THA | Hamst3r.com

I’ve uploaded the first batch of sample packs to hamsteralliance.com. They’re all old packs, so there’s no descriptive update for them other than this. Yup. That’s it. I’ll be uploading some new sample packs soon once I figure out what to sample.

Thoughts on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (part 1)

I started to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. again this last weekend and I’ve actually gotten somewhere in the game! When I bought it, probably 4 months ago, I didn’t understand the game very well and it seemed impossible to live more than 5 minutes. The guns seemed horribly inaccurate, I never noticed the anomalies until it was too late, I hadn’t run into any of this amazing “A-Life” yet and I kept bleeding to death as I didn’t have any bandages to stop the bleeding with. I played all of 45 minutes and the only reason it took that long was because I was pretty much lost.

It was my fault though. I was too impatient and not observant enough. I was trying to play the game like Serious Sam or Painkiller. So I stopped playing and moved on to other games.

Last night I installed the 1.0005 patch and started the game. The loading screen makes me laugh…whatever it’s doing seems quite unconventional and complex. Loading alife simulator, Loading spawn registry, Opening Stream, Loading CFORM, Loading spatial-DB, Loading Sector Portals, CLIENT: Synchronizing…and so on.

This time I was sure that the experience would be better. I also picked a lower difficulty level…as the only saved game I had from the prior excursion into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was set to the highest difficulty level. *facepalm* How very elucidating. Clearly I thought too highly of my skill or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is simply harder than the average FPS game.

20 minutes into the game and I wasn’t dead. Astounding. I also shot a dog in the face and ripped off it’s tail for “research”. I completed the first mission without any problems and didn’t run headfirst into any anomalies this time. 20 more minutes later and several more enemies shotted-in-the-face, I found myself inable to move. Shit. This must be the RPG element. The, “No you can’t carry every single thing you pick up” mechanic. I was fat with an assortment of rifles and canned foods.

So I start playing the management game with my inventory. It seems that I can’t carry very much at all, so I need to stop picking everything up. I have to just take what I need, rather than hastily clicking the, “Take All” button. The problem with that though is that while I’m selectively looting a corpse, the game is still going on outside of my inventory screen and I’ve been attacked numerous times while talking to friendly NPCs and attempting to sort out what to carry. So I decided to no longer rummage for things until after I’d killed everyone…but sometimes it seems like the baddies just never stop spawning. The artificial life system is constantly repopulating the areas your in.

Anyways, after a couple more hours of getting used to the way this game works, I believe I have everything under control. I’m wearing a jellyfish on my head, a Burnt Fuzz Urchin under my belt and I’m counteracting the bleeding with a Fruit Punch Slug. I’ve learned how to manage what I’m carrying, so I can focus on simply playing the game, which makes it a lot more fun. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is turning out to be a really good game, minor glitches and some confusing aspects aside.

I’ll let you know more as I get further into the game. I’ve started venturing off on to side missions to find better stuff and see more of the game. I also plan on talking a bit about Crysis, possibly putting up a review. :)