Installation: went OK. It did that thing where the progress bar just sits there at 100% and you're sitting there wondering if something went wrong, but this is just my lack of faith in machinery. Once it was done doing its undisclosed things, it was ready.

Manual: Memorized the keys while it was installing, skipped the flavor bits so I could come into the world fresh, although I've already seen the movie Stalker a few times and am reading the Strugatskys' novel, which I know are only distant inspirations given the game's back story, but was trying to get in the mood.

Startup: Watched the intro movie, which has a different dialog than the subtitles, which I found funny, even though I know how this sort of thing can happen in localization. Could have been a bit less full of explanations, but at least I understood what my character's role was by the end.

Graphics Fiddling: took the greatest amount of time of anything here. The screen was wavy, I think because we still use a VGA cable. Any people familiar with current age video stuff? I'm betting if we upgrade the cable it'll make it look less burbly. I wound up dropping a lot of the settings just out of wanting the game to run smoothly.

Graphical Settings: I finally settled on something middle-to-low, but I'm not sure it made much of a difference to the wavy screen now that I think of it.

Experience: Walked forward through the low-textured landscape; the grass waving about was good despite my low graphics settings, and I told myself I'd get used to the compromises I made once I got into the game. I reach the crest of a small hill after trying desperately to climb up the sides of cliffs that surrounded the starting area, finding two dudes who are in the middle of a steaming crater. After accidentally dipping a foot in a chemical bath, which seemed to cause some damage, I walk up to the first dude. I don't bother to look up if I can hit a key to talk to the one who is staying back. He's encouraging another guy to go forward into the crater to measure something, so I follow measuring guy, then walk past him, and my chunky body promptly flops to the ground, dead.

Aftermath: I play a full game of Solium Infernum.

Returning to the game now. Hopefully I can make a sturdier mind-game connection or I may wait until I get a better cable. I'll learn the lesson from my predecessor and not be excessively curious. :)

Edit: Getting much farther now. Graphics still troubled, probably due to my machine being passable when the game came out, but have managed to find the starting Stalker base, and pop out now and again to die in all kinds of ways. Still can't figure out if there's a way to sell common junk, though. I'm secretly hoping not since it's a bit crazy to run into a vendor who will buy EVERYTHING.