The first one is one of the best games I've ever played. Everyone said it was so buggy it was unplayable, but I didn't find any bugs while playing o_0 (except stupid AI sometimes, but in a game of that scale, the job they did on the AI is nothing short of astounding). It never crashed either.
Admittedly, I played it like 1.5-2 years after release or something, so it had had quite a few patches.
I'm waiting for a video card which can render CS at 1920x1080 with all options on max at 45fps+ before I play it though. I believe the game deserves it, and I know I'm never going to play it again anyway probably...
There's very few, if any, other games which get the "post-apocalyptic / radiation / mutants / war" fantasy theme so well.
There was also some map design and content which was absolutely beautiful - which is something, in my opinion, that only an Eastern European / Russian developer could get "right."
There are many places throughout the game which I remember as if I were really there, and the whole thing felt like an epic, dreamlike journey with an appropriately amazing ending (although the game received a lot of flak for the ending, which "wasn't good enough"). Not good enough my ass.
In short, I loved it and thought it was a lot more involving than other games of similar genre (Fallout 3, Far Cry 2)...
