[Guillotine]

Damn for all the hype and admittedly great stuff the game has it's a real shame it's about as incomplete as Xenogears.

[Iacus]

Today I loaded my save and Mission 46 was unlocked. Duh.

I bet one of the real criteria for unlocking it is listening to a certain % of the yellow important tapes, because the las time I played I was just doing some side ops and listening to tapes while roaming.
Spoilers below:

I liked the ending, it had a few aha moments, except the main thing is why would this random motherbase guy just get saddled with Big Boss's baggage. They repeatedly say the whole world wants him dead, but if I was him (guy has my name but he ain't me!) I would have bailed from fighting this silly revenge war.
I mean, there was some brainwashing going on, but how do you explain why Venom is so skilled? He can do all the things Big Boss can, except better and with one less arm and a huge, life threatening weakpoint right in the forehead. He is the true legendary soldier.
And that's if you are generous with the suspension of disbelief and ignore that he basically got full physical rehabilitation in the 8 days it took him to reach Afghanistan.

AND the actual "mission" is the exact same as the prologue save for a few minor changes in the cutscene. Why make me replay the whole thing? Just show me the new stuff, I can fill the gaps on my own.
Nevermind that there is no real narrative reason why the "director" delliberately hid information for the player in the prologue only to unhide it at the end and act like it was a twist all along. I bet most of these problems have to do with the game shipping essentially unfinished but the result is unfortunately pretty sloppy.

Oh well, in good Snatcher tradition, showing the MSX at the end was cool and got a chuckle out of me.


In other topic:

MG Online looks super good! I didn't know we would get it if we have MGSV I thought it was going to be a separate purchase and was ready to ignore it at least until a sale. Bonus!

My main worry is that I like to play with a pad even though I'm on PC and I suspect that most PC player would be using mouse which will give them a faster fine aiming accuracy online. I hope they implement some sort of auto aim system.

What would really be neat is if it supported cross play so I could play online with the folks here that have the game on console
_________________
Guayaba 2600

[drobe]

[wasted potential]

[Guillotine]

[Iacus]

There's also the animatic storyboard of the unfinished Mission 51 in the PS4 special edition bluray, that tries to wrap up Eli's plotline after he flees with Sahelanthropus and the third child. There's readily available footage of it on Youtube.

I get the impression that Chapter 2 should have been all new missions as well, with the hardmode missions left for a later, "real" postgame
_________________
Guayaba 2600

[tacotaskforce]

I never played POPs, but in both PW and PP Big Boss is mechanically not the greatest soldier. In PW his stats are locked at 8000 across the board, while you can eventually get any good soldier up to 9999s. In PP he's locked at A++, but you start getting S ranks as soon as you finish chapter 1. By the time I stopped playing PW more than half my combat squad could probably have kicked Big Boss's ass.

Legends being bigger then men has been a theme of MGS for a long time.
_________________

[Victor]

Dis game was real gud to play, sweet game dawgs.

[remote]

i only very recently unlocked quiet as a buddy so i'm progressing fairly slowly through this game

was reading this article and started mostly talking to myself in irc

zone "Plot progresses with occasional cutscenes rarely connected to any particular mission: you’ve played for long enough to see the next story bit."
04:04 zone this is a fair criticism of mgs5, but i want to say that it also kinda misses out on the idea that this is a sim, and feels a lot like xcom in a number of ways, including the way it progresses through a narrative via tiered progression
04:09 swarm the plot really doesn't come into consideration in what makes mgs5 good 4 me
04:09 zone https://twitter.com/AmazingThew/status/643298748915970049
04:10 zone i think there's interesting (if often creepy) stuff in the plot, but no, it's not what makes the game good
04:10 zone that's a big part of why it doesn't matter if it becomes a mess, ultimately
04:10 zone it, like
04:10 zone already is one
04:10 zone from the start
04:11 zone maybe it disintegrates even further, but as the metal gear finale it works just fine that way imo
04:11 zone metal gear dissolution
04:11 zone NOT SO SOLID
04:11 zone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
04:13 zone i might be drinking the kool aid a little bit
04:13 zone not sure
04:15 zone getting some xenogears or dark souls vibes in terms of feeling wrapped up in this huge ambitious mess of ideas that feels weirdly compelling
04:15 zone even if it's a failure in some ways
04:16 zone i mean i think dark souls was relatively successful in what it tried to do, but i'm also aware that things were discarded or omitted
04:16 zone even though it feels complete to me
04:16 zone some things are also complete in their incompleteness
04:16 zone like twin peaks or xenogears

it's just so full of detail — such an actual great video game — that it's like who cares how fucking weird or bad its story gets

and maybe i just sort of need things that feel broken despite their spirit; things that leave me wanting
_________________

letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[chevluh]

I'm up to mission 30 after 70 hours, really liking this!

