Currently playing STALKER SOC

[DarrenM343]

Okay, I know this game is old now but after picking this game up really cheaply about a year ago I have been playing it a little during some spare time using an Ati 5770 which handled it well. Had spare time this weekend so decided to play hard at it. I first tried it back in 2007 but the graphic card technology back then just wasn't advanced enough to process the graphics at a good resolution and frame rate, so that combined with the fact I just wasn't able to get into the first part of the game meant it ended up being eBayed off.

So this weekend been playing it at maximum resolution for my monitor (1920*1200) with every setting cranked up to maximum, processed nicely by an nVidia 480GTX and finding it an amazing game, finally have gotten into it! Some of the battles are really good and the lighting and atmosphere fantastic (dawn, sun risiing over hillls, dusk, weather patterns). Was actually up at 2am this morning playing it, trying to help Scull penetrate the Freedom base (whch i think I was meant to avoid getting involve in!).

Anyway, I see lots of new game talk on the forums, just thought I'd give the old STALKER game a thumbs up also.
Oh, I'm using using STALKER complete 2009.

I have a question. I also bought Stalker Clearsky when it first came out and ended up not liking that also, again,graphics cards at that time not able to process it at a great res. I hear there is a stalker complete mod for that too? With patches applied and stalker complete for clearsky installed, is that worth revisiting also? I know some who enjoyed the original Stalker didn't like Clearsky, is that still the case? Might repurchase it also.

 

[GeezerButler]

I quite liked Clear Sky. The complete mod is definitely worth trying out. I still found that performance could be choppy with my rig (in sig), which I think is due to the AI fighting the faction war amongst themselves. The atmosphere is just as good if not better than SOC. If you like SOC you should try Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat.

 

[arc@css]

OP, your experience sounds just like mine. I bought it when it first came out and like you I found my rig at the time, 7800gtx 256mb and a dual core AMD (4400) just couldn't give me what I needed for a smooth and steady frame rate. I'm not sure how much ram I had in my system at the time, somewhere between 2 - 3 gb maybe.

The funny thing being when I replayed it again for the umpteenth time last year (rig in sig but temporarily swapped out the 4870x2 for a 260gtx), the fps was no where near sufficient, actually hurt my eyes, lol. Seems to require a pretty decent nvidia card for higher fps. Think I was getting something like 15 - 30 fps with the 260. Put the 4870x2 back in and in some areas I was easily getting over 100. In a few select parts I was getting 200 + (indoor usually and not much AA). The difference was enormous.

After having finished it you might want to consider other mods. I replayed CS recently with the 'complete mod' and although I thought it was great, I think by an edge I still prefer the first game slightly more.

Btw CS is an ATI biased game but you'll have no worries with the beast you have, even with the mods applied.