Stalker: Clear Sky--Is Your System Ready?

[Guest]

Thinking about picking up the latest update to Stalker, but not sure if your graphics subsystem can handle it? Hang on as we take you through a performance tour and demonstrate how the game has been prettied up.

Stalker: Clear Sky--Is Your System Ready? : Read more

 

[V3ctor]

Page 7 is not available... It gives an error, as if the page doesn't exist.

 

[magicandy]

Aside from the numerous pages that don't work, was a 24-page analysis of STALKER, a fairly mediocre shooter, really necessary? Is a 24-page analysis of any game necessary? Sigh anything to please devs and grab ad dollars -_-

 

[pogsnet]

Now crysis is obsolete =p

 

[haplo602]

hmm ... I loled when I saw the graphics error in the water tests. the camo-net disappeared everywhere it obscured water in all modes other than static. but you get a nice looking water effect

I was wondering if I can get this game to run on reasonable terms on a HD4670 or HD3850. Based on the HD3870 results, it looks like it would be playable ...

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]V3ctor[/nom]Page 7 is not available... It gives an error, as if the page doesn't exist. [/citation]

Not sure what you're seeing (or not, in this case), but everything is working over here. Any more detail?

 

[randomizer]

[citation][nom]magicandy[/nom]Sigh anything to please devs and grab ad dollars -_-[/citation]Dude, the GSC can't even afford to hire a dozen half-decent developers, let alone pay for ads.

 

[blackwidow_rsa]

I had 'page not found' errors too, but they seem fixed now

 

[randomizer]

No page errors here.

 

[ravenware]

Nice article, I liked the quality comparisons a lot

 

[xx12amanxx]

I like the article ive been playing this on a 4870 for about a week now and absolutly love it!

 

[dimaf1985]

[citation][nom]magicandy[/nom]Aside from the numerous pages that don't work, was a 24-page analysis of STALKER, a fairly mediocre shooter, really necessary? Is a 24-page analysis of any game necessary? Sigh anything to please devs and grab ad dollars -_-[/citation]

A fairly mediocre shooter? Youre obviously an idiot.

The real question here is what was the point of the first 9 pages? Is this a review on a graphics analysis article? C'mon on, Tom's, get it together.

Other than the first 9 pages, nice article. Very in-depth.

 

[Luscious]

No 4870x2 in that roundup? What about some CF/SLI numbers?

 

[radnor]

Well, i found it a decent review. I liked how they categorized the cards and presented the game. This review might not ring you bells but it is not too bad.

Not that I'm going to buy this game atm. Its too hilarious to see the stock market now. Oh, well

 

[V3ctor]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom][/citation]
It posted as a bad link... as if i got a link (for example 1 year ago, and now doesn't work)... But it's fine now... never mind

Good review... 24 pages is a lot, u covered a lot of angles... including the graphics cards.

 

[Guest]

The game is definitely an improvement on the first one - on paper at least.
The problem is the huge amount of game crashes. I played the game for about 8 hours, progressing all the way to The Garbage level when my crashes started. I was forced to install the latest patch, but that meant I had to start all over again. Although I this time got twice as far, the game still crashes - although now instead of rebooting the PC, it is caught by a built-in bug tracker.
I am really dissapointed now, cause after one of these crashes, my game is now stuck at the Yantar level - where I'm supposed to meet up with a character, but when you get to the character, he is completely inactive. I've moved backwards and forwards in levels, but I cannot get this dude to react to my presence.

I suspect I will probably have to restart the game, but I think I am going to abandon - at least untill a newer patch, and then hope the new patch will recognize my current saves.

Advice: Make regular custom saves - not just quicksaves...

 

[mr roboto]

More like is STALKER ready? From what I've heard it's not. Numerous bugs and crashes, but then again the first game was like that so would you expect anything less?

 

[modtech]

Patch 1.5.05 is out. The game never crashed or glitched for me and I've gone from start to finish, joined in on 3 different faction wars and explored the crap out of every area. I also finished crysis warhead and that CTDed twice from the start to the end.