[Glam Grimfire]

KOJIMA has said that for the events of V (which i think flies in the face of peace walker) that none of the staff on motherbase are buddies, and things would quickly fall apart if not for Big Boss
_________________

##SKELETON PARTY (new article as of 04/26/14)Grim

[Guillotine]

[parker]

[drobe]

_________________
http://i.imgur.com/9ATgokP.gif

[zombieman000]

Wow, that lounge version of Snake Eater is great

[Iacus]

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Finally started playing Ground Zeroes this afternoon

Spent like 2 hours trying to go stealth nonlethal, and couldn't make it past the first checkpoint. Then I tried literally just bum-rushing around the map, looking for the place I was supposed to go and not giving a single shit if I was spotted, and made way better progress in like 5 minutes.

Metal Gear!

Pretty sure at this point I prefer stealthing in Deus Ex and Dishonored, games which do away with archaic cheap shit like having every guard instantly know where you are as soon as one of them sees you. Metal Gear you can either play the "right" way with Fire Emblem levels of obsessive-compulsive perfectionism or the easy way which is unchallenging and unfun.

PS: I'm glad the series finally picked up the Far Cry binocular tagging mechanic but implementing it as holding down R2 while attempting to make fine-tuned maneuvers with the right stick is carpal tunnel syndrome waiting to happen. My wrist is already cramping up.
_________________
Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Mr. Mechanical]

Yeah if you're going in blind on a Metal Gear game it's usually a good idea to just blunder on through to get an idea of what you're supposed to do and where you're supposed to go etc. Perfect stealth runs are for the replays after you've spent some time finding the objectives and goofing around seeing how the game reacts to you.

Anyway in my Phantom Pain game I'm right at the mission where you build an FOB but I'm putting it off for now because I want to develop some more equipment and I'm still trying to decide if I really want to commit to actually defending the FOB from other players and expand it or just leave it a single platform with no staff or anything on it.

I'm still not entirely clear on whether or not resources stolen by invading players are stolen just from the FOB or from your actual mother base as well because I keep reading conflicting reports.

Either way I've got the story on hold while I free roam the game capturing outposts and resources. I need to juggle staff around in order to get my intel and R&D groups high enough to fully upgrade my binoculars so I can start spotting S+ soldiers and break past this bottleneck I've hit in the base building part. I've already dismissed over a third of my total staff and have been replacing them as I explore with better ranked dudes so I'm getting close to where I need to be. Then I'll really be able to start leveling up these units.

As far as narrative goes I think for me the high point in the series is still Snake Eater with maybe the original Metal Gear Solid close behind it. I liked Sons of Liberty and I wasn't able to bring myself to finish Guns of the Patriots when I played it five years ago. I might go back to it someday if I ever truly finish Phantom Pain but this is a game that I could probably play for a very very long time if I was so inclined so I don't know.

I am interested in seeing the rest of the story even though I know that it's incomplete. Like, encounters with Kid Mantis and the Man on Fire in some of these missions are very very "Classic Metal Gear" and for a moment I allow myself to think that maybe I'll get to see some kind of resolution to it or find out what happens with these strange characters etc. but I know I won't. It's a disappointment but I've made peace with it.

Also did anyone see the super secret disarmament cutscene? Apparently it only appears in-game after every FOB has been disarmed of its nuclear weapons. So it's like basically another ending to the game which I thought was really cool but have my doubts that it'll actually happen because right now most people with FOBs seem to be taking the path of building and maintaining nukes. Though I'm sure some players, if united and properly motivated, might be able to pull it off for real if there were enough of them and it was a really sustained effort. Maybe even they could convince most players to disarm themselves or not develop nukes in the first place. But man that's clever as hell, hiding that scene in there with that kind of requirement.
_________________

[Felix]

the more I think about it, the more Snake Eater is head and shoulders above the rest of the series narratively, and indeed way above 99% of narrative videogames.

eurogamer did a feature recently where they referred to the first game as "the first modern videogame" and the second game as "the first postmodern videogame" -- I like that, though I'd tend to disagree with the second on the basis of earthbound -- and generally I think it's accurate, and where a lot of their credit comes from (not to cheapen kojima's legitimately interesting and unique tone/direction), but the third actually tells a good story with a point and it's consistently clever but not too clever.

and I also found ground zeroes to be overly punishing when I first tried it. I got there eventually, and I still haven't played phantom pain because of how hit-or-miss I was on ground zeroes and how I'm generally not that fond of the narrative of the newer titles.

