Read this book - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic
Watch this film - [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(1979_film)]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(1979_film)[/url]

Also the anomalies caught me off guard.

I highly doubt such phenomenons would even happen after a nuclear explosion, because I would have heard about it by know the affects Nuclear Explosion has to the enviornment.

So whats the story with the anomalies?

if any of us gave away what is happening in the story we would ruin it. as to the science angle - we would ruin it!

and the zone - well, you'll have to read the pda entries, then compare them to the real life situations that happened around and after the distaster to get some brearing. for now -soak it up!


also - amok is right here and you should read roadside picnic and watch tarkovskys film version as they both predate the game, influenced it and the game in turn influenced another novel by the strugastkys.
read the pda data in game. dont spoil it for yourself with spoilers! O_o

STALKER is an acronym:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/stalker-will-stalk-again-6174611 These STALKERs are trying to survive any way they can in this brutal wasteland around Chernobyl: STALKER is NOT an easy game by any means - even on the easiest difficulty, it's still tough.

Also, about FO:NV - if you haven't tried it (and I haven't) and you want the game to be harder, you need FO:NV Ultimate Edition (ALL Main Content DLC's + 2 item pack DLC's) to run JE Sawyer's HardCore Mode (now in Version 5.1):
http://twofoldsilence.diogenes-lamp.info/2012/09/jsawyeresp-v51.html

JE Sawyer was the lead designer and director for FO:NV for Obsidian - and he wanted to make the game even harder, to suit his gaming tastes. So, he made this mod for himself - and then released it to the public.

Stalker is buggy as hell; BSODs while saving, loading etc.

Also I saw vids of STALKER Clear Sky and Prypiat and they look a lot different than the Chernobyl, for one the graphics look a bit better, guns have different reload animations and more different handling (it looks more smoother and realistic than the first game) and the hud is different. It is like the build the whole game from scratch.


Anyway I heard that one of the 2 games is bad and must avoid, which was it clear sky or prypiat?

Clear Sky is the universally regarded "worst" of the series - but still worth playing for some of the environments

Clear Sky is the "worst", but it's still a true Stalker game and therefore excellent, just less excellent that other two. Mostly because of the bugs and crashes. Even with complete mod, which fixes most of the game. Chernobyl has fantastic setting and mood. Especially in X facilities. You'll remember these for the rest of your life. Pripyat on the other hand is built on much improved engine, has way better side quests handling, hud, weapon and armor upgrading, anomaly fields, achievement system that's fun and rewarding for the player. It's a pity, there is only one X facility in Pripyat (it's a good one at least). Well, there's 1.5 (I count Pripyat underground as 0.5). Anyway, Clear Sky has it's strony points, and it's fun for a while to play with it's unique faction war system.

Clear Sky has also a very frustrating scripted moment where you basically lose all your gear. So if you've side tracked a lot instead of doing the main story line, you'll end up quite screwed. I don't know if you can recover your stuff later, but it was frustrating enough to make me lose interest.

If any of your games is giving you BSODs, you should consider checking your hardware. Just a word of caution.

Was gonna say the same thing.
scripted recovery
that was the main complaint about the game by die hard fans of the first as it was so badly implemented - though mods other than you mentioned do a good job of sorting it out, it remains the weakest point of clear sky

My only complaint about faction far is that you can't wipe out factions once and for all. However it also gives some replayability, since joining different factions will change the game.

the other mods will take care of the wiping out (though i think most keep a small respawn for realism) but as to joinin gdifferent factions changing the game - not really - its the same grind on clear sky either way, and most factions missions can be done without too many inter-faction problems if you do it carefully. ive played it through like that myself

Stalker was the only game to cause such bizarre 'special effects'. Not hardware issue for sure.
ver 1.0 was unplayable for probably 85%.