I am testing a Sony VAIO Laptop which, despite my continuing misgivings on the newest offering from Microsoft, comes with a 64-bit Windows 8 pre-installed. CPU i5, 4 GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics and also a Radeon HD 7650M Graphics Card installed.
Part of the testing process, in order to see how the games that we know function well on previous versions of Windows will do this time on Windows 8, I started installing some games.
Newer games were relatively alright, as expected. Then I starting going back in time little by little and when it came the Fallout 3 to show its performance on the new OS, Windows immediately raised a pop-up saying that the game had some compatibility issues on Win 8; but I nevertheless went ahead with installing it as we have experience with Windows that such prompts do not always reflect the practical reality. However, this time Windows apparently knew what it was talking about.
After this Fallout 3 disappointment on Windows 8, I had not been left with much optimism before starting to attempt installing the STALKER, as it was even an older game. WRONG! Installation went smoothly, no compatibility warning or else whatsoever.Then good old STALKER fired up on the screen. A quick set-up of various choices, usual things, this and that, and then the game starting to flow on in front of my eyes.
KUDOS to Original GSC (STALKER) developers, that they had so skilfully created a brilliant code so that the game has now managed to continue to live on the 3rd generation of Windows, and undoubtedly will outlive this one as well.
Now to another point. I have not continued too deep into the game (STALKER), therefore, although my experience so far has been rather very positive, I recognize that there still may be glitches to be witnessed along the line; and in that regard, I also heard from other sources that some (relatively small number of) gamers on the STEAM version of STALKER have had some problems when installing and playing on and off basis.
Hence, if anyone is playing the STALKER on Windows 8 and have had any issues with it, they may use this space to post their problems and/or their solutions to overcome those. If that would be the case, then we all can try to help STALKER to continue its journey comfortably on Windows 8 as well.