The decision to not put a stat system in STALKER is, for my money, the single best design decision in the game. In (for example) Fallout, you're incentivized to go out of your way and kill anything that moves because you gain EXP for it. No such incentive exists in STALKER, meaning it's completely reasonable for you to decide that a certain fight isn't worth wasting ammo on, or that a certain mutant is too tough for you to handle and not worth confronting for any of the (strictly material) gain to be found near its nest. You can choose not to help NPC's in distress because you cannot spare the supplies, or don't want to risk dying for them. Conversely, if you do decide to help them, it's because you made a conscious moral decision to do so, not because you were chasing a reward and wanted to watch a leveling bar go up. I think this is the single biggest reason why STALKER is so immersive: the lack of RPG systems puts the player in the mind of an actual survivor, one who sometimes has nothing to gain and everything to lose by coming out of his hiding spot to engage in risky, dangerous combat.
Honestly, It's just better that way. Levels and stats also make game just not immersive. Everything feels artificial and it just feels as if lore, buildings and NPC's are a facade for this cookie clicker for leveling up
I'm really into World War One, you know, the one people dont like to talk about? Its pretty fascinating and complex once you drop the whole "wars because wars" "lions led by donkeys" and overall revisionist schtick and approach it like an adult. Single fastest period of technological development in human history were the 4 years of 1914-1918. I think it would be really interesting to hear a Slav's perspective of the folklore and cultural perception of their participation in that conflict. I could also assist with contributing notes to contrast it to the reality of the situation. Edit: I suppose I should have led off saying that your contribution of history from a first person perspective that I would never be exposed to otherwise is part of what makes the history coverage you have so great, and why I proposed the rest of this.
Really love the history/politics bits inbetween, some of these topics are very underappreciated and not a lot of western people are aware of any of it and congrats on the 10K!!!!
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine It will be good if Ukraine liberates the territories seized in 2022 by the end of spring. On the other hand, the russians can break down at one moment and flee like in the Kharkov region, but I would not hope, too many good luck at a one time, it will be long and bloody.
My first death ever on this game was thanks to that bloodsucker on agroprom. It didn't actually kill me, his howl startled me and my immediate reaction was to jump back directly into one of the acid anomalies, killing my underequipped ass in a couple hits.
LOL! I was there at Stalkerfest, when Grigorovich did his remarkable cover of Sweet Dreams! Thank you for such an insightful, multilayered, and well-directed nostalgic review!
This unique mix of cultural context and historical background as it relates to the identity of the game as well as its development is goddamn captivating. Even more so with the current situation in Ukraine. Of the video-essay videogame TH-camrs (who'd have thought that'd be a popular genre?) I am consistently most excited when you drop a new video. When the Kyiv/Kiev thing became more widely publicized as a part of the conflict (I would describe general ignorance in America to the details of politics in eastern Europe) and became a sort of point of insistence in support of Ukraine, I had a moment of "why did I already know that was a thing?". Because of these videos. You are a fantastic communicator.
This may be the best stalker review ever, not only did I get a genuinely good review I got a history lesson on current and previous events in Ukraine and how the game effected Ukraine culture.
As a native ukranian i want to give you a huge thanks. Never before have i seen someone dig all the way down while reviewing a game. Stalker means a lot for the 90s and 00s generation of ucranians, and when mixed with a good socio-political analytics, your video becomes an introduction to our culture as well. Amazing job done here, im recommending you to all my friends/relatives!
Man I think I like every video you have done, the format of an walk through, review and then irl dev or historical information, all mixed together just works. Ummm your videos are art or something
Classic Warlockery, using the video game medium to deliver interesting bits of eastern European history and lore. You're a fantastic storyteller with one of the most underappreciated TH-cam channels of all time. Looking forward to your next video.
Can't wait for you to talk about Freedom in one of these videos. I find them to be fascinatingly counterintuitive and yet somehow incredibly natural in the game world. They're my favourite faction. Most people write them off as underwritten hippies but I think they represent a pretty unique expression of counterculture in a depressive setting.
I've played a STALKER game. At least I think I have. It's a like a fever dream. I have a friend who is massively into them, but whenever we compare notes, we can't agree which one I played. I have zero memory of encountering the wish granter or any of the advanced mutants. Just a long slog of a firefight with Monolith elements. Really loving the mix of gameplay and history/current events, certainly found another quirky videogame youtube channel to obsess over!
Sounds like Clear Sky. Biggest part of that game was the faction war system that allowed areas controlled by certain factions to change hands based on AI and player actions. This made up most of the front end of the game. The back end was just a constant headache of repeated fights with monolith in an attempt to intercept strelok on his way to the center of the zone. You never do get to the center and it felt like mutants and anomalies took a backseat to the human conflict.
@Socucius Ergalla without clear sky we wouldn't have Anomaly, and without Anomaly we wouldn't have the STALKER resurgence of this level (obviously it was gonna hit its renaissance regardless but Anomaly came out at the exact perfect time to capture the momentum). I really wish there hadn't been such a huge gap between clear sky and 2. I feel like they were only a couple years off of the perfect balance of living zone and faction interactions, and the rich story, lore and world of the first two.
