Is S.T.A.L.K.E.R a RPG?

@Ionstormsucks - Thank you very much for your opinions. I have generally decided that this is not a game for me. (Even though (and partially because) I understand that it is most likely one of the most atmospheric games out there.

Just a side question - does anyone of you really write S.T.T.A.L.K.E.R. down - with punctuation ! Or do you youse copy 'n'paste ?

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Just a side question - does anyone of you really write S.T.T.A.L.K.E.R. down - with punctuation ! Or do you youse copy 'n'paste ?

Heck, I used massive copy & paste to write my review for 'Modified Air Combat Heroes' (M.A.C.H.) … the extra 2 letters (or 3 depending on how many T's you prefer) would just about kill me

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Just a side question - does anyone of you really write S.T.T.A.L.K.E.R. down - with punctuation ! Or do you youse copy 'n'paste ?

I write S.T.A.L.K.E.R. down every time.

You have my full respect, JemyM. You already saw how I failed with it ONE TIME !

Originally Posted by JemyM
About 6-13 hours per day, depending on responsibilities, work and interest.

Lol, If you're able to play video games for 6-13 hours a day, then you don't have too much responsibilities, work and interest.

I'm envious.

Originally Posted by Danicek
@Ionstormsucks - Thank you very much for your opinions. I have generally decided that this is not a game for me. (Even though (and partially because) I understand that it is most likely one of the most atmospheric games out there.

It's just an opinion really. Maybe I'm just scared easily (though I kinda like being scared). I'm sure there are people out there who would tell you that Stalker isn't scary at all. But if you're not quite sure if this is a game for you I'd just wait for a single player demo before spending 40 bucks on a game which you might not be able to play. I'm sure it can't be long until a demo pops up on the internet.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Lol, If you're able to play video games for 6-13 hours a day, then you don't have too much responsibilities, work and interest.

I'm envious.

No, im not, at the moment. And it's nothing to be envious about I tell you.

What I do the other hours (and why I cannot give 13-16 hours per day) will change this though. In time I might not be able to spend this much time playing games.

Originally Posted by magerette
I am willing to believe that STALKER is a complex, involving game and that it has many rpg elements. If we were to sit down and compare element for element, I think that the lowly "action rpg" genre shares or reflects almost all of them. That does not make Titan Quest an rpg.

Nope, but if anything Titan Quest has more in common with corridor shooters (on-a-rail, purely focused on combat, minimal story) than with 'standard' CRPGs or STALKER, although STALKER itself does have a high frequency of mob respawning which is reminiscent of some 'action RPGs' and MMORPGs.

Personally, I do not care if a game is classified as an "RPG", "FPS", RTS", or some combination of the three. The only 3 letters I care about in any game are "FUN".

Originally Posted by Icefire
Personally, I do not care if a game is classified as an "RPG", "FPS", RTS", or some combination of the three. The only 3 letters I care about in any game are "FUN".

Amen !

I found S.T.A.L.K.E.R "creepy" at moments, but not really scary.

But I eat horror movies like candy and I have seen over 80% of the horror flicks in the last few years, including all the asian ones and some european. I have also played almost every horror game ever released.

What scared me the most in S.T.A.L.K.E.R was when I was camping behind a house. A bandit had taken cover behind the housecorner on the other side and I was expecting him to pop back into view at any time. After some time waiting I heard a large BANG when he had sneaked around the house and shot me from behind.

Originally Posted by Icefire
Personally, I do not care if a game is classified as an "RPG", "FPS", RTS", or some combination of the three. The only 3 letters I care about in any game are "FUN".

Need someone from New England to distill it down

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Just a side question - does anyone of you really write S.T.T.A.L.K.E.R. down - with punctuation ! Or do you youse copy 'n'paste ?

Let me try it S.T.A.L.K.E.R (Hm, this was the first time I've very written it down with punctuation and the last time ).

btw:
The first patch for Stalker is now available.
The German version is i.e. available at www.stalker-shooter.de

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Patch Release Notes

-*Important Installation information*-

There are different versions of the patch for the different SKU's released worldwide and for the Digital Distribution version.
After installing the patch, you will still be able to play multiplayer games across the different SKUs, but it is very important that you install the correct patch for your SKU.

If you live in the USA please download and install

stk-US-10001.exe

If you live in the rest of the world please download and install

stk-WW-10001.exe

If you purchased your copy through the Direct Download service, please download and install

stk-DD-10001.exe


Saved Games

Please note that Saved games from previous versions will NOT work with the patch.
After installing this patch, please go to "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\STALKER-SHOC\savedgames" and make sure any saves that were created prior to installing the patch are deleted.
You will need to make sure that hidden folders are visible on the view tab of the folder options menu.


Connectivity

After installing the patch, please note the version number that has been added to the bottom left corner of the Main Menu screen.
You will only be able to connect to servers hosted on that same version.

