This game taught me as a kid why Eastern Europe is the way it is. You don’t question why you landed that headshot. You just be happy today is not Gulag day.
Go easy on the iron sights, most stalkers don't even know how to count to ten, let alone adjust the sights on their gun. Ivan spent a lot of time learning to aim with black magic and jaundice infected eyes, that's why he's a higher rank than you.
Random fact about the moon landing conspiracy; In order to fake the moonlanding convincingly, they had to fly to the moon to take pictures of the surroundings that they could make the set look like the moons surface at the studio where the fake moonlanding was filmed...
Lies meant to distract from the truth! The moon landing WAS faked; Stanley Kubrick was hired to film the fake landing, but he insisted that a set would be too unconvincing, so they shot on location. That's my favorite version of the joke.
No one on this site has the same charm as Strat. It feels like I’m sitting down with that one equally nerdy friend and screaming about shit no one else would care about. You know the friend. Keep up the fantastic work Strat. Hopefully some day I can support you on Patreon but until then I hope this comment finds you well. Thank you for the amazing content!!!
If you enjoy spergy nerd energy, you'll definitely like mikeburnfire's channel - I recommend going to the campfire stories playlist to get a good feel for the power level involved!
I don't want to live in this country anymore, but if I move they either tax me on money I make in the new country or I have to renounce my citizenship. :D
@@fuzzydunlop7928 You could just move and not pay your American taxes lmao. They're not gonna send federal agents to hunt you down for tax evasion. A good American would fight for change in their country and not just abandon it tho.
If you're not miserable to some degree then Stalker fails as a setting. Thus dying constantly on Master Difficulty is playing as the developers intended and shows the bleak, meaningless existence in the game, film, and the original novel. Like Pathologic, only Stalker isn't open about its existentialism.
So, an interesting quirk with Clear Sky, you can modify the weapon .ini files so the crosshairs remain while ADSing. This will precisely show you how badly zeroed the sights are.
This game reminds me of a little funny I don't remember the origin of, something of armed people turning the numbers on the gun up to shoot harder, increasing the range their rifles were set to instead, I think the entire zone fell for this trick.
To explain the "this game is baaad" atmosphere surrounding Clear Sky further you have to understand how that game was presented to us on its release. It was a complete shit show. It barely worked, it was bugged beyond comprehension, it behave differently on every system, it crashed every 10 minutes or every two quest completed. We waited for more than a year for a proper patches. And when it became playable and enjoyable, the infinity better Call of Priryat was released. Kinda ironic seeing all this Cyberpunk nonsense after all that I've experienced with the first two Stalker games. Still love them though.
didn't play soc on release, but rather much later, i didn't really have that many issues with it, it was pretty stable. i could even run it on dynamic lighting which made it gorgeous, which apparently made the game crash for many others.
You know, the whole broken bullet spread could’ve been a great lore about the intense radiation exposure to physically altering your characters perception. The cross hairs are aligned perfectly, but your eyes aren’t. Then, as you upgrade, you’re actually misaligning the gun to align with your fucked up eyes. Missed opportunity to justify a broken system.
Nah. If it's lore then you make that a point. You don't market a game that sucks hard enough it turns people off your games till some rando comes along and dreams up an excuse for rushing the game out so Dimitri and Ivan can't code iron sights right. Lore implies there was some intent. In this case it's just excusing/justifying a hack job. That seems to be a big issue with the trilogy, all three games are rushed. SOC took a lot of time, but they cut a bunch and patched code together in the final version because they were on a time crunch. The other two suffered from the same "rush it through, get it out".
For those who are feeling like playing Clear Sky after this (for the first time, or after giving up on it before) there's a hidden veles detector (strongest detector in the game, showing exact location of the artifacts, and showing all of them, including the rarest) in the swamps. Go to stalker wiki "Hidden Veles Detector" entry. Having it this early makes artifact hunting both easier and way more rewarding...
one thing i dont see anyone mentioning is that when you stagger enemies you cant deal damage to them, thats why sometimes you can empty your magazine into someone without killing them
This and the inaccuracy of guns made me quit 3 of the games within the first hour. The one game I played for more time was the first SoC, there I quit when I met the first monster and it was still running around after I wasted all my ammo on trying to kill it.
@@kisbiflos I gave up on SoC after a few hours into it, but later on gave it another chance with the Autumn Aurora mod and that completely changed it for me, bullet sponges mostly gone. Consider it.
@@jesusalc1421 i (think) headshots are the only thing you can really do to a staggered enemy, because of animations and how bones work, but idk havent played the game in a while, most theories are just wrong tho
Honestly dude, I think we found your niche. You are really good at tearing down and criticizing things that has a rabbid fanbase, while giving a take the average joe would have. "This shit is so good you NEED to love it" You: Nah man, let me tell you why its just fine, not earth shattering. After the stalker and underrail vids I am certain that is what you are best at.
And this is why I'm waiting for Call of Pripyat review and possible mention of Misery mods, watching their reaction to any criticism was quite entertaining... like that particular "tent video".
I fell into the fanbase trap once... After enjoying Hitman and Dishonored I was hooked on the genre and at that time lots of posts/RUclips vids showed up about SplinterCell Blacklist. It was praised as one of the best stealth games *if not* all games ever and sh¡ts on the rest of the genre. To be sure I read lots of opinions on the r/SplinterCell (my mistake) and after nothing but praise I bought the deluxe Edition for 20$ on PSN. Spoiler: Holy spanks this game is a piece of focused group Ubitrash. The first stealth game I was ever able to cheese through completely on the first playthrough, and the people telling me it has better mechanics than MGSV prolly masturbate to FB pics of their rellatives. Damn this became a rant lol...
