
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Now with 100 per cent more Brian Blessed As a guideline, we had all settings on full at a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 and the game never dipped below 35fps with the aid of an 3GHz Intel Q6850, 2.75GB of accessible RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 5970 - hardly a slow rig.

Pushing the game up to the maximum settings can require some hefty hardware obviously, but it’s worth the effort if you can because the technical prowess of the game is one thing that’s impossible to fault. One place where STALKER: Call of Pripyat definitely excels is in the graphics department, with fancy DirectX 11 tessellation, huge view distances and a gorgeous lighting system that really delivers in wow-factor. Granted, that latter point has absolutely no consequence in the game, and stopping to chat to the folks you come across is mostly useless, but it’s a noticeable flaw when bandits jump from saying, “ Why, yes, Stalker, I can help” to, “ Get out my face, it’s survival of the fittest here, man!” at the drop of a hat. What voice acting there is gruff and terse to the point of beardy stereotypes, while characters are wont to fluctuate between highly educated and helpful to stand-offish and rude mid-conversation and without warning. ConclusionsCompacting these problem yet further is the age-old translation problem that's been around since the very first game was released in 2007 and, although Call of Pripyat is oodles better with the dialogue than the earlier games, there are still massive issues with the writing.
