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[IbizaPocholo]

Hey! I noticed there was some bad rendering parts in my previous video so I re-rendered it with proper ones. Here's fixed and proper version!

 

[SimTourist]

The original looks great for being almost 20 years old

 

[Agent_4Seven]

To put it lightly, not much of a difference considering that these games are 17 years apart and they're using UE5 which is capable of so much more. There are mods which can turn original game into a pretty good looking modern one and it's the same X-Ray from 2007 iirc.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Wait im confused, why are then so many same locations and asset for asset copies but in a new engine. I thought Stalker 2 is a new game, this showcase makes it look as if we dealing with a remake.

 

[SimTourist]

Wait im confused, why are then so many same locations and asset for asset copies but in a new engine. I thought Stalker 2 is a new game, this showcase makes it look as if we dealing with a remake.

It's set in the same area around the chernobyl power plant, but now it's a seamless world instead of separate zones and there are new locations as well.

 

[Skifi28]

To put it lightly, not much of a difference considering that these games are 17 years apart and they're using UE5 which is capable of so much more. There are mods which can turn original game into a pretty good looking modern one and it's the same X-Ray from 2007 iirc.

Not much of a difference? The first comparison alone in the video is night and day in terms of lighting and vegetation.

 

[Husky]

I'm so in love with the atmosphere of the originals. Hope to fall in love when I play STALKER 2

 

[acm2000]

To put it lightly, not much of a difference considering that these games are 17 years apart and they're using UE5 which is capable of so much more. There are mods which can turn original game into a pretty good looking modern one and it's the same X-Ray from 2007 iirc.

Sure, there's not much of a difference if you pull your eyeballs out before watching the video.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

Not much of a difference? The first comparison alone in the video is night and day in terms of lighting and vegetation.

Sure, there's not much of a difference if you pull your eyeballs out before watching the video.

Have you two even seen mods for the first game with massive gameplay overhauls, one giant map with all the locations, much better GFX and tons of vegitation, much better trees etc. at all? Have you? It sure doesn't look like it. Lighting and a bit more vegitation is all you can come up with to defend barely any difference? Have you not seen how the game looked before the downgrade? Have you not played Hellblade II, Lords of the Fallen and Black Myth to see what UE5 is really capable of? Man, why am I even asking and wasting my time...

 

[Skifi28]

Have you two even seen mods for the first game with massive gameplay overhauls, one giant map with all the locations, much better GFX and tons of vegitation, much better trees etc. at all? Have you? It sure doesn't look like it. Lighting and a bit more vegitation is all you can come up with to defend barely any difference? Have you not seen how the game looked before the downgrade? Have you not played Hellblade II, Lords of the Fallen and Black Myth to see what UE5 is really capable of? Man, why am I even asking and wasting my time...

The video compares the vanilla version of the game with which there is a huge difference, unless one is blind. Now if you're doing comparisons in your head with mods, that's your thing. I also don't see what other games have to do with this.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

The video compares the vanilla version of the game with which there is a huge difference, unless one is blind. Now if you're doing comparisons in your head with mods, that's your thing. I also don't see what other games have to do with this.

There is no huge difference, take off your rose-colored glasses. It's a basic and surface-like modern level upgrade at best in terms of art and art-design. Massive mods for the first game looks better without even modern lighting on a 17 yo engine. They're barely even using UE5 in this game and it was massively downgraded - everything is available online, go and compare. I'm not saying it looks like shit, cuz it doesn't, but it's an extremely basic UE5 game with really unimpressive art and art-design. And if we're talking about modern games, Metro Last Light and Exodus especially looks better even in terms of everything but character faces and facial animations.