@@SeruraRenge11 That's an old myth that has been disproven since. Enemies actually take more damage on easier difficulties in SoC. Player damage stays the same in other titles. See here: www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/7fxvt5/what_do_difficulties_actually_change_in_stalker/
You may like my written review of this game: gnd-tech.com/2019/10/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-clear-sky-review/ The reason weapons are much less accurate in Clear Sky is two-fold. First they scale accuracy down since video game ranges are much smaller than real life ranges. Which is common in game design. But the second reason where they went too far was to make it so that unupgraded weapons are shit and it forces players to upgrade their firearms. This is logical to some extent, but they went way too far and some iron sights are indeed not perfectly aligned. The Sky reclamation project fixes this. Is ggmanlives the Australian noob friend? Here is how I play the game from the start. I make sure to storm most of the Renegade bases from the get go. Taking part in the Main base assault gives you the CS-3 (actually CS-1 but GSC switched them in the EN version by mistake) armour. After that, you can buy for 15 000 the CS-1 armor (actually CS-1 but GSC....) that is MUCH better. Buy it. Go to the Northern secret area and get the Veles detector and artifact. Go to Cordon (armour stops the machinegun well enough) and kill the Speznaz to get an AN-94 Abakan and upgrade it for accuracy in The Dark Valley. There. Game solved :P. Possible ugprades to this are an AS Val with upgrades (not needed) or a Bulat heavy armoured suit (recomended).
The first time i tried i gave up not soon after reaching Cordon, i'm glad i gave it a second chance, now i think it's the best of the series, i also think that it has the most balanced economy and it makes artifacts actually useful, like the ones used against radiation and bleeding, never bothered to go after them SOC and COP, and faction wars was not as bad as i was expecting, it has it's problems but sometimes it can be quite fun and help to get some money, it also has it's memorable moments, except for the ending section, it becomes just a boring linear shooter with a disappointing boss fight at the end
I was eating some delicious nachos when you said the phrase "Ukranian Neo" and died from laughter-induced choking. At least I died doing what I loved, eating nachos and watching youtube vids about games.
Honestly the best part about the STALKER series is...well it was a survival game before we got drowned in superficial survival games with bullshit mechanics. It`s you vs a hostile world and you get all the tools you want if you work for them, you clench your teeth and push on, making more money, getting better gear, learning more about the mechanics and trying your best to overcome the odds. It might not be perfect but it has more tension and the rewards for stepping up to the challenge are worth it.
To be honest, those random off-center shots are what people call "flies" at the range. They're way more common in real-life than one would expect. Especially if using irons and no support. Does not compensate for some of the silliest game-designs in Clear Sky, like the bullets outright disappearing mid-flight if shooting non-upgraded guns.
Hidden in the clear sky swamps is an upgraded detector that will make hunting artifacts pretty easy. You find a break in the Northern fence, then head West and you can find a little cave/hideout. Speaking of easy finds in the first level - the train in this area is the same one from the opening cinematic - so you can find Scar's rifle from that scene. Getting it working again though, that will take some doing.
Enemy : "You should have gone for the head" Player : "I did" Another thing that makes the game that much harder is the fact that the more your weapon loses durability, the so called "accuracy" gets even worse. Meanwhile enemies land every shot.
Oh, yeah, misaligned sights. Remember LR-300 used to have this great front pole you could use to achieve pin-point long range accuracy? Scrap that imba completely, miss every shot
I'm pretty sure the bullet damage myth comes from SoC and spread to the other games due to how similar they are. The issue with SoC is that your first gun is the Makarov, a pistol most players throw out once they find ANY other weapon. That pistol is so bad that you're better off using the knife. If you actually test SoC difficulties at the start, you'll see that they're all hard because 1. the Makarov is awful, and 2. your starting armor is useless. If you get the secret merc suit and a better gun, go back to the cordon, and then test the difficulties, you'll do a 180 and think bandits are too weak on all difficulties.
It's true. I am creating a dice roll simulator so I can run thousands of tests to prove a certain feat is better than another one. Da fuq is wrong with me?
Yeah. When I joined the IDF back in the day, after all the Stalker and CS experiences, I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to hit with a real weapon, lol. It was quite a discovery for me.
4:00 That's clearly an attempt by GSC to bring realworld physics also to the bullet projectiles, even inside people. You propably hit his rib cage and the bullet somehow ricochet from there to his brain I bet.
It's funny you made this just as I decided to finally play through Clear Sky after owning it for almost a decade now. I had the same complaints with the accuracy and kept asking for tips and stuff on Reddit but people just said stuff like "dude, just aim, it's easy." I am vindicated! I knew the shooting was complete BS. Still enjoying it so far and the story is decent.
Nah i got that same shit on soc. These fucking nut jobs instead of giving advice on mods to use, weapons to use, or literally anything; would just sit there and talk about how good they were and how the person frustrated with it must clearly always aim at the floor
Once you get a VSS Vintorez or even better a SVD, the bullet spread is not a problem anymore. Or just upgrade the gun with flatness and accuracy. (You can get an upgraded VSS from the Forester after doing the mission where you return an artifacts the renegades stole and finding the 9x39 ammo is really easy in the later game because a lot of the enemies use an AS VAL)
This is going to sound horrible but I havent ever been able to be beat SoC(Just that last stretch with the monolith) but the first one I not only played to completion but replayed was this one followed by call of pripiyat (My favourite). The only part of this that sucked in my opinion was the rouble gating off of the story until you pay your taxes to whatever guy you need to help which caused me to have to stay poor until around halfway into the game when I realized merc guns sold for a fair amount so I just commited genocide against anyone with nicer guns than me when they were no longer needed. Made me feel like a genuine survior though
I remember watching Forsen trying out Clear Sky. As soon as he found a scope he started playing as a sniper (which he does in every game). Without any upgrades. Rest is history.
So using a linear dispersion pattern (which draws a cone in space when you think about the area a hit can land in) is pretty common for RPGs, but has some major limitations beyond, you know, the jank that comes with seeing your shot go wild of where the 3D model of your gun is clearly pointing. These issues are mainly due to the fact that dispersion, if you graph it for real ranged weapons of all sorts, is exponential rather than strictly linear - forming a flattened, curved trumpet shape in space. This means that your linear dispersion, if based on hit patterns taken at a specific distance*, will tend to underestimate the hit rate under that distance and over-estimate the hit rate past it. It will also tend to under-estimate vertical dispersion and over-estimate horizontal dispersion. Of course, in the real world that cone-shaped dispersion pattern is less a product of physical laws and more just the sum of a bunch of things all adding up (range estimation errors, small muscle movements pulling the shot off the point of aim during firing, imperfections in the barrel/rifling causing the bullet to come out slightly off the median trajectory, wind drift, small differences in the drag on each bullet, small differences in powder loading and burn rate, and on and on). So really competent devs would model enough of those things to produce a 'realistic' dispersion pattern without simply brute-forcing it. With the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, it looks like the devs somehow fucked this approach up twice by simply thumb-sucking a value for linear dispersion and then applying it to every weapon with small modifications. So every weapon ends up being about as accurate as a thrown rock, and the gunplay at distance becomes an exercise in averages rather than skill. *IE: go to a firing range and get a bloke who's competent with a pistol to shoot 50 shots at paper targets with a specific width and height at a specific distance, then work out the average and maximum dispersion from there.
