Finally secured Limansk. I backtracked to scavenge the dead guys. I figured I can also change my load (I want to bring my SEVA suit). Imagine my surprise when it turned out Limansk is yet another point of no return. Not....cool. I'll have to do the whole thing again.
For one thing, it wasn't easy to backtrack from the final stage of Limansk only to find out the entrance to the city was blocked off.
One reason why I like Call of Pripyat better. Its point of no return is literally the last mission of the game.
Lost my Rookie when I triggered the damn Sectopod trying to get a good shot on an Archon..................It was a bad day.....but only manged to lose only one.
I went for the finish and it ended with many frustrating moments (esp at the hospital). But, I finally got through. Thank you, quicksaves. He He.
And...... STALKER: Clear Sky does have free-explore after finishing the game. Woot!
It took me a while to figure out it was Strelok with the electrical halo on his head. I should pay more attention to the dialogue. ;) Anyway, it was easier to track him at night.
I had two FT-200Ms in my possession when I went after Strelok. I had to drop both because of weight concerns. Plus, they were the least-effective weapons in my possession against the Monolith (bad recoil). Now that I finished the game, I was hoping they'd turn up. Nope. Both are gone.
So, I didn't take a picture, but I did take a video. Guess who played some World War 3, @BassMan ;)
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Yeah, I finally got to play a match tonight too. What a disaster with the servers so far. It's pretty good, but I had difficulty seeing the enemies (overcast Berlin map). Everything kind of just blends into the grey and brown colour pallet. I didn't have any scopes either to help. Optimization seems decent. Also, I got stuck in between geometry and blew myself up with a grenade to respawn. LOL
The one thing I don't like is you can't customize your guns or anything during a match. You have to create classes like call of duty and then choose between those classes in between games. And some of these games aren't short, either; like 45 minutes it seems. Waiting that long without able to put an acog or something on your assault rifle is kind of torture. Hopefully they change this, but if not, I guess we'll just have to get used to it.
Replaying STALKER: Clear Sky with the Complete Mod.
I also got the urge to play HUD-less. Call of Pripyat fits the bill although I can't be HUD-less for long because there are no alternate visual cues for say, hunger or radiation damage.
I'm a big fan of the abandoned relics shows in the Science Channel. So, the rusting Cold War era stuff in CoP and the other games fits right in with my tastes.
I finished STALKER: Clear Sky again, this time with the Complete Mod. Three straight days of nose-deep gameplay. The Complete Mod dialed back the relentless Bandit and mutant attacks (plus the Renegade incursions) in the vanilla game, along with 10 extra kilos of weight carried. So, this playthrough felt easier than the vanilla game although spamming grenades was still widespread.
Now, it's free-explore time.
I played both playthroughs in Veteran. So, they both felt easy. I'll play the game one more time, this time in Master.
Going back to the Call of Chernobyl mod after having played and finished all three STALKER games, I now know which maps belong to those 3. But, there are still maps in CoC not from the 3 games. That must mean they came from Lost Alpha.
Crude as the graphics may be in the STALKER games, I like the sense of continuity, especially with the recurring NPCs (Nimble, Uncle Yar, Mitay, etc). In chronological order: Clear Sky, Shadow of Chernobyl, Call of Pripyat.
Anyway, replaying CoC with the solid foundation of the 3 STALKER games (minus Lost Alpha) behind it.
Bloodsuckers are a staple of the STALKER games. They can cloak and sneak up on the player's character and deal some major hurt. In ShoC, they're semi-invisible when cloaked with bright glowing eyes. It takes a few shotgun shells to put them down. Not that scary.
In CS, the bloodsuckers look and act similarly to the ones in ShoC. But, one major change GSC did was render the bloodsucker indestructible while cloaked. They can only be killed when they de-cloaked and already dealing major hurt. I found that out the hard way when I expended all my ammo on one. That was a bad idea because if two or three of them showed up at the same time, my character would be ripped to shreds before I can kill any of them. Frustrating.
In CoP, GSC made the bloodsucker completely invisible when cloaked. But, they still make footprint noises. Plus, they splash when running on water, making for some Predator-like water effects. GSC went back to the damage model where I can kill the bloodsucker even when cloaked. I think the CoP version is the best because it balances the scary part and the ability to kill them.
In the post-SP campaign of Clear Sky, the bloodsuckers found their way into the swamp (the setting for the beginning of the game).
@jun_aka_pekto: I gotta say, I enjoy reading your posts in this thread. :)
Thanks. I tend to make observations while playing different games. If there's something in common between them, I tend to notice the differences.
In fact, just before posting this, I faced off against two bloodsuckers at the Garbage Flea Market (plus a bunch of mutts and a couple of snorks). It didn't last long, maybe two slashes before I was forced to reload a saved game. I got the mutts and snorks from an elevated platform. But, to kill the bloodsuckers, I have to go toe to toe with them. Against two at the same time? Forget it.
