and here we got a bot probing different hotlink mechanisms, interesting 

oh wow, it rapidly noticed what scheme works and whammo! 

Here's my review of Stalker:SOC: http://www.electricescape.com/etherealhell/reviews/2011/stalker.php

It's quite long so I won't post it here, but some of you may be interested in reading it. Don't read if you loved Stalker though, because I clearly didn't. In fact it fucked me off more than any other game I can think of, even more than Tomb Raider. Could of been great, but too many things needed fixing, even after the patches and Stalker Complete 2009. 

There certainly are many bugs and shortcomings, but beneath that it's still a unique game.
Your review sounds to me like you were playing it somewhat wrong and you also based your verdict on some aspects introduced by the Complete mod (e.g. darker night, food, possibly gun/enemy accuracy and weight). I mean wrong in terms of maybe not patiently enough - "stalking" enemies pays off here, or even sneaking past them, a perfectly valid tactic in this game, which you criticized however; skipping sidequests where you could have gotten money or valuable items.

There are very good weapons to be found or bought, so there's really no need to use the weak ones until the end. I'm actually surprised you seemed to have missed them entirely, or if not, at least failed to get deal with the ammo situation. In the beginning the game is fairly hard with the poor pistols and shotguns, but as soon as one gets a rifle dropping enemies is much more bearable. All the Monolith soldiers have badass ones and some of zombified stalkers you meet in the bunkers, too.

Does the Complete mod remove the timelimit/blowout in the outide NPP level? Because that one sure was annoying in the original game.

The weight limit is proper RPG/realism element. Clearly annoying if you have to drop stuff, but there's still plenty of room for a few good guns. Though I think your not having found the right ones possibly added to your frustration with the limit space (due to the need to carry more weak ones).

Finally, while the game is certainly sandboxy, I don't really agree to the term "true sandbox", because not only is the game world made up of seperate (albeit interconnected) levels, it's also, as you wrote yourself, linearized by the fact that certain areas/levels are not accessible right away. Debatable, I guess.

Go play Oblivion! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewwtznVkSxA&feature=player_embedded

Looks like Deus Ex-ish mixed with Fear style melee combat. 

That could be you!

The Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle
Pay whatever you want and get Frozen Synapse, a intense orgy of tactics and shooting dudes. I was completely convinced by the video review by TotalBiscuit, which is weird as he's a ginormous nonce. Pay over the average (around $4) and you get the Frozenbyte Bundle included free also, which contains Trine and some other shit.
http://www.humblebundle.com/

The Binding of Isaac
A neat roguelike-like by one of the Super Meat Boy dudes.
Here is a review: Rock Paper Shotgun
Here it is on an online game purchasing service: Steam
How much does it cost? A wallet-blumpkining $5 (or �3.59 ) 

The text is really, really small :(

Still your website looks great, loads of pics etc, but that text is really, really small.. Thank god for zoom ;) 

I didn't find the stealth or sneaking past people really worked. Enemies would randomly spot me, and even at night in pitch dark with the flashlight off they'd see me, although maybe Complete 2009 mod had something to do with that. But I didn't really treat it like a survival/horror, which is what it's supposed to be. What exactly does that mean in Stalker though anyway - really slow, meticulous combat?

The timelimit on the NPP level was still there. Although I just sprinted through it and only killed several enemies, and got there in half the time. I did take a dozen quickloads though, and a couple feeds as I kept running out of energy as I hadn't eaten.

I'm yet to play a proper RPG, but the RPG elements, in theory, were finein Stalker so maybe I can play some now. Might go back to Oblivion, but it might be getting a bit dated, but Fallout 3 is a definite play. 

just got done playing oblivion yet again. as long as you can pick up a mod that replaces the absolutely terrible npc faces that come with the original game, it still looks quite good, considering it's age.
i've played it maybe 6 or 7 times now (not always completing it) and i still find new dungeons, which is what call bang for your buck. o.0
i wonder if skyrim can cram as much content as oblivion... 

I think they said they had like 300 hours of gameplay in there, give or take a 100. After a while, they just lost count. But something like 100 unique dungeons to explore, on top of the overworld (or underneath I guess.) So my guess is probably. 

oh wow, that sounds great. honestly, i haven't been paying all that much attention to it other than what i read here, so i guess i wasn't expecting much.
but yeah, that sounds like it'll be a lot of fun, and something you can come back to later. 

I saw this the other day, and am buying it right now because of this line:

The only problem I have with The Binding Of Isaac right now is that I�m still discovering things and I don�t want that to end. 

Is pretty nice, very weird, and hard. Soundtrack is great. 

http://imgur.com/r/gaming/SgZkf 

Looks totally awesome. 

I wish I could do art like that. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EOlzCrVFvs&feature=player_embedded#!

You know what would make this video a lot better? If Randy Pitchford would shut the fuck up. 

.. the demo is great... 

Looks pretty awesome, but definitely nowhere near as good as that last Rage gameplay vid. I hope they're going to do something about the blood splatter, it looks 2D. 

But looking at Gearbox' track record with pc releases, this will be some locked at 55 fov, console ported mess :(

Which makes me really sad because I've been itching for this game for a long time. 

Looks repulsively consolized but that might be the ghastly uber-slow controlling of a console controller. Mmmm look left and right OR up and down but not both at once. 

Bloody great and addictive. Have started way too many games, my god is it hard. 

Yes, it is. I played it for a few hours whilst in a null state and din't get bored.

Then I thought afterwards 'meh I just paid for a flash game with a stupid difficulty spike in the middle' then I played it again and realised the randomisation had been working against me and got a lot of ranged attack powerups like triple shot, multi shot and so on.

In any case, stock piling for the later levels is very difficult (and have you learned the tarot yet?) but I notice steam just updated the game...

Well worth the price.

And if you missed this then you should play it as well:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/511754

Yes, I know I linked it before. But coming across little Steven confirmed my suspicion.