When any of the three STALKER games are launched, the game will crash/hang/freeze at the splash screen or immediately after (when the screen turns black/full-screen, but before the intro movies or main menus appear). Motherboard: ASUS Striker Extreme (nForce Chipset) Soundcard: SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio It could very well be a problem specific to my own system and no one else's, but you never know!
This is a frustratingly-simple fix which worked for me, and I wanted to post it here in case other people are having the same problem.
