User blog:Matsu-Taka/No Life without 'Counter-Strike'!

"No use of anti-material rifles on personel? Nah, that's an overstatement..."

- Voltromate

The Fun-Venture goes on...
Nearly 2-weeks into the new LA-DC 1.4007, and already did found some differences between the two of older 1.4005 I got used to, notably to performance and entirely different gameplay changes... The biggest change of this version is probably the Artifacts, they are now somehow geared to what was used in 'Call of Pripyat', much to my surprise [and apparently greatly dismayed lots of other Stalkers]. TBH, I've never used that much Artifacts, as they clearly make-fun to survivability element 'Lost Alpha' has, so IMHO it's a win-win solution for me - like, come on... abusive-use of artifacts to make you nearly 'indestructible'? Logic, man... where's the fun? Might as well drop all your items except a Knife and try to complete all missions without dying for once, and see how do you like it...

Next, is the improved 'A-Life', notably the 'Free-Range A-Life'. It adds depth of immersive open-world up to a whole new level [as previously enabled after one of many endings]. In the eyes of many 'sniper life', it basically turns the whole area into a huge battlefield, making sure that no place is safe. IMHO, this is how any STALKER games are supposed to be in the first place - if only there is a way or 2 to increase the number of enemy NPCs roaming around as well, it would've been perfect set for me (yeah, may kinda looked like a PUBG, hence where the hope was coming from, but Chernobyl style)...

Then, the various bug-fixes to many previously-bugged quests, notably for 'Find the Documents' thread. To top it off, they also managed to insert additional skill points for nearly each completed side-quests, a sure and exciting way to complete them for the worth they have...

Last, but certainly not least, is numerous new weapons to be found. I've found FN P90, FN Five-seveN, even the PP-19 Bizon - all of which are the notable icons of 'Counter-Strike' [hence the title]. I know that they were already included in the 'Extended Pack', but since I don't play it, these new additions surely surprises me even more..

However, I've been playing for and exploring with almost unlimited fun ever since I've gotten hold of a brand-new, early-access sniper rifle 'Stoner Rifle-25' in Dead City in the hands of loathsome Mercenaries - while it has slightly worse hitting punch than a 'Dragunov' it basically the only sniper rifle I've found in-game capable of silencers right from the get-go, and have taking good care of it ever since. However, even the best of sniper rifles the game now has, they will not change my passion for my all-time 'waifu', the 'H&K G36'...

The eternal 'Bug-Fest' also still goes on...
Well, you guessed it. No releases are realistically bug-free, including this one... The most notable crashes I've experienced, happened a lot around Agroprom area, especially in its undeground. So far, I've experienced multiple crashes in this place, and loading the game whilst inside these areas were a sure-fire way to get your progress dinged around without any light sources to save you - yeah, loading from these undergrounds practically making the backgrounds go 'black' a.k.a not loaded...

Next is where you got 'taken in' by Mercenaries in Dead City. Not sure what was the cause, but I've got more crashes than what I can count in just 15-minutes after the cut-scene, which was kinda alleviated by dashing back to Yantar as soon as possible. Re-entry into the sector proved smooth afterwards, just too bad that I can't really looted anything when I was first there...

Oh, and some weapon descriptions that were at least 'perfect' in 1.4005 are now gone into 'placeholder' mode - notably the 'AKM' [having 'enc_weapons1_wpn-akm' as its description] and the 'Sniper TRs 301' [worse yet as both its name and description are fracked up - 'st_wpn_lr300_m2' and 'st_wpn_lr300_m2_descr']. It seemed to be one of the unique LR-300 that Nimble was looking for, but by picking this up in Bloodsucker village, doesn't seem to update the side-mission progress - nah, perhaps he is looking for other version...

- 1.4007-DC on Veteran