Slowtrain

That's so awesome. Can you post a screenie of combat with her as the avatar?

Keep your teams well spread. The chance of aliens using explosives drops drastically if they can't get more than one target with the blast.

Jag 2 UB isn't nearly the game that Jag 2 is.

As you wish. Just a note however that opinions are often the things most worth explaining if you have somebody who wants to listen. But if you choose not to share, I certainly won't try to make you do so.

explain, please?

I'll just point out here that I don't choose to replay Daggerfall and Jagged Alliance 2 so many years after their releases because they are old and ugly and I like old and ugly games. I play them DESPITE the fact they are old and ugly since there are no contemporary alternatives. The oldness and ugliness doesn't matter; its the gameplay (and the fact that I can still get them to run of course). For me, there are no IE games I would bother playing nowadays though they are definitely less ugly than Daggerfall and Jag 2 simply because the gameplay doesn't appeal to me as much. After a certain point graphical quality really becomes pretty irrelevant.

I don't know as that makes much of a difference. New games don't seem to have the same longevity appeal as the old games do. To me anyway. the appeal of the older games is that they have gameplay that you can't find today, whereas most of todays games have gameplay that is pretty standard and will just be duplicated by the next generation of games in a year or two except with better graphics.

Like one of the other characters better? If so, I could upload a quick mod that would enable you to play as that person. That sort of thing only takes about a second or two now that I've gotten all the files extracted and I'm familiar with the process. That;s pretty cool, DN. Does it force you to restart a game if you do this? DOes it cause problems for existing games? Does it mess up any of the animations that Geralt's avatar uses?

Tolkienesque it is not, however.

I found mine at Gamestop. Which kinda surprised since they have thousands of new and used console titles but carry very few pc title. But they did have this. On the day it was released, too.

I agree. Or at least given you time to manually save and get ready. This setup seems like one of those weird things that developers sometimes do that seems unneccessaily punitive to the gamer. Anyway, congrats and enjoy the rest of the game.

@LostStraw: I know its a pain in the ass, but my advice is to stick with it. I think the rest of the game is totally worth the aggravation.

you think i could be assed to read all four pages of this thread? trust me, your prose ain't that scintallating. The posts are all short and no one is arguing. It's a pretty painless read.

This game is a lot more complex than I realized on my first time through. Maybe I was rushing or something. CDP is a real bright spot as far as game developers go. I'm really interested to find out what there next project will be.

Childish? I'm simply trying to make an informed decision of a potential purchase; my previous experience with that company is obviously going to play a large role in determining when and if I do business with them again. My previous experience with them was pretty unsatisfactory; its going to take more than one bug-free well supported release to convince me to spend my money with them again. It is a start though. Odd defintion of childish. That's a fair point. "In good conscience" does have a moral ring to it that I didn't intend. So let me clarify: I'm not saying its a moral issue, neccessarily. I'm just doing what I believe is the right thing, and that right thing is not to reward a company that does a poor job by buying their product.

I still haven't really figured out how the fistfighting works. Even after all the playing I've done of this game. That part feels broken. Or at least extremely unintuituve. I just stand there and beat on the guy and eventually he falls down. The manual seems to indicate that there should be more to the process than that. I like the animations though.

Wow, the "operation of a company"? Are they whipping their employees to death and using child labor or something? I mean, I could understand if you wanted to "make a statement" under those circumstances. But refusing to purchase a game you'd most likely enjoy because the devs are asses in their boards and previous products were buggy (hello, NWN2?) is not only spiteful - it's also childish. A couple thoughts on this: 1) Your primary disagreement appears to be on my criteria. If so, we've got no real argument, because I can't sit here and say that my criteria are the only criteria that should matter to you or anyone else. All I can say is that they matter to me. I feel that not being responsive or dismissive to fans who have paid for your game and are experiencing problems is not a good way to run a business. I feel releasing an extremely buggy game that requires 5 patches and still has major problems and yet having no qualms about collecting peoples money on said game and STILL being dismissive about people's problems is even worse. Perhaps you do not agree. That's totally fine. I'm not in any way trying to convince you that you should agree. 2) I'm not in any way trying to say this is some sort of super important issue that is going to affect the world. All I am saying is that it is my money, and I don't have enough of it to do everything I would like to do, and I am going to make decisions about how to spend that money. I don't need STALKER: CS to survive or even just to be happy or amused, therefore I have the luxury of being able to turn my back on it and walk away. I'm quite sure GSC and THQ don't care at all. But I'm also quite sure my $50 can go somewhere else to something else I enjoy. 3) Using highly exaggerated and ludicrous examples such as "whipping their employees to death and using child labor" doesn't help your argument. Its is a poor tactic that just makes your entire presentation seem rather weak and overwrought. You would be better off sticking closer to my original point of companies not listening to their customers making for bad business.

And you've also posted on these boards nearly 2,000 times, hoping, I suppose, that that might make a difference. I don't understand your point. I mean, yes, obviously the reason I post on a gaming message board is because I care about games. If I didn't I would post on a board about model rocketry or something.

Fortunately, people operating on spite alone are relatively rare. Spite? Is that what you call it when one observes the operation of a company and decides not to support it? Interesting. Anyway, my wallet is the only way I have of making a statement that companies will understand, and once i give them my money, that's it, I've got nothing. At that point they have won. So I will consciously choose when and how, if ever, I give my money to companies. Yes, you can say that one person doesn't matter, but by that train of thought I shouldn't vote in the upcoming election either because my one vote really won't matter. Sorry, no. I may not have much say in how the the real world works but I will exercise what little I can. I stopped thinking apathy was cool when I was 18 or so.

I just finished chapter 2 and the whole thing played out very differently than when I played it before. End result was the same, but getting there was quite different. Main quest only of course. Side quests were all the same. I hadn't realized that the game was quite that flexible.

I haven't found it buggy... WHich? The original or the sequel? Clear Sky That's good to hear. Hopefully some lessons were learned by the devs/publisher after what happened with S:SOC. DOubtful, but one can always hope. Anyway, I'll stick to my plan to pluck it out of the bargain bin at half price in a few months. Thanks, though, for the positive word.

I haven't found it buggy... WHich? The original or the sequel?

Yeah, not ANY game, just only those you're a "fan" of. And didn't you buy Oblivion, regardless? Yes, I bought Oblivion. I followed its development and believed the developers when they talked about all the improvements they had made over Morrowind. That was my mistake. I was wrong. It happens some times. I loved STALKER:SOC. Loved it, But I still haven't bought STALKER: Clear Sky. Why? 2 reasons: 1) In hanging around their forums for the last year or so I have come to dislike how the devs treat their fans. 2) The incredibly buggy release and interminable patch process of S:SOC. In view of both of those issues I decided not to purchase STALKER: CS upon release despite the fact I'm sure I will enjoy it. I'll probably bargain bin it in a few months. I would prefer to support a pc games developer by purchasing the game immediately, when it matters, but in good conscience I cannot. So no, your evalaution of my game-buying thought process fails. No. That's their call to make. They call the shots, they assume the risks. That's true. ANd therefore they assume the risk that I won't buy their game. I do wish other gamers would speak more authortatively with their wallets.