it seems like there’s a noteworthy distinction to be made here. OpenAI has not figured out how to get ChatGPT to use the em dash in a more appropriate manner or to deploy it more sparingly by default. Instead, it has simply given users the ability to tell ChatGPT not to use it, a change that can be made within the chatbot’s personalization settings.

The increased levels of intelligence suggested by the headline was a lie it seems.

Fruktansvärt. Kan tänka mig att förutom de skadade och omkomna så är det nog ytterligare en stor skara vittnen som blivit psykologiskt påverkade av att behöva se det hända.

Läskigt minst sagt. Absolut horribelt, svårt att säga något annat.

I’m pretty sure all games have both. It’s been so long since I’ve played in English that I don’t remember exactly, but I think even the English voice setting has some Russian and Ukrainian lines too, like bandit combat shouts or from stalkers sitting around campfires telling stories or jokes. It’s just the main story crucial lines that are in English. The original trilogy also did the Metro thing of having the English voices have russian/Ukrainian accents which I liked. Of course original language is best for immersion and some of the most iconic lines from the games are in Russian, like the iconic cheeki breeki

Memories of the Zone comes with russian voice acting as default, and most Anomaly modpacks will as well. STALKER players tend to favour immersion a lot so most want to use original voices. Though I and many others tend to use US English Spec Ops type voice lines from stuff like Call of Duty for the Mercenary faction as it fits them well lore wise and helps create some variety in the zone.

Perfect for when I shake my current STALKER addiction and get back to actually playing the AW2 DLCs. Bookmarked, thanks for sharing!

Same story for almost every passion industry. I remember being surprised at first to learn how underpaid Formula 1 engineers are when some of them are literal rocket scientists, for example.

There is an alternate universe out there where the N-gage was a smash hit, Nokia is reigning supreme in the handheld market and we’re all rocking gull-wing phones.

I always say F1 is so great because it’s both a sport and a soap opera, but La Liga sure does give it a run for its money frequently.

Historically not so much, it’s more of an alternate history situation. The inspiration for the games was actually a book called “Roadside Picnic” which was also subsequently adapted into a film called “Stalker”. But instead of setting it in Canada they moved it to Chernobyl and instead of aliens being the reason for all the strange stuff happening in the zone they changed it to be because of a mysterious later second explosion of the nuclear reactor.

Geographically however they did a ton of location-based research and tried hard to include as much as possible of it in the games. That’s a large part of why they are so immersive - they are so grounded in real locations and actual places. In particular the city of Pripyat had a lot of care put in to it to make it accurate in the games, but all over every area you’ll find examples of real life observations translated directly into the games. This short video has some examples.

The gameplay is much slower than Bioshock and even Fallout, and it’s also more serious and less silly in tone than those games - although it does have its own different sense of humour and some funny moments. It’s got a much more brooding atmosphere, and the STALKER games do isolation and loneliness and tension really well. It goes so well with the desolate vibe of the exclusion zone. There are also some light horror elements too and some of the underground locations are famously pretty nerve wracking to explore and can get your heart pumping a bit.

The survival mechanics are there, but in the official games pretty light. You have to eat food, you have to use bandages to stop bleeding, your weapons degrade over time… that sort of thing. It was much more heavily present in the original design documents for the first game, and so it has become something many Anomaly modpacks focus a lot on. G.A.M.M.A. for example (the largest/most popular modpack by far) is very much a survival/scavenging experience.

It’s a mix. Anomaly (the fan game) is fully free and standalone, as are all modpacks for it which are typically portable downloads that you just plug and play.

For the older games, there are both varieties since the same open sourcing of the engine that GSC did that led to Anomaly also enabled some work on stuff like 64-bit versions of the older games and such. So for example Memories of the Zone (great vanilla+ option for Shadow of Chernobyl) is standalone and runs on the improved 64-bit engine, while the Compatibility Modpack (also a vanilla+ SoC option) isn’t and requires a base game install. I think most Call of Pripyat mods require a base game install. Also I forgot to mention a vanilla+ option for Call of Pripyat but that should probably be ABR. Great mod, and honestly probably a better first playthrough than Gunslinger+SGM - which I love but which does add a lot of new stuff in the spirit of modernisation.

The original trilogy are frequently sold for dirt cheap on GOG, but starting with something like Memories of the Zone if you want to start from the beginning is probably what I’d recommend. Can’t go wrong with free. Or play an Anomaly pack if you’re more interested in the sandbox gameplay.