I am very grateful for the truthful presentation of our history, although it was very short and incomplete. It means a lot to me when a foreigner tries to understand such a complex topic, which not even all ukrainians understand. Greetings from Ukraine. Слава Україні.
The LR-300 is kind of nifty in a 'hack' sort of way, but I think there's good reasons as to why it never caught on and why normal AR15s with fixed stocks remain common. Since the LR-300 does not have the conventional recoil buffer/receiver extension where the stock is, that functionality is tucked into the top of the receiver, and it adds a bunch of reciprocating mass offset above the bore, instead of having all the recoil going straight back and into the stock like on the M16, there's now a vector which adds recoil above the line of the stock which will tilt the muzzle upwards. I'm of the opinion that one may as well start the design over from scratch instead of then closely borrowing from the AR15. If there is going to be a bunch of moving mass offset from the bore, the action may as well be changed into one which uses a short-stroke piston like the AR18 and its descendants, or a long-stroke piston like the AK family, either which would allow for a gun which heats up a lot slower, and which plays nicer with silencers. The main advantage which the LR-300 offers with its design change is a stock that you can fold to the side, which I don't think is a particularly big deal for a rifle, to me the collapsing carbine stock as seen on the M4 and the earlier CAR15 carbines does enough to let you shorten the gun for storage and transport, and it retains the recoil buffer which allows the gun to have close to zero recoil. If I was in The Zone, and I had a choice between the LR-300 and the AK-74, I feel the AK would be the better choice, and not just for the logistics of ammunition and spare parts.
The main problem with the rifle was that it stayed DI with a conventional AR gas tube. They had to put the buffer spring somewhere else because they deleted the buffer tube, so they wrapped it around the gas tube. The gas tube gets hot AF. Spring steel and extreme temperature shifts don't really mix. Combine that with chopping the bolt carrier in half so it had room to reciprocate (altering the balance of gas blowback to bolt mass ratio) it never really ran reliably.
@@mr.stotruppen8724 That's what they did? That's not particularly smart, that's a well known thing. The Russian DP28 machinegun did basically that around WW2, and they thought that was neat until they found that the gas tube easily got hot enough to ruin the temper of the recoil spring, turning the machinegun into a bolt action, so they started retrofitting all DP28s into an upgraded pattern where the recoil spring is put into an extension on the back of the receiver. The resulting DPM arguably being the best light machinegun used during WW2.
As a last generation Soviet / 80s Ukrainian kid who grew up abroad and who loves video games, your videos hit so many nails for me. Thank you for the hard work, quality videos with great humour and excellent footnotes - rock on man! Hope your channel gets all the attention it deserves! You got my sub :)
Ah, new episode of Slav Magic, an unofficial spinoff of Spellbender and Twilight Zone... 2:55 seems like you forgot to shot down ammo box from the tower in the scrapyard, plenty of AP ammo for MP5 Viper. Bloodsuckers, or as some yankee tourist would say - Predators 7:02 TBH I never used artifacts in the Anomaly or Misery for that matter, they had stats but felt like they did not work at all... just like other attachments like camelback. 30:00 and familiar for Poles too, sadly... no wonder they flooded western world to climb social ladder and become 2nd, 3rd tier or lower class citizens, which still felt like improvements.
Man I remember the day my friend came over with the stalker disc. We were big into “Russian” and Soviet stuff. When I played it I didn’t “get” it at first and when I reached the controller I was so scared shitless I uninstalled it and returned it to my friend ha. A few years later I bought it and finished finally though and loved it.
Wow, discovered your channel a day ago and I already consider yours on par with Mandalore Gaming, if not better. Your presentation style combines serious game review, memes, developer/development backstory, historic tie-ins with the game or relevant events and even serious narration of the gameplay as it unfolds. I can't wait for part 3,4,5,6,7...∞ on the STALKER series in particular as it is one of my favourites.
I really like your visual editing style, good mix of actual gameplay and memes all culminating in telling a good story. Stalker you could tell stories by the fire anytime…
I listen to and trust your history/political commentary more than most stations/groups dedicated to the subject matter. Your coverage of video games and the industry is also awesome. Thanks for the incredible entertainment
I'm really liking the geopolitical and economic context you're giving in this series! Here in the US (generally, there might be exceptions), it's taught in schools that the liberalization of Eastern Europe led to prosperity and Freedom™. I never took what I learned in high school history classes all that seriously, but the more I learn about the fall of the Soviet Union and its aftermath, the more opaque the lies taught to me and millions of other kids become. Also STALKER rules. Love the videos.
Honestly, American kids are taught so little about Eastern Europe, especially after the USSR, that they're left to believe whatever the hell they want about it. That's why you have idiots of all political stripes projecting their fantasies onto Ukraine and Russia, and absurd stuff like neo-fascist Nicholas II fanboys and pretend commie Stalin fanboys coming together to praise the Russian dictator they don't even remotely understand; or far-right fascists and neo-Soviet NazBols insisting that Euromaidan was a fascist coup, but obviously one side thinks that's a good thing while the other thinks it makes Ukrainian people an acceptable target. Conspiracy theories and extremism thrive in ignorance and darkness.
@@Woodsie_Lord Quality of life plummeted, while alcoholism, suicide, and poverty skyrocketed. The Eastern Bloc was essentially looted by western businesses and former government officials. In what measurable way did life improve?
