S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Mods

Okay. Being a huge fan of the STALKER franchise, I've totally eaten up this game from the beginning. However, any of you PC gamers out there would (or should) know that STALKER, is, quite honestly, one of the craziest physical memory resource hogs in the history of PC gaming. Just now, it forced a physical memory dump and rebooted my computer while I was trying to enjoy the sun rising up at 6 in the morning on top of a hill in the Army Warehouses map. But enough of that.

 

Now, STALKER has quite the huge mod community following. Varying from simple things like the occasional glove change, HUD overhauls, and retextured guns, to addition of new weapons, armor, NPCs, and questlines, all the way to including the world's most overpowered handgun and Spetsnaz soldiers with AIs that eat poor blokes like you for breakfast. It's even more impressive considering that modders figured out how to mod the game themselves long before mod tools were even released.

 

But, I'm here to talk about one mod in particular (and also Filefront's Mod of the Week for the STALKER community): STALKER Complete 2009

 

In basic terms, this mod does a good number of great things to the game. But a few things it brings to the table are absolutely spectacular. Involving indie artists from the community and also an actual art studio itself, it gives STALEKR and entire graphics and sound overhaul. Weapons sound and look more realistic. Character textures don't look like something from the Playstation 1 Age anymore. But the greatest addition is the incredible change in the way the weather looks. Not only does it make nighttime completely pitch black now, but also gives a handy nightvision (also spotty, but it works!) to help offset the creeping darkness, increasing to STALKER's already incredible atmosphere.

 

Just a little advertising (refer to top of post where I say I'm a huge fan), but it does look good. Especially the weather (which I consider to be better than Crysis actually).

 

Take a look at the screenshots here:

http://stalker.filefront.com/file/STALKER_Complete_2009;107745

 

I also noticed that they didn't put up a picture of how the morning dawn looks like in the Zone. I'll be sure to put up a picture soon. Most likely from my quicksave before my computer rebooted.

 

-Delta