Thinking back about it, I'll agree that there could have been better locations in the game. Although given the story (particularly the importance of Metal Gear Ray and Arsenal Gear), I'm not sure there was any other locations that would have worked without a complete rewrite...which maybe should have been done regardless given the complaints about the storyline. Is this a major complaint for you, or just a minor annoyance? I can understand people preferring the bosses to be a bit more believable, but it isn't like they really had a major influence in the games IMO. They're mostly there to provide interesting boss battles IMO (my favorite boss battle in MGS1 involved the most unbelievable character). And even then, a lot of the important baddies were relatively believable. For example, in MGS2, Vamp and probably Fortune could be seen an unbelievable (there's actually an explanation for Fortune's "powers", although I guess it isn't far from the nanomachine-type explanation). Fatman, Ocelot, Olga, Solidus, etc., didn't really have the same faults IIRC (been a while since I played MGS2), and 2-3 of them played a much larger role in the story than Vamp and Fortune. The Cobra unit in MGS3 definitely kicks it up a notch with crazy bosses, but again, they really didn't serve much of a purpose other than providing some nice boss battles. The bosses involved with the story were all pretty normal IIRC (except for Volgin I guess...although I didn't really care for him much anyway). Of course, Decoy Octopus in MGS1 was maybe a bit unbelievable too, but the player never fought him, which I guess makes it easier to forget. I'll agree with KePoW that it is a shame you couldn't get into it. I can definitely understand liking MGS1 over MGS2, but MGS3 seemed a lot like MGS1 in a lot of ways to me, only much better, especially given the advances in graphics, presentation, and gameplay. It seemed much more believable than MGS2 (well, outside of the Cobra Unit, as mentioned earlier), and the story didn't seem nearly as convoluted as MGS2 either. Of course, I really like the story in MGS2 and other games with convoluted storylines, so maybe I shouldn't be the one to say that a story is relatively believable.
Is that Chpt. 6 gametrailers video out yet? I really wanna catch up on the game before I play 4. I beat 1, played and watched someone else beat 2, and only really played 3 for a few minutes.
Yeah, I think they posted it a day or so before the game came out IIRC. I think I posted it earlier in the thread, but here it is again: <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="392"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=35094"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=35094" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="392"></embed> </object>
This is just crazy... ____ In fact, the longest cutscene within the game clocks in around 45 minutes, which can be rather daunting by the numbers. IGN
OK... so I finally finished it. 9.9/10. Almost there. No game in the past year has gotten this far (Bioshock was close, but not enough) towards utter bliss. Like I mentioned before, the graphics are great, possibly the best of all time. Obviously, it's on a 50GB BD disc, so there was room for them. However, throughout the game, there was noticeable slowdown, I'd say the game probably dropped to about ~15-20 FPS. Of course, that's still respectable, considering the graphics made my eyes bug out. Towards the end of the game, you get to hear pretty much every theme song in the MGS series, and all of it is rendered perfectly, no flaws there. Gameplay is in one word, stunning. Controls are flawless except for one thing. When you run and immediately try to drop to a crouch, you have to let go of the stick before you press X or else you'll roll instead. While that might seem obvious to some, in extreme scenarios where guys pop out at you, that split second could be the difference between being caught and staying hidden. Aside from that though, the controls are very smooth. Multiplayer (just tried it for 5 minutes) is alright, I think more testing is needed. Finally, the most important thing of all: (for me) the story. Wow. It's all over. I won't spoil it for you guys, and I won't even hint at what happens at the end, but I'll say, Hideo Kojima did a great job. That's all, no spoilers here. HOWEVER. There are points in the game where it gets cheesy, so cheesy I had to sigh and turn my head. To me, that was the biggest flaw (shows you how good the game is eh?). If the crappy B-movie scenes were cut out for altered, this would be a 10/10 in my book, the best game ever, and will set the bar for graphical prowess, audio perfection, control and gameplay nirvana, and story excellence. Even though it fell short of the perfect game (nothing in life is perfect), it got close enough for me to still call is my favorite game of all time. I haven't had such a good 19 hours in my life. Spoiler BTW, if anyone knows any good tricks to get the Big Boss Emblem, please PM me, I think it's impossible.
