Okay. Made my first save in Hardcore at the beginning of Chapter 5 after leaving the game paused all night while I was at work.
It has begun. I've got a decent weapons loadout, a pretty good stack of ammo for my two main guns (Plasma Cutter & Pulse Rifle) and a handful of small stimpacks -- haven't encountered any medium or large ones yet, nor do I have the schematics to buy them.
Fuck this game just got intense.

A stalker attacked me from behind in the room where you first meet them and I damn near had a heart attack thinking about having to start all over again. Thankfully he only reduced me about one-third of my health.
There, you have officially been updated on my life.

Whether you wanted to or not.