Indeed: if you knew there was going to be a bogey waiting in every darkened room, where would be the suspense?

There was a particular section (may have been lab "X18") where somebody suddenly shuts you in, and the ONLY way I could engineer an escape was to start again but this time dumping the NBC-suited body of a worker in the hatchway, so that it was effectively jammed open. I don't know whether this was the intention but it seemed impossible to escape otherwise.

The sounds add greatly to the atmosphere too, suggesting all kinds of freakish creatures prowling nearby (some of whom you meet, of course). I think by far the worst of these are the Snorks, but the giant mutant rats are pretty good value too!

Do you know, I've never played any of the three games with mods.

You should give them a try! If you suddenly have exorbitant amounts of time, at the very least try Misery, mostly because it satisfies a certain itch that normally only simulation games can get to - as in, it's fundamentally unfair and overly-detailed, but more than makes up for it when you overcome that unfairness and detail to actually accomplish something and get out alive. Kind of reminds me of playing something like SH4 with TMO, or something along those lines.

You may or may not have seen the film "Chernobyl Diaries". Pretty scary, it does show that Stalker's rendition of the town of Pripyat is pretty spot-on...

Chernobyl Diaries wasn't filmed in Pripyat. :O:

Indeed, it was filmed in Gravesend, the most appropriate setting for it. :yep: :03:

Ooops, is that right? I thought those apartment blocks looked just like the ones in the game, and the ferris-wheel.

+1. Just getting to the ship the first time was an adventure in itself. Misery is the closest thing I've played to what I envision Stalker to be. Highly recommended, but not for everyone.

Thanks: very much appreciate the recommendation, Threadfin...

No problem mate. Here's a link.

http://www.miserymod.com/

It is a completely different experience. You will approach everything differently. It's the only Stalker I've played where I really just want to live in the world, as opposed to move the story forward. But it's pretty hardcore. And at the beginning, very difficult.

But as I said, it's very close to what I envision the Stalker world to be. Everything is much more deadly, scarce and bleak.

Hard to believe it's been two years since this discussion... I sat down at long last to seriously look at downloading the Misery mod today and it all looks pretty daunting: on the modders' website a litany of stories of how people have struggled to (a) get the thing to work, and (b) survive for more than 30 seconds game-play before getting either shot or eaten alive.

First: make be sure you've got the right version of the game ('Call of Pripyat') and I still have to check this; then, does it require DirectX10 to run (can anyone tell me, please?); then, at 1.7 gigabytes, just how long will it take to download. Hours, according to one poster.

As someone who's played somewhere in the neighbourhood of 100 hours of Misery, I can't say I've ever had any problems with it - and getting it to run was not an issue either. It's a simple installer which will configure it for you. Just make sure you install it on top of a fresh Call of Pripyat with no other mods.

The current (final) version of Misery is very stable, and even includes an "easier" mode, as far as I remember.

Yeah I saw someone had been asking about the 'rookie' mode on the website... they were told rather rudely that if they couldn't hack it they should stick to 'Call of Duty' :haha:

I guess the only thing to do is try... does it require DirectX10?

I haven't fired this one up since about the time this thread was started. Is the final version more recent? I did have some stability issues with the mod. Not bad, but some CTDs occasionally.

Eichhörnchen, were you able to get it sorted and give it a go? It's my favorite version of STALKER as I mentioned earlier in this thread I'm sure.

Sorry I didn't reply to that, buddy... I still haven't. I got into playing Manhunt shortly after I PM'd you last and I couldn't leave it alone until I'd finished it... if you think Stalker is gloomy! :timeout:

Btw, I never got Clear Sky to run on any of my computers, not even on my new one; all I get is that infuriating "Please insert original disc" message. I've tried everything, but with so many other games waiting to be played I don't have the patience to....um, play games :haha:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. "Lost Alpha" now ready
 

Well... just about, but I'm going to wait for the mega one-stop download. How can they just be giving this away???

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...-cut-released/

Nice! I'm also awaiting the much-anticipated "Ray of Hope" co-op multiplayer mod. Surviving the Zone with friends is something I've always wanted to do. Will have to get the game reinstalled for Lost Alpha again. :Kaleun_Salute:

Have a read of this then:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...yl_s_dead.html

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky problem
 

Yes it's the old "Please insert original disc" issue again. I see lots of others have had this message after installing a retail disc, basically saying "We've decided you're a crook, but never mind cos we've had your money" but I won't waste time ranting here as there've been plenty of others doing that.

I've concluded from what I've read that it's likely the "Tages" anti-emulation software preventing the game starting. It's no help when people say "Oh just download it from 'Steam'" (I definitely have to fight off the urge to rant at this point). Some of us still like to play from discs offline, okay? We DON'T WANT STEAM!

One suggestion of course was to try Compatibility Mode... no luck.

Another was to run as Administrator... no luck.

Another was to patch, so I downloaded and ran the patch (including drivers) for my retail version... same outcome.

Remove 'Tages' was another, but that means (if I understand correctly) that my other games which use it but run okay, might not unless I reinstall. I'm not buggering about like that... I want what I paid for... the bloody game on the disc!

On their website Eichhörnchen, they've got a blurb about apologizing for sending incorrect CD keys to folks, but I can't tell if that's the Steam versions only, or for all of them...

I don't suppose you can say yet whether the game is any good or not?