S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky | 
| From: Deep Silver
Category: Video Games
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $3.99
as of 9/6/2010 17:44 CDT details
You Save: $26.00 (87%)
New (20) Used (12) from $3.89
Seller: GoGamer
Rating:  53 reviews
Sales Rank: 1,682
Format: CD-ROM
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
Genre: shooter_action_games
ESRB: Mature
Media: DVD-ROM
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows Vista
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: ECD950001D
Model: 895678002001
UPC: 895678002100
EAN: 0895678002001
ASIN: B001C4VU5C
Release Date: September 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Atmosphere of the Exclusion Zone | | • | Research of new depths of the Zone - Red Forest, Limansk, Pripyat Undergrounds, etc | | • | A-Life-driven War of the Factions | | • | Possibility to play and lead any faction to victory | | • | Advanced A-Life system |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Product InformationGo back one year from the events of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. In Clear Sky a group of stalkers has reached the heart of the Zone - Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. An immense blowout of anomalous energy changes the Zone. There are no more reliable and relatively safe roads. Entire levels vanish in the outbursts of anomalies. Stalkers and even expeditions die or end up sealed on the lost territories. New areas which remained unknown since the time of the Zone emergence appear on the Zone map. Changes of the Zone map known to stalkers shake the fragile balance of forces in the Zone. Among the groupings there flare up hostilities for the new territories artifact fields and spheres of influence. Everyone is now out for himself. You are a mercenary who appeared at the edge of the opposition between stalker factions Strelok and the Zone itself. You play the key role in the events that led to creation of the Zone up to the point from which the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game begins. Which faction will take the upper hand? Varied behavior of NPC stalkers in the A-Life world Advanced spectacular storyline scenes Improved AI of computer-controlled characters Skirting around dynamic obstacles by NPCs Use of grenades by NPCs Fast Travel Improved concept of detectors artifacts and anomalies New system of upgrades for weapons and armor Weapons and armor repair Reworked HUD and PDA New version of the game engine - X-Ray 1.5 DirectX 10 renderer Improved DirectX 9 renderer - parallax bump soft particles depth of field motion blur eye adaptation effect Cutting-edge and detailed game graphics (normal map) Inverse kinematics New animation engineProduct FeaturesAtmosphere of the Exclusion ZoneResearch of new depths of the Zone - Red Forest Limansk Pripyat Undergrounds etcA-Life-driven War of the FactionsPossibility to play and lead any faction to victoryAdvanced A-Life system
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 53
 Back to the Zone September 16, 2008
Flep Kitsu (San Angelo, Texas)
21 out of 25 found this review helpful
I played Shadow of Chernobyl five times in a row. Finish it. Start again. Ridiculous, but true. It had plenty of bugs and issues and required a lot of patience, but it was completely worth it.
Having loved the first game, I was incredibly excited about the release of Clear Sky and have watched it as it developed over the last year. There have been a lot of negative reviews from various sources, and yes, this game is also very buggy. It has the Stalker Curse of hardware issues and wierd problems.
But I've been playing it for several days now with no significant (read as "game stopping") issues, and it is every bit as cool as I hoped it would be. I'm loving it as much if not more than Shadow of Chernobyl.
So, if you're patient and not afraid of the fixer-upper games that GSC is apparently intent on releasing, and you liked the first Stalker... I say give it a go.
Its brilliant and brutal, just like the original.
Definitely a top shelf game. May 13, 2009
David R. Krueger (Huntsville, AL United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
STALKER Clear Sky (SCS) is a sandbox shooter in the style of Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2. As with those examples, SCS is a long game as compared to many more linear FPS games. The extra time consists largely of traveling from one place to another, but this format also facilitates a more complex scheme of interaction between the player and the game environment. There are many places to explore, objects to uncover, and interactions with the game's many characters.
Being more of a fan of mindless run-and-gun FPS games, this is not my favorite game. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that a huge effort went into creating the STALKER games (including Shadow of Chernobyl) and the outcome of that effort was an impressively detailed and well orchestrated adventure. To me, Clear Sky is a thoughtful improvement over Chernobyl and is the better of the two games, but Clear Sky also capitalizes on the first game. Changing it too much would ruin it and disappoint those who got Clear Sky hoping to get more of what Chernobyl offered.