Super underrated channel. Geopolitics, tidbits of trivia, history, and dry nihilistic humor. It’s the whole package,.Not to mention the pacing is great.
Despite only just finding your videos, I must say I love your coverage of the realities of the franchise's creators nation. It has done nothing but become more relevant and important with the events of the past year.
this game is still super playable and feels pretty modern.. i haven't played the first one in several years, but i can't really think of anything that feels too dated as long as you have infinite bolts on so natural to get lost in these games and unlike so many others where u rush from marker in the sky to marker in the sky.. you really spend your time in rooms and just looking at people and their guns and what they have to say. i don't think i've ever played a game that felt so lived in and authentic when i think about it
4A is on Malta! Damn, Malta is a great place. I know a guy there who is in a lot of fields. Principally hes in medicine as a Nurse, but hes also a film armorer as well as a drone maker. He takes trips South sometimes to practice medicine to help folks displaced by the last 20 something years of war in the Middle East. One of the most interesting guys I know.
"ukraine could lose as much as 1/5 of its population by 2050" oh if only you'd know how right you were. On a more serious note, I really enjoy these game/culture and history behind it type of breakdowns that you do. No one else have quite the same pacing and style so its always a blast going down a rabbit hole of a game story with you
Who knows, Ukraine is doing well in the war now, I think that this can ultimately be a real watershed moment for the country which could galvanize and unite people.
Damn, I just came because I played this game in high school and wanted to kill some time, but the historical analysis bits aswell as the good ass memes made it a worthwhile watch. Keep those up for sure.
Really love your content, so much time and effort. All your uploads are incredible. Great show of gameplay, and game / history knowledge. Video has aged well, and those closing statements were dead on. The Metro series is also great, and insane that them leaving would be a good and inevitable thing. Was more into fallout and oblivion. Got into stalker a few years back and it's blown my mind. Amazing game, and pretty fun to play on the drink.
So... My girlfriend is from Ukraine and that bathroom you showed is basically what the bathroom in her mom's house looks like. I nearly died laughing when I saw that, thank you.
It's weird hearing Yuri Lowenthal and Robin Atkin Downes as every Ruso-Ukrainian Soldier. Almost as weird as hearing Liam O'Brian as every NCR Trooper or Yuri Lowenthal as every Legion Recruit.
I absolutely love the guitar tracks you use in the digression/historical fact parts. Stalker guitar OST is just peak comfy, and as a ukrainian i really appreciate you going beyond "slav fallout lol". You did a great job, I'm happy to have discovered this channel!
wow i learned alot of interesting facts that maybe 1 person in my life might be interested in like the stalker festival.. i've played these games for so many years, but never even heard of it.. and while in my mind stalker and metro games were obviously associated but only thematically i never knew that 4A had ties to BSC. i do remember that 4A was insanely broke when they made Metro and often had power outages while trying to develop the game and worked on old hardware and the like. never would of guessed that was the result of their time working on stalker though great video
Damn, you did a great job on this. Love how you mix the story of the game and the history of the country and development process. And it feels respectful and well thought.
You got me, I was preoccupied with my phone when I heard 11:53 and I thought I was going mad. Turns out everything leads back to the second battle for hoover dam
The one thing that made the series unique is how they shied away from a theme park approach (a bit less so in Call of Prypyat). Unlike Fallout and other classic post-apoc games, there's an implicit understanding from all the ambiance, the fireside conversations, the random comments that the Zone is just a place- there's still a real world out there, and the stalkers are ultimately misfits, who can't find their place in the new society, so they constantly risk their lives for a chance at striking riches, and then going back and finding their place in the "normal world". This bleakness, this understanding that the world is an uncaring, crumbling, but incredibly dangerous place, it is the main cultural heritage of the late 80s/early 90s generation that witnessed the Collapse in their childhood, and grew up with Independence. For those of us who grew up listening to Skryabin (Ukrainian take on Depeche Mode), watching music videos against backdrops of industrial ruins, those who spent their childhood playing tag and "war" on abandoned construction sites, the series is a memory of that worldview- but also, the inherent resilience and the will to survive despite everything. Ukraine's modern history is a mess, we were really on the cutting edge of the new trend of corporate feudalism, as that is essentially what our oligarchy and political system was. And yet this very flaw is what made us so different from the Eastern horde, cultivating the (often illusory, but enduring) belief that our individual opinions and actions mattered. And that endures even now. I sincerely hope the upcoming sequel continues to reflect these themes, and doesn't lose that unique, authentic feel, despite the temptations to add new, more contemporary themes.
I love the normal boomer RPG content, but these videos that incorporate history, poltics, and sociology are my favorite of your works. I crave more anarchist-leaning content from former Soviet countries
You can get the Abakan from the Speznaz sent to kill Mole and his group (wave 2). I always get it from them. Also, if some Loners survive, they will sit it out next to Mole. You can also get an Abakan from Dark Valley. it is open for players at all times. You can give the AK and Abakan a scope too. Also the ZM LR 300 IRL shouldnt be superior to most 5.45 guns. That makes no sense in-game, no idea whhy GSC did it like that. The AK-74 can easily kill Speznaz if you have Armour Piercing ammunition. Poltergesits in Clear Sky are ... nightmarishly powerful.
