S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2

[Sly Boots]

Well done! I died about a dozen times trying to fetch that

That's one of the legendary artifacts I was talking about earlier. I've found a few more since, they're worth getting

[Animalmother]

I was quivering with smoldering rage by the time I managed to get away from the anomaly. Not sure how many times I died in the attempt...lots.

[Sly Boots]

I was quivering with smoldering rage by the time I managed to get away from the anomaly. Not sure how many times I died in the attempt...lots.

Apparently you can just shoot the ball and move it towards the edge of the anomaly, making it much easier to collect... wish I'd known that first

[Animalmother]

I was sent to rescue some guys from the basement of a factory guarded by a group of soldiers. I attempted stealth but it quickly devolved into a hide a seek battle with about 15 enemies. Having killed all those and heading to the basement, I ran into a sentient ball of electricity that follows you and takes 75% of your health each time it hits you. It respawns every few seconds so I was constantly using health kits to survive. I ran into a room which of course had a blood sucker hiding in it. Killed that and abandoned the search as I couldn't get past the electric ball. Scripted scene happens and I escape the factory to be attacked by another fucking blood sucker. Killed that and was attacked by a random group of bandits. I just turned it off at that point. All my guns are worn out and I've fuck all health kits left.

It seriously needs a balancing patch or something to that effect.

[Sly Boots]

Those balls of electricity are the worst, haven't found a way to deal with them beyond breaking line of sight and trying to hide - they seem to be classed as anomalies rather than enemies, so shooting them does absolutely nothing, yet they definitely target and home in on you.

[Snowy]

They are bastards. Do bolts do anything to them?

[Sly Boots]

I've not tried, to be honest!

[Rusty]

The electricity patches on the ground do my head in. They're quite fun to navigate but they don't stay 'switched off' for long enough.

[Animalmother]

Meet a guy trapped in an electrical field asking to be guided out. After 10 seconds I turned around to make sure he was following and he was sizzling away on the ground. I reloaded and managed to get him out.

Looked for ways to get past the floating electric balls but whoever wrote the guides appears not to have actually played the game. Apparently there's a fire ball version as well...fuck that.

[eny]

Lucky you, the dialogue just didn't kick in for me...tried everything to get it to trigger, but gave up with him.

[Animalmother]

Possible patch tomorrow.
Also mentions plans to update day/night cycle, in game economy and other fixes. Really hope they do something about the weapon degradation, some guns go from green to yellow only after a few shots. The cost to repair is also insane.

[Sly Boots]

Yup, one of the first things I modded, that.

[Snowy]

My mod list is bloody enormous now, hopefully the patch doesn't undo it all!

[ManBearSquid]

Same, I've added loads!

Anyway, obviously, I have entered The Zone and I am loving it so far. Just at the first settlement after the intro chapter. So many cool experiences that become memorable moments.

Last night, I was approaching a guy that was chilling by a fire at an old bus stop when a hail of bullets starts coming from the trees behind me. Cue me panic running for cover as this poor fella engages like he's the fucking Terminator, all while I'm returning fire from behind a completely inadequate pole. I take a stray bullet, so leg it further round and behind the concrete bus stop - blood curdling scream literally stops my character in their tracks. Bloodfucker. Oh...

Once again, I leg it - this time to the other side of the bus stop at an angle where I can't get struck from behind and I can lean out to shoot the bandits. I cover the Terminator who's nearly wiped the bandits out as he goes down and writhes in pain. No more bandits, what a fucking badass this guy is, so of course I heal him and he then proceeds to nonchalantly stroll back to his fire. Badass.

Time to loot the bandits. Just as I grab the last bits of gear - dogs! So I take my guy (gonna start calling him Leggit) and, well, leg it back to Terminator's fire. He goes ham on the pack of pooches while more pals emerge blazing from the tree line. I killed one dog and watched as another ran into an acid pool.

Afterwards, I sat with the Terminator for a few mins at the camp, enjoying the calming sizzle of that manky, mutated mutt.

This all happened in the space of 5 or so minutes, and thankfully, the bloodfucker was terrorising someone else in a ruined house.

[Animalmother]

I shall now be referring to them as "bloodfuckers" as well.

I'm dropping fools with the shotty now, I managed to clear out a couple of bandit camps without dying (you take lots of damage as the AI rarely ever misses). The pump action becomes your default weapon once you find one.

In that above video it says that the game starts to gets very buggy in the final chapters and I might be worth not progressing until it's patched. I've only come across audio glitches really. Once the frame rate dropped to single digits and I couldn't equip anything. A reload sorted it out.