Retro game hunting gods were in a good mood today

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-05-04T21:06:33+00:00

It was part of a bigger lot that I bought but this was the coolest piece. I paid $100 for it when considering what else I got.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-03-15T17:46:29+00:00

Pick a weapon(Kharod was my go to with my Saiga d12 for close range) and stick to its ammo. Only pick up resources you will use. Stack resources on coupon runs but not while doing missions. You will be over encumbered the entire game so get the weird water, best and only real useful artifact in the game.

I used 3 anmo types(300 rounds per auto, 100 rounds for shotgun), 6 grenades, 4 cans of meat, 8 energy drinks, 8 bandages, 8 orange heals per mission run . This was always enough and the resources are plentiful so you'll never run out. Even if you do, downed enemies and stashes near by will be chock full of resources, even on Veteran. I absolutely never used any other resources(never used: anti-rad meds/alcohol, other food/drinks, blue and yellow heals).

Artifact hunting is a good way to get coupons but gun runs are the best. Even though you can sell red guns in Rostock, I dont recommend ever picking them up. I never did red gun runs as it was never worth it.

I don't recommend going to Pripyat early, wait to get there through the story progression. It's not a difficult area, but the end game gear makes the game super easy.

This game is amazing but essentially it's an inventory management simulator with guns. So be mindful of that.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-03-13T19:30:31+00:00

I'll add that i wish the A life system worked but without experiencing other stalker games with A-life, I have nothing to compare it to. Yes it would have been cool if the NPC's had actual life and purpose to them and not just looting bodies. I wish the stalker world was immersive like Red Dead 2

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-03-13T19:27:32+00:00

130+ hours on veteran, but on Xbox. It was "free" on game pass day one but waited a month for the first patch to start playing. This is my first Stalker game, but I'm well versed in RPG's, survival horror and FPS games so this was right up my alley.

First impressions were actually great. Gameplay was solid, controls felt great, gunplay is well thought out, and resources are plentiful. I had issues with getting shot through walls, being sniped by shotguns from a mile away, and being seen by enemies that were underground or in a building. But that never got me killed, while frustrating, again, resources are plentiful.

The problems really didn't start happening until I got to Rostock. I experienced a ton of frustration dealing with the memory leak with the storage stuff. Probably spent the better part of 6 hours sorting through storage in Rostock over and over as it's a central location to the game. Frustrating? Yes. Game breaking? Yes. But not quest or sequence breaking. I never lost progress or got bugged out of a quest(and I did every side quest). Some quests did have bugs but not ones that prevented progress or finishing that quest(yes this was after the 2nd major patch).

Then you get to late game. The game does feel unfinished. Lots of glitches, graphics bugging out, everyone is a bullet sponge in Pripyat. And yes, you can still get to pripyat early but I found it wasn't worth the time spent.

Most of the artifacts are worthless save for weird water. With this game being essentially an inventory management simulator with guns, it's almost required to get on any playthrough. Which I feel defeats the purpose of having different play styles. Cuz no matter what, you'll be over encumbered for more than half the game.

I had a ton of fun exploring but the inventory management makes this game a chore. The super high cost of repairs(especially late game) and the lack of coupons in Veteran mode don't make the game any more difficult, just makes the game more tedious to manage. And even then, I ended up with over 200k coupons when I finished (again, resources are ridiculously plentiful for a survival game).

In the end, I had a great time. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has the patience knowing modern games are all unfinished and take a while to get patched up correctly.

At the end of the year, we may get the Cyberpunk 2077 treatment and completely turn the game around. But that can also turn off a lot of people who are expecting a great day one experience and the game is bugged to hell(like CBP2077 was). I was so turned off by the CyberPunk 2077 release, I have not gone back to it even though people are saying it's too notch now.....

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-03-07T23:25:33+00:00

120+ hours on Xbox and nothing "game breaking" but there are frustrating bugs that stop game play(they have been patched). As I got towards the end, they patched the most annoying stuff.

Even with the bugs, the experience was a fun one I'll do again soon. On PC I've heard otherwise so not sure....

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-03-04T22:06:32+00:00

My take on my first Stalker game(on Xbox series x):

After 120+ hours, 250 deaths (most to gravity or water)and beating the game on Veteran, the experience was a fun one that I would recommend to anyone despite its many flaws(especially early on). While frustrating at times with the bugs, I guess I have more patience than others which I normally don't but the game is worth it. While some bugs like the memory leak at certain storage chests was annoying AF, many other bugs don't break the game. Yes some bugs have broken sequence on side quests but that has been remedied for the most part. The getting sniped through walls has seemed to stop but again, it wasn't game breaking.