The LR300 is better than the 5.45 guns because 5.56 ammunition is harder to get in game. It's a game balancing thing. Western firearms are better because they are rare and their ammunition is expensive.
@@h1tsc4n40 Which is a stupid design decision to be frank. They should have followed reality more here. Plus those ammo types are super easy to find in some locations too.
@@CharcharoExplorer it'd make more sense if the game was set ten years later, upgraded 5.56 loads have put it back on top of 5.45, kind of like how 9mm used to be beaten by .40 but is now superior. Now the Americans are lapping them, with the 6.8. I wonder what the Russians will do to try to catch up.
Kind of funny that Robert Atkin Downes voices some of the Duty guys in the english dub. Every time I replay SOC I just imagine Kazuhira Miller somehow made his way into the zone and is just milling around there for some random reason.
Great video. I had always assumed later that the information Kruglov was attacked by the mercenaries over was some kind of data vital to the later development of the headset Marked One gets. I guess in my head I assumed that maybe the Mercs wanted that technology to give themselves an edge on sniping valuables from the other factions for their wealthy employers.
your channel has very quickly become one of my favorites on youtube, and this series especially is fantastic. it's been the kick i needed to get into the stalker franchise and i've enjoyed it thoroughly. even then im still looking forward to seeing the next video for the excellent commentary, history and politics. best wishes in these hard times!
@@Warlockracy heard the clan quest mod got a big update a few years back, it's tempting to go into that but I just wanna do another vanilla race playthrough idk maybe something like Ventrue or Toreador
The decision to not put a stat system in STALKER is, for my money, the single best design decision in the game. In (for example) Fallout, you're incentivized to go out of your way and kill anything that moves because you gain EXP for it. No such incentive exists in STALKER, meaning it's completely reasonable for you to decide that a certain fight isn't worth wasting ammo on, or that a certain mutant is too tough for you to handle and not worth confronting for any of the (strictly material) gain to be found near its nest. You can choose not to help NPC's in distress because you cannot spare the supplies, or don't want to risk dying for them. Conversely, if you do decide to help them, it's because you made a conscious moral decision to do so, not because you were chasing a reward and wanted to watch a leveling bar go up.
I think this is the single biggest reason why STALKER is so immersive: the lack of RPG systems puts the player in the mind of an actual survivor, one who sometimes has nothing to gain and everything to lose by coming out of his hiding spot to engage in risky, dangerous combat.
And thus, making it an actual true RPG.
That’s very accurate
This is why people almost never beat other people on the street for no reason. They should do it if they gain XP and loot.
Honestly, It's just better that way. Levels and stats also make game just not immersive. Everything feels artificial and it just feels as if lore, buildings and NPC's are a facade for this cookie clicker for leveling up
@@catzor4795the irony huh
You know, i wouldn't mind listening to some more history related videos if you made them
I'm really into World War One, you know, the one people dont like to talk about? Its pretty fascinating and complex once you drop the whole "wars because wars" "lions led by donkeys" and overall revisionist schtick and approach it like an adult. Single fastest period of technological development in human history were the 4 years of 1914-1918.
I think it would be really interesting to hear a Slav's perspective of the folklore and cultural perception of their participation in that conflict. I could also assist with contributing notes to contrast it to the reality of the situation.
Edit: I suppose I should have led off saying that your contribution of history from a first person perspective that I would never be exposed to otherwise is part of what makes the history coverage you have so great, and why I proposed the rest of this.
Yeah I don't even care about the game lol
Same, your perspective is quite unique especially in the coming months
Given recent events I second this
Yeah, the enlightened west is best.
Really love the history/politics bits inbetween, some of these topics are very underappreciated and not a lot of western people are aware of any of it
and congrats on the 10K!!!!
Tyvm
Come for the video game, stay for the historical and political lesson. This channel is going places.
And never will be. Bcs you rely on the same Goebels propaganda only its Washingtons elites know who are feeding you this utter shite.
One will wonder what lies in Ukraine's future with current developments? I think they may actually be able to retake Crimea at their current pace.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine It will be good if Ukraine liberates the territories seized in 2022 by the end of spring. On the other hand, the russians can break down at one moment and flee like in the Kharkov region, but I would not hope, too many good luck at a one time, it will be long and bloody.
"He wasn't even a real dictator, just a bitch-ass kleptocrat"
Damn, that's a good line.
Wonder if he had to give 10 percent to the big guy?
@@noirgriseus oh yes, most definitely. probably more.
@@noirgriseus more I'd say
"Russia. Named after a popular Counter-Strike strategy."
That earworm is going to stick in my head for a long time. :D
Great videos!
My first death ever on this game was thanks to that bloodsucker on agroprom.
It didn't actually kill me, his howl startled me and my immediate reaction was to jump back directly into one of the acid anomalies, killing my underequipped ass in a couple hits.
You got that far before dying? Goddamn. I think I died two dozen times to the soldiers above, alone.
Another one lost to the zone
Such is life in the zone
LOL! I was there at Stalkerfest, when Grigorovich did his remarkable cover of Sweet Dreams! Thank you for such an insightful, multilayered, and well-directed nostalgic review!
