STALKER versus Supreme Commander

[Shroom Man 777]

Well, I went to the game place yesterday and looked for STALKER. They get their recent games pretty quick, but no STALKER, so I might have to wait for a week or two. On the other hand, they do have Supreme Commander. So, which would you guys recommend?

I'm not a big RTS buff, I enjoy Dawn of War and stuff, but I'm not really good. I just play my games for fun.

As such, I'm not too good an FPS player as well. Sure, I can hold my own in casual games with friends (I own in Call of Duty), but I'm not awesome. I just play my games for fun.

Now, which game is funnest? I don't intend to go online too much, and I just one something entertaining to pass my time - something totally awesome, but not so totally hard.

Which should I buy? I've heard good things about STALKER. Is it that good? Cause if it is, then I'm buying it.

[Shroom Man 777]

And what other fun games are out there to play? Other AWESOME stuff?

[DPDarkPrimus]

Personally, I was underwhelmed by SupCom. I don't see what the big fuss about it is.

STALKER, while failing to deliver on all that it promised (although I knew that going in) is an enjoyable game that feels different from your run of the mill FPS.

[Stark]

I think SupCom versus the AI is a pathetic joke, so if you're not going to play online you'll probably get bored pretty quickly. On the other hand, STALKER is a pretty narrow-appeal game (Oblivion with guns) and has some 'rushed out the door' teething problems. It is however loaded with buckets of atmosphere: apparently it's short (people have already finished it) but I've been playing for 7-8 hours and I'm not even halfway through, so it'll last longer than FEAR.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I think SupCom versus the AI is a pathetic joke, so if you're not going to play online you'll probably get bored pretty quickly. On the other hand, STALKER is a pretty narrow-appeal game (Oblivion with guns) and has some 'rushed out the door' teething problems. It is however loaded with buckets of atmosphere: apparently it's short (people have already finished it) but I've been playing for 7-8 hours and I'm not even halfway through, so it'll last longer than FEAR.

It has definite replay value.

[Shroom Man 777]

FEAR it is, then.

Since I am going to buy an original version, I can play online. Does STALKER have online play?

[Stark]

It has generic DM/TDM/CTF online. Pretty uninspiring, but since the game uses the server/client architecture even on one machine, maybe better types of multi can be hacked in.

[Covenant]

You could also wait off a bit and get CC&3. I'm currently playing SupCom and enjoying it for what it is, but it lacks the visceral "Wow that's cool!" gut appeal of C&C3's big, pretty, cool units. SupCom is fun though, and I've gotten into the strategy enough to understand what things do and how to play, so that's not bad. Your mileage may vary, as it is a fairly underwhelming game, and I haven't yet gotten my own CD key yet, just playing off a borrowed copy. I'd say, get a copy of the Demo and see if the gameplay appeals to you. It's got some incredibly boring units, but once I moved on past that, I had more fun. I'm also looking forwards to the first mods of it, or possibly modding it myself.

I can't speak about STALKER, but it looks totally badass. It's super short (less than 50 hours? Done in a day!) but it sounds like a lot of fun. Between the two, knowing that you're a "play for fun" kind of guy when it comes to RTS's, you might prefer the singleplayer experience of STALKER. Have you considered Oblivion though? That might be even better for you than Stalker is, and offer a wide variety of play options.

[Shroom Man 777]

What's an Oblivion?

[Ace Pace]

What's an Oblivion?

Oblivion, giant open ended american RPG by Bethesda.

Known for being very very very very big, and preformance heavy. And awesome.

[Stark]

And being bland and having a cripplingly stupid NPC levelling system.

[K. A. Pital]

STALKER is better than Supreme Commander. But, well, you can discount my opinion as biased, since Stalker heavily features the Zone, which is sort of a cult for any Soviet/Russian citizen mildly familiar with Strugazkis or post-apocalypse.

[Shroom Man 777]

I don't want a Final Fantasy thing. Granted, those things are nice. But too bloody tiring, that Diablo stuff.

[Ace Pace]

I don't want a Final Fantasy thing. Granted, those things are nice. But too bloody tiring, that Diablo stuff.

Uh what? Oblivion is utterly unlike Final Fantasy, or Diablo.

Final Fantasy: RPG on Rails, AKA not much choice.
Diablo: Hack and Slash clickfest.
Oblivion: totally differant.

[Shroom Man 777]

So...what do you do in this...Oblivion?

