Only scrubs play on anything but Master difficulty.

Jokes aside, for someone first venturing into Stalker, I would recommend starting with Shadow of Chernobyl as it introduces the player to all aspects of gameplay, story, and setting, letting the player settle in, while Call of Pripyat kinda just throws you into the gameworld without explaining much.
The game is still pretty unforgiving though, so if you're totally new to Stalker you should probably start playing on Stalker difficulty.

Also, in my opinion, it's the overall better game, aside from the bugs, some of which are gamebreaking - I wouldn't recommend a mod like Complete (or any other graphical enhancement mods) on a first playthrough as these often mess with the sound- and graphical effects to such a degree that much of the eerie atmosphere from the vanilla game vanishes. One of the stronger points of SoC vs CoP is the atmosphere of the surroundings and the general sense of mystery regarding the Zone, which I'd say is one of the most important factors in making the game feel so unique. Therefore I'd rather recommend a mod like the Zone Reclamation Project, which only aims to fix glitches and annoyances, while keeping the atmosphere of the original game intact. I haven't tried it myself though so I can't personally vouch for it, but it's supposed to do what it sets out to do well.

Regarding why I think the original game is better; the atmosphere, as mentioned, is very unique - on my first playthrough I had such a weak system I had to play on low visuals, with static lighting, but I was still amazed by the level of immersion, although playing on high graphics would probably be preferable, as the lighting does have a lot to say for the overall mood of the game. The story and the lore (such as entries in the player character's PDA one can read), as well as the sound design, contributes to making the zone feel mysterious, oppressive... which is further enhanced by the often brutal, unforgiving gameplay. The gameworld also often feels alive, with the things you come across alluding to being part of a bigger picture and serving some kind of twisted purpose. I think this is also reflected in the way the story and overall game progression unfolds, with things getting progressively more brutal, surreal and nightmarish, it kinda reminds me of Apocalypse Now in some regards.

The gameplay also contributes to the world feeling oppressive, as you can't actually repair any equipment, so you often have to discard whatever you're carrying and pick up something from the ground just to survive. This becomes especially apparent near the end of the game, where it really feels like the world around you only wants to see you dead. 

Call of Pripyat, on the other hand, has an extremely boring and predictable story (and the story in the original game did a lot for the game's sense of mystery), and the three major areas the player travels through feel kind of like carnivals - there are these "attractions" or "hotspots" where one can find clusters of anomalies, enemy hideouts and such, while the rest of the zone is overall quite empty. This makes travelling from one "attraction" to another quite boring, and making the gameworld feel more constructed and arcade-like.

On the other hand, it is much more stable than the original game, with very little in the way of bugs and glitches, and nearly no gamebreaking ones. One can easily play the vanilla game, no mods, and not have to worry about crashes and the like (although I'd recommend a fov fix as the default fov is at like 65 or something equally horrid). It has many gameplay features not found in the original, such as making looking for artifacts harder and more worthwhile (in SoC they are just scattered across the ground), stashes being properly hidden, sidequests that span over time and maps, as well as being able to repair and upgrade equipment - this last one probably contributes to the game feeling less unforgiving, but it also makes it a bit easier, again making the gameworld feel less oppressive.

Now you may think I hate CoP, but I actually don't, I think it's a great game, both on its own and as a Stalker game - it's just when comparing it to the original game I have to favor the original, as the atmosphere and overall impression of that game had a much bigger impact on me, and CoP felt more predictable. Both are well worth playing though. I think the perfect Stalker game would combine the best parts of SoC and CoP, too bad we won't ever see Stalker 2.

For second playthroughs of the games, I recommend http://www.moddb.com/mods/old-good-stalker-evolution
for Shadow of Chernobyl, and Sigerous Mod 1.7 for Call of Pripyat. Both of these keep much of the atmosphere and overall feel of the vanilla games intact while adding stuff like more missions, weapons, items, and characters, without adding a lot of unnecessary shit like so many other mods do - I believe later versions of Sigerous Mod also do this, which is why I recommend 1.7.

Regarding OGSE, the only thing I didn't like was that the ambient music is disabled, which kinda ruins the atmosphere. This is supposedly easily fixed by messing with some config file, but I have no idea how as googling didn't help me get much wiser.

Clear Sky can easily be skipped. 

All three STALKER games are now available on GOG. 