Did it 🎶sound🎶 as good in person?
Must Admit: that took balls (not to be confused with unlimited in-game balls)
This unique mix of cultural context and historical background as it relates to the identity of the game as well as its development is goddamn captivating. Even more so with the current situation in Ukraine. Of the video-essay videogame TH-camrs (who'd have thought that'd be a popular genre?) I am consistently most excited when you drop a new video. When the Kyiv/Kiev thing became more widely publicized as a part of the conflict (I would describe general ignorance in America to the details of politics in eastern Europe) and became a sort of point of insistence in support of Ukraine, I had a moment of "why did I already know that was a thing?". Because of these videos. You are a fantastic communicator.
"Over the years this will change."
Yeah, you could say that.
This may be the best stalker review ever, not only did I get a genuinely good review I got a history lesson on current and previous events in Ukraine and how the game effected Ukraine culture.
As a native ukranian i want to give you a huge thanks. Never before have i seen someone dig all the way down while reviewing a game. Stalker means a lot for the 90s and 00s generation of ucranians, and when mixed with a good socio-political analytics, your video becomes an introduction to our culture as well. Amazing job done here, im recommending you to all my friends/relatives!
My Caulk is huge bro
It breaks my soul that there arnt anymore videos in this series after this one. Hands fucking down some of the finest Stalker content produced.
there is another video, called STALKER: Clear Sky
Yeah I'm confused why he didn't finish his review of SOC. It's well worth talking about especially the later missions.
Man I think I like every video you have done, the format of an walk through, review and then irl dev or historical information, all mixed together just works.
Ummm your videos are art or something
Good thing that i am not the only one who thinks that ukaraine is just another kalpa of TES
Classic Warlockery, using the video game medium to deliver interesting bits of eastern European history and lore.
You're a fantastic storyteller with one of the most underappreciated TH-cam channels of all time.
Looking forward to your next video.
"Everybody's looking for something..."
And i'm looking for the 3rd part of this.
Can't wait for you to talk about Freedom in one of these videos. I find them to be fascinatingly counterintuitive and yet somehow incredibly natural in the game world. They're my favourite faction. Most people write them off as underwritten hippies but I think they represent a pretty unique expression of counterculture in a depressive setting.
Not to mention Ukraine having a LONG history with the political concept of anarchy.
not to mention the classic concept of dissident groups with nato weaponry popping up in post-ussr nations
@@stringbones9360 makhnovtchina lives on in our hearts 🥲
ARE YOU A MENTAL Y ILL MAN?
I've played a STALKER game. At least I think I have. It's a like a fever dream. I have a friend who is massively into them, but whenever we compare notes, we can't agree which one I played. I have zero memory of encountering the wish granter or any of the advanced mutants. Just a long slog of a firefight with Monolith elements.
Really loving the mix of gameplay and history/current events, certainly found another quirky videogame youtube channel to obsess over!
Sounds like Clear Sky. Biggest part of that game was the faction war system that allowed areas controlled by certain factions to change hands based on AI and player actions. This made up most of the front end of the game. The back end was just a constant headache of repeated fights with monolith in an attempt to intercept strelok on his way to the center of the zone. You never do get to the center and it felt like mutants and anomalies took a backseat to the human conflict.
@Socucius Ergalla without clear sky we wouldn't have Anomaly, and without Anomaly we wouldn't have the STALKER resurgence of this level (obviously it was gonna hit its renaissance regardless but Anomaly came out at the exact perfect time to capture the momentum).
I really wish there hadn't been such a huge gap between clear sky and 2. I feel like they were only a couple years off of the perfect balance of living zone and faction interactions, and the rich story, lore and world of the first two.
Dude, thank you for explaining so much historic and political context to western people. I'm Ukrainian and I really appreciate it.
Why didn't you talk about Gordon's body right next to the deagle? 😔
lmao I didn’t know
@@Warlockracy it carries a PDA talking about how he sold his crowbar for a can of food or something like that it's kinda funny
Lol it s right over there hahahaha
Watching these videos and the reference to history in the wake of CURRENT EVENTS... makes it a little different
I am very grateful for the truthful presentation of our history, although it was very short and incomplete. It means a lot to me when a foreigner tries to understand such a complex topic, which not even all ukrainians understand. Greetings from Ukraine. Слава Україні.
Oh, this video has aged like a fine wine, even though it was just made a year ago. Keep it up, dude, your content is amazing!
Thank you for the ending, as a post Soviet shit hole resident, now I'm more depressed
a lot of thanks for your support from Kyiv
The LR-300 is kind of nifty in a 'hack' sort of way, but I think there's good reasons as to why it never caught on and why normal AR15s with fixed stocks remain common.
Since the LR-300 does not have the conventional recoil buffer/receiver extension where the stock is, that functionality is tucked into the top of the receiver, and it adds a bunch of reciprocating mass offset above the bore, instead of having all the recoil going straight back and into the stock like on the M16, there's now a vector which adds recoil above the line of the stock which will tilt the muzzle upwards.
I'm of the opinion that one may as well start the design over from scratch instead of then closely borrowing from the AR15. If there is going to be a bunch of moving mass offset from the bore, the action may as well be changed into one which uses a short-stroke piston like the AR18 and its descendants, or a long-stroke piston like the AK family, either which would allow for a gun which heats up a lot slower, and which plays nicer with silencers.