I admit I did a terrible job of playing the game, so probably didn't get the level of enjoyment possible by someone who immerses themselves in it more deeply. I went from mission to mission with very little exploring. I had no money and never did any trading. I finished the game on the VETERAN difficulty level without ever having a suit with any protection from radiation or bullets. I highly recommend having a look at one of the guides available on the internet. A few pointers can save you some grief and make the game more fun.
At the time I installed it, there was one patch available, which I installed. I had no technical trouble with the game under Vista x64 running on a core 2 duo with 4GB ram and dual SLI-linked 8800GTS 512 GPUs. I had video options set to max and the graphics were definitely on the leading edge of what's commercially available. There is a huge amount of detail to the environment, excellent lighting effects, and weather so real you can almost feel it. The lightning storms are impressive. One in particular was just stunning. You could see the bolts of lighting flash in the sky and the entire landscape would flash in harsh bright black and white with stark directional shadows. The best weather effect I've seen in any game to date.
Depth of field was a nice effect and worked smoothly without being an annoyance. Sound effects and voice acting were also top shelf. Aside from what it takes to accomplish a mission, I don't usually pay much attention to story line or character development, so I won't speak to that. The game allows user saves, including quick saves and it allows you to change the difficulty level mid-game which is a rarity.
I recently finished Far Cry 2 and thought SCS was a far better game in terms of variety, surprises, and action. SCS compares favorably with Fallout 3 in that the area of exploration is huge and each place is not just more of the same (as seemed to be the case with Far Cry 2).
The things I personally didn't care for in SCS were the annoying (invisible) radiation fields that you could stumble into as well as the amount of non-fighting game play that is required. I prefer non-stop shooting, but that's not a strike against the game so much as saying that this game targets those gamers who like to get more engaged in the RPG aspects of the story and environment.
Toward the end, the game seems to slip into more of a traditional FPS in that the missions (and shoot-outs) occur one after the other. As soon as you accomplish one aspect of a mission, you are immediately pointed toward the next step and the shooting is almost non-stop. Also, I really liked the environment better during these sequences. It was tough for me because, having no protection from bullets, I was easily killed and spent a lot of time watching the "LOADING..." screen. The game does not load very fast.
So, if you liked the first STALKER, Fallout 3, or Far Cry 2, you'll probably like SCS, which is the best (in my opinion) of all of them. It doesn't have a long learning curve, but take time to learn about the vests and the artifacts and what you can get by trading and upgrading weapons, etc. The manual could be better, but there are guides on the internet that make up for it.
Great Game!!!! June 17, 2009
Susan Wilson (Oregon)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I got this game free with my video card but i have to share my opinion with the public to get more people to buy this awesome game. It took a while to get the hang of this game, it's confusing at first and it is dull for the first hour or so. Once you get the controls and have played for an hour or so you start to realize how awesome this game really is. Graphics are top-notch. I have played for about 4-5 hours so far and i had a hard time convincing myself to take a break. Yes, it does require a beefy system, I'm running an E8400 at 3.4Ghz and a 4870 1gb and 6GB DDR2 1066 RAM and i average about 45 FPS (all settings high w/ DX10.1) sometimes higher and sometimes lower. I have patch 1.5.0.7 installed and i have not encountered any crashes or instability. Just buy this game and see for yourself how great it is. You won't regret it.
Excellent atmosphere July 26, 2009
ringwarrior78 (Michigan)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series is known for really making u feel like you're in the game. Great visuals and sound make for some creepy moments. The gunplay is tight and focuses more on accurate shots than run and gunning. This is one of my favorite FPS series and I think if u give it a chance you will like it too.
There were some minor issues when it first lauched but a couple patches have fixed everything. People say there are rpg elements but really all it has is an inventory system and conversation options. There's no leveling up or behind the scene dice rolling going on.
Its an excellent game and if u like fps's with good atmospere and gun customization you should really check this game out
It was great February 14, 2010
Lukasz Dabrowski
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's kind of a hassle to start this game up. It took me a while to find the right patch and updates , which sucks because they won't even tell you all this in the game booklet. Game alone is awesome though , i love it .Nothing beats walking around Chernobyl killing mutants, zombies and drinking vodka :))
Showing reviews 1-5 of 53
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