Just a heads up: There will be a boxed release. Touch it! Smell it! 
Preorder | S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl — Physical Edition (stalker2.com)
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Uh, while my heart says “YESyesyes” my brain says “Eeh, we could wait”
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In the mean time, a trailer to feed the heart:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - Official Trailer | gamescom 2024 - YouTube
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I’m sure all 10 people who will buy the boxed version will appreciate the effort by the publisher!
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Well I ordered the boxed version and of course I am being punished for it because it‘s not here yet.
While digital copies are running today.
Oh well, got MSFS 2024 to tinker with. 
Not so great news for STALKER 2, another broken mess, after MSFS2024 disaster yesterday I thought I will chill out in the zone, but no… STALKER 2 compiles the shaders during game start for REALLY LONG. It wouldn’t be that bad if it was done only once. The game does this EVERYTIME you run it. It must be a bug…
It’s damn good, those flaws aside. I mean, I think longtime STALKER fans expected jank at launch.
It got me off my ass to update my BIOS.
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Is that a left-hand ejecting HK?**
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I played about 2.5 hours last night so a few observations:
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Even on “Stalker” difficulty be prepared. This is a difficult and punishing game. You must make maximum use of cover and stealth and try to plan out your attacks ahead of time. Just “running and gunning” will get you killed most of the time.
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This game DOES have ray tracing but it’s software-driven by the “Lumen” feature that is built into the Unreal 5 engine. There is no hardware-driven ray tracing for now at least.
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Everything graphic-wise looks great even though the character models for the humans could be a bit better. I’ve seen better looking character models in other games that came out a year ago or longer.
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The story so far is quite intriguing and mysterious.
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That’s the real exciting part, things have changed in the Zone. STALKERs have changed. I’m talking to others and they’re telling me how they’re in the Zone to make profit, but they now want to stay because they enjoy the liberation the Zone offers. And this seems to be a sentiment that reaches beyond Freedom and criminals like Bes who are avoiding authorities.
GSC Gameworld has worked through government shakedowns, literal organized crime, and a friggin war to finally deliver this. And it’s great.
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First game my RX 6800XT does not deliver enough FPS (72+) for native 1440p. It‘s 5 years old and I‘d be willing to replace it if there was a good choice. FSR stinks, but I‘ll get used to it.
The game is alright, updated the TOZ so Bloodsuckers don‘t take forever to suck the grass. Dogs still rush me a lot. I like how you can‘t just power through everything, but use the brain a little bit. I’m already in the Zone. 
This game will last many months, given the pace I usually play FPS at. Not mad at all that they compromised beauty over frametime. Very atmospheric.
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Original Counterstrike style!! 
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Got a pro tip today:
Turn graphic settings for “Hair detail” to LOW to gain +30 FPS. This is even when there’s no hair on screen at all.
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Is this the universe’s way of punishing me for my glorious afro in high school? Trying this now.
Tested this and can’t confirm. No change at all between LOW and EPIC for Hair.
On 7800X3D + RX 6800XT
Really the only way to get 70 FPS is to use an upscaler. 
The person who told me this Hair trick is on Intel 13700k + RTX 4070
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I’m playing this kn my Xbox X (claws can’t take clutching a mouse in life or death situations longer than ten minutes). It took some tuning to get it to lookright on my setup, but when it did, it did.
Man this is stalker, isn’t it? Even before getting into the starter village I racked up about ten deaths. Hard as heck, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Such atmosphere.
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Patch is out! Reads like a 132 Gbs, but can this be?
Well, that’s almost the entire game. This is odd.
Ya this may not be accurate, but it my game is reading 85 Gbs of 132 Gbs downloaded. This is total game size?
Edit: Reads 85 Gb of 132 Gb patched