The main advantage which the LR-300 offers with its design change is a stock that you can fold to the side, which I don't think is a particularly big deal for a rifle, to me the collapsing carbine stock as seen on the M4 and the earlier CAR15 carbines does enough to let you shorten the gun for storage and transport, and it retains the recoil buffer which allows the gun to have close to zero recoil.
If I was in The Zone, and I had a choice between the LR-300 and the AK-74, I feel the AK would be the better choice, and not just for the logistics of ammunition and spare parts.
The main problem with the rifle was that it stayed DI with a conventional AR gas tube. They had to put the buffer spring somewhere else because they deleted the buffer tube, so they wrapped it around the gas tube. The gas tube gets hot AF.
Spring steel and extreme temperature shifts don't really mix. Combine that with chopping the bolt carrier in half so it had room to reciprocate (altering the balance of gas blowback to bolt mass ratio) it never really ran reliably.
@@mr.stotruppen8724 That's what they did? That's not particularly smart, that's a well known thing.
The Russian DP28 machinegun did basically that around WW2, and they thought that was neat until they found that the gas tube easily got hot enough to ruin the temper of the recoil spring, turning the machinegun into a bolt action, so they started retrofitting all DP28s into an upgraded pattern where the recoil spring is put into an extension on the back of the receiver. The resulting DPM arguably being the best light machinegun used during WW2.
Pro tip: you can jump to dodge a Pseudogiant's attack
As a last generation Soviet / 80s Ukrainian kid who grew up abroad and who loves video games, your videos hit so many nails for me.
Thank you for the hard work, quality videos with great humour and excellent footnotes - rock on man! Hope your channel gets all the attention it deserves! You got my sub :)
My Caulk is huge
The ending of the video sounds sad. I wonder what will happen till 2050 in both ukraine and the world in general.
Ah, new episode of Slav Magic, an unofficial spinoff of Spellbender and Twilight Zone...
2:55 seems like you forgot to shot down ammo box from the tower in the scrapyard, plenty of AP ammo for MP5 Viper.
Bloodsuckers, or as some yankee tourist would say - Predators
7:02 TBH I never used artifacts in the Anomaly or Misery for that matter, they had stats but felt like they did not work at all... just like other attachments like camelback.
30:00 and familiar for Poles too, sadly... no wonder they flooded western world to climb social ladder and become 2nd, 3rd tier or lower class citizens, which still felt like improvements.
Man I remember the day my friend came over with the stalker disc. We were big into “Russian” and Soviet stuff. When I played it I didn’t “get” it at first and when I reached the controller I was so scared shitless I uninstalled it and returned it to my friend ha. A few years later I bought it and finished finally though and loved it.
Lmao the Poltergeist looks like a free unity store asset those greenlight game con artists would use
Lmao yeah
Wow, discovered your channel a day ago and I already consider yours on par with Mandalore Gaming, if not better. Your presentation style combines serious game review, memes, developer/development backstory, historic tie-ins with the game or relevant events and even serious narration of the gameplay as it unfolds. I can't wait for part 3,4,5,6,7...∞ on the STALKER series in particular as it is one of my favourites.
Ironically enough, the section that reminds you of half life contains a half life reference, a dead stalker named Gordon Freeman.
Man, I had never heard of the Orange Revolution before now. I really love your style Warlockracy!
Well, who cares about some shithole countries as long as they supply you with various cheap goods? =)
Come for the examination of a cool video game, stay for the exploration of real life history
I really like your visual editing style, good mix of actual gameplay and memes all culminating in telling a good story. Stalker you could tell stories by the fire anytime…
The way you explain history and details with a bit of cheeky-ness works great +1
I listen to and trust your history/political commentary more than most stations/groups dedicated to the subject matter. Your coverage of video games and the industry is also awesome. Thanks for the incredible entertainment
EII I've been waiting for this. Based, and congrats on your 10k sub count.
Thank you!
Your videos mix light entertainment with intelligent socioeconomic and historical commentary so well it's a pleasure to learn
I'm really liking the geopolitical and economic context you're giving in this series! Here in the US (generally, there might be exceptions), it's taught in schools that the liberalization of Eastern Europe led to prosperity and Freedom™. I never took what I learned in high school history classes all that seriously, but the more I learn about the fall of the Soviet Union and its aftermath, the more opaque the lies taught to me and millions of other kids become.
Also STALKER rules. Love the videos.
For sure man. Anti West propaganda is strong in American schools.
Honestly, American kids are taught so little about Eastern Europe, especially after the USSR, that they're left to believe whatever the hell they want about it. That's why you have idiots of all political stripes projecting their fantasies onto Ukraine and Russia, and absurd stuff like neo-fascist Nicholas II fanboys and pretend commie Stalin fanboys coming together to praise the Russian dictator they don't even remotely understand; or far-right fascists and neo-Soviet NazBols insisting that Euromaidan was a fascist coup, but obviously one side thinks that's a good thing while the other thinks it makes Ukrainian people an acceptable target. Conspiracy theories and extremism thrive in ignorance and darkness.