While playing the Limansk map in the SP campaign of STALKER: Clear Sky, I discovered where a set number of Monolith troops were spawning from. So, I simply mowed them down whenever they appeared.
Reminds me of my Quake Deathmatch days when I'd stand by a portal and frag the poor respawning schmucks for some cheap kills. ;)
The STALKER games aren't known for their graphics. But, Lost Alpha looks almost a decent last-gen game. ;) I like it. And, not pushing every slider to the right brought back playable framerates. I went with the preset Maximum.
I also have to keep track of thirst in addition to hunger. Plus, I have to manually load ammo into the belt if they're going to be used. Hmmm. I keep thinking of the Misery mod for CoP. I'm not sure if Lost Alpha will be that complex. But, it is compared to the vanilla STALKER games. It certainly feels like an RPG with guns.
Oh. I fricking need batteries for my flashlight. More management stuff.
Anyway, Lost Alpha feels like a remaster or remake of the original Shadow of Chernobyl. But, there are a lot of new stuff added such as new maps not in the original. The size of Lost Alpha is twice that of ShoC at over 13 GB.
I can see why Lost Alpha has mixed reviews among longtime STALKER fans. I guess I'm lucky to not have experienced a crash although I've only been in Cordon and Garbage. Anyway, one of their gripes was the long walks in-between. Doesn't bother me any.
But, I finally get decent weapons. The pistol originally handed to me was depressing.
I like the weather in Lost Alpha. The somber cloudiness reminds me of autumn in say, Missouri. Bleh.
@jun_aka_pekto: Wow Lost Alpha looks great, the more I read your posts, the more I itch to replay SoC. :)
It's an alternative retelling of Shadow of Chernobyl. Be prepared to do a lot more walking. I haven't had any crashes so far. But, it has had mixed reviews.
Combining old school search for a needle in a haystack and constant back and forth walking is probably not a good idea. I mean, I'm used to it and there are games in the past I never finished because I never found the required items. Lost Alpha looks like it might be one of them. Probably one of GSC's ideas that was dropped from the retail ShoC.
One thing different from ShoC is the presence of a tunnel system in Cordon.
Anyway, the zombies are different in Lost Alpha. They don't shoot back like in the other STALKER games. But, they're more persistent in getting back up and taking a swipe. In short, they're more like zombies in other games.
I like danger from above and the Hind gunship fits the bill. I think it's also present in the Cordon map of Call of Chernobyl.
Oh. There are also mutated plants that want to munch on the player's character. They act like anomalies except they're alive. When I first encountered one, I was too surprised to take a screenshot.
I didn't touch PUBG for about 2 weeks and booted it up yesterday and bam first round killed 4 people!... While playing on my TV with a mouse and keyboard, I guess the bigger screen helped me see.
Just started this and never played the original. The story seems interesting so far, which is good, because it seems there'll be a LOT of reading to do.
@scatteh316: Aside from the forced Analytical Anti Aliasing solution that the game uses and some unwanted depth of field, it still looks damn good to me and the atmosphere is amazing.
That first foray into Dark Valley was a real pain. The bad thing is, I have to return to the place. But, I was looking to acquire an SGI-5k. And wouldn't you know it. I made a quick run among the dead of the Monolith-military battle (before driving off) and one of the Monolith had one. A scoped one, no less. Little ammo for it right now. But, the barkeep should sell them.
Now, I just have to find the tool kits for the tech guy.
My nephew tipped me about buying a TOZ-34 shotgun if it showed up in Sidorovich's store. Plus, I finally made it to Lab X18 in Dark Valley. Along the way, my patience was severely tested. I lost count of how many times my character died while clearing out the Monolith.
Anyway, I can see why the TOZ-34 is highly recommended. It makes short work of bloodsuckers.
Freshly broke. After this, I'll need to do a whole bunch of side missions (plus scavenging) again to build up the funds.
Soon after the above? The story of my day. ;) Damn pseudo-giant.
2 kinda sucks compared to 1. The game-world is smaller, the world map is very linear and directed, 3d dungeons replaced by 2D dungeons, very shitty graphic quality even with 2D sprites compared to 1. It's not "bad", just disappointing. 1-4 are still solid games with a beginning, middle and end. 1/4 being by far the best.
Lab X18 was okay. But, I'm out of there and at Darkscape enroute to the Sin camp.....on foot. I actually appreciate the break from the constant shootouts with the Monolith. I was getting tired of reloading saved games and accusing the AI of cheating. ;) Plus, I'm low on ammo and everything else.
Bloodsucker hunt at the Rostok Factory in STALKER: Lost Alpha. At least, the AI for them never appears to cheat unlike the ones for the Monolith troops in Dark Valley. ;) Bullet sponges? Sure. But, cheat? Nope.
For whatever reason, I couldn't enjoy it on my first playthrough, but I am having a blast with it on my second attempt on Switch. And I'm pretty impressed with the Switch port too.
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