So I was cleaning out my old C box with my 16 year old want to be clone (no relation, lol) when I happened accros my old copy of Stalker. He said; "what's that"? I said; "its a pretty good game. It killed a couple weeks of time between missions and stuff."

Of course came the; "can I play it?" So I looked up to see if there where any mods out and about for it and came accros the stalker complete 2009 mod. Well after a minute of watching him mess with it I had too as well right? With the realitic wepoan mod (ok not exactly realistic, but way better than vanilla) it breathed totally new life into the old girl.

If you have this older title sitting about and have not tried this mod, you should.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009/downloads

On a side note.....why are the US game companys by and large scared to try new things? Seems like nearly everything I enjoy on the game front is coming out of Europe...........

Tried that mod out awhile ago. Definitely forced me to play it another couple of weeks off and on.



Noticed this the other day as well. U.S. games are trying way too hard to appeal to the pre-teen/teen crowd. Every deeply enjoyable game I've played the last couple of years, and all of the games I'm most excited about coming up this year seem to originate in Germany, England, Russia, or Eastern Europe.

Profit chasing.......also known as guys in suits keeping the creative man ..........and thinking adult down.

...and one can see the similarities between game- and movie industry on that subject.

US programmers want more money = bigger budget = more sales needed for a profit, so appeal to broader crowd.
Also, the publishers have nothing but $$ floating in their heads, so while Hollywood makes films for $100 million, $20 million, $2 million, and under a million, for these game companies it's either indie (uber cheap) or they're trying to unseat WoW/CoD/BF/Sims/name a franchise that sells tons of copies. That means the inventive ideas are low-budget games that don't have great blockbuster effects (but can still have fun gameplay) while the big budgets go to play-it-safe ideas attempting to get every console owner to buy it (and maybe have a bone thrown to PC players if they're lucky.)



The Jedi Master

All true. Where is a small US company with passion and vision. Do what you love......make enough cash to drive on. I am talking on the sim/tactical side of things. The big company's make brainless crap. Oh and I need someone to go work for who is not a damned uber asshat suit type.

Wow, one postaway ...........http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3545642/6_days_to_support_a_real_tac_s.html

Thats the kind of thing I am talking about. Wonder if they want a broken Iraq Vet with delusions of being a modeler as an intern....... They are even close to home........lol.

The European culture is generally more centered towards grey social realism. PC gaming has also tended to be bigger than consoles here, though we are definitely starting to chase after the Americans on that front.