The main takeaway from this, beyond the Clear Sky "here's how to fix the weapons" instruction, is that you don't have an upgrade system to make bad weapons good, you have it to make good weapons *great* according to how you play.
The spread is the reason why you just grab that Vintar on the Swamp near the point where you move to Agroprom (near the train, it’s dead, but repairs cost 9600). To cover that, find gravi in a secret Hut along with Veles detector (in Swamps too), and then get to Garbage at midnight to get some 9x39 at the secret loner trader. Upgrades should be available on Cordon, and in Dark Valley it can be maxed out by Freedom mechanic after getting all flash drives. After that - easy game, if you learn how to dodge grenades (Master on ChNPP will have you crying by how many grenades is thrown at you) P.S: For mutants you use hunting shotgun with reliability upgrade, because then it will never get damaged, I dunno why, must be bugged or something Slav gamer signing off
When I played this game I just assumed it was a game that had a slow start, the harsh environment combined with how weak you are in the beginning allows the player to really feel like a stalker as they approach the mid game.
I just started clear sky. The ak iron sights made me immediately stop, and mod to fix, then even after the spread felt awful. Thank you for confirming it is.
As a note (not sure if this is truly a mistake or if its intentional) but AK irons are typically zeroed for a six o clock hold (belt buckle) to prevent that blocky sight picture from obstructing your target.... but frankly i think this spread shouldve been kept for hip fire and tightened up for irons unfortunately at close range that kind of accuracy is typical for most service members i trained with unfortunately same with cops all that being said I dont think it was good game design
Whew. Thank god for the modding community. Fkin loved Clear Sky despite spending AGES trying to get past the army dicks in the beginning. ...though I wlda put it on master anyways bc im a crazy person. Awesome video. Real nostalgia trip.
Bullets spread as much as the imaginary circle in the gap between your crosshairs. You have to use lower crouch, and wait the gap to diminish, to achieve max accuracy in the first shot. Also, mods are encouraged.
@@marinfrombratia Not really. It might seem so from where we are now, but Stalker shooting mechanics were actually quite revolutionary. I remember being so much impressed because bullets were objects that travelled throught space at a velocity, and droped by gravity. Different ammo had different properties. That was very rare at that time. It was amazing to being able to pin point hits throught the gaps between two concrete blocks stacked one on top of the other, or through a pipe stack, in situatons where other games at that time consider an impenetrable colum. You just have to remember to low-crouch gopnik style and the first bullet go center, and if you have an AN-94 the second bullet goes center too.
@@marinfrombratia The render distance and map size would not allow to have any diversification between rifles had accuracy been represented 1:1 with real world rifles. The deviations are a way of representing human accuracy, guns are not mounted on a walking shooting vice, it's a human, moving around uneven terrain and under stress, hence the flyers. It's called gameplay design and it doesn't suck, a lot of shit sucked in STALKER, especially CS, but that wasn't one of them.
I played Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl. Had a lot of fun with it. Was a rough start but totally worth it. Loved it end to end. I played Clear Sky. Re-started the game 3 times trying to get out of that swamp. All 3 times the whole capturing zones mission bugged out. a 4th run I did, I was finally able to pass it, and then as soon as I get into the next zone a military patrol spawns straight on top of me and kills me. Didn't even bother playing that game again, and honestly, I don't think this review will make me change my mind. Slav Jank is one thing. Slav shit, is another.
I watch all of your content, but I usually forget to comment. I just want to let you know that I find your content interesting and that you're really funny. Even after a rough day this stuff can make me laugh, and I really do appreciate that. Thanks!
A fun note: in the very first zone, if you stumble into/around the fence in the north of the zone, you can actually leave the boundaries of the map, and find the best artefact detector in the game in a tunnel under the bridge nearby!
"If you're defending this system, you're defending a broken system." He says to fans of STALKER. Buddy, we defend this broken fucking GAME. The entire game is busted. You either become the jank, quit out of frustration, or go play Anomaly and become the jank all over again.
I wasn't having a lot of fun during Clear Sky's early game, but once I reached the agroprom factory, I spend days just scavenging around the area, killing mutants, taking out enemy squads, collecting their weapons and selling them back at the factory, over and over again. Easily the most memorable time I had with any Stalker game.
I'd heard something different than the whole headshot thing. What I heard was that the difficulty helps determine the spread, and that both you and the enemy shoot more accurately on higher difficulties, which is why you should play on the highest difficulty - so you can actually shoot at what you're aiming at. I don't know how true this is, but I felt I should at least post it, since it doesn't seem like you tested spread on multiple difficulties - just how much damage the enemies can soak up.
That's a lie too. Difficulty doesn't effect anything more then the damage you receive from enemies and loot drops. My personal theory is it was spread by No lifers to get people to play on the hardest difficulty.
Actually, in this game you have to gain experience for each weapon you wielding. Your aiming skills will become better over time. It was mentioned in russian/ukranian promotional videos before the release, but I never heard about this in the game itself. The gravity force should be considered too. Also, special/upgraded weapons are a lot better than trash you found on the ground and it will not be jammed as frequently.
Artifact Hunting in the next game is great. I never played Clear Sky, but there was a time in my life that all I did was play Prypiat and drink cheap Vodka. Ended up in such a dark place I considered the gunsmith who needs booze to work because his DT's are so bad a drinking buddy. I'd cheers him with my own pint of cheap potato liquor everytime I went to get upgrades. Probably spent 100 hours just being drunk in the Zone, hunting artifacts and slowly tuning myself into a walking tank. Loved that game, actually found and watched the movie too and liked it, which is apparently a controversial opinion. Edit: 5 years sober in June. Pretty sure my old drinking buddy was the first person to die from liver disease in the zone though. RIP.