 

[SimTourist]

There is no huge difference, take off your rose-colored glasses. It's a basic and surface-like modern level upgrade at best in terms of art and art-design. Massive mods for the first game looks better without even modern lighting on a 17 yo engine. They're barely even using UE5 in this game and it was massively downgraded - everything is available online, go and compare. I'm not saying it looks like shit, cuz it doesn't, but it's an extremely basic UE5 game with really unimpressive art and art-design. And if we're talking about modern games, Metro Last Light and Exodus especially looks better even in terms of everything but character faces and facial animations.

Stalker was just way ahead of it's time technologically for 2007, not many games from that year hold up today in comparison aside from Crysis, and it aimed for a photoreal artstyle with lots of phototextures everywhere surprisingly successfully when most games fail. I'm sure Stalker 2 will show better detail when blown up on a big screen, but it's held back by being set in the same world as the original giving that remake feel when most sequels usually are set in different locations. Not much they can do there and it's kinda cool to revisit the places you used to know with modern graphics, kinda like going back to Shadow Moses in MGS4. It can be used to show the passage of time and how places changed over the years.

 

[djjinx2]

Have you two even seen mods for the first game with massive gameplay overhauls, one giant map with all the locations, much better GFX and tons of vegitation, much better trees etc. at all? Have you? It sure doesn't look like it. Lighting and a bit more vegitation is all you can come up with to defend barely any difference? Have you not seen how the game looked before the downgrade? Have you not played Hellblade II, Lords of the Fallen and Black Myth to see what UE5 is really capable of? Man, why am I even asking and wasting my time...

Shouldn't you wait a few years and compare both modded versions?

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Had to drop Stalker after a few hours because playing with mouse and keyboard sucks.
Stalker 2 should fix this.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

Stalker was just way ahead of it's time technologically for 2007

What exactly was ahead of its time in the first game? It was an extremely simple small level based game with loading screens between a few areas of the game. They cut a lot of stuff from the game before release even though it was delayed dozens of times and THQ was mad at them. In 2004 Far Cry was released which had giant maps, excellent AI which can hear you miles away and go after you in groups, then Half-Life 2, DOOM 3, F.E.A.R. just one year later before Crysis was even a thing. By the time S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was released, it was already dated for 3-4 years not only visually, but also in terms of it's outdated design with loading screens between small maps. 2 years before that Boiling Point: Road to Hell was released with giant open world where you can fly helicopters, drive around in a car, there was similar inventory systems, there were better quest etc. etc. The rest of the two games weren't much different and only Call of Pripyat was somewhat more ambitious with bigger maps and is the best game of the tree imho.

Now, if we're talking about post USSR devs, what really was ahead of its time is the Parkan series by Nikita. Parkan II for example was released 19 years ago, 2 years before the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and 11 years before No Man's Sky. Look for it online and see what kind of game it was. Both Parkan games available on Steam:

I'm sure Stalker 2 will show better detail when blown up on a big screen, but it's held back by being set in the same world as the original giving that remake feel when most sequels usually are set in different locations. Not much they can do there and it's kinda cool to revisit the places you used to know with modern graphics, kinda like going back to Shadow Moses in MGS4. It can be used to show the passage of time and how places changed over the years.

Oh, I'm sure it'll be better than the first game since they haven't set a high bar with the first game to begin with. All they have to do is at least match the last 2 Metro games and especially the Exodus - a lot of 4A devs are ex-GSC devs, just in case you didn't know that.

 

[KyoZz]

Have you two even seen mods for the first game with massive gameplay overhauls, one giant map with all the locations, much better GFX and tons of vegitation, much better trees etc. at all? Have you? It sure doesn't look like it. Lighting and a bit more vegitation is all you can come up with to defend barely any difference? Have you not seen how the game looked before the downgrade? Have you not played Hellblade II, Lords of the Fallen and Black Myth to see what UE5 is really capable of? Man, why am I even asking and wasting my time...

I replayed the original Stalker and it's not even close to Stalker 2. You are talking about Anomaly, a stand alone mod that update the X-Ray engine into 64bit with tons of modified asset and shaders. Problem is it's such an heavy modification that you can't play the story of the original. So not sure what are the mods you talking about and trust me I searched for updated graphics mods.

