tl;dr – this game is awesome. And not the crappy “awesome” that has been thrown around for the past 20 years… Crisps are not awesome, they are crunchy! (holy crap, never thought i would make a dylan moran reference). The proper awesome, where something leaves you in awe. Anywho, now for the main event -

So, the third S.T.A.L.K.E.R game has been with us for a while now and ive already got 40-50 hours playtime under my belt. Been trying to write some sort of review for it but im finding it difficult. It keeps just turning into some kind of crappy walkthrough or a list of anecdotes. So i thought i would just stick with the anecdotes, the best thing about stalker games of course is the free roam and the way the world around you is dynamic. Anything can happen the weather and day/night cycle can also add alot of atmosphere to certain situations.

First of all though, im sort of doing a bit of roleplaying in this game. There some things they removed/added across the three games. Some of which i agree with, some i dont and there are also some general exploits and strategies that just make the game too easy, so ive been playing by a set of certain rules so they dont affect me as much.

• Even though there are certain strategies that work best against certain mutants, im not following them, my character likes to hang back and take enemies out from a distance. Sure i could go an knife a burer or shotgun a controller in the face but thats to easy.
• I wear a SEVA suit to always be protected from unexpected hazards. Sure, pretty much any other armour would work better in gunfights, but im cautious, ill stay back in a gun fight, always attack from a distance or try to avoid it altogether. There isnt really ever going to be many “unexpected hazards” since anomalies and such arnt random in this game (unfortunatly) but its roleplaying and all the other suits pretty much make the game easymode.
• There are better weapons than the ones i use and certain weapons work better in different situations but i always use the same equipment, a silenced pistol and my Vintar sniper. From time to time i may use an assault rifle or a shotgun if ammo is low.
• I wont loot certain things. I wont pick up alcohol, only pickup energy drinks if i am far from a safe area and still plan to visit other areas and only eat tinned food. I wont take ammo i dont need and only take weapons if they are very rare/unique.
• I will only use the basic medkits and bandages none of this other fancy crap.
• The plot says im part of the military, but i miss the reuptation and faction wars from Clear Sky. So i always help Stalkers and Freedom members out, im indifferent about Duty but hate Bandits. Not openly though, i will only take them out from a distance to make sure im not seen, if they are fighting with mutants i will help then kill them when they turn their backs. I will never fast travel with Duty or Bandits. This wasnt from the start though, after a few breif dealings with bandits i decided not to work with them again.
• I wont use nightvision (cant with the SEVA suit anyway) although i do have NV on my sniper scope, but that doesnt help when trying to navigate in the dark. Just using a crappy, short range torch in the vast open areas at night time adds alot more atmosphere than using nightvision.

So here goes…… oh yeah SPOILERS

Snag

If you’ve played the game, you may have met a certain bandit by the name of “Snag” and at least some of this probably happened to you. Snag asks you for some help collecting a stash of weapons and offers to split them equally. Turns out the split isnt so equal though, he keeps claiming some sort of personal attachment to almost everything and keeps most of the stash. Im not happy, but i keep it calm and civil. Later on i go and order a pistol from Nimble. Walking past Snag, he claims it is his and was stolen. After some stern words he dissapears.

Later, i arrive in Yanov to find him again, but he denies everything. Still keeping calm about it i go and place some weapons in my personal locker, along with some ammo and a suit freedom had given me and sleep until morning. I wake up to find my stash is gone and Snag has dissapeared from Yanov station. I ask about and find the direction he has ran off in. I make haste and find him about to be executed via gunshot to the head by a bandit. I save him and give him a medkit to heal his wounds, the bandit had obviously already done some damage. Snag is confused by my civil behaviour during the whole ordeal and offers me the location of the cache where he keeps all his stolen goods as thanks. And then, it happened, i pulled out pistol (a custom black kite, cant remember the name), raised it and killed him SHOT THE GOD DAMN THEIF RIGHT IN THE FACE. He did a backflip and landed against the wall with his head on the floor.