For about the first half of this game and SoC, I just learned how to cheese the running and jumping mechanics and used the sawn-off shotgun and knife. I never paid the army's toll to go under the bridge, nor did I take the anomaly death-path. Instead, I became a death-spewing bunny-hopper. After the first half armour becomes insanely powerful and the sawn-off shotgun is next to useless, but then you encounter zombies. Zombies are such bullet-sponges I just killed them all with the knife. Easy. When I went to leave the marsh in Clear Sky, I never knew there was another path. I just applied what I'd learned about the running and jumping mechanics to run and jump my way past the military base. It only took 50+ tries, probably.
Am i the only one who thought Clear Sky was kinda easy? Dunno why everyone complained about Swamps, i even reloaded multiple times to replay that section
Sorry for necro but I agree. I never understood how people found Clear Sky's gunplay hard, it was my first Stalker and even when I was going in blind I found it extremley easy.
It's been a long time since I tried to mod Clear Sky, but if I remember this right it's because, in addition to weapon deviation, there is also a deviation multiplier for bullets. Which for rifle bullets is dogshit. Like, "I'm sure there are two misplaced decimal points here," level dogshit. So I went MP5s and handguns, and had a great time.
stop trying to sound like seth lol
Noticed this too. Can’t blame him. Sseth is a legend 🤣
Could he also be a part of the ever expanding Sseth cinematic universe?
nah fuck it i wish every man would sound like sseth
Please be understanding. Mandy took the wrong meds today
Oh man, stoped watching stratedgy about a year ago after it became obvious the man was rebranding but I wasn't expecting him to go this far.
This game taught me as a kid why Eastern Europe is the way it is. You don’t question why you landed that headshot. You just be happy today is not Gulag day.
Gulag day is the best goddamn day
As a certified Russian I can say you're right. My dead extended family not so much. Losers rolled gulag on their RNG.
“150cm is about 1.5 meters” or you know... exactly 1.5 meters😂
@Lassi Kinnunen 81 nerd
@@gilgamesh904what?” Is saying blue is blue not blueish also nerdy, you’re just an idiot
It's like saying "The year, is at least 2020." It's not incorrect, technically.
im going to predict he says that he enjoys rpgs
GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!
We should make this a drinking game
@@StratEdgyProductions have you considered doing a video on escape from tarkov
I mean, who doesn't like a good rocket propelled grenade launcher from time to time.
i like the GP-25 Grenade launcher more pal
Go easy on the iron sights, most stalkers don't even know how to count to ten, let alone adjust the sights on their gun. Ivan spent a lot of time learning to aim with black magic and jaundice infected eyes, that's why he's a higher rank than you.
Yeah this is a society where You See Ivan came from, they're not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
Look what it's possible to do with iron sights, though: ruclips.net/video/_m-JYM7Yr-o/видео.html
At least we never lived in poop huts or hunted albinos for HIV cures or smear baby blood on us to make us invincible to bullets…
Random fact about the moon landing conspiracy; In order to fake the moonlanding convincingly, they had to fly to the moon to take pictures of the surroundings that they could make the set look like the moons surface at the studio where the fake moonlanding was filmed...
I... I'm not even mad at ya.
Stanley Kubrick was a genius!
Lies meant to distract from the truth! The moon landing WAS faked; Stanley Kubrick was hired to film the fake landing, but he insisted that a set would be too unconvincing, so they shot on location.
That's my favorite version of the joke.
"150 centimeters is about 1.5 meters"
That statement probably made me angrier than it should’ve.
Yes
You gotta give it to the man, it's a good estimate :D
This statement put me on tilt ngl
*14:02*
hey Strat, you're wrong about something, i dunno about what, but there probably is something that you're wrong about.
You're welcome :D
Yeah, it’s his Australian accent, kill me please
Still loved the vid
I love how this game is an excuse to talk about how bad the spread is in this game
"bullet spread," aka "minute of angle"
The bullet spread is fine there is config that makes enemies avoid bullets 20% of the time even if it hits
Stalker: Clear Sky. The game where the rifles don't have rifled barrels.
Facts 🤣🤣🤣
AKA The chinese QBZ-95 experience...
No one on this site has the same charm as Strat. It feels like I’m sitting down with that one equally nerdy friend and screaming about shit no one else would care about. You know the friend. Keep up the fantastic work Strat. Hopefully some day I can support you on Patreon but until then I hope this comment finds you well. Thank you for the amazing content!!!
If you enjoy spergy nerd energy, you'll definitely like mikeburnfire's channel - I recommend going to the campfire stories playlist to get a good feel for the power level involved!
Also check out SsethTzeentach and The Mandlorian
@Old World Blues Ah yes, the high lord of the merchant's guild! Did you catch the interview on the Killstream?
He's the unholy love-child of Sseth and Grimbeard, who dropped out of college and joined the army.
the glazing is insane zip up his pants when your done
Is it just me, or does this beginning radiate serious Sseth-energy?
the russian music, the catgirls, the ball references, the WAckY rendition of the original story...
it's the cool thing to do nowadays like it was with the AVGN
HEY HEY PEOPLE!!!!!!
We're due for a replacement, the quality if his channel has been declining ever since that awful wizardry 8 video.
Hey hey people.
Strat here
The "Medical Bills" folder on the desktop is just American as apple pie.
I don't want to live in this country anymore, but if I move they either tax me on money I make in the new country or I have to renounce my citizenship. :D
@@fuzzydunlop7928 You could just move and not pay your American taxes lmao. They're not gonna send federal agents to hunt you down for tax evasion. A good American would fight for change in their country and not just abandon it tho.
Just don't get sick, easy
@@XDivineSouljax "just move" isn't exactly an option for many working class americans who struggle to keep bills paid in the first place.
@@antipsychotic451 If every other country is so great, why is t it easy to move there?
I remember beating this game without knowing about the armor upgrade....
Same but in Call of Prypiat.
You’re wrong, stalker works completely as intended
Too bad it was intended to be rough and nightmarish. I love it.
"It just works"
@@nocultist7050 sounds like Boiling Point RtH experience...
