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Just buy this game and see for yourself how great it is. Yes, it does require a beefy system, I'm running an E8400 at 3.4Ghz and a 4870 1gb and 6GB DDR2 1066 RAM and i average about 45 FPS (all settings high w/ DX10.1) sometimes higher and sometimes lower.
It took a while to get the hang of this game, it's confusing at first and it is dull for the first hour or so. I got this game free with my video card but i have to share my opinion with the public to get more people to buy this awesome game.
I have played for about 4-5 hours so far and i had a hard time convincing myself to take a break. Once you get the controls and have played for an hour or so you start to realize how awesome this game really is.
Graphics are top-notch. I have patch 1.5.0.7 installed and i have not encountered any crashes or instability.
You won't regret it.
A few pointers can save you some grief and make the game more fun.At the time I installed it, there was one patch available, which I installed. There are many places to explore, objects to uncover, and interactions with the game's many characters.Being more of a fan of mindless run-and-gun FPS games, this is not my favorite game. To me, Clear Sky is a thoughtful improvement over Chernobyl and is the better of the two games, but Clear Sky also capitalizes on the first game. As soon as you accomplish one aspect of a mission, you are immediately pointed toward the next step and the shooting is almost non-stop. The things I personally didn't care for in SCS were the annoying (invisible) radiation fields that you could stumble into as well as the amount of non-fighting game play that is required.
I went from mission to mission with very little exploring. One in particular was just stunning. I had no money and never did any trading. Aside from what it takes to accomplish a mission, I don't usually pay much attention to story line or character development, so I won't speak to that. I highly recommend having a look at one of the guides available on the internet. It was tough for me because, having no protection from bullets, I was easily killed and spent a lot of time watching the "LOADING." screen. You could see the bolts of lighting flash in the sky and the entire landscape would flash in harsh bright black and white with stark directional shadows. Changing it too much would ruin it and disappoint those who got Clear Sky hoping to get more of what Chernobyl offered.I admit I did a terrible job of playing the game, so probably didn't get the level of enjoyment possible by someone who immerses themselves in it more deeply.
The extra time consists largely of traveling from one place to another, but this format also facilitates a more complex scheme of interaction between the player and the game environment. Sound effects and voice acting were also top shelf. As with those examples, SCS is a long game as compared to many more linear FPS games. The best weather effect I've seen in any game to date.Depth of field was a nice effect and worked smoothly without being an annoyance.
I finished the game on the VETERAN difficulty level without ever having a suit with any protection from radiation or bullets. I had video options set to max and the graphics were definitely on the leading edge of what's commercially available. There is a huge amount of detail to the environment, excellent lighting effects, and weather so real you can almost feel it. STALKER Clear Sky (SCS) is a sandbox shooter in the style of Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2. The game allows user saves, including quick saves and it allows you to change the difficulty level mid-game which is a rarity.I recently finished Far Cry 2 and thought SCS was a far better game in terms of variety, surprises, and action. SCS compares favorably with Fallout 3 in that the area of exploration is huge and each place is not just more of the same (as seemed to be the case with Far Cry 2). I prefer non-stop shooting, but that's not a strike against the game so much as saying that this game targets those gamers who like to get more engaged in the RPG aspects of the story and environment. Toward the end, the game seems to slip into more of a traditional FPS in that the missions (and shoot-outs) occur one after the other.
The game does not load very fast.So, if you liked the first STALKER, Fallout 3, or Far Cry 2, you'll probably like SCS, which is the best (in my opinion) of all of them. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that a huge effort went into creating the STALKER games (including Shadow of Chernobyl) and the outcome of that effort was an impressively detailed and well orchestrated adventure. It doesn't have a long learning curve, but take time to learn about the vests and the artifacts and what you can get by trading and upgrading weapons, etc. I had no technical trouble with the game under Vista x64 running on a core 2 duo with 4GB ram and dual SLI-linked 8800GTS 512 GPUs. The lightning storms are impressive. Also, I really liked the environment better during these sequences. The manual could be better, but there are guides on the internet that make up for it.
T. WELL, I PLAYED THE FIRST STALKER, AND THOUGHT WHY NOT. F. I`M HAVING A HARD TIME GETTING INTO THIS ONE. IT DOES`NT HAVE THE SAME SPUNK AS THE FIRST ONE DID.T. N. CANDYMANKIRK
For me, this ruined the game and it made its way to my desk drawer. But this game is HARD.
The graphics are pretty good and really make you feel like your in a post apocalyptic world. But thats where the fun ended for me.
This game didnt last long on my "being played" list. I have an above average machine and can run crysis on high so thats not an issue either.
I consider myself more of a casual gamer and I don't mean Peggle. I play games for story, not so much online either.
Their is NO learning curve to this game, you start as a weakling with no money (which is insanely hard to get in this game) to upgrade and fight against enemies who would (in a sandbox game) be at the end of the level right at the start. I like a challenge, but I don't like to be forced into it when I'm still learning the game.
Were they playing the same game I was. Voice acting is so bad, it's almost funny. with maxed out graphics and great frame rates. AI is terrible. There's a reason for that.Firstly, I have a pretty nice gaming rig, 2.8 quad core, 64 bit rig with 8 gigs of ram, and a 9800 GX2 Nvidia card. I am running Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3, all the new games, etc. I can't understand the positive reviews on this game. The NPCs you can talk to just constantly move their mouths when talking, like you are watching a Japanese movie badly dubbed in English The lips movement does not match the voice.
Stick with games from well known developers like Valve or Bethesda. The characters all look the same. At least you know you will get a quality product instead of something clearly second rate. The frame rate for Clear Sky was terrible running with the eye candy on. No more trusting positive reviews for me on games that get discounted a few months after release. The NPCs just go where they want without regard for you.
I get over 200 fps playing LOTR online with maxed out graphics in some areas and around 100 fps average most everywhere else. Had to go to medium graphics and it was still a poor frame rate. This means you are constantly pushed off ramps from behind, ending up stuck in the swamp, shoved out of your hiding spot, or falling off such and such because your NPC team mates walk right through you, pushing you out of their way like you're not even there.All in all even though I picked this up at a bargain, I might has well have flushed my money down the toilet. This game would be like an old Godzilla movie compared to Lord Of The Rings if we were talking cinema, speaking of quality.
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