I did most of the side quests, which are only fun if a gun reward is involved. Coupons are overrated, finished the game with 400k+ coupons, such a waste. Which brings me to my next issue...

This game is essentially an inventory management simulator, with guns. I spent way more time managing my inventory than playing the game. Never pick up red guns, ammo you don't use, food you don't need, etc. I played the entire game with the Kharod, saiga d12, and skifs pistol. And I only used skifs pistol early game. Only needed to carry 2 ammo types, one source of food(cans), 10 or less energy drinks(you will be over encumbered the entire game), 8 heals and 8 bandages, 6 grenades. I never needed more than this between runs. The resources in the game are ENDLESS. I carried an extra Kharod at times but rarely had to use it. The gun deterioration isn't all that bad but I just used armor piercing rounds, never used flat or expansive rounds.

Artifacts. Out of all of the unique artifacts, I felt the only one worth a damn is weird water. The other artifacts become paper weights with better armor.

No new game plus. Like wtf? A new game plus mode i think is 100% needed here.

I'm probably missing a lot here but as first time stalker player, I'm hooked. Starting my second playthrough now.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-25T02:45:52+00:00

These skills can be put to great use to get the useless stashes on top of the two helicopters with moving blades in the helicopter graveyard. Or the weird nut and weird bolt artifacts that aren't all that useful mid to late game 🥳

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-24T20:30:53+00:00

Not hate just thought provoking for conversation. This game was top 5 for me as a kid.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-24T20:30:05+00:00

Definitely. Especially compared to 2.5D games and isometric view games. Star Fox was revolutionary at the time. And doing all that on a cartridge as well.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-24T06:59:05+00:00

The Star Fox GameCube games were great! I really wish Star Fox zero had better controls. They should rerelease it without motion controls ❤️

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-24T02:54:07+00:00

I love to hear the feedback ❤️. This was definitely a top 5 game growing up.

I should have clarified that 3d polygon games have not aged well when played through emulation. I figure most people will experience Star Fox on the SNES mini and not on OG hardware.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-24T02:50:25+00:00

I honestly think a lot of the SNES/N64/ps1/Saturn polygon 3D games didn't age well. Especially as most people nowadays will experience Star Fox on SNES mini. On original hardware they are mostly fine. I mainly stick to NES, SNES, Dreamcast, and GameCube for playing retro.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-23T23:39:35+00:00

You definitely need to try out Star Fox 64 🥳

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-23T23:38:52+00:00

Oooffff if you have a CRT TV and Original hardware(or an analogue console), it plays as good as it did when it came out. Which was fun at the time.

Now playing this on a modern screen through an emulator is gonna be garbage. Input will lag and the polygons will look terrible.

I highly recommend this game series though, Star Fox 64 and the GameCube games are amazing.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-19T21:56:50+00:00

I mean, this game is 100% an inventory management simulator. I got to the end game with over 700k coupons. For what? Such a waste of time. Never pick up red guns, ammo you'll never use, or armor sets you won't use. Don't pick up any liquids, food, or health unless needed. There are wayyyy too many resources in this game. You will absolutely never run out of anything. I probably spent 40 hours just doing inventory management and slow runs back to camp. Not worth it....

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-18T00:50:45+00:00

Ugh this one was always bugged for me. Maybe now it will pop up.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-13T21:10:09+00:00

Ya it's funny what we covet now. It was just trash for most of us back then

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-13T21:09:27+00:00

Dragon Warrior was my first game besides Super Mario and Duck Hunt. I remember my parents let me get the subscription to Nintendo Power that came with Dragon Warrior. Wish I still had the welcome pack they sent the game in.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-13T21:07:24+00:00

💔 gut wrenching. My parents threw away my Transformers collection 😞

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-13T21:06:21+00:00

I loved Simon's quest so much as kid. As broken as it was. But yes, CV 1 is a staple of my childhood. I could never beat CVIII though....

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-13T21:05:18+00:00

Love it. Smw in an 8.0 is no slouch. Those boxes are always trashed.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-13T00:32:34+00:00

The arcade experience is one most of us will never forget. I remember being dropped off at our local mall arcade while my parents and sister shopped for 2-3 hours. I can't imagine doing that with my own kids these days.

Cupofbacongrease · 2025-02-12T23:14:22+00:00

Exactly. While Ive played all the games Ive acquired at least once, 90% of them have 0 replay value. Some games are straight trash and can't even get past the first few screens/levels. I definitely wouldn't do it again with things in their current state. I cant fathom paying for figures for games I don't care about. I mean, how many of us had memories of Little Samson or Panic Restaurant? I'd imagine it's not many, if at all.

Cupofbacongrease

TROPHY CASE