A good friend (and big PC gamer) has been enjoying and recommending a game called STALKER. I guess it was a foreign game and didn't get much press but he's really enjoyed the intelligent AI and story.<br /><br />I guess it can be found fairly reasonably as well ($30ish).<br /><br />Here's and email he sent several weeks ago...<br /><br />"It's called S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Shadows of Chernobyl). It's kind of a cross between Deus Ex, Oblivion, and Counterstrike. Basically a FPS/RPG without physical stats like strength, int, etc. Your character "advances" by finding better equipment and weaponry. You have the freedom to wander the rather large world that consists of the area surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which in the years since the 1986 meltdown has caused massive mutations in plant, animal, and human life. You wake up after a car accident with amnesia, knowing only that you are a Stalker, a merc/prospector that has traveled to the "Zone" to find artifacts to make yourself rich. You have a wierd message on your PDA that tells you that you need to find and kill another Stalker named Streylock. That is the main mission of the game.<br /> <br />The rest of the game can be spent doing minor missions for money, equipment, or artifacts. AI is very good, and the game is great at randomly generating interesting engagements.<br /> <br />For example, one of my first missions was to clear a local shelter of a group of bandits that had taken it over. I meet up with a group of other Stalkers, and have the choice of a frontal assault where we all attack, or in going it alone.<br /> <br />I chose to fight with the group. Taking my pea shooter pistol that you start with, I circled around back while the others hit the base in the front. I got the drop on two of the bad guys, taking one down with a head shot and the other down with about 8 shots to the torso (he was wearing body armor). I quickly grab the sawed-off shotgun that one of them dropped, along with some ammo. Just in time, as another bad guy comes running into the room cursing at me in Russian. I unload the just-reloaded double-barrels into his face, dropping him. I then go and kill one more while the rest of the strike team mops up the guys up front. The looting then commences - I find several cases of ammo, some food (you need to eat every so often), a few bottles of vodka (which helps to get rid of radiation), and an artifact that will add 3% bullet resistance to my weak leather jacket, but increases my radiation dosage by 5% every hour.<br /> <br />After I'm done looting, I head back to the starter base to collect my pay for completing the mission, when I get attacked by a pack of blind (mutant) dogs. They scare off pretty easily once I kill one, but unfortunately that seemed to attract the attention of a group of a half-dozen Russian soldiers from the local military HQ. They have a shoot on sight mentality, so I run and hide behind a rusty truck. However, one of the guys at the shelter we had just cleared also sees the soldiers, and opens fire. Pretty soon, a massive, unscripted firefight is going on around me. I help out best I can, and get my first submachine gun when I bravely shoot a soldier in the back as he's running by."
Cheers, Stuart O. + Thats the short haired, short statured, no beard, Indy Stu ...+ "Nemo saltat sobrius"