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

I really don't think MGS3 is all that special narratively at all. It has the best gameplay mechanics and level design of the older titles but the plot never left much of an impression on me except in relation to the backstory of the other titles. MGS1 is a straightforward and fairly witty Hollywood pastiche, MGS2 (by far the most interesting work Kojima's ever done writing-wise) is a strange and haunting self-reflexive thing, MGS4 is the deformed, lifeless concession to the fanboys, and MGS3 just... is. Its main significance narratively is that it expands the series' setting into an entire fictional world with its own alternate history. On its own merits though, it doesn't have the punchy self-awareness of 1 or the introspection of 2, and hasn't yet reached the self-conscious bloat of 4. It's just... there.

Also what the hell is "the first postmodern video game", video games are a postmodern medium
_________________
Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Felix]

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

The first video game where the "protagonist" of the "story" dies and comes back to life every 30 seconds or so was the first postmodern video game
_________________
Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

In all seriousness a lot of people (including myself, at one time) seem to use "postmodern" as just a sophisticated-sounding word for "self-reflexive" or "self-aware" but really it's a lot more than that (don't ask me for a concise definition though because it is an absolute bitch of a term and I am still trying to fully understand it myself)

If anything about MGS2's narrative is truly "postmodern" it's the themes of information, knowledge and identity in the digital age and the way it uses self-reflexivity to convey them

(paging Adi to school us all on this)
_________________
Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Intentionally Wrong]

Metal Gear Solid 2 : Metal Gear Solid 3 :: Silent Hill 3 : Silent Hill 4

That is to say, the former games are all deliberately derivative sequels. They are novel in their approach to being sequels, but they also cram in a lot of conceptual and narrative baggage the weighs things down unnecessarily. Still, the mechanical formula has never been as elegant or effective.

The latter games step into a new direction, an unfamiliar setting, and an unusual structure. They work as well as they do in large part for how self-contained they are; the references exist, but these are their own games. Also, they both chop a big piece of outdoor environment into a series of rectangular chunks with obvious and artificial divisions.

I have more respect for the latter games, but more fondness for the former.
_________________
JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[Iacus]

[parker]

max payne 1 / silent hill 2 / mgs 2 my formative 9/11 trilogy
_________________

[CubaLibre]

[Persona mobile]

I thought I had beaten the game and then I forgot it was just CHAPTER 1.

This game is huuuuge.

I enjoyed this one mission with the prefix [SUBSISTENCE] where you have no equipment, no buddies, no nothing and you have to blow up a radio communication device and procure all weapons on site. It was surprisingly easy given how useful CQC, fultoning, and the prosthetic arm sonar/clacking noise is.

I hope there's more missions like this!
_________________

[Mr. Mechanical]

[Rud31]

[Iacus]

I loved the subsistence missions. My favorite hardmode type.
But the one where you have to blow up two tanks with nothing is much harder
_________________
Guayaba 2600

[parker]

on that mission you can just run down the road and hide behind a rock, wait for the jeep and two tanks to come along, and fulton them while they're exclamationing at your presence. miller is even impressed you somehow knew ahead of time where the vehicles were going to come from.

I also didn't realize til late but you can exit missions by climbing on top resource containers and fultoning them out and holding y/triangle to go with them
_________________

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Beat all the missions and got all Chico tapes (ugh) in Ground Zeroes

Finally about to start Phantom Pain, what should I know going in
_________________
Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

PS the Chico tapes are even more uncomfortable and tonally jarring because once I realized Chico's voice is Pit from Kid Icarus/Smash Bros. I can't unhear it
_________________
Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Ymer]

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

What the hell? I made a post about the intro hospital level and it got zapped. Is my connection shit or did someone with admin powers go crazy?

Anyway

Important Questions: Why does Ocelot suddenly have a Texas accent? (Apart from, "He's suddenly voiced by a guy from Texas.")
_________________
Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[shrugtheironteacup]

a weapon to surpass d-dog D:
_________________

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Okay so I lost patience and looked up some spoiler videos, including ones discussing the cut content

Plot-wise this is starting to sound like Xenogears (or even Xenosaga) levels of over-ambitious catastrophe

In terms of the game itself being severely compromised in its final form due to high-level conflicts between mad genius auteurs and corporate constraints, I'm also getting distinct Final Fantasy XII vibes
_________________
Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Glam Grimfire]

every console generation needs a Final Fantasy XII, i am stoked we got ours so early. What was last gens, Nier?
_________________

##SKELETON PARTY (new article as of 04/26/14)Grim

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Nier didn't have a ballooning budget, half-decade development cycle and high-profile game designer who left his company of employment over it

So... The Last Guardian?
_________________
Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

All the stuff about scenes from the trailers being missing from the game and major plot threads being left on the cutting room floor also reminds me of Killer7 (RIP Suda)

It is kind of hilarious that all the trailers and the entire prologue game basically sold it as being the Star Wars Episode III of the Metal Gear franchise and the final product is apparently something else entirely
_________________
Just another savage day on Planet Earth.