For you S.T.A.L.K.E.R. veterans out there should I play the game vanilla first or simply use the complete mod from the beginning?

http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009

I honestly have next to no idea what S.T.A.L.K.E.R. even is. What genre is it? Is it open-world?

Take a look at these:

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/stalker-shadow-of-chernobyl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkuYe812EPo

It's not open world per-se but sort of broken into large inter-connected areas you can freely traverse, sort of like a Zelda game. In terms of atmosphere it can be compared to Fallout 3, in that both are post apocalyptic worlds filled with bandits and mutants. It's not really an RPG however, and since I never played it I can't comment on the story.

I was playing SoC a bit here and there, first time playing it for me as well.. but I haven't played it in about a month now because of some frustrations I've had with it. I'm not sure when I'll get back into it though, because my focus is on some other games now.

Okay. I like the non-linearity. I might check this out sometime. It better not be a horror game, though. For some strange reason, I can't tolerate those.

Yeah, except that unlike the Capital Wasteland, the Zone does try to kill you. With good success percentage And i do not only mean the creatures and people in it

It is difficult, and very not-hand-holding. The first one especially. And it is an FPS, It has more features than a typical FPS (inventory, side missions, competing factions with reputations, etc.), but still an FPS.

All the complete mod does is fix a bunch of bugs/glitches the devs never addressed. As well as improve the overall quality of graphics, textures, and AI. It doesn't touch the base game. So yes, I do recommend the complete mod, all of them in fact.

+1

Stalker plus the complete mod looks terrific with the best skies I've ever seen in any game.

Oblivion Lost 2.2 or AMK. You'll cry. But it'll be worth it.