Is that allowed through steam?

Yes. You can tell steam to remove steam games from your system. Go to your steam games library, right click the game in the list, and select "delete local content" in the right-click menu. You can then re-download the game whenever you want from steam.

At no cost?

I am new to downloading games, I have always been weary of it because if something goes wrong there is no physical proof that you bought the game. So far though nothing has gone wrong, Bought Spore Collection and The Witcher as well as my free copy of CoP.

Yep, no cost.

I love the randomness of STALKER. I was playing CoP complete and I was inside this bandit base that was neutral. I'm using the setting that turns people caught in blowouts into zombies rather than killing them, and there had just been a blowout. Then when I... uh... made the bandits hostile, they were simultaneously attacked by stalker zombies that were wandering nearby that noticed the bandits shooting. So they were distracted and things were made easier for me.

Not to mention every time a blowout actually happens, always interesting.

Heh the timing was good.
I recall the first time playing Stalker, I made the military south of the starting village hostile because I got too close to them. After being shot at, I ran back to the village and carried on my duties, accepting jobs from the Trader. While managing my inventory, I hear multiple gunshots and explosions. As I go the surface, the village was attacked by the military who shot at me. It was a pretty cool battle...and I got to keep everybody's loot when they were dead.

The military outpost was now empty as all military soldiers had attacked the village. So I was able to loot the place and take a quest item much before I obtained the quest itself.


Another cool event I had with Stalker, was using the L.U.R.K mod. (I now use Complete)
I was returning to the Trader for one of the main quests. As I arrived in the Cordon from the north, there was a huge thunderstorm starting. In LURK, you can't carry much and I was already overloaded with loot. LURK also adds more enemy patrols.
After I got past the bridge, I heard multiple gunshots. I had no night vision so I had to use my flashlight. As I'm looking with binoculars where the gunfire comes from, I hear someone running towards me on my right, breathing heavily. I turn back and I fall face to face with a Bloodsvcker. I froze there for a second or two before I shot it. ^_^ The bastard, wounded, then ran back in the darkness and I did not pursue it.

So I'm now wounded, I don't have any medkits left and I still haven't made it to the Trader. While walking on the road, still hearing the gunshots on my left, (They came from the Bandits in the garage) I use my binoculars to see if targets are in front of me.
I see 8 red targets coming towards me. When there's thunder flashes, I can see 8 silhouettes in the distance. As they approach, I then see their 8 flashlight lamps.


I jump over a railing, lose most of my energy and hear the bandits screaming and shooting at me. As I tried to walk back to the Trader, I also got attacked by two boars. I managed to arrive in the village with barely enough health to survive, hungry and fatigued. All of these events were even more awesome because of the thunderstorm and Stalker's excellent weather system.

the first time playing stalker soc was so much fun ^_^ . i ran left from the start and i ran into the highway. i though everyone was friendly so i went up and got completely destroyed by the military..... it was when i restarted that i figured out i needed to do a quest to get a gun :rofl:


Also, anyone like chasing those big fat mutated pig things with your knife?

Hmmm.... This game looks interesting. I may pick it up soon. I will only be able to download smaller nods, due to my 450Mb/day cap. If that's the case, which one should I get?

i recommend getting Shadow of Chernobyl

Just got STALKER, damn good game.

I just installed Call of Pripyat Complete after I read about it in this thread. Now I was able to run CoP maxed out before with fps around 25-35 but now that I installed the Complete mod, my average fps was bumped up to somewhere around 40-55 which is bloody awesome! And I checked the settings and I'm still running maxed out with EDL(DX10.1) AA, SSAO, sunrays and everything else. The game also feels helluva less "laggy" than before. :celebration:

Considering it adds all sorts of high resolution textures that's... Odd.

Maybe it's the weather? I notice that when it's cloudy I usually get better performance than when the sky is clear.

Yes definitely get Shadow of Chernobyl you'll want http://www.metacognix.com/files/stlkrsoc/index.html which helps fix the numerous bugs and adds some handy features as well and when your done with vanilla I suggest http://www.moddb.com/mods/priboi-story/downloads/priboi-story-v11 an excellent overhaul imo made by the same team who are working Lost Alpha

I've been watching a LP of SoC with LURK, and it looks amazing. Can't wait to get it.
The guy doing the LP said that there were a lot more weapons in LURK. How many are in the vanilla game? And for that matter, what are some good weapon/armory mods that aren't that big in filesize?

There are a couple of annoying things in LURKS that made me change to Complete, though.

Enemy patrols are changed to around 7-8 members. While it's cool at first to see more enemies, it quickly becomes annoying.
You have no UI. While there's visual effects when you're tired or near death, you can't know how much sound you make and how visible you are.

But, most of all, there are spawning bugs. There's on particular location where a group of 8 bandits spawn a few feet behind you, even though you were there just a few seconds ago. When you kill them, another 8 bandits will spawn minutes later at the same place.
In this same zone, you can be attacked by a horde of dogs, rats, two snitchers (snatchers?) and one Bloodsvcker. There are around 10 pseudo-dogs, 10 rabid dogs and 6-7 rats. They spot you from the edge of the map (even though they can't see you) and the whole group jump at you.
Minutes later, or if you return to the zone, the same group will spawn again and attack you. If the bodies from the first wave are still there, your game will stutter a lot.

I really do not recommend LURK. Also because it is no longer supported by its author, so the game-breaking bugs are still there.

So I beat STALKER:


Great game.

My biggest problem with LURK is that it made some pistols way too accurate. Bandits can snipe you from far away with simple Makarov PM pistol, which most of them have.

Alright well I'll just come right out and say it then.

What STALKER would you recommend buying?

:ooo:

All of them, granted I like Clear Sky the least. But definitely get Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat.

Agreed. Go with SoC first, since CoP happens after the events of SoC, even though you're not the same character. And they're both good games. CoP has some new features that SoC doesn't have, but I find both games equally good.

Clear Sky is a prequel to SoC and I never really could get into it. And it was buggy for me.

I love clear sky (it's an acquired taste imo) although you should definitely get SoC the atmosphere of the game is excellent and couple that with the randomness (particularly in the twilight zones) and you have a winning formula.

CoP imo is just to empty, I've played through it twice and haven't had much of an itch to go back. Clear Sky and SoC however I always find myself playing them.

Alright... so SoC then. Are the mods ya'll been showing off for SoC?

Yep. I'd personally play the game first without any additional mods, but if you want a similar experience then I'd go with http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009: maintains the gameplay, but adds many nice graphical (and atmospheric) upgrades. Also comes with a combat-realism addon if you're so inclined. Then there's the http://www.moddb.com/mods/lurk mod which revamps the sneaking gameplay and lighting dramatically (among other features) and also other mods like Redux and Oblivion Lost which add things like vehicles, blowouts, and other features that were cut from the original game.

I have yet to see a SoC mod with a blowout feature that wasn't buggy unfortunately. Hurray for CoP for having them in the vanilla game!

Just wondering, how is the stealth in the vanilla game?