Don’t worry about it, I am always just happy to talk about my special interests and I don’t expect anyone to just drop whatever they’re doing at the drop of a hat. If you ever get into it I’m always happy to talk about it again but please don’t feel like there is any pressure to just because I dropped an essay length comment 😅

I’m more or less done fiddling with mods at this point, and so the last week I’ve been spending my time actually playing STALKER: Anomaly. It’s been an interesting experience, both familiar and different as I’m using several mods that have released since my last playthrough and that completely change the game. Some for the better, some I’m not sure. STALKER players seem to love three things: misery, immersion and realism and while I am one of those too I also recognise that the pursuit of them can sometimes get in the way of enjoyment.

But even with a heavier-than-I’m-used-to Military presence around the starting areas the early game is playing out much the same as always. Grind some simple missions, take the fights you can win, try to loot NPCs kills if possible, abuse any free temporary companions you can get from quests and gradually scavenge your way towards assembling the kit required to move north. Which involves finding a better armoured suit, finding a better helmet with gas mask, finding a scoped rifle or sniper to repair (I got lucky and found an SVT-40), finding a pump-action or semi-automatic shotgun, crafting your entry level tier night vision goggles, getting enough good healing items and anti-radiation meds…

I’m just about setup now and ready for the trek to Dead City where I’ll make my next base of operations I think, but I decided to finish up some missions in the Great Swamps first while I’m still in the south. Despite my initial misgivings about the idea I managed to clear out the military outpost thanks to being able to sneak my way to a perfect cover and some well timed headshots, so now I should be good to actually do some missions in this area.

Despite the bump in difficulty with the new mods I’m having a great time, Anomaly is just such a unique and special experience - the immersiveness, the desolate loneliness, the horror elements, the atmosphere and world design… It’s hard to explain the beauty of it in text, and it definitely isn’t for everyone. But whenever you get that specific itch, there really isn’t a lot else that can scratch it.

Are you still using Sync by any chance? Heads up that that’s Reddit-style spoiler formatting and won’t display as actually spoilered on many Fediverse specific apps. Lemmy markdown for spoilers is:

Yeah there are edge cases for sure and that specific example is pretty rough. It’s definitely not a perfect game even though it’s my GOTY and there are some RNG issues for sure. I just find that a lot of the people who complain about it turn out to not have taken advantage of the tools the game affords you.

It’s probably the best written game of all time. In the conversation of best game of all time. If you can relate to themes of failure, depression, addiction, being stuck in the past and unable to move on, nostalgia and so on it will be a very emotional experience. It’s affected me the most deeply out of any game I’ve ever played. It’s one of the most rewarding games in terms of clicking on wacky dialogue options - you’re never punished and almost always rewarded (same goes for failing checks).

That being said it’s essentially just a visual novel. It’s slow, and that’s not for everyone.

For me i found the curve of RNG pretty smooth honestly, because while yes early on you are at the mercy of what you pull you also have so many different things to investigate at once that you’re always making progress on something every run - even though not always on the thing you intended to when setting out. And late game you’re afforded so much RNG control that it really isn’t all that bad.

Have people already forgotten about Blue Prince? Should be near the top of the list in my opinion. While it does have some “traditional” roguelite meta progression the absolute lions share of the progress in that game is based on knowledge.

LiDAR has been such a phenomenal step forward for archeology.

For me in general I think FPS games have aged the worst. There is such a big part of the pleasure that comes from animations, gunplay, recoil implementation, enemy AI, ragdolls, hit effects… I have a much easier time playing something like Fallout 1&2 - which are even older but have mechanics that are more timeless.

But yeah it was definitely a time in gaming where technological advancements felt like they were happening at an exponentially increasing pace. Comparing games from 2000 with just a few years later is like night and day. Splinter Cell came out only two years after NOLF and that’s a stealth game that’s aged spectacularly. And even Monolith’s own F.E.A.R. came out in 2005 and feels like one of the first truly modern shooters - one that still really holds up well.

The writing, setting and concept were charming and the art direction is good which means despite being polygonally challenged I don’t mind the way it looks. Great soundtrack too. That being said I tried playing it earlier this year for the first time and it just struck me as one of those games that have aged like fine milk mechanically. It really really wants you to be a stealthy spy sneaking around and being non-lethal yet the stealth gameplay felt terrible, and going guns blazing wasn’t particularly fun either as gunplay in these old games is hard for me to enjoy having gotten used to modern FPSes. And it doesn’t help that the guns blazing approach forces you to listen to a constant soundtrack of blaring alarms, which frankly was hard for me to deal with.

I couldn’t make myself finish it despite really wanting to be able to say I’ve played it, but maybe I’ll give it another go some day. At least I don’t think it’s all that long.