"S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Legends of the Zone Trilogy" Announced During Xbox Partner Preview

[Easo]

So now that the game is out and some reviews are available:
1. Russian audio is cut out only partially - meaning story voice lines, but stuff like battle banter (CHIKI BRIKI) is still there. Funny, thats very similar in a bad way to how the official Ukrainian localisation was made which specifically did not do a full translation for immersion (Loners speak in Ukrainian, Bandits - surzhik, Dolg is Russian, etc.)
Remember - this game was made in Russian by people speaking Russian (in case that wasn't obvious, maybe to those not from Eastern Europe I guess), it's the default language for it, not the other way around which is yet another reason this decision pisses me off. They even included the nowadays popular splash screen about not making changes and yet did it anyways...
2. New bugs, of course there are new bugs. Mentions includes lightning - some things never change, hah.
3. Some actual fixes, too (strike/electricity resistance wrong icons fixed, for example)
4. "New stuff", like redrawn icons, with debatable approach to their design.
5. Achievements. Last game did have them in-game, so... why not for all 3 now, something to do.
6. Multiplayer is gone. It was very primitive deathmatch, but still.

If you play the STALKER games on PC, be aware that RivaTurner can cause conflicts with the X-Ray engine and cause crashing.

Ah, never had the need to use that software. X-Ray is a really funny thing, could put out some really nice picture (don't look closely at human models though or their speaking "animation") yet could break from a wet fart.

 

[neatfeatguy]

Ah, never had the need to use that software. X-Ray is a really funny thing, could put out some really nice picture (don't look closely at human models though or their speaking "animation") yet could break from a wet fart.

A lot of people install MSI Afterburner and install RivaTuner that comes with it. To my understand RivaTurner is required if you want to use the overlay options for in game - show you can see your FPS, temps, clock speeds and so on. MSI isn't required to run with RivaTurner, so you can opt not to install it.

I think the X-Ray engine looked pretty good in some situations. I really enjoyed the stormy weather conditions that were in STALKER: Clear Sky. Being out in the great swamps area with it storming and lightning flashing across the sky was a sight to see.

 

[Event Horizon]

My favourite thing was saving in the middle of combat then loading the save only for formerly hostile enemies to now be friendly. I understand why they've gone with UE5 this time.

 

[Easo]

My favourite thing was saving in the middle of combat then loading the save only for formerly hostile enemies to now be friendly. I understand why they've gone with UE5 this time.

Now this we can have a discussion about.
I am old enough to remember all the promises about the game, the whole AI lives it's own life - fights, trades, does quests, etc, a newbie from the initial village could potentially be found as a master later, can even potentially complete the game itself while you dawdle around - for ~2004-2006 that was way too ambitious. Budget was not endless, they had to learn as they went, we know publisher was pressing them hard, etc. Oh, and GSC being GSC of course.

They bit off way more than they could chew.

Everything they promised back then absolutely can be done today, with appropriately sized AAA budget and dev team, most obvious example would be a single seamless Zone (hah, puns), hardware limitations then but not anymore. A-Life system? Sure, within reason.


Now, the question - do you want every game to be UE5 today? Because that is what it looks to be happening. The count of different engines in use is dropping rapidly. We even have same technical issues across wildly different games made by different studios now, lol.
P.S.
I am aware that good part of that AI was basically just LUA scripting. Mods have unchained it a bit, it def does add more life to otherwise somewhat static game - a game which never was supposed to be static.

 

[Event Horizon]

Now this we can have a discussion about.
I am old enough to remember all the promises about the game, the whole AI lives it's own life - fights, trades, does quests, etc, a newbie from the initial village could potentially be found as a master later, can even potentially complete the game itself while you dawdle around - for ~2004-2006 that was way too ambitious. Budget was not endless, they had to learn as they went, we know publisher was pressing them hard, etc. Oh, and GSC being GSC of course.

They bit off way more than they could chew.

Everything they promised back then absolutely can be done today, with appropriately sized AAA budget and dev team, most obvious example would be a single seamless Zone (hah, puns), hardware limitations then but not anymore. A-Life system? Sure, within reason.


Now, the question - do you want every game to be UE5 today? Because that is what it looks to be happening. The count of different engines in use is dropping rapidly. We even have same technical issues across wildly different games made by different studios now, lol.
P.S.
I am aware that good part of that AI was basically just LUA scripting. Mods have unchained it a bit, it def does add more life to otherwise somewhat static game - a game which never was supposed to be static.

I think the dwindling pool of game engines is dangerous to the health of the industry. The Unity fiasco was a prime example of what can happen when one basket holds too many eggs. I think we need more competition in this space as that is the main driver of innovation.

In the case of X-Ray I think there is a significant lack of resources and expertise to maintain and upgrade the engine. UE5 is a good alternative for a large open-world game.