Started playing STALKER again…  Call of Pripyat Complete has been released, and I never got around to playing it.

Had a rough start again, as usual.  The gameplay is so different from pretty much anything else out there that it is entirely too easy to get yourself killed repeatedly when you’re just starting out.

CoP:Complete has a neat feature called “the Wish Granter”, which allows you to spawn pretty much anything you need.  I used that to equip myself with some halfway-decent weapons and armor right away…  Which made it far easier to survive…  But it’s kind of taken away from the tension of the game.

There’s still a challenge.  It’s still creepy.  There are still goals and objectives and whatnot.  But the edge has been taken off, since I don’t have to worry so much about ammunition or health kits or whatever.  I don’t have to manage my supplies nearly so well.  Getting startled and wasting an entire clip on a zombie isn’t nearly as crushing as it used to be.

I’ve also finally gotten around to trying out Fallout: New Vegas…  The transition between these two games is just plain weird.  Moving from a tense, fairly-realistic survival/shooter game; to a more light-hearted and humorous action/RPG…  Both set in the shadow of nuclear disaster…  It’s odd.

I’m having fun with F:NV…  But it isn’t quit the same as Fallout 3.  It doesn’t have as strong a post-apocalyptic vibe going on…  Feels more like some kind of sci-fi/western kind of thing.  Not nearly enough destruction or radiation.  Not nearly enough obvious mutation.

I understand, from a storyline perspective, that the Vegas area just wasn’t hit as hard when the bombs dropped.  And I realize they were intentionally going for a western vibe with the game.

But I just made it over the mountains on my way towards Novac…  And I’m surrounded by all these rolling hills that look completely untouched by any atomic warfare.  It doesn’t feel like the radioactive wasteland that I’m used to seeing in Fallout games.

Played some more Call of Pripyat today…  I finally feel like I’m making progress again, rather than backtracking.  I finished up all the jobs for the scientists.  Basically finished up the whole Jupiter area.  Built my team and made my way to Pripyat itself.

The trek there was frustrating as hell.  I really wanted everyone to make it there alive, so I was absurdly cautious.  I’d save my game, open a door, fight my way through to the next door…  Then check to make sure everyone was still alive.  And, more often than not, I’d have to re-load my save and try it again because somebody had died.

The trek itself wasn’t even that hard…  A few hamsters, some snorks, a few Monolith soldiers…  I was handling the hostiles just fine.  The problem is that my team members kept killing themselves.

A snork would jump in-between a couple guys, and they’d open up on it with shotguns and automatic weapons.  One of them would invariably die.  And then I’d have to reload.

Haven’t done much in Pripyat itself…  Did that ambush at the hospital.  Got my hands on a broken, unidentified weapon.  Looks like one of the rail guns from Shadow of Chernobyl.  I went back to the Jupiter area after I finished that job…  Didn’t even stick around long enough to find the recon team…  I figure that either Nitro or the scientists ought to be able to do something with the broken railgun.

I posted a nice, clean, HD clip of the trailer for a STALKER television series a few days ago…  And that guy’s YouTube account was promptly shut down.

Here’s another clip posted by “GSCSTALKEROFFICIAL“.  It’s not nearly as crisp or clear, but it’s less likely to get taken down.

Playing some Call of Pripyat while the soup simmers and Dead Space 2 downloads…

Completed pretty much every job available in Zaton.  Picked up a compass for Beard…  Got those fancy new detectors built…  Stopped some bandits…  Tracked down a bunch of artifacts and sold them for a nice profit…

Then I started knocking out some jobs in the Jupiter area.

Paid off that poor guy’s debt…  Rescued the hostage…  Did a bunch of work for the scientists…  Killed some mutants…

I’ve wound up siding with Freedom.  I like their attitude towards The Zone much better than Duty’s.

Got myself a fancy gun from Nimble – a GP-37.  I’m pretty happy with it so far.

Tried to find those ex-Monolith guys a home with Freedom, but things went a little pear-shaped.  I talked to the Freedom rep at Yanov, and he sent me back out to that Monolith camp with a couple Freedom members to talk things over…  But I arrived to find a couple snorks wreaking havoc.

A couple snorks aren’t normally much of a problem…  Especially when I’ve got some company to distract them…  But the snorks were right in the middle of the Monolith camp, and bullets were flying everywhere.

But the time the snorks were dead, so were my two Freedom representatives.  With no Freedom representatives to talk to Strider, I was unable to finish the job.  So I had to roll back to a previous save…  Only I hadn’t saved in a while.  So now I’ve got to re-do a bunch of jobs.

Annoying, but not the end of the world.

I swear, some sadistic bastard has coded an “annoy Chris” flag into Call of Pripyat.

Bought a Tunder off of Owl for a hefty chunk of cash.  Then I went to Yanov and did the mission where you raid the warehouse, and got a Tunder there for free.  Felt like I’d just wasted over 10,000 RU on a weapon I could have had for free.

At the same time, I’d just decided to upgrade my Sunrise Suit a bit.  It wasn’t protecting as well as I wanted it to, but I didn’t want to spend the money on a Berill – especially after spending so much on that Tunder.  But then I found a PS5 in that same warehouse.

Then I finally broke down and upgraded my Chaser as far as I could.  I kept waiting for a nicer shotgun to come around, but it wasn’t happening.  So I threw in every tier 1 and tier 2 upgrade there was.  I was pretty pleased with myself…  Until an SPSA-14 dropped off a bandit mere moments later.

Bit the bullet last night, started a new game in Call of Pripyat.

First thing I did, as soon as the game started up, is head over to the boiler anomaly and help out that stalker who’s getting cooked.  Got his “bear” detector as a reward.  Picked up an artifact right there at the boiler.

Then I went over to the dredger and grabbed the little stash downstairs…  Grabbed the pseudo-artifact upstairs…  Killed the stalkers who tried to take it from me…  Looted their bodies.

Then I headed towards the Skadovsk.  I ran into a nice little three-way firefight on my way over there – some bandits, some loners, and some dogs.  I kind of stood off to the side and waited for the shooting to stop.  Then I looted all the bodies.

I made it to the Skadovsk with a good pile of gear to sell, plus a couple artifacts.

I picked up the mission to go find Joker and Barge…  And the two to either ambush the stalkers or ambush the ambush…  And that one to grab the locked case in the snork lair…

I headed up to the cave under the farmstead.  Found Barge.  Grabbed that nice armor and an artifact in the cave.  Then I grabbed a couple artifacts from the farmstead.

Headed over to the gas station.  Grabbed the locked case, killed some snorks, and grabbed a couple artifacts.  An emission hit while I was down in the chasm with the car…  It protected me, but I was able to look straight up and watch the sky.  Very dramatic.  And the emission killed some of the circling crows – creepy as hell watching them rain from the sky.

Then I went over to the oakpine anomaly…  Grabbed Joker’s stuff, and a couple artifacts.  Made a quick stop by the merc camp, gave them some food, picked up some tools.

It was getting late at this point, so I headed off to the ambush point.  Killed the bandits, looted, got my reward, and went back to the Skadovsk.

So I’ve got a nice suit of armor from Barge, a nice gas mask from Joker, and a nice gun from that locked case with the snorks.  Sold a few artifacts, kept a few for future use.  Sold a pile of junk loot.  I’ve got about 20,000 RU and some decent gear…  Not too bad for a day’s work.