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[ZehDon]

Well for once i don't want random spawn of enemies out of thin air like many people on gaf and outside of here had, i haven't played enough myself to judge tbh, i just had 3 enemies encounters and all of them were probably scripted.

Dev's commented that the combat AI is working as intended, but the A-Life stuff has issues. They made changes to the spawn stuff to accommodate for launch, so I suspect the broken spawns people have noted are coming from that. I played 2-3 hours, didn't have an issue yet with this stuff, so while it's there, it's not omnipresent with enemies teleporting around you all the time.

 

[GymWolf]

Dev's commented that the combat AI is working as intended, but the A-Life stuff has issues. They made changes to the spawn stuff to accommodate for launch, so I suspect the broken spawns people have noted are coming from that. I played 2-3 hours, didn't have an issue yet with this stuff, so while it's there, it's not omnipresent with enemies teleporting around you all the time.

The thing is, people in here already commented on the ia and it's not always the best, i guess they have many thing to iron out.
Hopefully the situation is not as bad as it sound, i'm playing right now and at least the game run fine and it's relatively bug free for now.

 

[BigLee74]

Gamepass version of games are usually trash (this one aswell it runs worse and controllers don't work unless you do tricks) so if i can chose, i always buy a steam key.

Educate me. Are you saying that the Gamepass version of a game differs from the bought Steam version of the same game?

 

[ZehDon]

The thing is, people in here already commented on the ia and it's not always the best, i guess they have many thing to iron out.
Hopefully the situation is not as bad as it sound, i'm playing right now and at least the game run fine and it's relatively bug free for now.

Oh, definitely. Game needs some polish and cleanup, no question. If you're not feeling it, don't let enthusiasm like mine get you into FOMO territory. Wait it out until the stuff that matters to you is where it needs to be. It's your experience, and you should enjoy it. I hope we see those improvements, but I'm fully prepared for this to be the final version of the game, warts and all.

 

[SnapShot]

Smooth and consistent 0 FPS

 

[GymWolf]

Educate me. Are you saying that the Gamepass version of a game differs from the bought Steam version of the same game?

Yes, many cases in the past, some devs even said that implementing dlss and framegen into the windows store version of a game is another step they have to take specifically, so it's not always ready at launch, and steam is also faster when it comes to releasing patches.

Of course it's not for every game in existence.

 

[BigLee74]

To be honest, I’m torn between continuing and waiting for a few patches to clean it up. I rarely replay games of this size, so don’t want to miss out on touted features such as A-life 2.0.

I used to love checking out the creatures chase each other and roam in packs in the original.

 

[GHG]

 

[GymWolf]

I literally cleared the base he show in his example 10 min ago and had respawning enemies aswell.

The game is pretty fun when it works but i think i'm gonna pause it until they fix the mess.

 

[SABRE220]

A little disappointing but stalker 1 was also really rough at launch but a few years in the mods and patches made it special. I can only hope this will be the same. If this can replicate call of Pripyat then awesome but so far not confident.

 

[tygertrip]

Looks like Cyberpunk 2077 launch technical mess is back on the menu

No way. Stalker 2 wouldn’t be a true sequel if it wasn’t janky and buggy at release.

 

[Denton]

Anyone who decided to wait for more patches but wants to play awesome STALKER game and didn't play CoP yet,

Get Gunslinger, some of the best gunporn (and funporn) in gaming

 

[Fess]

Some professional pre-release reviews makes no sense.

If issues on pre-release review code are fixed even on the launch day patch and reviews get a lower score because of technical issues then how come the scores don’t go up when the patch and game is released??


My take:
TLDR: This is awesome.
Longer version: I’ve never played a Stalker game before but just a couple hours in and I’m completely hooked. It’s such a wild mix of genres. Feels like playing a serious prepare to die Souls game in first person mixed with some Fallout/Skyrim open world adventure exploration brilliance with a horror twist. Absolutely loving it!

