Go Back   Sports Car Forum - MotorWorld.net > Hobbies and Leisure Time > Computers, Consoles, Gadgets And Gizmos > Videogames



Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 04-17-2007, 08:43 PM   #1
Pokiou
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 1,451
Default !GAME REVIEW! S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

Hi guys again

This time I'm doing a Firsts Person Shooter.

Ok i heard rave reviews about this game day in day out on how good the graphics are and how good the game play is... is it really ?? how about an average game players PC ? how does it look from there PC? Don't get me wrong i don't have a really weak machine but i also don't have a computer with a nuclear reactor as the CPU and NASA as the graphics card.

Ok game installed and i clicked on the icon. Nothing.... ammm ok ... hello... i clickedy the buttonyyyy!! where is my game.. ok don't panic its maybe something simple.. ill reboot my machine as the last time i turned it off was around 1945 ?? lol

Done. click.. game loads... im faced with a good cut scene intro of the game developers. Now im in the main menu.

hmmm.....Main menu, looks good there is a background that would possibly scare the weak at heart. The game options are found on the bottom right are also laid out nicely but who cares.. i just wanted to play.

Ok ill list my specs so you can all say ohhh wow (its basic)

p4 3.2 1mb cache
1gig ddr2 (fastest fsb one i could get 800hmz maybe ? 1100 ??)
Gigabyte mobo i965 chip set. PCi-E
Gigabyte 7600GT 256mb PCi-E
On board HD audio
Logitech wireless keyboard
Logitech G5 gaming mouse
S3 steel gaming mouse pad.
and the mother of my setup

ACER 22" wide screen LCD.. i love it

So when the game loads it loads with medium settings and set to 1280*1024. So i just jumped in and loaded the game.

What a painful moment in my life. A dull screen and a loading bar that looks like it was ripped off of quake 3 hey days. possibly 7-8 minutes of my life went past and i get a movie intro... Yea ok not a bad intro.. a truck driving down a road in a rainy thunder night. Suddenly it gets struck by a lighting bolt and sends the truck in a great ball of fire down a hill.

You see a man running to it when everything is calm and he is looking for survives I'm assuming. He carries you back to a base after he finds you alive. HE takes to an under ground bunker where nothing happens but some old fat man stops you from dying...

Ok up to this point its fine... no no no it snot .. wtf is going on .. who am i.. what am i doing there ?? i got amnesia ? what were all the dead bodies in the back of the truck i was in. Was i driving. Poor story line so far, i have no idea whats going on. i don't even know what area I'm in or what happened for the area to become in the state it is.

Anyways I'm given a mission to go out and recover a soldier and some of the stuff he has. So i head out.. up the stairs to the right and right again and i come to a exit of a bunker. I take a step out and think .. nice... and then it hits me.. or more or less my computer.. it just stopped... i look down to see if the computer has frozen and nope its working away hard like a 15yo with a playboy magazine, wait there i go I'm able to move.. no wait .. yes.. no .. yes. noooo.. ok @ this point i got up thinking it will be fine, so i decided to pay the toilet a visit and when i got back it was fine..

Everything was moving fine. Rain was falling, grass was moving side to side and birds where tweeting and being birdy.

So where am i... ?? i don't know cause no1 has told me anything yet. I got a hand gun a knife a PDA and thats its i head into the town with gun out and what do i see a man pointing his rifle at me... why ?? what did i do ? so i after mashing the keyboard i managed to put the gun away... so did he ... ok i'm getting this slowly.

I found a guy in the city and managed to talk to him telling me the guy that i'm looking for was captured..... amm.. ok..fair enough. so i offer my help and i head off.. No @ this point i'm pissed off, let me give you a little run down on why:

First i'm standing tall upright not ducking and i'm short as hell.. wtf.. am i a midget.. i ain't no dwarf in lord of the rings.. in the movie i'm seem to be a big guy, when standing upright im at there shoulders height.

