Chris

Is x18 the first lab you go into? Under the factory? The code worked for me, was 1243 i think - i have an insane memory for letter and number sequences!

Any help or advice you can lend would be awesome. One thing you can definately help me with, (we can take this to PM if the mods prefer?) how did you go about character movement/silhouettes. From what i guess, it's real silhouettes imposed onto drawn background, with details drawn onto the silhouettes in some rare instances. Only i have no idea how i'd manage to record the material i'd need!

Don't rush it either guys, explore the plot thoroughly or like me you'll hit a false ending and end up restarting the game (it's good enough to play through twice anyway), wishing you'd taken the time to uncover the full extent of the storyline.

All i know is that i run 1.5 miles (2.8km roughly) 4 times a week and there is no way i'd be out of breathe as quickly as our otherwise superhuman S.T.A.L.K.E.R. It's to do with phyiscal conditioning, when i first started doing phys, i'd have probably agreed on the running, but having been conditioned, i'd have to strongly disagree that his stamina seems too high. And as i've already gone as far to say, i think it should infact be more than it is, given the pyhsical nature of being a S.T.A.L.K.E.R - the best of these guys would be phyiscally on a par with someone from a high quality infantry unit i dare say.

Gave it a first go tonight, seems very simple, but characters/complex scenes will be more of a challenge. So far i've just done a typical thiefy city scene, just to test the water. If anyones at all interested (and yes i'm aware of mistakes in perspective etc, its just a quick play around): www.volcbat.com/vids/sofar.wmv

The question was irrespective of whether missions have been made yet or not, so are you saying there are no rustmonkey style cutscenes planned/nobody knows how to make or implement them? Dissapointing if so.

I've had the game a few days *ahem* and am totally loving it. I think i'm about to fail my degree for this game. I'll start off by commenting on Ombrenuit's review, because theres a minor point i disagree with: I actually feel the opposite, for a physically conditioned male of the approx. age of the main character, you should be able to sprint a little bit further, and you should be able to maintain the standard fast walk for a long period of time. I agree that a 'normal' person, ie guys who sit in an office/behind thier PC all day, would perhaps struggle, but the main character is obviously not a normal person Now onto my own thoughts Specs: AMD X2 5200+ CPU. 2gb RAM 7950GT 512mb GFX card. The first thing that struck me almost immediately when i started playing STALKER, was that it felt like i was essentially playing a first person version of Fallout. It's fair to say, once i realised that, i knew i was onto a winner. The game world itself is the real jewel of the piece, the areas in the zone are well thought out and constructed, and with the ambience, the weather, day/night cycles, it looks gorgeous and it sounds gorgeous. What more could you want? The game itself is for the most part a survivor game, fighting human AI, helping out various groups, scavenging for weapons, ammo, food and supplies. But just occasionally, it turns the horror factor right up, and when it does, you won't forget it. It's not often i come across a game that makes me have to stop playing soley through use of fear! This works better than out and out scare fests such as Doom 3, because the relatively rare scary moments are contrasted with gameplay that, although slightly creepy at times, is mostly manageable with plently of 556 and a decent rate of fire. So when odd things do start to happen, it actually feels out of the ordinary. So far (and i'm guessing i'm quite far through), the storyline is good, if not a little vague - but the plot twist that is coming is obvious to me already, even though the main character hasnt spotted it The cutscenes are pretty damn good too. Hmm, bad things? AI is challenging and intellegent, so it's mostly good, but there are odd moments when it decides to try and fire through a concrete wall. It's hard to manage the ammount of wieght you can carry - although i agree its probably realistic to limit the weight to roughly what it is now - and still pack enough weapons/ammo to cover yourself - but thats more a challenge than anything else....errr...so is there anything actually bad about this game? Only that i ought to be writing an essay as we speak and instead i'm craving to play STALKER! Definately worth buying.

Searched and havent really found anything, so sorry if this has been asked before, but do you plan on going with the traditional rustmonkey style cutscenes? These really made the thief games as good as they were, imo, they were critical in settings the atmosphere. Would be a shame if you couldnt do them. On the other hand, they are probably difficult and time consuming to construct. Btw, if anyone knows exactly how to make them, i'd love to know, i'm a fair lick in photoshop (i'm employed for my efforts), so i can draw, and i have an idea of how they are made (moving layers, etc), but if anyone has actual knowledge....