I have to stop trying to play this game....its turning me into a bad tempered sod.

There's no way in hell this was released without them knowing it had a lot of issues........I think I'll uninstall it and remove the temptation to try it just one more time.......a couple of times each day.

each sucessive patch for stalker was not compatible with previous save games

....thought they would have learnt from past mistakes

And still no patch.

1.05.5 is out, saved games from 1.05.4 well work with the new patch. Fix's alot of errors with the game. (nil calls)

thats promising!

Thanks for the update,will wait to see what you say at the end of the week before trying to continue myself.

Got to say though,its a different experience to play a game that has a lot of the same places,but look very different/not rubble/lived in

I've had a few problems with crashes, but can't say there is an increase from the original SoC.

I am going to play it for a day or two and report back, but even though they are reusing alot of areas in this game it still feels new and I like seeing what it looked like 11 years before the first time I saw it it SoC.

So....what did you guys do to avoid the military the first time venturing out of the swamps?

I got killed the first 3 times but crouched down and kept to the far left below the fence,used the trees and stumps for cover while the machine gun was firing....picked off the gaurds that came over and made it the 4th time.....I'm not playing on difficult settings though....this game on easy seems harder than most do on expert to me.....I die a lot in this game .......I've only got to the camp at the base of the railway embankment [which looks amazingly different to SOC]so haven't aquired any decent weapons,suits and stuff,unless I missed a whole lot in the swamp.

I went back into the swamps and went out the northern path after killing off the bandits at the northeastern camp. I still haven't gotten past the damn machine gun.

Are you guys in a faction?
What faction and why?
How many of the faction missions are you doing?
Best Weapon you have so Far?
Best suit?
How many artifacts?

You should have the second suit and at least a Viper.

I died 3 or 4 times before I decided to run like hell. I was able to get by virtually unscathed. But trust me...I didn't forget those military bastards .

*This really isn't a spolier - more of a strategy*

After playing through the Agro Research level, I went back to the military outpost loaded down with upgraded weapons and armor. At the far left ( as you're facing the outpost), there is a tree over a barbed wire fence that allows you to sneak in. There is another fence that surrounds the outpost on the same side. There just so happens to be a few boxes stacked up against the fence. Climb and fire away. There are at least 20 heavily armed military dudes in the outpost.

To Darq's questions....

Are you guys in a faction? Didn't join a faction the first time, joined Freedom the second time. Will try Duty the third.

What faction and why? No particular reason for joining Freedom first. Just seemed convenient at the time.

How many of the faction missions are you doing? Most of them.

Best Weapon you have so Far? Fully upgraded 45mm P-series (the silver-looking gun, forgot the name).

Best suit? Upgraded robot-skeleton-looking thingy (forgot the name).

How many artifacts? 6

Are you guys in a faction? (Yes)
What faction and why? (Freedom, Duty sucks balls)
How many of the faction missions are you doing? (Destroyed Dutys Base) (All)
Best Weapon you have so Far? SGi 5k Fully upgraded, Svd2 Fully upgraded
Best suit? Freedom Exoskelton

The patch seems to be working great no crashes to report all saved games work.
How many artifacts?

Does anybody know what to do when you get to the space anomaly in the forest,where all those stinking snork's keep spawning [trying to find forester]......I'm about 2 tries away from crunching this game disc into a million bits