The patch fixes the following bugs:

1. Buttons remain "pressed" and value changes on its own in Options
2. Players can kill teammates with the knife when friendly fire is set to 0
3. Game crashed when client player types a server command in console
4. Game crashes when entering a MP game after dying in SP
5. Multiplayer map names will appear in debug text format when voting to change a multiplayer map during gameplay.
6. The game crashes while attempting to purchase an item, after pressing Buy button multiple times from the Buy Menu.
7. The game crashes when the user triggers an anomaly after the anomaly time is set to 0.
8. Purchased affordable weapons fail to be in the inventory when one item purchased exceeds the user's monetary amount.
9. The player will lose the weapon he has stored in his inventory as well as the equipped weapon when the equipped weapon is dropped in MP.
10. The host is able to pause the game during an MP game.
11. Players are able to duplicate other player names by using the "name" command in the console.
12. The user is unable to view a fly-by cutscene if their PDA is open while triggering the cutscene.
13. The user can speed up time with the * key on the numpad in SP
14. Players can damage and kill other teammates while friendly fire is set to 0.0
15. The starting weather in-game does not accurately reflect the starting weather set by the server host in multiplayer match
16. The corpse created by a user switching teams remains in the game when playing multiplayer team deathmatch or artifact hunt.
17. Options "show weapon" and "NPC identification" fail to function
18. The up and down function for the look feature are inverted through out the game.
19. The server will crash when the players vote to change maps, but don't select a map to change to.
20. Players will take no fall damage when friendly fire is set to 0 on the server
21. The player dies when trying to exit out of the skin menu back into gameplay
22. Death by an anomaly is not recorded as a negative frag when playing Team Deathmatch.
23. Game Crash when opening buy menu from certain spot in Artifact Hunt mode
24. The prompt for the buy menu and entry via pressing the spacebar appears when in spectator mode during any network game.
25. Professor Kruglov sometimes can't open the door to the mobile science lab
26. When player stands close to a wall and shoots grenade launcher, the grenade falls out of the map without damaging anyone.
27. Possibility of killing enemies through the roofs and walls
28. When killing Wolf before completing any of additional quests given from him, these quests doesn't change status from "Active Tasks" to "Failed Tasks" in PDA.
29. Problem with quest: "Kill gang leader" when piece of text in PDA is directing user to kill leader in Dark Valley. Quest is completed after kill this bandit on Garbage level.
30. Disappearing piece of scroll belt in Main Menu when the player changes resolution to 800x600
31. Anomalies were not appearing when turned on in server options menu.
32. Game crashed when creating a Team Deathmatch server with spectator on.
33. Problems with ‘Slug’ artifact.
34. Possibility to take the decoder through the Wall
35. Issue with cash in inventory on MP build
36. NPC called Seriy has 3 different names: Seriy, Gray and Grey.
37. Problem with price of weapon in inventory
38. Game crashed when vote for kicking a player ended
39. Rare game crash during multiplayer match, after players choose a team.
40. Exploit with update rate command
41. Wood in barrels is flickering, although there's no fire there.
42. Player can jump between 2 stalkers and table inside the bar and become stuck.
43. Two side quests from Sakharov have wrong description.
44. After playing in multiplayer mode and then starting single player game, Sidorovich has one of multiplayer nicks instead of his name.
45. Game crashed when player fight with pseudodogs on red forest.
46. The game crashes to a non-responsive state (task manager) when attempting to host multiplayer game a second time with an invalid CD-key.
47. On Win 2000 PCs, the Windows Desktop cursor has no functionality when minimizing the game (Alt+Tab).
48. The game will result in a soft crash when a player dies from radioactive poisoning, then immediately falls into the tunnel well that leads out of the Agroprom Underground level.
49. The arrow buttons remain depressed when clicked and dragged off the boxes, thus making the value increase or decrease indefinitely in the options menu of network games.
50. Game crashed during map rotation. This issue occurs several times while playing with maps (Vehicle station, Desolated Village and Deserted Factory)
51. Game crashes when entering an MP game after dying in SP
52. The Host will crash and all Clients will either return to the main menu, crash to the desktop, or the program will shut itself down and return the user to the desktop, when attempting to drop a player while users are In-Game
53. Users are able to pick up an opponent's grenade after it has been thrown and then use it themselves.
54. The players name switches to a random player's name with a _1 after it in multiplayer if no name is entered in the network games menu.
55. Players fail to be kicked, after unanimously voting to remove them, during network gameplay.
56. Player is unable to ban other player, everybody vote for, line "voting succeed" appears and nothing happens. Player that was supposed to be banned still can play and do whatever he wants on the server.
57. The starting weather in-game does not accurately reflect the starting weather set by the server host in multiplayer match
58. Saved game are over written when attempting a second save uses the first saved game's name followed by a "space" and any other word or number during single player campaign.
59. The artifact is unaffected by gravity when dropped during an artifact hunt game.
60. Players take no explosion damage when the friendly fire damage option is set to 0 in the server options of a team deathmatch game.
61. The game will crash, halting progression when transferring from Station to the Sarcophagus.
62. When player wants to reload a weapon, and start fast shooting, he can't do that because weapon continues reloading.
63. The game crashes when a player is killed immediately after they are re-spawned into the game.
64. The weapons fail to scroll when using the mouse wheel after all the grenades have been used during single player gameplay.
65. Minor text bugs.
66. Various balance issues in Singleplayer and Multiplayer.
67. Various known exploits/cheats.
68. Various other issues.

Argh ! I just don't like sentences like "this patch is for the US - for the rest of the world please use this patch" !

Nice. I LIKE being called "the rest of the world" !

So do I, and when you get down here, there's not much of the world left!!

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Argh ! I just don't like sentences like "this patch is for the US - for the rest of the world please use this patch" !

What's so surprising about that? The rest of the world just needs the normal fixes, while here Stateside we need extra fixes to hide any errant aureolas and make the violence more collar-grabbingly extreme.

what's the verdict? Bestbuy had this for $35 yesterday. It looks tempting but too violent.

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
It looks tempting but too violent.

Um… It would be fair to describe the game as violent. Extremely violent. Very, very violent indeed. It's the sort of game where you leave camp with 600 rounds of ammo and consider it too little.