This makes me want a video from Strat on Pathologic.
If you're not miserable to some degree then Stalker fails as a setting. Thus dying constantly on Master Difficulty is playing as the developers intended and shows the bleak, meaningless existence in the game, film, and the original novel. Like Pathologic, only Stalker isn't open about its existentialism.
So, an interesting quirk with Clear Sky, you can modify the weapon .ini files so the crosshairs remain while ADSing. This will precisely show you how badly zeroed the sights are.
This game reminds me of a little funny I don't remember the origin of, something of armed people turning the numbers on the gun up to shoot harder, increasing the range their rifles were set to instead, I think the entire zone fell for this trick.
To explain the "this game is baaad" atmosphere surrounding Clear Sky further you have to understand how that game was presented to us on its release. It was a complete shit show. It barely worked, it was bugged beyond comprehension, it behave differently on every system, it crashed every 10 minutes or every two quest completed. We waited for more than a year for a proper patches. And when it became playable and enjoyable, the infinity better Call of Priryat was released.
Kinda ironic seeing all this Cyberpunk nonsense after all that I've experienced with the first two Stalker games. Still love them though.
Huh. Clear Sky is my favorite in the series.
didn't play soc on release, but rather much later, i didn't really have that many issues with it, it was pretty stable. i could even run it on dynamic lighting which made it gorgeous, which apparently made the game crash for many others.
even now its still unoptimized, you can run a monster pc yet run into 10-30 fps in npc filled areas lol
Ahh.... Good times :)
You know, the whole broken bullet spread could’ve been a great lore about the intense radiation exposure to physically altering your characters perception. The cross hairs are aligned perfectly, but your eyes aren’t. Then, as you upgrade, you’re actually misaligning the gun to align with your fucked up eyes. Missed opportunity to justify a broken system.
I’m all for that as an idea makes me feel better about missing half my shots
Nah. If it's lore then you make that a point. You don't market a game that sucks hard enough it turns people off your games till some rando comes along and dreams up an excuse for rushing the game out so Dimitri and Ivan can't code iron sights right.
Lore implies there was some intent. In this case it's just excusing/justifying a hack job. That seems to be a big issue with the trilogy, all three games are rushed. SOC took a lot of time, but they cut a bunch and patched code together in the final version because they were on a time crunch. The other two suffered from the same "rush it through, get it out".
@@receiving9067 blah blah blah
@@unoriginalperson72 Oh look, a turd
Comedy
For those who are feeling like playing Clear Sky after this (for the first time, or after giving up on it before) there's a hidden veles detector (strongest detector in the game, showing exact location of the artifacts, and showing all of them, including the rarest) in the swamps. Go to stalker wiki "Hidden Veles Detector" entry. Having it this early makes artifact hunting both easier and way more rewarding...
one thing i dont see anyone mentioning is that when you stagger enemies you cant deal damage to them, thats why sometimes you can empty your magazine into someone without killing them
This and the inaccuracy of guns made me quit 3 of the games within the first hour. The one game I played for more time was the first SoC, there I quit when I met the first monster and it was still running around after I wasted all my ammo on trying to kill it.
@@kisbiflos I gave up on SoC after a few hours into it, but later on gave it another chance with the Autumn Aurora mod and that completely changed it for me, bullet sponges mostly gone. Consider it.
Ive seen alot of people saying this but ive staggered enemies and then shot them in the head and they die
@@jesusalc1421 i (think) headshots are the only thing you can really do to a staggered enemy, because of animations and how bones work, but idk havent played the game in a while, most theories are just wrong tho
The gunplay is on fucking mario rules
Honestly dude, I think we found your niche. You are really good at tearing down and criticizing things that has a rabbid fanbase, while giving a take the average joe would have.
"This shit is so good you NEED to love it"
You: Nah man, let me tell you why its just fine, not earth shattering.
After the stalker and underrail vids I am certain that is what you are best at.
Me too. I like taking games that have a 50/50 split and showing people how to play them and enjoy them. That Underrail video made me realize it.
And this is why I'm waiting for Call of Pripyat review and possible mention of Misery mods, watching their reaction to any criticism was quite entertaining... like that particular "tent video".
I fell into the fanbase trap once...
After enjoying Hitman and Dishonored I was hooked on the genre and at that time lots of posts/RUclips vids showed up about SplinterCell Blacklist. It was praised as one of the best stealth games *if not* all games ever and sh¡ts on the rest of the genre. To be sure I read lots of opinions on the r/SplinterCell (my mistake) and after nothing but praise I bought the deluxe Edition for 20$ on PSN.
Spoiler: Holy spanks this game is a piece of focused group Ubitrash. The first stealth game I was ever able to cheese through completely on the first playthrough, and the people telling me it has better mechanics than MGSV prolly masturbate to FB pics of their rellatives.
Damn this became a rant lol...
That AK-74 had an moa of 50+ that’s worse than the average flintlock
as i remember, ctrl+shift and fire from hip is more accurate than just ctrl and ironsight/scope
Master difficulty > Stalker difficulty
Nope. The reason why people argue they like it, it's an actual straight up lie.
@@brunoactis1104 Enemies are spongier in SoC on lower difficulty, not so much Clear Sky.
@@brunoactis1104 Its better since its more fun, not because of the "bullet" sponginess.
@@SeruraRenge11 That's an old myth that has been disproven since. Enemies actually take more damage on easier difficulties in SoC. Player damage stays the same in other titles. See here: www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/7fxvt5/what_do_difficulties_actually_change_in_stalker/
Hit probality is higher in higher levels ,so people think master do more damage ,but you actually hiting your shots.
I enjoy Clear Sky with the Sky Reclamation Project. IIt makes it work well and stable and it actually plays well then. Overall.
Damn. I see you in the comments of every single stalker video.
You may like my written review of this game:
gnd-tech.com/2019/10/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-clear-sky-review/
The reason weapons are much less accurate in Clear Sky is two-fold. First they scale accuracy down since video game ranges are much smaller than real life ranges. Which is common in game design. But the second reason where they went too far was to make it so that unupgraded weapons are shit and it forces players to upgrade their firearms. This is logical to some extent, but they went way too far and some iron sights are indeed not perfectly aligned. The Sky reclamation project fixes this.
Is ggmanlives the Australian noob friend?
Here is how I play the game from the start. I make sure to storm most of the Renegade bases from the get go. Taking part in the Main base assault gives you the CS-3 (actually CS-1 but GSC switched them in the EN version by mistake) armour. After that, you can buy for 15 000 the CS-1 armor (actually CS-1 but GSC....) that is MUCH better. Buy it. Go to the Northern secret area and get the Veles detector and artifact. Go to Cordon (armour stops the machinegun well enough) and kill the Speznaz to get an AN-94 Abakan and upgrade it for accuracy in The Dark Valley.
There. Game solved :P. Possible ugprades to this are an AS Val with upgrades (not needed) or a Bulat heavy armoured suit (recomended).
The first time i tried i gave up not soon after reaching Cordon, i'm glad i gave it a second chance, now i think it's the best of the series, i also think that it has the most balanced economy and it makes artifacts actually useful, like the ones used against radiation and bleeding, never bothered to go after them SOC and COP, and faction wars was not as bad as i was expecting, it has it's problems but sometimes it can be quite fun and help to get some money, it also has it's memorable moments, except for the ending section, it becomes just a boring linear shooter with a disappointing boss fight at the end
i wanna beat it vanilla.but the game is anally r*ping me
@@lancasterclippers Use Sky Reclamation Project IMHO. Dont do vanilla. :P
I was eating some delicious nachos when you said the phrase "Ukranian Neo" and died from laughter-induced choking.
At least I died doing what I loved, eating nachos and watching youtube vids about games.
Was in the Army. Calls a magazine a clip.
Save that "well actually" for the gun grabbers
Possibly the best video on STALKER game mechanics on RUclips
Honestly the best part about the STALKER series is...well it was a survival game before we got drowned in superficial survival games with bullshit mechanics. It`s you vs a hostile world and you get all the tools you want if you work for them, you clench your teeth and push on, making more money, getting better gear, learning more about the mechanics and trying your best to overcome the odds. It might not be perfect but it has more tension and the rewards for stepping up to the challenge are worth it.
In this game they call adjusting the rear leaf sight on an Ak a upgrade and charge you for it :P
Iron sights in Stalker games are just the aiming equivalent of slav squats.
Not seeing anomaly on his desktop spooks me...
Anomaly is like fine wine.
That's a good thing, he is a vanilla purist, mods haven't corrupted his mind.
@@Rammaken He enjoys mediocrity and doing the same thing for 100000 times for 9000000 years then ... ?
@@rdg665 if only that wasn't literally anomaly
@@Watercloak1 true, wtf was the guy thinking?
The accuracy tests make me think strat could solve the JFK conspiracy. Down and to the left
To be honest, those random off-center shots are what people call "flies" at the range.
They're way more common in real-life than one would expect. Especially if using irons and no support.
Does not compensate for some of the silliest game-designs in Clear Sky, like the bullets outright disappearing mid-flight if shooting non-upgraded guns.
>playing with crosshair
>not playing on master
blasphemy
Hidden in the clear sky swamps is an upgraded detector that will make hunting artifacts pretty easy. You find a break in the Northern fence, then head West and you can find a little cave/hideout. Speaking of easy finds in the first level - the train in this area is the same one from the opening cinematic - so you can find Scar's rifle from that scene. Getting it working again though, that will take some doing.
the infamouse 3kliksphillip verified accuracy test, wouldnt have ever expected it
Enemy : "You should have gone for the head"
Player : "I did"
Another thing that makes the game that much harder is the fact that the more your weapon loses durability, the so called "accuracy" gets even worse. Meanwhile enemies land every shot.
Oh, yeah, misaligned sights.
Remember LR-300 used to have this great front pole you could use to achieve pin-point long range accuracy?
Scrap that imba completely, miss every shot
I'm pretty sure the bullet damage myth comes from SoC and spread to the other games due to how similar they are. The issue with SoC is that your first gun is the Makarov, a pistol most players throw out once they find ANY other weapon. That pistol is so bad that you're better off using the knife. If you actually test SoC difficulties at the start, you'll see that they're all hard because 1. the Makarov is awful, and 2. your starting armor is useless.
If you get the secret merc suit and a better gun, go back to the cordon, and then test the difficulties, you'll do a 180 and think bandits are too weak on all difficulties.
I really appreciate the Talking Heads reference at the beginning
Bandit Polka has been my ringtone for 5 years now. Every time I hear it in a video I have to check my phone.
Really enjoyed all stalker games, but SoC is still probably the favourite one if the three. Cant wait to hear your thoughts on the third one!
Yeah I gotta say I think SoC nailed the atmosphere the best of all the 3 games. Though CoP and CS did other things better.
Its like a fine drink. Like a piece of complicated art. Dark humor if you will. Not everybody gets it, just like food.
The more Strat videos I watch, the more I love him. He cares about the same nonsense shit that I do.
It's true. I am creating a dice roll simulator so I can run thousands of tests to prove a certain feat is better than another one. Da fuq is wrong with me?
I definitely hate the bullet deviation, but I just tell myself that a "perfect" condition weapon in the zone is probably trash from the outside world.
You pointed out the main problems with the game very well. I'm impressed.
Yeah. When I joined the IDF back in the day, after all the Stalker and CS experiences, I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to hit with a real weapon, lol. It was quite a discovery for me.
All the iron sight talk reminds me of that new Vegas bug where your virwmodels just shoot up and you end up aiming through the butt of the gun
My favorite bug is getting giant claw hands that swallow the gun and makes first person impossible lmao
4:00 That's clearly an attempt by GSC to bring realworld physics also to the bullet projectiles, even inside people. You propably hit his rib cage and the bullet somehow ricochet from there to his brain I bet.
Bandages are useless. I want to free bleed, don't Tax my Holes Strat.
The shoting system is def weird as hell but it seems to get less broken with the late game weapons. Also just use Vintar BC ffs.
"How To Enjoy Stalker: Clear Sky"
Me: is there another answer than "mods" ?
Yeah v1nilla weapon mods I guess.