Ok anyways im 10 minutes into the game and im on my first mission. Heading off to save some dude numble or nimble. i get to a group of people on my map that i was told to goto and i walk up to him and with out saying anything he tells me to stfu and stop talking lol ... ok

so i did that.. nothing happened. Oh thats right i have to talk to him to get the mission going, what gives lol. anyways we have to raid this village and get our guy out.. you can pick to do it lone ranger style or with the other 3 guys and go in guns blazing.. i tried both ways and its crap.. the aiming system is really bad.. i didn't know whats going on.. example ?? ok im about 3-4meters away thats like the distance from 1 end of a car to the other and im shooting a man.. i don't know how the physic engine works in the game but i missed.. i was standing still and i still missed.. i moved around i missed.. i managed to get a shot in his head but his still alive..i hate that. Enough i say to my self.

The graphics look beta the sounds are annoying. the story line is weak as silk hold a brick. But there is some good factors. the large maps make it a good explorer game. And there is some phenomenal things that happens like pulsing energy balls that you can barely see and when you walk close to them something happens.. i don't now what.. i get a green bar and thats it!! ?? !! Animals running around .. like 4-5 hounds and 2-3 pigs just running.. not really animal like.

The animation is really early 2000 fps style.
The sounds are ok
The game play is boring
The graphics (not animation) are fine nothing special.

Over all... the game is a let down. was over hyped and over exaggerated... its boring. the dialogs make me wonder if the person on weed or something. The game feels very very unnatural. Not user friendly.

Score:
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 5/10
Game Play: 5/10 i got bored of it in the first 40 minutes and went back to C&C-3
Longativity: 2/10 once you have played.. i see no reason to want to go through it again.
Pokiou is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2007, 09:33 PM   #2
JoeHahn
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 417
Default

Ridiculous review. Anyone with a half-decent amount of knowledge knows that this is a step forward in the gaming industry (soon to be wiped out by Crysis, but still).
I dont know how people can complain about performance in this game, turned off dynamic lighting? 90% of things cast a moving shadow you know?

The aiming system is fine, albeit needs some getting used to and then you praise the wide open areas but beat down on boring gameplay? Maybe they should have invented a hoverbike for you to ride around on from place to place.
__________________
Doodle!
JoeHahn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2007, 09:53 PM   #3
Pokiou
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 1,451
Default

No.. im right in my review... im going to finish this game regardless then maybe rewrite it. But i stick to what i say. I dont like it atm.

the aiming system is wrong.. it feels like it was made for console. you cant make precision shots with a hand gun.

in a closed confined area its like really bad honestly.. Im sure you like it.. maybe your a better gamer then me.. maybe im to used to battlefield 2

hence why i said the review is from a average gamer not a cyber athlete with a million dollar PC.

Wide spaces is great it looks like oblivion.. but the GAME play is just to slow... no action atm.. all i see is hounds running around and so forth.

I like the survival type games and i like the approach to the openness and how you can roam freely. But that doesn't mean its fun.. Also the multiple endinds yes makes it playable again but .. why ?

Im not saying its a terrible game and it might get better as you get deeper into it.

like i said this is my review.

thank you for your input.

Pok
Pokiou is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2007, 10:45 PM   #4
JoeHahn
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 417
Default

Wouldnt it be more like a preview if you've only started the game?
__________________
Doodle!
JoeHahn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2007, 11:20 PM   #5
Pokiou
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 1,451
Default

Yea your right it kinda is lol *high 5* hahah
Pokiou is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2007, 10:27 AM   #6
Erez
Regular User
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: not where i want to be.. but life's a bitch i guess..
Posts: 3,262
Default

one of the very few games that i heard that has issues in vista, so I'll be waiting for a patch.. thanks for the review! I'll read it later on! 0X
__________________

Things worth having don't come easy..
Erez is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2007, 10:58 AM   #7
TopGearNL
Regular User
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: The 51st State
Posts: 10,181
Default

^^ I knew Vista wasn't good for everything!

Anyway Im hearing some good stuff about this game, thanks for the nice review!
__________________
TopGearNL is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2007, 11:16 AM   #8
Erez
Regular User
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: not where i want to be.. but life's a bitch i guess..
Posts: 3,262
Default

^ its awesome
__________________

Things worth having don't come easy..
Erez is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2007, 05:26 PM   #9
SFDMALEX
Regular User
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 5,337
Default

Everyone says its a great game, and if it didnt have some bugs it de a 90/100 game...

So I dunno why you rate it so low.
SFDMALEX is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump