Stalker

So, this is on sale on GOG.
Is it worth it? What about the other two?
Is it better to play vanilla first or mod it directly?

Get all,mod after you finish each one of them.

Yes
CS okay CoP good
Vanilla unless you just want QoL improvement and bug fixes

Does anyone have pics with the cool mods or the beginner's guides, I lost them and the general has been dead for a while.

You should play vanilla but there are almost mandatory mods that only fixes bugs, CoP is the only Stalker game that is relatively stable in real vanilla state.

Wait for someone to post the guides with the starter packs and shit and don't listen to people that will still say that you need to play them with the Complete mods

People really overblow the glitchiness of SoC. I played it with no unofficial patches or mods and it was perfectly fine.

buy SOC and COP.
SOC - best underground levels and atmosphere
COP - most polished gameplay.

I played all unmodded. SoC ad CoP were amazing. CS was alright and fun, but felt like call of duty set in the zone somewhere halfway through the game.

>Is it worth it?
Did you miss the daily Stalker threads we've had for the last decade?

Yes. And Yes.
Vanilla first.

Consult this Starting Guide,
then see the /vg/'s huge Stalker General for more tips and links: Play in the release order. Start with no mods - only latest patch, OR get the full "Starter Pack" first; these contain bug-fixers and light visual mods that can help performance as well.
Leave big overhauls for later playthrougs. Avoid the "Complete" -mods. Always play on MASTER difficulty for best realism and atmosphere, and disable crosshair.

Don't give up in the beginning! The starting gear sucks ass and first area can be a bit boring.

>People really overblow the glitchiness of SoC
True, but you can blame the unforgetting nature of the internet for that; it USED TO be very buggy during its release, which was literally a decade ago. It got numerous patches soon after, and all nowadays sold copies are patched to latest.
Same thing with CS.

That being said, the ZRP, FOV Switcher and Shaders Max are some very baseline fixers and tweaks that do still keep the games "vanilla", yet give your game tiny boosts where it may be needed.

this one?

>Open-ended

SoC is open-ended?

newer one was already posted at It is. Obviously fairly restricted looking at first glance compared to ""real"" open world games of 2010s, the connected maps are fairly big and open, you can experience and approach situations / missions in numerous different ways, at you own pace, and even do what people are praising Zelda BotW for now: run straight to the very end of the game from the start, if you are very gud.

have fun

I thought that was open world, wheras open-ended means you can keep playing after the game's story finishes.

Stalker is a fucking garbage game. You people all criticize early access survival games yet praise this steaming pile of dogshit. It's pathetic really.

Nah. The two terms are practically synonymous.
Open-ended literally refers to a non-forced nature of a game, giving players lots of options and variation.

There are very linear, non-open world titles, that still are considered open-ended, thanks to there being plenty of freedom to choose your actions. There is also open-world games that still practically funnel you "forwards" and don't give you much choice what to do in the end.

what kind of bugs should be fixed in shoc? i played this game countless times and haven't experienced anything else than one or two crashes.

...

like said earlier, most people are literally just parroting 10 years old forum posts at this point.

The difference between the ancient 1.0 and current 1.0006 versions of SoC is very stark, in a good way.

So do you do more damage on master difficulty? Is this legit or a meme?

people confuse metro w/ stalker
metro on ranger easy/hardcore has this mechanic, stalker doesn't

STALKER general on /vg/ has a table detailing differences between difficulties