 

[FireFly]

Have you two even seen mods for the first game with massive gameplay overhauls, one giant map with all the locations, much better GFX and tons of vegitation, much better trees etc. at all? Have you? It sure doesn't look like it. Lighting and a bit more vegitation is all you can come up with to defend barely any difference? Have you not seen how the game looked before the downgrade? Have you not played Hellblade II, Lords of the Fallen and Black Myth to see what UE5 is really capable of? Man, why am I even asking and wasting my time...

GSC are targeting 60 FPS and DF said it looked very sharp in person, so it's probably at a high internal resolution as well. That carries significant costs when using Lumen. Most UE5 games targeting 60 FPS are at 1080p or lower.

 

[acm2000]

Have you two even seen mods for the first game with massive gameplay overhauls, one giant map with all the locations, much better GFX and tons of vegitation, much better trees etc. at all? Have you? It sure doesn't look like it. Lighting and a bit more vegitation is all you can come up with to defend barely any difference? Have you not seen how the game looked before the downgrade? Have you not played Hellblade II, Lords of the Fallen and Black Myth to see what UE5 is really capable of? Man, why am I even asking and wasting my time...

what have mods got to do with it? wait till the mods come out for stalker 2 before comparing that bullshit

 

[Agent_4Seven]

GSC are targeting 60 FPS and DF said it looked very sharp in person, so it's probably at a high internal resolution as well. That carries significant costs when using Lumen. Most UE5 games targeting 60 FPS are at 1080p or lower.

It doesn't really matter how sharp it looks if Metro Exodus looks way better in terms of art, art design and sheer amount of detail on screen. I guess we should "thank" series S and consoles in general for ruining what could have been.

what have mods got to do with it?

Maybe cuz they look way better (not in terms of lighting and polygons) than 2024 game developed on a state of the art engine (performance and other issues aside) while mods were developed on an upgraded but still the same engine from 2007? No?

wait till the mods come out for stalker 2 before comparing that bullshit

What kind of stupid sentence is this? Why should anyone wait for mods to make the game look like it should've been since it's UE5 game? I'm not a GFX whore cuz I hold dear art and art design the most in video games, but it's nowhere near a 2024 game, not even close, the first time they showed it on the bs screens it maybe was, but not anymore.

 

[adamsapple]

It doesn't really matter how sharp it looks if Metro Exodus looks way better in terms of art, art design and sheer amount of detail on screen. I guess we should "thank" series S and consoles in general for ruining what could have been

Metro Exodus runs with RTGI and 60 FPS on Series S like the other consoles.

To put it lightly, not much of a difference considering that these games are 17 years apart and they're using UE5 which is capable of so much more. There are mods which can turn original game into a pretty good looking modern one and it's the same X-Ray from 2007 iirc.

I think it might be time for that annual vision checkup my friend.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

Metro Exodus runs with RTGI and 60 FPS on Series S like the other consoles.

Even without RTGI and the launch version of the game looks better than S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. in terms of art, art design and complexity of the game's world even on the first open location.

I think it might be time for that annual vision checkup my friend.

No need, I've perfect vision.

 

[Mr Wonderstuff]

I wasn't aware this was a reskin of Stalker 1. Not sure how I feel about that - I suppose a prettier seamless open world is a good thing. I just hope they have plenty of new locations.

 

[Ulysses 31]

Still looking nowhere near the "gameplay" from 2020.

 

[Trilobit]

Didn't wow me. Also weird that it's the exact same map.

 

[poppabk]

Didn't wow me. Also weird that it's the exact same map.

Weird that a game set in Chernobyl is still set in Chernobyl?

 

[Trilobit]

Weird that a game set in Chernobyl is still set in Chernobyl?