Controllers

You may also remember a certain tunnel, there was ALOT of psy activity and you are sent with a small group to investigate. You get ambushed by a controller on the way out. In my case, only one of the men with me survived the ordeal with me, but he wasnt in good shape. About a week later (in game) i am passing the tunnel again heading to a nearby anomalie field and i see a bandit running out, followed by controller. I take out the controller but the bandit still seems agitated by something.

I moved closer but there didnt seem to be anything else about, another bandit was in the tunnel and didnt seem to be under attack or shooting anything so i shoot bandit outside in the head and head inside to finish off the other bandit but as i climb through a broken train carridge ANOTHER controller emerges from inside it. Totally caught off guard, only wielding a pistol, a nearby hostile bandit shooting me because i killed his friend and the controller constantly throwing my aim off with his psy attacks i narrowly manage to get into cover to recover and take them both out.

Controllers seem alot more common in general in this game. Ive also been caught of guard in the middle of the night in the pouring rain. I hear a growl in some nearby bushes, not sure what caused it i try to investigae when suddenly skulls flash across my screen and i find myself stareing into the sky. A controller, hiding behind some bushes in the middle of nowhere, there is NO cover for me to get behind and its already hard enough to shoot controllers with no cover let alone when you are trying to spray-n-pray through a bush. But i manage to pull through, this was one of the few times ive had to actually buy ammo after a trip out though.

Burer Baby

You probably came across this in lab X8, a baby crying, its coming from these toilets. You open a door to find a burer staring you in the face. The first time, my reaction was “HOLY CRAP” and i jump backwards shooting my pistol (i always seem to be holding a pistol in the most inapropriate times) The door slams and is apparently locked, then suddenly im dead. The burer had picked up a massive fridge/freezer from behind me without me noticing until it smashes into the back of my head…

Nighttime shootout

A couple of stalker in Yanov need my help. Some bandits have their friend held hostage. Of course, at the first mention of killing bandits i was in so off we go to save their friend. Its pitch black and a thunderstorm is underway. I gave a torch but we are being stealthy and it wouldnt help at all at the range we were at. The bandit camp is based in a warehouse surrounded by metal containers. The only lightsources outside being the bandits torches, the dim light from a fire and the occasional lightning strike. We get into position and i take out what seems to be the main guard, standing near the gate. The camp goes dark, all the bandits torches go off. Now all we can see is the muzzle flashes and a few bandits near the dim camp fire. Everynow and then though lightning strikes.

For a few brief miliseconds the scene lights up as bright as day and in those few miliseconds is when the most damage happens. The atmosphere during this gunfight was like nothing ive experienced in another game, the closest ive been to it was in Stalker Clear Sky, traveling through the swamps late at night being followed by boars that are hiding in the reeds. But then, as we push into the camp an emission starts. The stalkers dont care, they want to get to their friend and i just cant leave them. We make one final push and reach the warehouse, i run in.

The stalker is on his knees woth a gun to his head. One shot to the bandits head and he is down. The emission is really starting to get underway now but were quite far from a safe area so i manage to loot some energy drinks form one of the bandits and run towards ventilation complex underground BUT its full of zombies. Luckly they always seem more docile at night time and i managed to get quite far in before i disturbed one and could easily pick them off with headshots from cover. I lived and all three stalkers are safely back in Yanov station.

Holy crap a pseudogiant…

… i never see these, thats why i left my Gauss Rifle in zanton today, ill run out of ammo before it dies. Wow, a snork, some flesh, some rats and a pseudodog? Perhaps they will fini- Crap… Oh, here come some Duty members, in some decent armor maybe they can de- maybe not. Good, its running off in a different direction, is that a pack of blind dogs and some ra- well, it was before the giant came along. Wait, its coming this i better quickly way turn around and ru- HOLY CRAP A CHIMERA!!

Yeah, i should have started recording this video alot earlier, Only a chimera and 2 stalkers got killed in it, rather anti-climatic after the rest of the rampage.