There were rumors just prior to release that said the game had a 90 minute cutscene, so 45 minutes doesn't seem so bad in comparison, especially since it is probably 45 minutes of amazing. I guess it is pretty crazy compared to some games, but 45 minutes probably isn't too unusual for a MGS game (pretty sure MGS3 had a cutscene of 30+ minutes...although it was the ending). Thanks for the impressions as always. BTW, did you try using a bluetooth headset for the codec sequences? I read that you could do this, and I was wondering how effective it was. And holy crap, I need to make sure I don't quote someone that has a spoiler tag in their post. I forgot that you can read what someone puts in a tag when you're quoting somebody. Fortunately, I deleted whatever you had in the spoiler tags without reading it, so I didn't get spoiled by whatever you had there.
The thing that put me off this series was the long winded, cheesy story lines, the stories upon stories upon stories that were just stupid and the way the game tried to end up with some moral story at the end. I felt like it become a bit of a circle jerk by the producers......maybe having no one there to step in and say the word "No" to them.
Didn't realize that I never posted these... Along with the Retrospective feature, Gametrailers has dedicated the last few weeks of the Bonus Round to MGS4. I believe the feature wrapped up today, and here are the videos: <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="392"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=34317"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=34317" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="392"></embed> </object> <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="392"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=34633"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=34633" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="392"></embed> </object> <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="392"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=34861"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=34861" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="392"></embed> </object> <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="392"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=35099"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=35099" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="392"></embed> </object> I've forgotten exactly what they talk about in the first 3, but in the last one, they talk about whether this will be the last MGS (for both Konami and Kojima), they talk about a possible MGS movie, and the possibility of MGS4 being released on the Xbox 360.
Played it a bit more this weekend...the later levels seem to be a bit more fun, but the cut scenes are out of control... I was also treated to a "Mission Briefing" for the first time...and WTF...why is that little girl cooking eggs and why do I have to spend 5 minutes watching it? I like how they keep "Mission Briefing" up a the top right corner like it's a real briefing when all you're doing is listen to Snake gag crap up or Raiden sobbing. (seriously, is anyone else constantly disgusted by Snake hacking crap up, which happens EVERY cut scene?) Also, every time you kill one of the weird women uber-bosses, you get a hilarious super in-depth backstory by the weapons guy with the monkey. His voice is almost as funny as Old Snake's and he gets to say super funny corny stuff. Although nothing is as corny as a convo I heard between Snake and Raiden during said briefing. And I like JRPGs, so I'm not completely turned off by hokey dialogue, but this game is pure ridiculousness. I also wish there was alot less gunplay. I know they design the game to give you a choice on how you play it, but when you can essentially buy all of the rockets or bullets you need from the in-game menu...it's hard to not just use it.
NEW CLIP!!!!! <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="392"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=35147"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=35147" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="392"></embed> </object>
i wish i had free time to play i've had the game since launch and i think i've logged in a total of 10-15 minutes....
Yeah. That's pretty much the only weapon I use unless it's a boss fight or one of the fight sequences that you can't avoid.
In Japan, MGS4 sold 476,334 copies in its first week (4 days). Got this from NeoGAF, but I believe this is the actual link (in Japanese): http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1215919_1124.html I got the game yesterday and played up to Act 4. I could make a few comments, but I think I'll just wait until after I finish the game, which will probably be tonight.
Don't read if you haven't finished Act 3: Spoiler The whole boat thing where liquid deactivates the guns was very cool. I want to punch Naomi in the face. That was the coolest video game cut scene I've ever seen. The motorcycle level was cool too. I like how if you weren't aiming, it would be cinematic. Then when you go over that ramp, you could get ten headshots in slow mo mid-air. For how much I hated the level where you were tracking the resistance guy, the end made up for it.
I'm 6 1/2 hrs into the game and I'm still on Act 1. I'm nearing the end of it as Spoiler I'm heading toward's Liquid's camp. I'm using plenty of stealth along with the action and exploring the levels as much as I can. My jaw has dropped multiple times already and this game may have the greatest graphics in any console game ever! I'm eager to find out more of the story!