Weird choice to go back there in the second game. Or maybe not weird, more like lazy. It's based on Roadside Picnic which doesn't require it to be set at the exact same place.

 

[Mr Moose]

Character animations are a lot better, not sure about the blurry ass trail they leave behind though (guessing it doesn't really do that and its just a bad capture?). Texture and vegetation improvements.

 

[poppabk]

Weird choice to go back there in the second game. Or maybe not weird, more like lazy. It's based on Roadside Picnic which doesn't require it to be set at the exact same place.

What? The game is intimately linked with Chernobyl and the nuclear disaster there and most people would have been majorly pissed if the sequel moved elsewhere.

 

[Trilobit]

What? The game is intimately linked with Chernobyl and the nuclear disaster there and most people would have been majorly pissed if the sequel moved elsewhere.

It's a lack of imagination to rehash the same map and place after so many years. But it was most likely done to save money instead of designing something new.

Guess RDR2 is lazy too

I never played RDR1 so I don't know exactly what the map looked like, but from what I've learned it was Blackwater and below. That part of the map wasn't really playable until the end in RDR2 and I don't remember spending any big amount of time in Blackwater and nearby places. The majority of the game took place outside Blackwater.

 

[SimTourist]

Weird choice to go back there in the second game. Or maybe not weird, more like lazy. It's based on Roadside Picnic which doesn't require it to be set at the exact same place.

Guess RDR2 is lazy too

 

[KuraiShidosha]

I called it after that 30 minute dev commentary video released that some of those assets look straight ripped from Clear Sky. Looks like I was right.

 

[fatmarco]

I really hope there's something new to the game as far as locales and its not like the previous games.

Going back to Chernobyl, the same areas over and over and over again in the original games was and still is an absolute chore after a while.

 

[poppabk]

It's a lack of imagination to rehash the same map and place after so many years. But it was most likely done to save money instead of designing something new.

I am sure it helped being able to reuse stuff, but the game seriously needs to be in Chernobyl. It's like complaining that GT7 has the Nordschleife *again*.

 

[Mr Wonderstuff]

What? The game is intimately linked with Chernobyl and the nuclear disaster there and most people would have been majorly pissed if the sequel moved elsewhere.

I don't think it needs to move elsewhere just redesign the old areas (keeping major landmarks such as the reactor/Pripyat).

 

[Ulysses 31]

It's a lack of imagination to rehash the same map and place after so many years. But it was most likely done to save money instead of designing something new.

The Zone is the area around the Chernobyl NPP so having some of the same areas is not a big deal, if it's 95% the areas from the previous 3 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games then yeah that would be disappointing. But if you can explore the north side of the NPP then they could come up with plenty of new areas.

 

[FireFly]

It's a lack of imagination to rehash the same map and place after so many years. But it was most likely done to save money instead of designing something new.

In the game's universe, the Zone was created after a second Chernobyl disaster in 2006 following psychic experiments that attempted to control the Earths "physic sphere" (Noosphere) and manipulate human nature. And the main source of mystery and atmosphere comes from not knowing what is really happening beyond the centre of the Zone. Outside of the Zone, as far as we know everything is normal.

The developers could have the Zone expanding to new areas but I think moving it somewhere else completely different would risk either feeling like a completely different game ("Hey, a new Zone just happened to open up in California!") or a kind of soft reboot ("Hey a new Zone opened up in another part of Ukraine you haven't heard of!"). The series draws a lot from the interest surrounding the first Chernobyl disaster, which happened after Roadside Picnic, and I am not sure it would be a good idea to turn everything into kind of Remedy-verse where we just retcon past titles into some crazy new plot.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Weird choice to go back there in the second game. Or maybe not weird, more like lazy. It's based on Roadside Picnic which doesn't require it to be set at the exact same place.

Well I would be down for a Stalker Fukushima you know...