Upgrade your hangun with fire rate and precision, your main with full precision and it's all good
skill issue
skill issue
I like your new editing style
It's funny you made this just as I decided to finally play through Clear Sky after owning it for almost a decade now. I had the same complaints with the accuracy and kept asking for tips and stuff on Reddit but people just said stuff like "dude, just aim, it's easy." I am vindicated! I knew the shooting was complete BS. Still enjoying it so far and the story is decent.
the games are good but the community is absolutely dumb
Nah i got that same shit on soc. These fucking nut jobs instead of giving advice on mods to use, weapons to use, or literally anything; would just sit there and talk about how good they were and how the person frustrated with it must clearly always aim at the floor
Inb4 we tell you to play anomaly
Random crits are fair and balanced.
Dude this screed about the iron sights was unironic games journalism. You blew my mind and I need to sit down now.
Once you get a VSS Vintorez or even better a SVD, the bullet spread is not a problem anymore. Or just upgrade the gun with flatness and accuracy.
(You can get an upgraded VSS from the Forester after doing the mission where you return an artifacts the renegades stole and finding the 9x39 ammo is really easy in the later game because a lot of the enemies use an AS VAL)
enjoy clear sky? I didnt even know it was possible
This is going to sound horrible but I havent ever been able to be beat SoC(Just that last stretch with the monolith) but the first one I not only played to completion but replayed was this one followed by call of pripiyat (My favourite). The only part of this that sucked in my opinion was the rouble gating off of the story until you pay your taxes to whatever guy you need to help which caused me to have to stay poor until around halfway into the game when I realized merc guns sold for a fair amount so I just commited genocide against anyone with nicer guns than me when they were no longer needed. Made me feel like a genuine survior though
I remember watching Forsen trying out Clear Sky. As soon as he found a scope he started playing as a sniper (which he does in every game). Without any upgrades. Rest is history.
So using a linear dispersion pattern (which draws a cone in space when you think about the area a hit can land in) is pretty common for RPGs, but has some major limitations beyond, you know, the jank that comes with seeing your shot go wild of where the 3D model of your gun is clearly pointing. These issues are mainly due to the fact that dispersion, if you graph it for real ranged weapons of all sorts, is exponential rather than strictly linear - forming a flattened, curved trumpet shape in space. This means that your linear dispersion, if based on hit patterns taken at a specific distance*, will tend to underestimate the hit rate under that distance and over-estimate the hit rate past it. It will also tend to under-estimate vertical dispersion and over-estimate horizontal dispersion.
Of course, in the real world that cone-shaped dispersion pattern is less a product of physical laws and more just the sum of a bunch of things all adding up (range estimation errors, small muscle movements pulling the shot off the point of aim during firing, imperfections in the barrel/rifling causing the bullet to come out slightly off the median trajectory, wind drift, small differences in the drag on each bullet, small differences in powder loading and burn rate, and on and on). So really competent devs would model enough of those things to produce a 'realistic' dispersion pattern without simply brute-forcing it.
With the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, it looks like the devs somehow fucked this approach up twice by simply thumb-sucking a value for linear dispersion and then applying it to every weapon with small modifications. So every weapon ends up being about as accurate as a thrown rock, and the gunplay at distance becomes an exercise in averages rather than skill.
*IE: go to a firing range and get a bloke who's competent with a pistol to shoot 50 shots at paper targets with a specific width and height at a specific distance, then work out the average and maximum dispersion from there.
The double barrel shotgun with buckshots is actually way more accurate for me than the most accurate rifle in this game somehow
>Was in the army
>Still called the AK mag a clip.
(-IQ): mag = clip 🤪
(Avg IQ raging): Mag =/= clip 😡
(+120 IQ): they both hold rounds. Say whatever, doesn't matter to non redditors. 🧠
“Ayo...who stole my SHIT!” Best strat-edgy line I’ve heard in a long while. So short but so precise and elegant
I STILL wanna see you play those huge awesome mods that combine all the stalker games into one interactive world
20:08 - OMG 'How to Kenshi' confirmed
It's there. Just waiting for me to get all inside it.
In Soviet Russia 'How to Kenshi' confirms YOU!
@@StratEdgyProductions What took you so long? You like to keep us waiting?
@@nocultist7050 you can't rush perfection
Cant wait for the nugget training.
Love the Zelda & Chill my dude. Bad ass tracks, the second one is just as good.
The main takeaway from this, beyond the Clear Sky "here's how to fix the weapons" instruction, is that you don't have an upgrade system to make bad weapons good, you have it to make good weapons *great* according to how you play.
The spread is the reason why you just grab that Vintar on the Swamp near the point where you move to Agroprom (near the train, it’s dead, but repairs cost 9600). To cover that, find gravi in a secret Hut along with Veles detector (in Swamps too), and then get to Garbage at midnight to get some 9x39 at the secret loner trader. Upgrades should be available on Cordon, and in Dark Valley it can be maxed out by Freedom mechanic after getting all flash drives. After that - easy game, if you learn how to dodge grenades (Master on ChNPP will have you crying by how many grenades is thrown at you)
P.S: For mutants you use hunting shotgun with reliability upgrade, because then it will never get damaged, I dunno why, must be bugged or something
Slav gamer signing off
I like your comment for what you’ve put down on it is nothing but info for the player base great explanation
When I played this game I just assumed it was a game that had a slow start, the harsh environment combined with how weak you are in the beginning allows the player to really feel like a stalker as they approach the mid game.
I just started clear sky. The ak iron sights made me immediately stop, and mod to fix, then even after the spread felt awful. Thank you for confirming it is.
As a note (not sure if this is truly a mistake or if its intentional) but AK irons are typically zeroed for a six o clock hold (belt buckle) to prevent that blocky sight picture from obstructing your target.... but frankly i think this spread shouldve been kept for hip fire and tightened up for irons unfortunately at close range that kind of accuracy is typical for most service members i trained with unfortunately same with cops all that being said I dont think it was good game design
Whew. Thank god for the modding community. Fkin loved Clear Sky despite spending AGES trying to get past the army dicks in the beginning. ...though I wlda put it on master anyways bc im a crazy person. Awesome video. Real nostalgia trip.
i genuinely tried getting in this game 3 times after completing SoC, thanks for the heads-up
THIS is the content I pay for! Another god tier video
Bullets spread as much as the imaginary circle in the gap between your crosshairs. You have to use lower crouch, and wait the gap to diminish, to achieve max accuracy in the first shot. Also, mods are encouraged.
point is... the shooting fucking sucks in this game
@@marinfrombratia Not really. It might seem so from where we are now, but Stalker shooting mechanics were actually quite revolutionary.
