Half-life Easter Egg found in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

[Tocky007]

320GTS big mover.

[Bitchacho]

Mark my name down for 8800GTS. That's right biartches

[Tocky007]

[Capoeira]

I found this sweet little tweak online that adds motion blur to the game. It may not sound like much, but it really adds a so much to the look of the game. I uploaded a video I captured playing the game with the blur on and off. I'll see if I can get it working with that fancy pants drop thing from that'smymouse.


Here's how you get it to work. Add this:

-mblur

to your command line, then when in the game open up the console and type in r2_mblur 1. You can adjust the value from 0.1 all the way up to 1 so you can have the effect as blatant or subtle as you like. I prefer to have it at a lower setting, it's less distracting that way.

I can't tell you how much better, not to mention realistic the game looks after this tweak. It also gives the impression that the game is running at a faster clip thanks to the lower framerate being smoothed over thanks to the blur effect. All in all, it really is a must try at the least.

One other thing, I'm not sure if it will work with static lighting (I'm currently running full dynamic), so I can't guarantee that it'll work on that setting.

One a final note, also adding -noprefetch to your command line will fasten loading times and lessen stuttering.
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Say You Want A Revolution

[Aftershock]

ohh guys.....
you're making this game sound almost too good to pass up. I'm thinking about this, and maybe take this over a copy of vista. also, i might leave vista until H2V comes out.
im running
Pent. D 2.80ghz
1.5gb ram
7600GS.

im content to run at medium settings, having played CS 1.6 @ 800x600 for years.

so the real question is....should i get this game?
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[Capoeira]

Yeah, it's hard to go wrong with the game. If after reading through this thread you feel like this is the type of game that you could see yourself having fun with, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't give it a try. And those specs are fine to run the game. Well at least the cpu and ram is fine. I've got no idea about the graphics card though.

Also, that damn drop thing didn't work so here's a direct link to the example video:

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v387428NAr4JBxS
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Say You Want A Revolution

[Bitchacho]

I've been playing the game for a few weeks now. I finished it once and was quite disappointed. However this was my fault as I skipped the side quests, doing the compulsary main quests. This takes probably 10 hours to complete from start to finish on your first go. There are 7 endings to the game, and I got one of the 'shit' ones as it were, which means I didn't actually find out anything about The Zone.

Now I'm on my 2nd turn around on the harder difficulty. I purchased the official game guide yesterday and have been getting helpful hints and what not. I'm doing all the side quests as I go and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. This is the way it was meant to be played. Don't rush it for christ sake.

Anywho...the graphics are pretty good, not the best i've seen. I don't know why they keep raving about it being sort of like an RPG with a massive seemless environment. There are loading points every 500m which takes 5+ seconds to load. On top of that, most areas you can't access because of fences, cliffs, or bullshit high radiation which kills you. This means you have to stick to the roads to get to the towns which is frustrating as hell. The map is fairly big, but if you want to get back to the south and you are far north, you're in for a trip. It takes like 8 loading points, several towns (which you have to navigate the streets and blockages), and will take freaking forever. You will backtrack 1000 times. You will face hoards of bandits or other people trying to kill you everwhere, with wild animals everywhere, and radiation everywhere. It's tedious alright.

Your ammo supplies are always low. You're always using bandages to heal yourself. Enemies can take 20 shots to kill. If you shoot them in the chest, their 'hurt' animation will start, which also makes them invincible for several seconds. Sometimes 3 bullets in the head is enough, sometimes not. Also don't worry about aim since there's no such thing in this game. Forget shooting if they are further than 20m away, you will rarely hit them anywhere that will kill them.

However my opinion is that it's still good enough to play. Hope I didn't put you off

Edit: Nice vid Cap. I'm just after that same spot after pwning this Monolith. Take off your flashlight and use Nightvision so they can't spot you. Unless you were just doing that for ease of the video. How did you capture that btw?

[Capoeira]

^ I hate nightvision, in any game for that matter. It ruins the mood. There's so much atmosphere in this game and all of that is reduced to nothing when the screen just goes green. The flashlight only adds to the atmosphere so I use it whenever I can. Whenever I spot an enemy I just switch it off and 'stalk' in the darkness.

And I agree with a lot of the things you said in your post, yet still think this game is well worth playing. I gave up on those generic fetch quest mission a long time ago. I only do the main missions, be it from the main quest line or the quests for the various factions, none of that 'Find me the balls of a rabid squirrel' crap. I can't be screwed backtracking across the entire map just to receive the useless reward that is always tied to those quests. Great another mediocre artifact and some cash to boot. I've got enough cash to build another freaking reactor, I really don't need anymore.

But yeah, the game is awesome.
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Say You Want A Revolution

[Aftershock]

ok.
sounds good, so i will go and grab this game as soon as i get paid.
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[Bitchacho]

Yeah nightvision does ruin the mood but it also adds to the Stalker effect. Nothing better than to stab someone in the dark without them knowing you are there.

Also when I said 'doing the side quests' I didn't mean 'clear the bloodsucker lair' or 'find a flash anatomy'. Those are just a complete waste of time. All you get is money which is useless in this game. You can just sell a few anatomies every time you come to the barman/trader to stock up your money if you need it. The only thing I found myself buying was the green ammo for my Akm. There are ridiculously overpriced Suits which can be easily found in certain stashes for free, anyway.

I'm pretty close to the end on my 2nd turn. My other main gripe is that you can't continue once you have finished the story.

You know what, screw it. I'm going to write a review for this game and get my fucking 5 $poons. I've already talked about it enough here anyway!