino city and then there's some more disjointed stuff at the end, the end. [sp]Disclaimer, I loved all the above games.[/sp] A game's story/plot/background/universe/lemon-colored panties are not reflective of gameplay at all. I've played many games in which the gameplay eventually boiled down to raw sewage, but I kept trucking because the story was good. I've occasionally had the inverse. Just sayin'. :v: A lot of what STALKER has story-wise is definitely inbetween the lines and not easily groomed on a single run.

[QUOTE=Doom14;47253324]90% of what you mentioned can be fixed with mods, but let me touch on this piece in particular. [B]Half-Life:[/B] Gordon, do the things! The important thing. Y'know. Oh wow, G-Man. Meta shit. End. [B]Half Life 2:[/B] See above. [B]Morrowind:[/B] A harrowing tale of self-discovering as a reincarnated God in which you do fetch quests and kill stuff so you can finally do the big bad kill stuff. [B]Oblivion:[/B] A harrowing tale of self-discovery as a shitty errand boy to a dragon guy in which you do fetch quests and kill stuff so you can watch a cutscene of dragon guy doing the big bad kill stuff. [B]Skyrim:[/B] A harrowing tale of self-discovery as a Demigod in which you do fetch quests and kill stuff so you can finally do the big bad kill stuff. [B]Fallout 3:[/B] A riveting tale of self-discovery to track down Dad or something in which you do fetch quests and kill stuff so you can finally confront the big bad. [B]Fallout NV: [/B] A riveting tale of self-discovery in which you track down some guy that shot you or something and try to find your past, and wow look a Casino city and then there's some more disjointed stuff at the end, the end. [sp]Disclaimer, I loved all the above games.[/sp] A game's story/plot/background/universe/lemon-colored panties are not reflective of gameplay at all. I've played many games in which the gameplay eventually boiled down to raw sewage, but I kept trucking because the story was good. I've occasionally had the inverse. Just sayin'. :v: A lot of what STALKER has story-wise is definitely inbetween the lines and not easily groomed on a single run.[/QUOTE] None of these kept you completely out pf what was currently going on which then they tried not to fix by using cheap, millenia old theatre technique of explaining shit

now i understand that's your opinion and it may be wrong on several occasions, like: - the game doesn't hold your hand. it literally says "this is who you are, this is your task, good luck". from the moment you step outside sidorovich's underground lair you are literally free to do as you please. there is no inclination whatsoever to instantly follow the game's story, and you don't even have to, if you want you can roleplay an artifact hunter or go shoot up a couple of bandits. choice is the key thing here, and the game never stops giving it to you. - NPCs don't "respawn" in the sense that you make it to be. there are always roving troops of bandits, military, monolith, etc. each one has a different name (you get extra points if you find gordon freeman) and will do different things, such as patrol, fight, or hold territory. likewise, if you clear a military area, bandits will eventually come across it and make it their own. the factions that are present in clear sky and call of pripyat expand on this a lot better than soc does. - you can trade with just about anyone in the game, it only depends if they're interested in your shit or not. otherwise, you can trade with sidorovich, barman and the scientists at yantar and all will give you a decent price for your junk. these three also act as a main source of sidequests that you can take on, which mostly do revolve around "kill X, gather Y". - the story. again, the game does not hold your hand, that's why there are like 10 different endings, 90% of them being wrong/bad endings. it's up to you to make the journey to complete the story. my first time i forgot all about going back to visit doctor and went straight to chernobyl and was like "what the fuck happened to strelok?" second time, i made sure to return to him and shit made sense. - "anomalies are nothing more than death traps" well yeah, that's why they're anomalies, mathematical impossibilities that defy the laws of science. freak forces of nature, byproducts of the zone that you shouldn't get yourself tangled up with, this is kind of obvious. - the weapons: this depends more on the difficulty you play on than anything else (the weapons themselves have an impact as well, for example a makarov, which is known to be a piece of crap pistol in real life, is also a piece of crap ingame. it jams easily and often has to be repaired or replaced). also, bullets don't shoot perfectly straight if you are shooting from a far distance, that's the power of gravity. again, it's your opinions and i can respect that. it won't make me think anything lesser of you, but i hope that some day you can get back into the series. perhaps you should give metro a try? imagine if stalker was more linear and focused more on the storytelling.