I think because before i wanted to get to the end, to do a review. Jim: Yeah, I've actually found much more of that on this second playthrough. I also like that it feels a few years on from Stalker - there's less of the big, set-piece moments and more of an ecosystem, that fragile balance between groups and even monsters - even down to the Snorks, living in random caves, clinging to life rather than being AND NOW HERE IS THE SNORK BIT. Just surviving in a strange land, with a background hum of loot'n'stat compulsion. Also, I don't know if you noticed this, but Pripyat is /much/ more RPGesqueĪlec: It's very much "here's the Zone, now go do your thing" And yes, I was feeling a lot of the same kicks that I got from Morrowind.
but what I wanted was more zone survival, more mystery, and more freedom.
I mean I still have a lot of time for Clear Sky's ideas: fighting men is more interesting, and the faction mods push it towards functionality. Jim: Yes, in terms delivering more zone to get lost in, it certainly does. Are we both in agreement that it rights a lot of Clear Sky's wrongs? You for the first time?Īlec: Yeah, I didn't catch it first time around - partly due to time and partly because Clear Sky soured my fondness of Stalker and I was genuinely worried about compounding that. Jim: So, we're both playing through Call Of Pripyat at the moment. No date yet, but it shouldn't be too long. And we can't wait to get our hands on it. Pavel's epic retexturing will probably have the zone looking the best it has ever looked. That's in development too, as you can see over here. Of course what some people will be waiting for is the Complete mod. This megamod introduces tonnes of changes, including making survival tougher, rebalancing the economy, changing weapon balances, randomizing NPC weapons, and allowing plenty of customization in how you play the game on installation. The big daddy of CoP mods right now, however, is Redux. This makes battles against human enemies tougher, but far more rewarding. The other one worth considering, especially for a second playthrough, is RCOM, which rebalances the weapons so that they all do more damage, as well as tweaking AI and other bits.
The main mod that both Alec and Jim were using is Atmosfear 2, which overhauls textures, the weather system and the ambient sounds. Earlier this year Jim had called it “one of the most interesting shooters we're going to see in 2010”, but does that still hold up? And what about those mods? Let's see what the chaps said, below. It seemed logical, therefore, to have a bit of a chat about the game. Having grabbed some mods and restarted Call Of Pripyat, it turned out that both Jim and Alec were playing through this most recent Stalker title at the same time.