I like the variations in combat scenarios. I was at a stash location where I pretty much insta-died over and over from one of those roaring bigger monsters. When I reloaded things would change. Sometimes a pack of dogs would come in and fight the monster. Sometimes a group of soldiers fought the dogs if I stayed out of sight. Sometimes it was just the monster. Etc. Made reloading feel less repetitive.

Biggest flaw, the performance is really all over the place on my PC. Frame gen is an absolute must when maxed out. Saw drops down below 40fps without fg. Sounds like it’s CPU related and I’m playing on a 7900x. Finally a good reason to upgrade the CPU? Will try on the other PC with a 7800x3D at the weekend.

Still, I’m willing to look the other way because of how great other things are. Feels like a unique gaming experience. Doesn’t come often.

 

[RPS37]

he’s invisible and kills me in two hits…what?

 

[GymWolf]

he’s invisible and kills me in two hits…what?

If it is the first scripted encounter, return to the lab behind you so he can only enter from the front door and you can shoot at him more easily.

If not, just run around and circle and change direction and speed randomly so he can miss and you can shot his ass, never stay still waiting because his change of directions are faster than your aim (at least it is with a controller), so you have to bait his attack.

Good luck, they are very tanky but not super hard when you get the hang of it.

 

[RPS37]

If it is the first scripted encounter, return to the lab behind you so he can only enter from the front door and you can shoot at him more easily.

If not, just run around and circle and change direction and speed randomly so he can miss and you can shot his ass, never stay still waiting because his change of directions are faster than your aim (at least it is with a controller), so you have to bait his attack.

Good luck, they are very tanky but not super hard when you get the hang of it.

I was freaking out cuz It’s the second enemy I’ve encountered.
Will try my best

 

[nkarafo]

Flashlight not casting shadows is such a 1999 concept.

 

[Ulysses 31]

Flashlight not casting shadows is such a 1999 concept.

And odd considering the flashlight in all other PC s.t.a.l.k.e.r. games did.

 

[Mayar]

I literally cleared the base he show in his example 10 min ago and had respawning enemies aswell.

The game is pretty fun when it works but i think i'm gonna pause it until they fix the mess.

Illustration

 

[GymWolf]

Illustration

 

[GymWolf]

I was freaking out cuz It’s the second enemy I’ve encountered.
Will try my best

Just try and reload if you lose too many medkits (although the game is pretty generous with them).

 

[nkarafo]

And odd considering the flashlight in all other PC s.t.a.l.k.e.r. games did.

I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it's a very serious bug they can't fix yet.

If it's an actual choice for the game to look like that or some kind of technical limitation that doesn't let them enable this, it's a hard pass for me. It look really flat and ugly in dark scenes this way.

 

[GHG]

Illustration

House of the dead looks better than ever.

 

[Little Chicken]

Started it, had no idea what I was doing, I was scared and confused.

I might wait for a patch that fixes the controls for console, they feel really floaty during gameplay and slow as fuck while managing the inventory.

Game looks great at 30fps, very solid performance so far, wonder why they didn't offer a 40fps option.

 

[TVexperto]

Anybody know when the next patch drop

 

[baphomet]

First enemy took roughly 25 shots without giving any sort of feedback if it was even doing anything.

Then with nearly full health I die instantly for no discernable reason.

Deleted this shit immediately after that.

 

[Gonzito]

Anyone who decided to wait for more patches but wants to play awesome STALKER game and didn't play CoP yet,

Get Gunslinger, some of the best gunporn (and funporn) in gaming

Is there controller support?

 

[Denton]

Is there controller support?

No and that is one thing that prevents me from doing replay myself

God damn GSC still haven't updated the PC versions of the trilogy with the update that would add the UI and controller support that console versions got. I really hope it will get done..

 

[Denton]

First enemy took roughly 25 shots without giving any sort of feedback if it was even doing anything.

Then with nearly full health I die instantly for no discernable reason.

Deleted this shit immediately after that.

You probably got killed by a poltergeist throwing things at you.
And bloodsuckers are hard as fuck, and supposed to be. Bullets don't phase them.

 

[Sophist]

The game is not ready. One honest thing they could do is changing the status of the game to early access and set a rerelease date around one year from now. There is nothing shameful to be early access and it would clarify the current mess. What do you think?

 

[Flabagast]

Flashlight not casting shadows is such a 1999 concept.

Number 1 flaw of the game imho. It just kills immersion and mood

 

[DAHGAMING]

S.T.I.N.K.E.R. 2

Shame about the issues but il let these lot off for obvious reasons, love to them. They get the game in a better state then il jump in, looking forward to it but would rather wait till its in a better way.

 

[moniker]

You'd get righteously laughed at if you said this for a game from one of the "bad" publishers like EA or TakeTwo.

It shouldn't be par for the course for anything. The blanket attitude to games like this is to not pre-order (especially if you strongly suspect it's going to be broken), and not buy until it's fixed. This game was on prime time stages and has backing from Microsoft. This state of launch is unacceptable.

Yeah whatever. It has "Very positive" rating on Steam with 19 thousand reviews. I'm sure I'll manage.

 

[King Dazzar]

Xbox fan focused site, Pure Xbox gave it a Poor 4/10.

Pros:

• Looks incredible at times, with a huge and highly detailed world
• The atmosphere is amazing during big storms
• Can be good when everything miraculously falls into place

Cons:

• Stuffed full of bugs and performance issues
• Dreadful enemy AI paired with rubbish enemy design
• Story, writing and acting are poor
• Boring loot, badly designed indoor areas
• Constant issues with enemies spawning out of nowhere, and instant deaths from unseen foes

 

[SJRB]

Used a stopwatch, it takes more than three minutes for the game to load on PC because of the shader compilation that happens every single time you boot the game.

That’s over three minutes just to reach the main menu while you’re sitting there staring at a progress bar.

 

[Flabagast]

3/5 by Eurogamer (mostly complaining about bugs, jank and overall storytelling)

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl review - a vast wasteland of jank and jeopardy

Full of anomalies in more ways than one, Stalker 2 is a mess of bugs and jank that nonetheless stays faithful to the open world survival shooter of yesteryear.

www.eurogamer.net

I find the reception of story very weird. Some reviews say the story and quests are strong, while others claim they are very poor.

 

[M1chl]

3/5 by Eurogamer (mostly complaining about bugs, jank and overall storytelling)

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl review - a vast wasteland of jank and jeopardy

Full of anomalies in more ways than one, Stalker 2 is a mess of bugs and jank that nonetheless stays faithful to the open world survival shooter of yesteryear.

www.eurogamer.net

I find the reception of story very weird. Some reviews say the story and quests are strong, while others claim they are very poor.

 

[Mayar]

I read the comments, it looks like they caught the wrong person on Twitter as always... Honestly, throwing out such announcements is extremely dangerous, especially if it is a lie, because in the US and Europe it is under the article on Defamation, and the injured party can sue, and the consequences will be very bad.

And in Britain you can go to jail for a couple of days for this...
That's why it's always better to think before writing something, especially in X.

 

[M1chl]

I read the comments, it looks like they caught the wrong person on Twitter as always... Honestly, throwing out such announcements is extremely dangerous, especially if it is a lie, because in the US and Europe it is under the article on Defamation, and the injured party can sue, and the consequences will be very bad.

And in Britain you can go to jail for a couple of days for this...
That's why it's always better to think before writing something, especially in X.

I understand that, but given his comments about "nationalism" it really did pissed me off and it would be pretty much in line with a lot of these concern trolling individuals. Does it mean if you have flag in games, that you are participating in nationalism or something. I think that review is trash and he is in no position to make such comments

 

[Mayar]

I understand that, but given his comments about "nationalism" it really did pissed me off and it would be pretty much in line with a lot of these concern trolling individuals. Does it mean if you have flag in games, that you are participating in nationalism or something. I think that review is trash and he is in no position to make such comments

This is still a gaming forum, and I don't think it's worth discussing such topics here. I have 6.5 hours in the game so far, I'll give the game another chance tomorrow by playing at least 10 hours, and maybe write a post about my impressions, but at the moment I'm 80% likely not to play it anymore. As for the Review, you should always remember that a review is the opinion of an individual, we can agree with it or not, any assessment of any game is subjective and depends on the preferences of an individual, a review is just food for thought, the final assessment is up to the players themselves who will play this game.

 

[xacto]

At this point, we’re better off playing the older Stalker game... this one needs more time... a lot more time. Not sure what they can actually fix in in what they can’t.

 

[Zathalus]

I understand that, but given his comments about "nationalism" it really did pissed me off and it would be pretty much in line with a lot of these concern trolling individuals. Does it mean if you have flag in games, that you are participating in nationalism or something. I think that review is trash and he is in no position to make such comments

It’s still a false accusation that couldn’t even bother to get the nationality or name right.

That aside you are seriously misreading the intent behind that statement about nationalism. It’s meant to be taken as a supportive statement as the game being a work of Ukrainian developers, not some slight against having pride in your country.

 

[JayK47]

Used a stopwatch, it takes more than three minutes for the game to load on PC because of the shader compilation that happens every single time you boot the game.

That’s over three minutes just to reach the main menu while you’re sitting there staring at a progress bar.

I really hate that with games. Most of the time, it is only done the first time or after patches/driver updates. Every single time though? Wow. No excuse for some of these bugs. Cyberpunk bad.

 

[GrayChild]

3/5 by Eurogamer (mostly complaining about bugs, jank and overall storytelling)

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl review - a vast wasteland of jank and jeopardy

Full of anomalies in more ways than one, Stalker 2 is a mess of bugs and jank that nonetheless stays faithful to the open world survival shooter of yesteryear.

www.eurogamer.net

I find the reception of story very weird. Some reviews say the story and quests are strong, while others claim they are very poor.

Everything else aside, EG is once again at their usual shenanigans:

There's also a homogeneity to the soldiers of the Zone that feels distracting at times - an endless truckload of men with the same haircut, the same gruff pessimism, the same iffy voice acting. If Stalker has taken much of its mechanical inspiration from 2007, it has also taken its approach to casting from the same era. I met a woman once, after 26 hours of playing. She acted like all the other men. It's possible there's some thoughtful lore to explain the Zone's lack of diversity, and I simply didn't clock it. But regardless of intent the story remains a homogenous parade of lads being lads, where one man bleeds into another, literally and figuratively.

Fuck off you lousy cunts!

 

[intbal]

Xbox fan focused site, Pure Xbox gave it a Poor 4/10.

They're really not.
Pure Xbox, Push Square, Nintendo Life, Time Extension. All owned by the same parent company. And they are partnered with Ziff Davis media.

There's no independence in professional "Gaming Media". Whatever the unified overlords want is what these websites write.
Randos on youtube and twitter are a more authentic source of gaming information.

 

[Dorfdad]

What concerns me most about Xbox is that their games, which should be major hits, appear to be rather lackluster, particularly at launch. Indiana Jones is the next title on the schedule, and the developers have publicly expressed their anticipation for these games, which have been eagerly awaited for years. However, it seems that Microsoft lacks a genuine passion for gaming, and their focus appears to be solely on financial gain rather than the development and quality of their games. This raises concerns about the future of gaming from Microsoft, as it appears to be a trend that is shared by many other companies.

 

[Laptop1991]

Saw Mac's video from Worth a Buy and the hardcoded keys and spawning enemies is s deal breaker for me on PC, its a shame, some of the game looks really good.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Everything else aside, EG is once again at their usual shenanigans:



Fuck off you lousy cunts!

Yup. You're not going to worry about your HRT injections when you're stuck in a reality altering shit hole.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Another one bites the dust.

 

[Josemayuste]

What concerns me most about Xbox is that their games, which should be major hits, appear to be rather lackluster, particularly at launch. Indiana Jones is the next title on the schedule, and the developers have publicly expressed their anticipation for these games, which have been eagerly awaited for years. However, it seems that Microsoft lacks a genuine passion for gaming, and their focus appears to be solely on financial gain rather than the development and quality of their games. This raises concerns about the future of gaming from Microsoft, as it appears to be a trend that is shared by many other companies.

True, while I enjoy some of their games, I can't argue about that