Best Metal Gear poll

I'm tempted to vote o.g., for fond memories (don't think I ever finished it, though?), but the first PS one is so great. Played it through at least twice and I'd do it again if I knew what happened to my Playstation.

(haven't played any of the others)

MGS1 is the only one I've finished (and I own 5 of them!). It was good, I voted for it. The meta- stuff in the game (that impossible boss puzzle, the code on the box, etc) was really cleverly done. It's a much funnier series than many people think.

Snake Eater is haaaard, because even though you could breeze through it if you memorized the layouts/enemy patterns, it was enough of a departure the other two MGSes that I felt like I was in a wholly unfamiliar environment.

MGS2 was too easy, but that one meta moment near the end was awwwwesome. Also, loffles from my friends because I could never get past the naked sneaking part without being spotted, even on Easy.

I probably like MGS1 even if I only played it on the GC port. In what other game is canine pee a useful part of the game?

what was the boss puzzle in msg1?

all i really remember is having to plug the controller into the other port for the mind reader gas mask boss, and the awesome sniper rifle section.

i think he means psycho mantis / gas mask dude, who is impossible w/o doing that trick

yup.

(it's possible, but very hard, to hit him without doing it)

Claymores?

Or would that be cheap? (Would it even work?)

He explodes them... telepathically. You just need a lot of luck to hit him with gun shots.

There's actually another hint to switching controllers I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. Before the battle, he looks at your savegames and says special things if you have other Konami games on your memory card. But he only looks at the saves in the card in port 1... This wasn't a very good hint since most gamers didn't have a lot of Konami games, and a lot didn't have a second memory card.

I had konami games on both memory cards and that still didn't even occur to me until you said it right now.

the thing too with shooting him on controller port 1 is that it only did like a pixel of damage, making it actually impossible to do w/o the ammo bandana

MGS 3 is the only one I've played and beaten so far, but the Subsistence version - with the much improved camera (I guess). Definitely one of the very best long games I've ever played. There's so much good stuff in there, I wish I could find the time to play through it again.

Tried out, but didn't care for the first two Metal Gear games (included on disc two of Subsistence). Have recently picked up the first two Metal Gear Solids, but haven't has time to dig into 'em yet. Have played a few missions in portable ops and it seemed ok, I just don't hardly ever pull out the handheld, so...

Anyhow - what I've seen of MGS4 makes me think it's going to end up being the best of the bunch. Can't wait!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Definitely the original. Loved that game.

MGS1 was the game that got me back into playing consoles, and marveling at the amount of narrative they could stick into a psx game.

i watched an MG1 speed run and i think i must have gotten really far as a kid, maybe even beaten it? weird since i don't remember playing it all that much.

i must have gotten really far as a kid

i was 21 when i first played the game. Don't make me feel old, junior.

I played 2 to death, even going so far as to go through several times collecting dog tags, and completed 1 a couple of times

3 (w/out the decent camera) was one of the worst games I've ever played and I'm a little worried wasting my money by shelling out for subsistence

subsistence is so great. I didn't really like MGS2 (didn't bother to finish it). Haven't played the others.

Snake? Snake?!?!? SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!!!!!!

(MGS1)

kingfish, are you 42?

I think Jordan was talking about Metal Gear 1, no bloody "Solid," "Substance," or "Subsistence." It's probably safe to assume that we were all kids at the time of MG1.

yes

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

oh, i thought you meant mgs. Yeah, MG 1 i was 10 or so.

That doesn't mean none of us played that or even (for Outer Heaven's sake) Snake's Revenge as a kid. I find this kind question of moot anyway, since, let's face it, every game is a remake of the same game over and over again. Of course the new ones are going to be better!

I still love the ones I've played, I dig the whole reflexive, self-eating mythology of it all.

lol @ the idea that these games are improved every time they're remade!

g*d damn i just remembered trying to make it up all those stairs at the end of MGS2, it took my like three days

later i read that you could just pop a bunch of stun grenades and probably not even fire a shot

i never end of using like half the things i have in my pack

never used:
- rotten food as weapon
- empty ammo magazine as weapon
- girly mags
- microphone
- life sensor

what really turned things around for me playing through subsistence was realizing i could blow up ammo dumps and food storage rooms.. made things a LOT easier in later levels where you know you're going to have to fight

i honestly still never really got the hang of CQC - i snapped a few necks, interrogated and did the body shield stuff a few times but i think never threw a dude down once. they put so much emphasis on it in the dialogue, menu screen and instructions that i would have thought it would be much more integral but honestly if you get to the point where you're grabbing someone by the throat you might as well just blow him away with the shotgun

were the stairs in MGS1 too? that sounds really familiar.