Maybe ill keep this updated… maybe i wont…

Been too busy to update, previous updates were kind of crap anywho, the Trine “review” was the most popular and got alot of referrals from google but i don’t think i have the time or patience to do more reviews/articles/whatever like that, and just because it got views, doesn’t mean people enjoyed it.

Getting an average of about 2 hits per day, which is more than i would expect. Alot of bots spamming comments though.

The End

Your videos are not fun when you spend 50% of the time complaining about the youtube time limit and spending the other 50% making sure you are still below the time limit and commenting when you are near it. Just play the game, nobody cares about the time, play for as long as you want, when it goes over 11 mins (yes, the limit is actually 11 mins, not 10) then you ignore it and keep playing, you can split the video into 11 min segments at the end.

Dont edit the video so you do everything perfectly, and dont do test runs, thats just a video walkthrough, not a let’s play and are often less entertaining.

Dont act like its the first time youve played the game or the first time youve seen something when it clearly isnt, ive yet to see a lets player that can actually act and do it believably, it’s just annoying.

Dont drown out the game’s sound, the game is a major part of the let’s play, obviously, and it sucks when the viewer has to turn the volume up three times higher than usual to hear the actual game then get deafened by your voice, you need to find a balance between you and the game.

One of my fav Let’s Plays at the moment is gixG17’s Morrowind Let’s Play.

• It’s an awesome game
• He just plays, no being held down by time limits
• He talks about the game, his views, ideas and opinions on it, not about whatever you did last Tuesday
• He dosnt edit anything out. spending a whole 10 mins reading the quest log? May seem boring to some but he provides running commentaries and its nice to see all this from a different persons perspective
• He does this cool thing where you can see him in the bottom corner while he is playing the game. One thing you lose with just audio is body language, which can say a lot on its own.

</incoherent rant>

Ive probably missed something. That was fun though, been a while since ive had a proper rant. I still watch and enjoy a lot of Let’s Players that do the bad things i mentioned above, but its really annoying. Anywho, back to watching Let’s Plays! Enjoying ThatEnglishDude’s FEAR 2 Let’s Play at the moment.

That is all

In other news

Stopped playing oblivion, not really a big fan of a pure mage class, probably wasnt the best idea like i said. Went back to morrowind, started a stealth/theif/marksman like character. Its going pretty well considering this is the first time ive ever actually managed to get past seyda neen before getting bored, and ive had the game for god knows how long, a couple of years before oblivion was released. Im up to level 20 something (havnt played for a day or two now) and im really appreciating the game this time, i can deffinetly see why alot of people preferred it over oblivion, the depth and variety is so much better.

Anywho, thats it for now.

There is also an amazing song in it, about donuts. He will also randomly say things almost incoherantly as you run around. Including “Get to the choppa”, plane noises while running with his arms out, monkey noises and insane laughing

Also, ive been ill, turns out its probably NOT swine flu, but needs to be treated the same just incase, so im quarantined in my home til friday. So, sods law, today i get a phone call about a job that starts tomorrow…

I could carry on with these other saves, because (believe it or not) im not finished with them…

…but decided to start a new mage. Gone with an Altmer with the Mage sign and all the magic skills as major, probably not the best setup, some of the magic skills are so easy to level its not really worth having them as a major but meh, ill see how it goes.

;

sidenote: i really need to get a capture card so i can take screenshots/record videos on the xbox.

Tales of Monkey Island

Went back and started Curse of Monkey Island again, getting ready for the new one. Still probably the best art style of all the MI games, came across a few problems running it on Vista, but, the game is worth it, still not finished that yet because Tales of Monkey Island arrived. This game deffinetly still has the Monkey Island charm, although, it is easier than the previous games. Im still not sure whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. There also seems to be less interaction and dialog than the old games although, there is still a hell of alot there, and its all top notch. This is also just the first chapter of five, and seems like it could just be an intro, things may pick up more in the following chapters. A package of all 5 chapters is available on steam, the other four unlock every month up til november.