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

To put it lightly, not much of a difference considering that these games are 17 years apart and they're using UE5 which is capable of so much more. There are mods which can turn original game into a pretty good looking modern one and it's the same X-Ray from 2007 iirc.

Some Stalker mods are bonkers.

 

[Mister Wolf]

It doesn't really matter how sharp it looks if Metro Exodus looks way better in terms of art, art design and sheer amount of detail on screen. I guess we should "thank" series S and consoles in general for ruining what could have been.


Maybe cuz they look way better (not in terms of lighting and polygons) than 2024 game developed on a state of the art engine (performance and other issues aside) while mods were developed on an upgraded but still the same engine from 2007? No?


What kind of stupid sentence is this? Why should anyone wait for mods to make the game look like it should've been since it's UE5 game? I'm not a GFX whore cuz I hold dear art and art design the most in video games, but it's nowhere near a 2024 game, not even close, the first time they showed it on the bs screens it maybe was, but not anymore.

So the things that matter the most.

 

[KyoZz]

Reading this thread I wonder what people expected. Of course it's in The Zone, of course you will walk in the same places and of course it will be reminiscent of Stalker SoT/CoP/CS. The team has also already said that there are many places we have never explored in Stalker 2.

And sorry Agent_4Seven but Metro Exodus is.. meh at best. It's looking great for sure but the gameplay is shit and the AI is stupid as fuck. The problem with it was they've gone the semi-open world route but kept the same gameplay which was absolutely not adapted. This is me playing Exodus and you can see the AI is stupid



Wow so much immersion, such amazing AI... If that's what you want for Stalker 2, I'm glad you're not a developer.

There are mods which can turn original game into a pretty good looking modern one and it's the same X-Ray from 2007 iirc.

Quoting you again because you did not respond: please show me those mods that turn (any) Stalker game into something that looks modern. As I said you are talking about Anomaly which legit looks great but it's not the same Xray Engine and you can't play the story of Stalkers games because it's a different project/engine.

And saying Stalker 2 doesn't looks amazing is close to trolling imo.

 

[poppabk]

Well I would be down for a Stalker Fukushima you know...

Give it to some Japanese devs and hell yeah. Could lean in to the flooding part if they aren't squeamish.

 

[DaciaJC]

Weird choice to go back there in the second game. Or maybe not weird, more like lazy. It's based on Roadside Picnic which doesn't require it to be set at the exact same place.

Yeah, it was really weird when they decided to use the same setting for the second game all the way back in 2008. Weirder still when the same thing happened with the third game in 2010! Really makes you wonder if there's perhaps a good reason they're continuing that trend for this fourth game, something besides laziness ...

 

[Agent_4Seven]

And sorry Agent_4Seven Agent_4Seven but Metro Exodus is.. meh at best. It's looking great for sure but the gameplay is shit and the AI is stupid as fuck. The problem with it was they've gone the semi-open world route but kept the same gameplay which was absolutely not adapted. This is me playing Exodus and you can see the AI is stupid

It's a god tier in comparison to any S.T.A.L.K.E.R game and gunplay is better than in Last Light. The story is also way better than in all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games combined and previous Metro games. Hell, even Metro 2033 is much better than all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.

Quoting you again because you did not respond: please show me those mods that turn (any) Stalker game into something that looks modern. As I said you are talking about Anomaly which legit looks great but it's not the same Xray Engine and you can't play the story of Stalkers games because it's a different project/engine.

Massive conversion mod which combined all maps into one, made the wold more alive, better gunplay etc. etc.... maybe it was Anomaly or the other the name of which I don't remember. There's far more foiliage, much better textures, much better tree models, lighting, way more tesselaton and so on and so forth. It's not that much worse than current version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.

And saying Stalker 2 doesn't looks amazing is close to trolling imo.

But it goddamn doesn't. Look at all those announcement screenshots and videos they've released. It's a night a day difference and downgrade is massive on a level of Ubisoft bullshots and downgrades.