Thanks for the comments on the various STALKER mods. I'm always looking forward to playing those games and while I've loved the Complete mods, I'd like to try out something different the next time I give the games a playthrough. Autumn Aurora has been on my ModDB tracking list for a good while now, might give it a try next.

One thing I hate is having to constantly tinker with the backpack and its effect on stamina. There's so much walking in the game that there should be infinite sprint rather than the irritating system they have now. 

Too bad both Stalker Evolution & Aurora are for the first game only. I was planning on going through CS & CoP next since SHoC is the last one I played and I've played it twice already whileas I've played the other two just once. 

there is infinite sprint in stalker - you just need correct artifacts. two moonlites and you can sprint forever :-). 

It's a great mod with fantastic visuals and sounds while keeping the stalker atmosphere intact. Definitely recommended! 

That's a usefully detailed and informative view of the various versions of Stalker.

PITY IT'S ALL ENTIRELY FUCKING IRRELEVANT BECAUSE ALTHOUGH THE GAME JUST ABOUT MANAGES TO LOAD AFTER 5 DAYS, ATTEMPTING TO CHANGE ANY SETTINGS WHATSOEVER IN THE MENU CAUSES A BLACK SCREEN CRASH EVERY FUCKING TIME WITHOUT EXCEPTION. DID I JUST SPEND A TENNER TO SPEND MORE TIME EDITING THE FUCKING USER.LTX FILE THAN PLAYING THE CUNTING GAME?? NO I DID FUCKING NOT. BROKEN PILE OF SHIT.

P.S. If anyone has a reliable fix for this then feel free to help me out. 

Only took me an hour to fix. Turning off compatability mode for Steam fixed it. Of course I expected to have to fuck around removing registry settings to get a 2007 game with multiple patches to work. Cunts. 

Looking over the features for the Zone Reclamation mod, I think you'd actually be wise to install that if this is your first playthrough. Sounds like it can make the experience much better by removing most of the annoyances from the vanilla game. 

Two Moonlight artifacts and I was able to sprint from the helicopter crash site near the mercs, almost completely back to the Trader in Cordon. I had to pause just before the railroad. 

For the Lost Alpha mod. :( 

Yeah that's gonna be practically the fourth STALKER game. All their cockteasing only makes the wait more anguishing. 

Thanks skacky, hadn't noticed it was on GoG! 

That looks great, I'd pay for it if they were charging. I hope it's treated like a whole new chapter/game, or a reboot, and not just a remake of Stalkers' early build. Looks like it's almost ready to be released too. 

Chivalry, the original, is awesome. If I had more time, I'd play it more. I have the new one and have tried it, it seems pretty good. Of course, I would like it to be faster and more Rune-ish; I'd also like the gameplay and level design to be more vertical; but overall it's awesome, especially large online team battles (deathmatch or assault). The map "Ruins" that came with the original is a gigantic and gorgeous ruined medieval middle-eastern city; so obviously I'm going to like that. 

http://store.steampowered.com/news/12352/

Well worth checking out. It's good fun especially in coop mode. Maybe even for biased poor-taste wankwads like Shambler! >:) 

This is a fantastic concept for a Kinect game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9GU9XRTYAc 

Cool. Actually just started playing Borderlands1 today. Not that impressed so far though, I'm up to lvl 12 except almost everything I've got left to do (main quest and optional quests) are all lvl 14+ so not too sure what I'm supposed to do, just drive around running the same respawning enemies over and over until I've levelled up enough or grin and bare and hope I survive doing the quests that I'm not at an appropriate lvl to do yet. Very lame.

I can see the design getting old soon too if it doesn't change it up somehow. 

Solo can get quite boring and feel pointless after a while. Additionally, the first game has quite a few issues which were addressed in BL2 which makes the sequel a smoother experience overall. I recommend getting one or two buddies to join to make it worthwhile (because playing with random strangers often sucks).

Admittedly the graphic style is something that may put off certain people. It's possible to disable the black outlines with an ini tweak to make it look a little bit less comicy perhaps. I don't mind it though. 

That instantly looks waaay nicer. 

That would have worked better for BL1 than BL2, I think. 

Love the black outlines.

The game feels a bit pointless though. (Only played the first one.) 

<@negke> for bal http://0.media.dorkly.cvcdn.com/54/79/a3c60f9991467c974a246743e92b7d25.jpg 

I broke func again!! Twice in a fortnight, I am teh rawk.