 

[ahslan]

I dont know if Im convinced on getting this STALKER...I was hugely disappointed with the first one (especially since sooo many people said it was a great game)...
For me, its the exact opposite of crysis...I didnt get crysis for the longest time because soo many people said it wasnt worth it, but once I took a chance on it, I loved it...now I got warhead which so far has be amazing...

 

[modtech]

Warhead is short and shallow. Not a bad game but anyway. If you're talking about Stalker:SOC then you would do well to look at the modding community which really made the game the memorable experience it is to many. (Notably the oblivion lost mod)

I've played and finished both crysis games. They are in no way comparable to the atmospheric freedom that the stalker games have. You just can't compare them. Change the point of view to multiplayer and things might be different. Otherwise I you comment comes across as poorly thought out and shallow.

 

[-Fran-]

Very nice review indeed. I missed the 4870X2 and 9800GX2 though, but it was a nice review indeed.

I liked the "Performance Comparison" at the end the most. That's the most usefull piece of info you guys can give the reader: easy to digest pointers and info for overall game experience. Two thumbs up for that =)

Esop!

 

[Guest]

Why are they always testing Ati hardware with old drivers. 8.9 has been available for ages.

 

[chaohsiangchen]

Good article. I'm looking forward for the same review on COD:WaW and FC2, before I dig in and buy another graphics card.

 

[emp]

The review was pretty except for two things, the First was the AA part, I don't know how many ticks on the AA bar you had to slide to get AA, but I can tell you that my HD 4850 with the AA bar maxed drops about 4 fps lower compared to no AA.

The other thing is obviously you guys didn't play the game very long without taking breaks if you're saying this is stable. Because frequent Crash-To-Desktops, X-Ray engine crashes, BSODs, and corrupted save games (Quicksave and Autosave are affected only) are not uncommon. By the time I reached Yantar I was only using quick saves and I had a bugged mission with Lefty's group, basically lost about 5 hours of game time using an older save. On top of that performance starts to drop a lot after some time and I have to exit to windows and start the game again for it to work properly.

Normally I wouldn't cope with these many issues on a game, but it's STALKER, my absolute favorite game series, so I can't stop playing even with all the errors and bugs, because to be honest... it's worth the grief.

Also commenting about the difficulty, to be honest the only thing I find irritating is the excessive power and use of grenades, but I find the game challenging enough for experienced shooter players. I'm playing on Master myself and I have to reload quite a bit to get past even the dumbest places (thank grenades for that), but after you get a decent suit and a slightly accurate gun it's a lot more enjoyable. (Don't go above easy difficulty if you're only a casual FPS gamer)

 

[emp]

[citation][nom]emp[/nom]The review was pretty except for two things, the First was the AA part, I don't know how many ticks on the AA bar you had to slide to get AA, but I can tell you that my HD 4850 with the AA bar maxed drops about 4 fps lower compared to no AA.The other thing is obviously you guys didn't play the game very long without taking breaks if you're saying this is stable. Because frequent Crash-To-Desktops, X-Ray engine crashes, BSODs, and corrupted save games (Quicksave and Autosave are affected only) are not uncommon. By the time I reached Yantar I was only using quick saves and I had a bugged mission with Lefty's group, basically lost about 5 hours of game time using an older save. On top of that performance starts to drop a lot after some time and I have to exit to windows and start the game again for it to work properly.Normally I wouldn't cope with these many issues on a game, but it's STALKER, my absolute favorite game series, so I can't stop playing even with all the errors and bugs, because to be honest... it's worth the grief. Also commenting about the difficulty, to be honest the only thing I find irritating is the excessive power and use of grenades, but I find the game challenging enough for experienced shooter players. I'm playing on Master myself and I have to reload quite a bit to get past even the dumbest places (thank grenades for that), but after you get a decent suit and a slightly accurate gun it's a lot more enjoyable. (Don't go above easy difficulty if you're only a casual FPS gamer)[/citation]

I meant that the review was pretty good on my first line.