S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Impressions Part 2 - Actually trying the game!

After the dreadful install, I finally got to try the game for about 30min or so.  To run it I had to drop to Medium settings and then tweak a few of the options in the advanced menu. The load times are a killer, it took about 5 min to load the level before I could get playing.  The intro is pretty, the graphics are just awesome in it. The game seemed to stutter through the intro and the first five mins of the game but then disappeared.  The game is pretty cool a nice mix of some FPS with a bit of RPG style thrown in. With my current rig the visuals are not all that impressive but I am sure that on the high end systems the game looks amazing. I have to look and see if there is an option for auto save. You get so used to having ti there that when I died after the first couple quests I actually had to start all over again.  So far so good, I will keep you all posted.