The complete mod that is. DualReaver bought this a long time ago, and let me use his direct2drive account(I think) to play it, and when I played it then, I did not like it, but I only played for maybe, 1 hour. Maybe even less. So yeah, should I try again with the complete mod? It's probably cheap now, eh? I haven't checked how much it costs. 

I'll just get it I guess.

what didn't you like about it? if it was the super bugginess of the game then you shouldn't play the game without it; if you didn't like the shooting it doesn't affect that in anyway, so...

Its weird, but once you get settled in and know what there's to do it gets fun.

Definitely give it another shot. Once you get into it that game gets really damn good. Totally worth putting time into.

Like most open world games, I like to "veg" out while listening to music. I played Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, and STALKER that way. If that's your thing, it's a good enough game. A word of advice though - don't enter the final area without being fully stocked. Apparently, you can't go back, and I hadn't prepared, so basically I couldn't finish the game. Whatever, it was fun while it lasted. 
 
The shooting is pretty terrible though, or should I say so "accurate" in terms of spread and the like that it blows. The starting weapons especially suck - there's a rather unfair difficulty spike in the beginning, which I imagine put you off. Power through and you should be fine. 
 
You know what? Fuck what I said and just play the first Max Payne.

" what didn't you like about it? if it was the super bugginess of the game then you shouldn't play the game without it; if you didn't like the shooting it doesn't affect that in anyway, so... "

I tried it again, but then I got stuck in a tunnel with too many anamolies on the way out. 
 
I was literally stuck in there, and I would have had to restart 
 

Give it another go and try to play for longer this time. I also tried it for a short time near the time it launched but wasn't in the mood at the time. But i picked up the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. pack around christmas and loved the campaign after spending a couple of hours getting used to the combat/movement and frenetic PDA-checking. Just immersing in to the world. 
 
The earlier weapons may suck but once you get used to it, it's like anything else. Especially when you get to the better weapons just a couple of zones away. Can't recommend this game enough to atleast give it a decent go.

It depends.. If you can isolate the reason it didn't click with you (dated graphics, certain mechanics) and it's remedied by a mod I'd say it's worth a second go, yeah.

Yes. The only thing you did wrong was trying to play the game without any mods. That's a huge, massive no-no for SoC. 
 
It's gone on sale for one dollar a number of times, and has been packaged with Call of Pripyat (which doesn't even need mods) for $5. Wait until it goes on sale again, and if at all possible get Pripyat instead. You probably shouldn't pay full price if you didn't like the vanilla version, because there's still a chance it wont be up your alley. And skip Clear Sky until you get addicted.
 
edit: The Complete mod has a great quicksave function (escape + s) and it makes a new save with the game time and map name each time. It's a lifesaver for those of us who forget to make multiple slots. And there's a realistic weapons addon for it that makes guns more lethal in case you didn't like the pea-shooter nature of them in the beginning.

" Give it another go and try to play for longer this time. I also tried it for a short time near the time it launched but wasn't in the mood at the time. But i picked up the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. pack around christmas and loved the campaign after spending a couple of hours getting used to the combat/movement and frenetic PDA-checking. Just immersing in to the world.  The earlier weapons may suck but once you get used to it, it's like anything else. Especially when you get to the better weapons just a couple of zones away. Can't recommend this game enough to atleast give it a decent go. "

" Definitely give it another shot. Once you get into it that game gets really damn good. Totally worth putting time into. "