I just wish they could get the programming right ..
Being a basic loaner, I seldom, if ever play games on line, so I cannot really comment on that particular side of this little tome. I am rating 'Call of Pripyat' a bit lower than the critics and the users for several reasons. The first: they now have had three tries to get the programming right. This installment still has game (as well as system) crashes and jerky motion, which I never did resolve, which was especially true when the wind was blowing the bushes. I consider myself a more laid back player not having the dexterity to play games like this at 'Beyond Expert' as some of the younger gamers, so I usually never go past 'NORMAL' play, however multiple critters ... blind dogs or hamsters would hesitate so much sometimes just trying to survive was next to impossible because of the jerking motions and hesitation from trigger pull to the bang.
For the second downside, the story line ... I do not know how to describe it, but it was almost like they saw money in a sequel so a quick story line was thrown together to try and get it out there fast. I realize how hard it is to put a game together (having written two myself), it is basically like writing a novel and with a game like this one the story line and solving (reasonable) puzzles is as much of the fun as blasting Blood Suckers, Chimera or Hamsters. Having said that, I especially point to finding the 'Oasis' or wasting time trying to access the 'Cooling Tower', or at least trying and figure what that was all about, before going through (how many steps) to get the proper scanner?
And Strelok re-appears? Oh give me a break. That along with the countless videos thrown in the middle of game play, which wasn't that bad .... until the end of the game ... and what happened to everyone. Which was nice for what seemed like the first ... 30 minutes?
Still, not all of it was bad. In fact some of the enhancements added like the new critters and new types of loot were worth some plus to offset the bad. Seeing the green 'you are being watched' dial light up and turning around to find a Pseudo dog jumping at your throat still gave me cold chills when it happened, which to me was really worth a few of the many negatives. These could actually add plus points to all of the STALKER series.
Now if they could only get the programming right, take all the critters and loot enhancements from Pripyat and incorporate them into Chernobyl and Clear Sky, I might just go back and play them all over again.
SYSTEM INFO:
XP Pro, ASUS Striker II MB (Intel Core 2 Duo 3gHz), NVIDA GeForce 8800GTS