[Stark]

Hit things with swords while following a plot that quickly gets boring and crying because everyone is always your level and eventually everyone in the world has demonforged hell armour to keep up with you.

[Vympel]

Hit things with swords while following a plot that quickly gets boring and crying because everyone is always your level and eventually everyone in the world has demonforged hell armour to keep up with you.

Bah. Even at my current Level 31, most of the enemies have only partial Daedric or Glass Armor, with Ebony and Elven respectively being still present much of the time (together with Daedric, Ebony and Glass weapons).

And the plot's not boring.

[Stark]

Oh, maybe they fixed it - I remember being level 26 and BANDITS had the second-best armour already. A game that needs mods to not be stupid (yeah let's have levels then have the npcs level, that's not fucking redundant at all) is hardly awesome.

Although the 'more damage' mod of STALKER looks cool.

[Ace Pace]

So...what do you do in this...Oblivion?

Google is a good thing, Gamespot is better.

[Vympel]

Oh, maybe they fixed it - I remember being level 26 and BANDITS had the second-best armour already. A game that needs mods to not be stupid (yeah let's have levels then have the npcs level, that's not fucking redundant at all) is hardly awesome.

Nah, the bandits are still absurdly well-equipped. Just no Daedric for them- bandits only carry light armor, so you'll only ever see them in combinations (never full) of Mithril, Elven and Glass. Marauders are the levelled enemies you'll fight who wear combinations of Daedric Ebony and (I forgot to mention in the previous post) Orcish. You only fight them at select Forts though.

What I find more ridiculous about Oblivion (not in a game breaking way, just a "that's dumb") way is the ludicrous number of Ayelid Ruins and ruined Forts. It's Cyrodil- capital of the entire Empire- those Ayelid Ruins should've been cleaned out or caved in centuries ago. Heck, the Imperial Legion would've made that imperative. As to the Forts- there's no way a single province could need that many forts. Many of them aren't even in a position one would consider strategic- they're just plopped down anywhere.

On the other hand, an endless series of caves and mines would've been boring as hell.

At least in Morrowind, the types of dungeons made more sense. I could buy Dwemer and Daedric ruins on Vvardenfell.

Although the 'more damage' mod of STALKER looks cool.

I'm gonna give it another go once a patch comes out. For now I don't know what's wrong with it.

[Stark]

Hey that's a really good point - there are guys exploring ruins not a hundred meters from the walls of Imperial City. That's pretty absurd. And the 'forts' are often less than ten meters to a side - but with massive underground tunnels.

I have had several 'freezes', and it seems to last just long enough for me to get bored and do the 'caps lock check' before it comes back. No crashes though, so it's unfortunate that you can't play it.

[Shroom Man 777]

Fuck that. Give me a Kalashnikov and let's go mutant hunting.

[Darth Raptor]

Oh, maybe they fixed it - I remember being level 26 and BANDITS had the second-best armour already. A game that needs mods to not be stupid (yeah let's have levels then have the npcs level, that's not fucking redundant at all) is hardly awesome.

The game is broken. Critically broken, and since I play it on the 360 I'm even worse off. If you're a melee character, your best bet is start with the right combination of race/birthsign to get your level 1 attributes and skills as high as possible. Then just don't level. If you're some kind of mage then, well, you're just fucked. You can use the same approach that fighters do, but you'll never see the Expert or Master level spells.

Just nerf the game to -100 on the difficulty slider. There's no shame in cheating in a game that's already broken.

[Arrow]

Oh, maybe they fixed it - I remember being level 26 and BANDITS had the second-best armour already. A game that needs mods to not be stupid (yeah let's have levels then have the npcs level, that's not fucking redundant at all) is hardly awesome.

The game is broken. Critically broken, and since I play it on the 360 I'm even worse off. If you're a melee character, your best bet is start with the right combination of race/birthsign to get your level 1 attributes and skills as high as possible. Then just don't level. If you're some kind of mage then, well, you're just fucked. You can use the same approach that fighters do, but you'll never see the Expert or Master level spells.

Just nerf the game to -100 on the difficulty slider. There's no shame in cheating in a game that's already broken.

Thankfully there are several mods that fix these problems. They're the only reason I play Oblivion.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

If you're stuck with vanilla Oblivion, there's an easy (and mind-numbingly stupid) fix for the difficulty. Come up with a list of skills that you'll absolutely never use and don't improve just by traveling around. Those are your major skills. Your real skills are kept minor and improve as you use them. It's rougher at the beginning that way, but you'll never see level 2.