@@BrorealeK or that trad wife shit
@@Woodsie_Lord Quality of life plummeted, while alcoholism, suicide, and poverty skyrocketed. The Eastern Bloc was essentially looted by western businesses and former government officials. In what measurable way did life improve?
They are no longer being colonized by a hostile foreign culture. But yes, life still sucks.
I can't believe you played through that whole game with this head bobbing. I would be sick after 5 min
This was the most unique and well put together stalker reviews I’ve seen
Super underrated channel. Geopolitics, tidbits of trivia, history, and dry nihilistic humor. It’s the whole package,.Not to mention the pacing is great.
oh man. just discovered and binging your content, but please continue this series. probably my favourite so far
Despite only just finding your videos, I must say I love your coverage of the realities of the franchise's creators nation. It has done nothing but become more relevant and important with the events of the past year.
Damn where is part 3! Also i really like your style cheers!
this game is still super playable and feels pretty modern.. i haven't played the first one in several years, but i can't really think of anything that feels too dated as long as you have infinite bolts on
so natural to get lost in these games and unlike so many others where u rush from marker in the sky to marker in the sky.. you really spend your time in rooms and just looking at people and their guns and what they have to say. i don't think i've ever played a game that felt so lived in and authentic when i think about it
I remember the first time I played STALKER and met the Controller, I didn't know what the hell it was so I acted like I was playing Outlast and ran
Mentioning Anomaly in there just makes me salivate for that (hopefully) inevitable video. Kino content as always
Now I watching this, with sirens in war between us and Russia
4A is on Malta! Damn, Malta is a great place. I know a guy there who is in a lot of fields. Principally hes in medicine as a Nurse, but hes also a film armorer as well as a drone maker. He takes trips South sometimes to practice medicine to help folks displaced by the last 20 something years of war in the Middle East. One of the most interesting guys I know.
Amazing games. I must have played them for hundreds of hours. Extremely atmospheric.
Best history channel on TH-cam, also love the game content
Even while watching videos about Stalker on YT I expect a crash every fucking second.
"ukraine could lose as much as 1/5 of its population by 2050" oh if only you'd know how right you were.
On a more serious note, I really enjoy these game/culture and history behind it type of breakdowns that you do. No one else have quite the same pacing and style so its always a blast going down a rabbit hole of a game story with you
Who knows, Ukraine is doing well in the war now, I think that this can ultimately be a real watershed moment for the country which could galvanize and unite people.
@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine Its not about war. Its about birth. I`m in my 30s and among my friends only one girl have kid.
Damn, I just came because I played this game in high school and wanted to kill some time, but the historical analysis bits aswell as the good ass memes made it a worthwhile watch. Keep those up for sure.
I ve finished all games multiple times, but I love Stalker and your videos so much! Of course I’m gonna watch your Stalker series! More please!
"Rush-A, named for a popular Counter-Strike strategy" lmao, and Subscribed after that
Really love your content, so much time and effort. All your uploads are incredible.
Great show of gameplay, and game / history knowledge.
Video has aged well, and those closing statements were dead on.
The Metro series is also great, and insane that them leaving would be a good and inevitable thing.
Was more into fallout and oblivion. Got into stalker a few years back and it's blown my mind.
Amazing game, and pretty fun to play on the drink.
You. You made me spit coffee on my keyboard with "video games are great or something".
So... My girlfriend is from Ukraine and that bathroom you showed is basically what the bathroom in her mom's house looks like. I nearly died laughing when I saw that, thank you.
It's weird hearing Yuri Lowenthal and Robin Atkin Downes as every Ruso-Ukrainian Soldier. Almost as weird as hearing Liam O'Brian as every NCR Trooper or Yuri Lowenthal as every Legion Recruit.
I absolutely love the guitar tracks you use in the digression/historical fact parts. Stalker guitar OST is just peak comfy, and as a ukrainian i really appreciate you going beyond "slav fallout lol". You did a great job, I'm happy to have discovered this channel!
wow i learned alot of interesting facts that maybe 1 person in my life might be interested in like the stalker festival.. i've played these games for so many years, but never even heard of it..
and while in my mind stalker and metro games were obviously associated but only thematically i never knew that 4A had ties to BSC. i do remember that 4A was insanely broke when they made Metro and often had power outages while trying to develop the game and worked on old hardware and the like. never would of guessed that was the result of their time working on stalker though
great video
Especially interesting, in light of current events.
Damn, you did a great job on this. Love how you mix the story of the game and the history of the country and development process. And it feels respectful and well thought.
I’m new here just wanted to say great content and looking forward for more I love the stalker videos perfect amount of knowledge and meme’s 👍🏼
You got me, I was preoccupied with my phone when I heard 11:53 and I thought I was going mad. Turns out everything leads back to the second battle for hoover dam
Loving these! The historical contextualization is amazing.
PS: You should absolutely cover Gothic 1 & 2!
5:36 Highly Intelligent mind benders
6:03 Stands in the middle of a hallway and just tanks grenades.
I didn't expect these vids to go so in depths into Ukraine history/politics, this was super interesting
You made THE BEST video series about stalker, cheers mate.