I remember being so much impressed because bullets were objects that travelled throught space at a velocity, and droped by gravity. Different ammo had different properties. That was very rare at that time.
It was amazing to being able to pin point hits throught the gaps between two concrete blocks stacked one on top of the other, or through a pipe stack, in situatons where other games at that time consider an impenetrable colum.
You just have to remember to low-crouch gopnik style and the first bullet go center, and if you have an AN-94 the second bullet goes center too.
@@marinfrombratia The render distance and map size would not allow to have any diversification between rifles had accuracy been represented 1:1 with real world rifles. The deviations are a way of representing human accuracy, guns are not mounted on a walking shooting vice, it's a human, moving around uneven terrain and under stress, hence the flyers. It's called gameplay design and it doesn't suck, a lot of shit sucked in STALKER, especially CS, but that wasn't one of them.
I played Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl. Had a lot of fun with it. Was a rough start but totally worth it. Loved it end to end.
I played Clear Sky. Re-started the game 3 times trying to get out of that swamp. All 3 times the whole capturing zones mission bugged out. a 4th run I did, I was finally able to pass it, and then as soon as I get into the next zone a military patrol spawns straight on top of me and kills me.
Didn't even bother playing that game again, and honestly, I don't think this review will make me change my mind. Slav Jank is one thing. Slav shit, is another.
I watch all of your content, but I usually forget to comment. I just want to let you know that I find your content interesting and that you're really funny. Even after a rough day this stuff can make me laugh, and I really do appreciate that. Thanks!
A fun note: in the very first zone, if you stumble into/around the fence in the north of the zone, you can actually leave the boundaries of the map, and find the best artefact detector in the game in a tunnel under the bridge nearby!
"If you're defending this system, you're defending a broken system." He says to fans of STALKER. Buddy, we defend this broken fucking GAME. The entire game is busted. You either become the jank, quit out of frustration, or go play Anomaly and become the jank all over again.
I wasn't having a lot of fun during Clear Sky's early game, but once I reached the agroprom factory, I spend days just scavenging around the area, killing mutants, taking out enemy squads, collecting their weapons and selling them back at the factory, over and over again.
Easily the most memorable time I had with any Stalker game.
Always love me a Strat-edgy video during lunch at work, gets the anger out somehow
I'd heard something different than the whole headshot thing. What I heard was that the difficulty helps determine the spread, and that both you and the enemy shoot more accurately on higher difficulties, which is why you should play on the highest difficulty - so you can actually shoot at what you're aiming at. I don't know how true this is, but I felt I should at least post it, since it doesn't seem like you tested spread on multiple difficulties - just how much damage the enemies can soak up.
That's a lie too. Difficulty doesn't effect anything more then the damage you receive from enemies and loot drops. My personal theory is it was spread by No lifers to get people to play on the hardest difficulty.
Great video Strat! I have been putting off playing these games for ages but now I think I'm ready to give them a try. Keep up the great work!
That's some blyat magic you pulled on us there
This is an underrated video and I say this as someone who has been playing his series for yearssssss....
Actually, in this game you have to gain experience for each weapon you wielding. Your aiming skills will become better over time. It was mentioned in russian/ukranian promotional videos before the release, but I never heard about this in the game itself. The gravity force should be considered too. Also, special/upgraded weapons are a lot better than trash you found on the ground and it will not be jammed as frequently.
Artifact Hunting in the next game is great. I never played Clear Sky, but there was a time in my life that all I did was play Prypiat and drink cheap Vodka. Ended up in such a dark place I considered the gunsmith who needs booze to work because his DT's are so bad a drinking buddy. I'd cheers him with my own pint of cheap potato liquor everytime I went to get upgrades.
Probably spent 100 hours just being drunk in the Zone, hunting artifacts and slowly tuning myself into a walking tank. Loved that game, actually found and watched the movie too and liked it, which is apparently a controversial opinion.
Edit: 5 years sober in June. Pretty sure my old drinking buddy was the first person to die from liver disease in the zone though. RIP.
this video is gold. now i know that i need to upgrade my gun. i was actually just considering dropping this game and moving on to call of pryipat
For about the first half of this game and SoC, I just learned how to cheese the running and jumping mechanics and used the sawn-off shotgun and knife. I never paid the army's toll to go under the bridge, nor did I take the anomaly death-path. Instead, I became a death-spewing bunny-hopper.
After the first half armour becomes insanely powerful and the sawn-off shotgun is next to useless, but then you encounter zombies. Zombies are such bullet-sponges I just killed them all with the knife. Easy.
When I went to leave the marsh in Clear Sky, I never knew there was another path. I just applied what I'd learned about the running and jumping mechanics to run and jump my way past the military base. It only took 50+ tries, probably.
Am i the only one who thought Clear Sky was kinda easy? Dunno why everyone complained about Swamps, i even reloaded multiple times to replay that section
Sorry for necro but I agree. I never understood how people found Clear Sky's gunplay hard, it was my first Stalker and even when I was going in blind I found it extremley easy.
How to enjoy Clear Sky :
Step 1 : Install ZRP
Step 2 : cheeki breeki iv damke
*SRP
Damn bandits always gettin' their shit wrong
@@LeSpongedeStardust I know Zone Reclamation Project, not Sone Reclamation project.
THANK YOU now i know im not losing my sanity and everyone saying im going crazy
Good shit homie, another enjoyable video, keep it up and I'm looking forward to the next one
Looking forward for CoP video. Great work.
just popping in to say thanks for making content
Such an extremely specific video from you, I absolutely love it
Also helpful for me as a first-time STALKER player
It's been a long time since I tried to mod Clear Sky, but if I remember this right it's because, in addition to weapon deviation, there is also a deviation multiplier for bullets. Which for rifle bullets is dogshit. Like, "I'm sure there are two misplaced decimal points here," level dogshit. So I went MP5s and handguns, and had a great time.
Ah strat edgy always informative