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Okay, my last video-game-hyping thread was a dud. I refuse to even link it for the shame. But, resilient little bugger that I am, I'm going to try again, this time with an upcoming game whose title coincidentally makes the thread look like it's about a personal crisis A far better attention-getter if I know this forum ...
Lately, I've been going nuts over Half-life 2, Halo 2, Deus Ex: Invisible War, and (to a lesser extent) Doom 3 just like everybody else in the games industry. When I saw S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at E3, I didn't spare it a second glance. It looked like just another shooter, and what's more, the title was a seven-letter acronym, which in my mind, was a clear sign of a lack of style.
You'd think I'd have learned not to judge a book by its cover by now. After looking deeper into the plans and capabilities of this game, I am freaking BLOWN AWAY. Check it out for yourself.
See, this developer happens to be based in the Ukraine, near Chernobyl. So they made a game about their favorite subject — what would happen if a top-secret government experiment went horrible wrong at Chernobyl, and blanketed a 30-kilometer area with deadly radiation and bizarre sci-fi anomalies.
Based in part on a popular Russian science fiction novel, the game casts you as a "stalker" — a freelancer who illegally invades the Zone around Chernobyl, and brings back artifacts to sell to scientists and other, more shady buyers. During the course of your exploration, you uncover some horrible sinister truth that chills your blood and stuff.
The awesome part for me, though, is the open-ended emergent gameplay. Your travels are only limited by your radiation-shielding equipment and your ability to evade hazards. There is no scripted series of levels or missions. You can take whatever path you want through the living world, uncovering its mysteries in your own way at your own pace.
If the developers can pull it off, this could easily trump all the hotly-anticipated upcoming sequels as my Favorite Game I've Never Played Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Of course, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is slated for mid-June 2004. Which in the games industry means that, at best, it will make Christmas 2004. [makes a sad face so pitiful, it cannot be represented by an emoticon]
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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But, of course, by the time it finally does come out (isn't Christmas 2004 a bit optimistic? ) my current hardware won't run it, so I will just have to resign myself to not playing it for a while.
As an aside, are there any gamers who aren't going nuts over Half Life 2? For the record, with all the crap about Steam and some rather frightening benchmark results (20 fps for 5600 FX??? I am frelled!) I have lost a lot of enthusiasm I had for it.
Oh, and I hated, loathed and despised Half Life. Yes, I have issues.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Yep, I have seen the clips, many, many times. And when I saw them, yes, I too was excited. But I am seriously starting to wonder. . .
I honestly think that a lot of my un-excitement stems from my deep and abiding hatred of the first game. I found it to be one of the most painful FPS experiences of my life. Not sure why either, but I forced myself to finish it so I could uninstall it and honestly say I didn't like it in an edumacated sort of way.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Fable...Advent Rising...uhh I think I need to get an X-box...but I have ps2 and my wife doesn't like me to play with other girls X-boxes sigh...oh yeah and the afformentioned halo madness
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Did you play it a long time after it was released?
Like many others, I find the first HL to be one of the greatest games I've ever played. Excellent game balance, great protagonist, fun sequences and tension building...
What is NOT to like about it?
(Admittedly, I am more excited for Invisible War and Thief III. Whoa mama jama.)
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The novel is called "Picnic by the Road Edge" (in free translation) and was written by Arkadij and Boris Strugacki. They are (were) a wonderful team, and this book is one of their best. I've no idea if you can get it, but I really really recommend it.
Posts: 5700 | Registered: Feb 2002
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No, it was still pretty darn new when I played it. I will agree that there was a lot of things done right about it. It did a great job with the way it immersed you in the game world. Enemy AI was really good for the time as well, and there were some very cool levels.
But, I thought the story was entirely contrived and standard cut-and-paste sci-fi fare, and paper thin to boot. I am not quite sure what you mean by "great protagonist". All we know about Gordon is that he was a nerdy scientist who happened to be lucky enough to be wearing the Haz Mat sort of suit, other than that he has absolutely no personality, no character. And crates, crates, crates. Already a tired and worn out device when Half Life came out, it pushed me over the edge, along with crawling through ventilation shafts. While both of those devices still are used regularly, there just has t be enough else to the game to help overcome that terribly overused device. And while they were trying to build this quasi-realistic and immersive world far too many of the puzzles were painfully contrived and seemed to be thrown in simply for the fact to make the game longer. Ride this tram here for a while, flip a switch, go back, do the same, go back, do the same, go back, do the same, ad nauseum.
But, to be fair, I was enjoying it for the most part until I went to Xen. That was what ultimately did it for me. The Xen levels were so fantastically terrible, so painful to play that they completely erased from my mind the positive aspects of the game up to that point. I can agree that Half Life was a well made game, but I never thought it was deserving of all the praise heaped upon it. It completely overshadowed Theif-The Dark Project, which I honestly thought was a far superior game.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Tarkovsky's Stalker, based on the same novella, stands as my favorite film of all time. You all owe it to yourselves to find a copy of this and watch it. Posts: 2220 | Registered: Jun 1999
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A lot of people were bugged by the Xen levels. I personally never got there. Even though I loved the game, I somehow got distracted while playing it, and never finished. So you're not alone Jexxster ... I think you're just unusual to have been SO put off that the game was ruined for you.
BUT! Just for you, Ion Storm is making Thief III, to be completed soon after Deus Ex: Invisible War.
Isn't it sad, though, that the only games that publishers are willing to risk real cutting-edge-level money on are sequels these days? Truly original games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are so few and far between.
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I also think it is my neurotic habit to NOT like things that everyone loves. For some reason I really prefer to find great games that everyone isn't playing, and champion those games.
Yeah, I have been well aware of the development of Thief III. Excited about that one as well as Invisible War (the first is one of my all time favorite games). I suppose my main beef with Half Life is that games are still being compared to it, when I think there are other games that are actually better but get overlooked.
Strategy, both turn based and real time, is my real love when it comes to gaming though.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Also, if you were better at the whole stalker thing, you'd realize that Rat came first and you weren't paying attention.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I think it sounds a bit like what they tried to do with Trespasser, which was a great game concept hampered by several things, not the least of which is that people couldn't figure out what they were supposed to do.
So, like Trespasser, I will probably love this game, and everyone else will hate it.
Posts: 2112 | Registered: Sep 1999
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People who went into the hot zone around Chernobyl to steal things that were left behind when everyone was pushed out are not imaginary. I'm sure this is a suprise to no one, but I ust thought I'd throw it out there.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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A far better attention-getter if I know this forum ...
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sigh...oh yeah and the afformentioned halo madness![[Evil Laugh]](graemlins/evillaugh.gif)
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