I've got a long week behind me, so I'll definitely try to get some gaming in this weekend. Maybe I'll see which games I've previously downloaded run ok on Pop_OS since I'm trying to get rid of Windows on my gaming PC.
I've played a little further in Another Crab's Treasure and am having quite some fun. I've reached the next big city and am currently tasked to find some treasure to trade in for my shell.
The dialogue is actually quite fine. I like that basically any NPC and your character curse in one way or another but hide it under PG-language. :D
The colourful atmosphere is fun to navigate through too. It does clash quite a bit with the oftentimes quite dark undertones of the story, but that's exactly the point, I feel like. Makes for an interesting experience.
What about you guys?
Have you played Anomaly before? I've relapsed back into my old habits of Anomaly modding this past week. Almost have the modlist in order to start playing soon, haha.
The Soulslike mod actually works surprisingly well and is pretty lore-friendly! It's a very cool implementation.
I don't think so. Is it this one? https://store.steampowered.com/app/2116460/Anomaly/
No, it's this one. But a better place to start in my opinion is in this two part video: Part 1 andPart 2
Ahh, I thought Anomaly is a game in itself. I'll check it out, thanks!
It basically is. It's a fan made standalone created by a passionate team after GSC (who makes the official STALKER games) open sourced the X-ray Engine.
It's not a mod: you don't need any of the original games to play it. It's a standalone self contained game combining all the maps from the first three games into one and functioning as a stable, unified platform for modders to work on.
You can play it just fine as-is like any other game, but all the precompiled modpacks is where it truly shines.
That sounds awesome. Another common Ukrainian W :)
Any mods in particular that you recommend?
It's impossible to single out any one mod, in my latest foray into Anomaly this past week I used the H.A.C.R. modpack as a solid foundation and then added a curated selection of about 120 mods on top of it. I'm almost ready to actually start playing I think! 😂
I guess the one mod that distracted me from working on my backlog and pulled me back into Anomaly was this video about "T.A.L.K.E.R.", a mod that lets you talk to NPCs and companions in real time using AI and your microphone. I'm a sucker for immersion and the roleplaying and emergent storytelling aspect of STALKER and so this mod is just right up my alley. I've been having a lot of fun tweaking the AI parameters to get every faction feeling just right.
Otherwise for a beginner the best approach really is to watch that two-part video I linked about modpacks and picking the one that seems most appealing to you. STALKER Anomaly has a modding scene that is almost on the level of Bethesda games, so using a precompiled modpack is the best way to get acquainted with the many mods and get the best possible experience in my opinion.
G.A.M.M.A. is the most popular modpack for a reason - it's constantly updated, feature rich and very well balanced. It can be a bit daunting to learn though as the focus is on scavenging, survival and crafting and there are a lot of systems and subsystems to learn. It does have absolutely fantastic support and documentation though, including a custom in-game guide. But you will spend a lot of time in menus, so be warned.
But really, just watch those videos. Cheeki Breeki goes through the most popular packs much better than I could, and having video helps too.
Thanks a bunch for the recommendations and the write-up - appreciate it!
I've never played Stalker before actually. You mentioned that I don't need the base game to play the "mod" or standalone game. Is it recommend to get a feel for the story and lore of the world though or could I jump straight into Anomaly?
I also didn't know that Stalker had such an active modding community. For what's it worth, I didn't even know that the Stalker games were that big to begin with. I thought they were rather niche-y games (outside the sequel, maybe, which seems to have launched quite successfully).
Any time! STALKER is a passion of mine and one of my all time favourite series (as well as a recurring hyperfixation as I'm sure you can tell by now). They are absolutely HUGE in Eastern Europe, especially Russia and Ukraine but really the whole ex-soviet region. Apart from that they have a worldwide cult following and Anomaly and its modpacks have gotten very popular over the past three to four years since they fulfill a single player survival FPS niche better than any other game on the market.
So whether to play the main games or Anomaly is a little bit up to you and what you're after. The main games are more narrative driven, while the focus in Anomaly tends to be on exploration, survival and gear progression. I played the first three before ever playing Anomaly, and I did enjoy learning about the world, factions and characters that way. The story from the first one (Shadow of Chernobyl) is particularly important and is referenced a lot, both in the rest of the games and in Anomaly. However, there are plenty of people who jump right in to Anomaly first because they're much more interested in the open sandbox gameplay.
If you want to try the original games, I don't recommend the recent Enhanced Editions as they are pretty controversial and involved some historical revisionism. I am 100% behind Ukraine but scrubbing everything russian from the games still felt wrong to me. For Shadow of Chernobyl I recommend either the Compatibility Modpack or Memories of the Zone for a Vanilla+ experience or Radiophobia for a complete overhaul. The latter can be pretty difficult though but I've heard they've toned it down since I played it. Still probably best to not play on the harder difficulties. And turn off item radiation.
Call of Pripyat is honestly a really good game and you could just play it as-is. Even though I love the main story and main character of Shadow of Chernobyl I think CoP is the best of the official STALKER games. The best way to play it was a merge of the mods SGM and Gunslinger, but it was only available from a russian forum I can't seem to access right now. The plain SGM mod is still available here though.
Clear Sky honestly has a lot of problems and I think you can safely skip that game. STALKER 2 was a great experience for a diehard fan of the series, but for newer or non fans I would still probably wait until a couple more updates. It's still missing features.
If you are more interested in the sandbox gameplay but still want to know the story and lore first, you can also just watch lore videos on YouTube first and then play your Anomaly modpack of choice: The Complete Story and Lore of the STALKER Series