 

[KyoZz]

It's a god tier in comparison to any S.T.A.L.K.E.R game and gunplay is better than in Last Light. The story is also way better than in all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games combined and previous Metro games. Hell, even Metro 2033 is much better than all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.

I think you are really harsh on those games, I would disagree on the gunplay but I could agree that the story in Metro is better. But but in term of atmosphere and immersion Stalker is on another level, it's so well done and from what I've seen so far Stalker 2 is nailing this aspect too.

Massive conversion mod which combined all maps into one, made the wold more alive, better gunplay etc. etc.... maybe it was Anomaly or the other the name of which I don't remember. There's far more foiliage, much better textures, much better tree models, lighting, way more tesselaton and so on and so forth. It's not that much worse than current version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.

I know, those mods are named Gamma and Anomaly but as I said (and unfortunately) you can't play the story. They do look amazing and the work those modder have done is very impressive. But if you want to play the story, there isn't a lot of graphical mods and they wont change drastically the look of the original trilogy. Trust me I searched.

But it goddamn doesn't. Look at all those announcement screenshots and videos they've released. It's a night a day difference and downgrade is massive on a level of Ubisoft bullshots and downgrades.

Nah you're exaggerating. Final judgment will be with the game in front of me and the DF analysis but while it dose looks a bit less impressive it's still a looker from the trailers and gameplay released.

So yeah wait and see, we will be fixed soon.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

I think you are really harsh on those games, I would disagree on the gunplay but I could agree that the story in Metro is better. But but in term of atmosphere and immersion Stalker is on another level, it's so well done and from what I've seen so far Stalker 2 is nailing this aspect too.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that I hate these games and don't like them, quite the opposite, it's just that atmosphere and immersion alone can't save the game for me if the rest of it is not on par. Everything is known in comparison and Metro series clearly showed that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. could've been much better if it wasn't for poor managment which lead to dozens of delays and then large amount of devs left GSC and founded 4A.

I know, those mods are named Gamma and Anomaly but as I said (and unfortunately) you can't play the story. They do look amazing and the work those modder have done is very impressive. But if you want to play the story, there isn't a lot of graphical mods and they wont change drastically the look of the original trilogy. Trust me I searched.

Sure, the story is not available, but I only mentioned visual improvements as well as more immersive world etc.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[Caio]

Reading this thread I wonder what people expected. Of course it's in The Zone, of course you will walk in the same places and of course it will be reminiscent of Stalker SoT/CoP/CS. The team has also already said that there are many places we have never explored in Stalker 2.

And sorry Agent_4Seven but Metro Exodus is.. meh at best. It's looking great for sure but the gameplay is shit and the AI is stupid as fuck. The problem with it was they've gone the semi-open world route but kept the same gameplay which was absolutely not adapted. This is me playing Exodus and you can see the AI is stupid



Wow so much immersion, such amazing AI... If that's what you want for Stalker 2, I'm glad you're not a developer.


Quoting you again because you did not respond: please show me those mods that turn (any) Stalker game into something that looks modern. As I said you are talking about Anomaly which legit looks great but it's not the same Xray Engine and you can't play the story of Stalkers games because it's a different project/engine.

And saying Stalker 2 doesn't looks amazing is close to trolling imo.

You are right, AI in Metro is on a monkey level, I mean, the very stupid monkeys, because the clever ones act a lot better
And Stalker 2 looks very nice, I have really nothing to say. I hope it will be a great game.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

For those that want to catch up on Stalker. Steam has Call of Pripyat, Clear Sky and Shadow of Chernobyl on sale 75% off for a total of $12.47 . . . or you can buy them as a bundle for $40. ha!

 

[Kvally]

Game looks fucking AMAZING. Can't wait.

 

[adamsapple]

Game looks fucking AMAZING. Can't wait.

Hoping the extra dev time they got was helpful to them cuz the first couple of these games launched with a lot of junk.