I've since downloaded the Ceanos mod CfP and am thoroughly impressed. Near the end I did run it with high res texture mods (Absolute Nature + Absolute Structures) plus AtmosFear V2 and the Darius6 sound effects mod (which is by far the best IMO!). I recently beat it (33 hrs lol) on the regular difficulty, playing mostly as vanilla version.
I know plenty of people on these forums play STALKER, since I see it suggested as a must play in many threads.