The one thing that made the series unique is how they shied away from a theme park approach (a bit less so in Call of Prypyat). Unlike Fallout and other classic post-apoc games, there's an implicit understanding from all the ambiance, the fireside conversations, the random comments that the Zone is just a place- there's still a real world out there, and the stalkers are ultimately misfits, who can't find their place in the new society, so they constantly risk their lives for a chance at striking riches, and then going back and finding their place in the "normal world".
This bleakness, this understanding that the world is an uncaring, crumbling, but incredibly dangerous place, it is the main cultural heritage of the late 80s/early 90s generation that witnessed the Collapse in their childhood, and grew up with Independence. For those of us who grew up listening to Skryabin (Ukrainian take on Depeche Mode), watching music videos against backdrops of industrial ruins, those who spent their childhood playing tag and "war" on abandoned construction sites, the series is a memory of that worldview- but also, the inherent resilience and the will to survive despite everything.
Ukraine's modern history is a mess, we were really on the cutting edge of the new trend of corporate feudalism, as that is essentially what our oligarchy and political system was. And yet this very flaw is what made us so different from the Eastern horde, cultivating the (often illusory, but enduring) belief that our individual opinions and actions mattered. And that endures even now.
I sincerely hope the upcoming sequel continues to reflect these themes, and doesn't lose that unique, authentic feel, despite the temptations to add new, more contemporary themes.
I love the normal boomer RPG content, but these videos that incorporate history, poltics, and sociology are my favorite of your works. I crave more anarchist-leaning content from former Soviet countries
I watch your videos couple of times for youtube to know what a hidden gem you are
Congrats on 10k subs
Oh wow he did it! No... WE did it!
You can get the Abakan from the Speznaz sent to kill Mole and his group (wave 2). I always get it from them. Also, if some Loners survive, they will sit it out next to Mole.
You can also get an Abakan from Dark Valley. it is open for players at all times.
You can give the AK and Abakan a scope too. Also the ZM LR 300 IRL shouldnt be superior to most 5.45 guns. That makes no sense in-game, no idea whhy GSC did it like that.
The AK-74 can easily kill Speznaz if you have Armour Piercing ammunition.
Poltergesits in Clear Sky are ... nightmarishly powerful.
The LR300 is better than the 5.45 guns because 5.56 ammunition is harder to get in game. It's a game balancing thing. Western firearms are better because they are rare and their ammunition is expensive.
@@h1tsc4n40 Which is a stupid design decision to be frank. They should have followed reality more here. Plus those ammo types are super easy to find in some locations too.
@@CharcharoExplorer it'd make more sense if the game was set ten years later, upgraded 5.56 loads have put it back on top of 5.45, kind of like how 9mm used to be beaten by .40 but is now superior. Now the Americans are lapping them, with the 6.8. I wonder what the Russians will do to try to catch up.
10:57 Wow that's the best pronunciation of Maidan Nezalezhnosty I've heard from a foreigner
"Video games are art or something"🤣
Edit: How are your videos THIS good. Just amazing, sarcastic, nihilistic comedy!
Tyyyy
@@Warlockracy the geopolitics mixed with the memes and sarcasm... Just brilliant!
Congrats on 10k! Well deserved.
More stalker is always appreciated
Kind of funny that Robert Atkin Downes voices some of the Duty guys in the english dub. Every time I replay SOC I just imagine Kazuhira Miller somehow made his way into the zone and is just milling around there for some random reason.
Nikolaj “Nester” Makhno returns
I just started a new playthrough of STALKER: Anomaly last night, so this video is perfectly timed. I always love hearing people's Zone stories.
Great video. Very in-depth, so much context.
Alright, that recap at the beginning made me subscribe. "Video games are art or something" really made giggle
Great video. I had always assumed later that the information Kruglov was attacked by the mercenaries over was some kind of data vital to the later development of the headset Marked One gets. I guess in my head I assumed that maybe the Mercs wanted that technology to give themselves an edge on sniping valuables from the other factions for their wealthy employers.
Stalker gunslinger is pretty fun for call of Pripyat it doesn’t change the story but the combat
This aged interestingly... Good video.
24:51
The Morrowind reference got me all teared up and nostalgic. I'm feeling old.🥲
Superb video. Alittle bit of everything in a solid mixture. History, gameplay, what more can you want?
Both videos were really enjoyable. Enjoyed the history lessons. Learned quite a bit about a place I'm very keen to visit.
your channel has very quickly become one of my favorites on youtube, and this series especially is fantastic. it's been the kick i needed to get into the stalker franchise and i've enjoyed it thoroughly. even then im still looking forward to seeing the next video for the excellent commentary, history and politics. best wishes in these hard times!
Wow the historical bits really add a lot to the story. Keep it up, love da vids!
The desert Eagle was a financial failure ,it's big in Pop culture , small in profits
Thank you for teaching us about Ukraine and Russia while analyzing the game.
You have quickly become my favourite TH-cam channel, very big fan!
Damn it War! (Oh the violent one too), I was thinking of reinstall VTMB but now you have me considering this >:((
I, too, was thinking about replaying VTMB for the tenth time.
@@Warlockracy heard the clan quest mod got a big update a few years back, it's tempting to go into that but I just wanna do another vanilla race playthrough idk maybe something like Ventrue or Toreador
Well done Sir, now we need Part 3, pls.