5punk

Dog Pants wrote:
Well if you decide you don't want to upgrade I know someone with a nice shiny machine that'll run it instead

Chicken?

Maybe we could work out some kind of timeshare agreement

Just had a play with the beta.

honestly feels a little poor right now, just slightly let down by some textures and draw distance stuff.

on the other hand, it does deliver bucketloads of atmosphere* and feels like it'll be a great singleplayer game.


* it does this well, not like fear or doom, I actually got spooked at times.

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Just had a play with the beta.

honestly feels a little poor right now, just slightly let down by some textures and draw distance stuff.

on the other hand, it does deliver bucketloads of atmosphere* and feels like it'll be a great singleplayer game.


* it does this well, not like fear or doom, I actually got spooked at times.

Sounds good. Textures and draw distances and other little graphical glitches can be easily fixed, atmosphere is more difficult to achieve.

Woo! I got a key aswell

Dog Pants wrote:Sounds good. Textures and draw distances and other little graphical glitches can be easily fixed, atmosphere is more difficult to achieve.

That

I'll have another poke about with stuff, see how pretty I can get it looking (it played at 1680x1050 full everything)

On the plus side, it runs well on a 7900GT.

Lee wrote:Woo! I got a key aswell

Well I got a code that I could have used to get a key, turns out they arent accepting the codes anymore, I must've missed it by a few hours

Unless you've found a newer one that leaked beta is ancient btw berk, its still running on dx8, the final version is dx9.

Edit: ooh, I do access to the beta after all, just dodgy wording on their site made it seem otherwise

I just had a poke, it certainly seems to be running in dx9 flavour.

there's release_dx8.bat and release_dx9.bat in the folder.

the dx8 one seems to be way less pretty and not do HDR etc.

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:the dx8 one seems to be way less pretty and not do HDR etc.

Does it do HDR well? I'm hoping after the shiny glarefest of Oblivion the novelty will have worn off and it'll just compliment the graphics rather than defining them.

from what I've seen, yes fairly well, but given it's only 2 maps, and it is russia, it's hard to be sure

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:from what I've seen, yes fairly well, but given it's only 2 maps, and it is russia, it's hard to be sure

Ahhh, Russia is notoriously lacking in HDR.

Dog Pants wrote:Ahhh, Russia is notoriously lacking in HDR.

First impressions, the graphics are starting to look a bit dated but the immense detail of the maps more than makes up for it. I had to run it on medium with static lighting to get decent framerates on my p4 3.4ghz, 1gb ram and 7900gts. There doesnt seem to be alot of difference between high and medium other than increased framerates but I'd have to check high again to make sure.

Gameplay wise its pretty fun, it leans more towards realism with it only taking a couple of bullets max to kill some one. There seems to be quite a few weapons and they're upgradable with silencers and scopes etc.

Only thing that annoyed me really was the footsteps sound, its a bit loud and doesnt sound too good.

Lee wrote:First impressions, the graphics are starting to look a bit dated but the immense detail of the maps more than makes up for it. I had to run it on medium with static lighting to get decent framerates on my p4 3.4ghz, 1gb ram and 7900gts. There doesnt seem to be alot of difference between high and medium other than increased framerates but I'd have to check high again to make sure.

Gameplay wise its pretty fun, it leans more towards realism with it only taking a couple of bullets max to kill some one. There seems to be quite a few weapons and they're upgradable with silencers and scopes etc.

Only thing that annoyed me really was the footsteps sound, its a bit loud and doesnt sound too good.

Again, the sound is easily fixed. I don't really rate flashy graphics as a selling point for a game, I'm more interested in atmosphere, attention to detail and obviously gamepley. I'm glad you guys have had chance to give this a go because you're alleviating a lot of my fears.

Dog Pants wrote:
Again, the sound is easily fixed. I don't really rate flashy graphics as a selling point for a game, I'm more interested in atmosphere, attention to detail and obviously gamepley. I'm glad you guys have had chance to give this a go because you're alleviating a lot of my fears.

It definately has atmosphere, the weather effects, especially the lightning are some of the best I've seen and really set the mood. I imagine it'd be brilliant wandering around chernobyl on single player in the middle of a storm.

Not played yet as I'm in the download queue
Official beta forum specs say
If anyone fancies a look around the forums PM me for password

http://www.forumplanet.com/stalkerbeta/index.asp

Lee wrote:It definately has atmosphere, the weather effects, especially the lightning are some of the best I've seen and really set the mood. I imagine it'd be brilliant wandering around chernobyl on single player in the middle of a storm.

That. REALLY FUCKING HARD.


After playing the beta, I triple checked I still have a pre-order for this.

Fucksocks, I can't even preorder anything at the mo because I don't know for sure where I'll be living then! Hehe, guess I'll just have to wait then.

*Remembers derisory comments about people having to play the newest bestest shiniest game as soon as the possibly can*

Lateralus wrote:Fucksocks, I can't even preorder anything at the mo because I don't know for sure where I'll be living then! Hehe, guess I'll just have to wait then.

I've had a poke about of a version of this I, erm, acquired. All I can really comment on is the graphics, sound and atmosphere, but I'm already cautiously impressed.

The HDR is indeed very understated - I had to check that I had it turned on, but when the lighning (with dynamic lighting no less) flashes you can see it.

I was running it on full whack in 1024x768 with absolutely no performance issues.

It's incredibly detailed - it feels like a real location rather than a created map. Apart from the odd strategically placed plank or pallet to help you get around it all feels spookily natural (and quite claustrophobic).

The weather and atmosphere affects are very good. Odd that there's rain falling from a sky that only has patchy cloud, but I can forgive that at the moment.

The sound effects are puny at the moment - fire your pistol and it sounds like a cap gun. When the bullets hit there's only a puff of smoke and sometimes a pockmark to indicate.

The anomalies are quite cool. I found myself inexplicably being sucked towards a stack of cable reels. I soon realised what was causing it when everything went rippley and I died. Then as I watched the dust and leaves being whirled around in spectator mode, it sucked my corpes up into the air, spun it around a few times, then gibbed it.

I'm not sure whether I should sweep a version of this, wait for the demo or just wait for the full game. I might have a look around the floor tonight.