Zeno Clash

I enjoyed it alot, the first person melee combat was really fun, looked like it would get kind of boring but it never did, the game was a bit short but the challange tower stages added an bit of extra time to it. Then, there was the story, i think this tweet of mine summed it up well:

Finally played Zeno Clash. Story was confusing, then this Golem dude arrived, story went batshit insane, game ended with a damn rubiks cube!

The scene where you sit on the front of the boat for god knows how long while the weak and annoying desert people threw rocks at you dragged on a bit, but apart from that, it was all good. You should try the demo, although, i didnt, i just bought the full game.

Wallace and Gromit!

The first episode of their game by Telltale Games came free with the Tales of Monkey Island package. Seems to be aimed at younger people, the voicework seems quite patronising and when they start making refrences to old Wallace and Gromit shows, it seems very forced. It was still quite fun though, until i found a game breaking bug where i had too much cheese. Im not sure how anyone could have too much cheese, especially Wallace, but it happened. I searched the Internet and found Telltales official responce which was something along the lines of “IF we get around to making a patch (which we probably wont) we MIGHT think about fixing it”. So… screw that, i’m never finishing that game, was quite near the end aswell.

the Maw

Only heard good things about it, and the story. At first i wasnt sure, seems very childish and i couldnt really see much of a story, but its quite fun, i havnt really played any proper platformer stlye games like it for quite a while so it was refreshing to have something different. Not sure how far through i am, i dont think im that far through, but Maw is getting pretty big and it was incredibly cheap so i could be wrong. It has a crap load of “DLC” (expansions! Damn marketing speak) aswell, which i might check out. You should atleast give it a try. Not sure what the demo is like, just bought the game but im guessing it will give the right impression about the game.

Yes, innovacious is a name i use and is NOT a real word, even though if you said it to someone they would think it is and assume it means something that is innovative, which would kind of be correct, thats what i wanted it to mean back in 2003 when i first started using it as my online alias on deviantart. Back then i believe it had 0 results on google, although, i think there may have been one or two that were just random search engines on parked domains that generate random words.

Now there are god knows how many results on google, with the majority of them being to me on various websites, but then latley innovacious marketing has been creeping in. The majority of them being me is not all good though. There are quite a few results that are posts by me on forums i joined to get help with certain things, and looking back on them, i seem utterly clueless and its kind of embarrassing.

Anywho, thats the end of that for now. Not sure what urged me to make this post, gonna stay in the “Uncategorized” category because it relates to nothing and is completley useless!

Free Realms was pretty bad, i decided to try it out because of all the publicity it was getting. Its an MMORPG, not really focused on fighting like most since its aimed at kids, one of the first skills i learned was about how to train a puppy. I guess, it is aimed at kids though, maybe if i was 6 years old again… one of my friends may have had a younger sister that might have enjoyed it…

ArmA II was… well, buggy and unfinished. Ive heard lots of people say its a great game if you can see past that but at the moment i dont have the patience, will probably wait a while then go and have another try. I could go on about all the bugs n stuff, but ill just start ranting. They arent even game breaking or anything, they just all added up and my frustration got higher and higher until i had to rage quit. I paused during a long breifing and after unpausing, the whole thing restarted. Thats what took me over the edge

And the others? I might write some more stuff about those games some other time. I enjoy writing stuff like this, even if it never gets read by anyone. Im a bit of a perfectionist with this you see, while being sloppy at the same time. So many large blocks of text ive written during discussions on forums or trying to start discussions on forums has just been thrown away, never to be seen, because i couldnt convey what i wanted to say. But, at the same time, my spelling and grammar in said writing, is absolutley terrible! I rewrote this paragraph 6 times before i felt it was right… I had to write that sentence 3 times because i went back and changed more. I could go on about how i wrote that sentence twice, but i will not.

Could also write some stuff about upcoming games, like Brutal Legend, which looks to be one of the greatests games of all time (maybe not so good if you arent a metal fan or cant stand Jack Black). Hoping there is some death n black metal in there somewhere, im sure i heard Schafer breifly mention them. You should watch this if you havnt, clip hosted by Giantbomb

Anywho, thats enough for now, need to stop before i rewrite the whole thing again.

update: video didnt resize properly in IE