MGS2 was pretty awful, I thought. Totally lost interest within four or five hours.

It's a toss-up between MGS1 and the original, for me.

Pretty sure there was a stairs section in MGS1 too, but a lot shorter/less dramatic. But I could easily be confusing it with another scene. MGS2 made a significant story point of how EVERYTHING IS THE SAME AGAIN, though, so it's likely something was there.

I loved MGS 2, but I love the crazy meta-game/story aspects of it all. The incomprehensible bullshit final chapter, fission mailed, all that stuff. Though I can also understand why that + Raiden would piss off a lot of gamers. MGS 1 is defintitely 'tighter' but I gotta give MGS2 credit for its sheer pompous ambition, and in many respects it's a better game. Those of you who didn't get to the end would likely still hate it, however.

Didn't even play Snake Eater, someday I'll pick up a PS2 for myself. *gulp* (I played MGS2 on a friend's box)

I loved MGS2 for the exact same reasons you mentioned, Nhex. I liked MGS3 a lot less while plaaying it, but in retrospect I might like it more?

snake eater's good, but even better with the subsistance version. the improved camera make all the difference.

MGS1 is the best of course. Best plot, best villains, best corny-but-awesome dialogue, best setting. MGS2 has an awesome game engine and plays like a dream though the plot is dopey as hell. I did like the effort to fuck around with the player's expectations a little, though.

I think MGS1 was the first time I've ever been emotionally invested in a game (unless you count being scared by the Resident Evils). It really renewed my faith in videogames.

Ha, 25-year-old roommate got misty-eyed when he got to the part where you find you've been double-crossed by the woman in MSG1!

I finally put MGS1 in for the first time a couple of nights ago. I think it really shows how amazingly fast the progress in graphics has been. It's weird to think that this game is only ten years old & how much more they can do visually just ten years later. It does make it little harder to play when I have the vision of MGS4 arriving shortly.

It's interesting though. Seems like a hard, trial by error type game. Walk ten feet, die, game over - okay I gotta figure out a different way to get there. It does make it a little frustrating, like to finally sneak past all the guys in the first room, make it to the elevator, then it tells you to hide again till the elevator arrives, hide successfully until the elevator shows up, run to it, only to discover a guy with a machine gun inside who kills you, game over. Also for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to do the final VR mission :(

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/images/ngi/mgs1.jpg
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/images/ngi/mgs2.jpg

A $30 collection of all 3 MGS games in coming for PS2 in March.

... so the english fan translation of policenauts is out but I have no idea where to even start to get it running on my mac. : /

Metal Gear Solid 2 is the best...

its just the best mix of what makes MGS great. I can play that one over again and again.....

the graphics still stand up and that was 8 years ago.

I did actually mean MGS1 up there i.e. the part with the stairs. My writing and grammar is atrocious on this thread so far!

I think Snake Eater is the best. But I'm partial to games that take place outdoors.

cozwn I hear ya - PS1 emulators haven't been in development for Mac since pre-Intel :(

i had some amazon credit that was going to expire, so i ordered the metal gear hd collection (apparently all i want in a game lately is stealth, after deus ex and batman). which should i play first, mgs 2 or 3? never played either.

2 is not great. loooooong cutscenes, unlikable protagonist, lame setting.

3 is awesome. one of the best games for ps2. suffers from occasional cutscene overload but the setting, the bizarre gameplay systems, the boss battles, etc are all great. the camouflage is fun too--it persists into the cutscenes so the entire ending sequence featured snake in absurd kabuki makeup.

and the theme song. and then the joker track with the mg3 theme song sample becomes even more amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RadZTuZEKlM

but don't listen to that til you see it in the game

i'm gonna listen to it

i listened to it

you played yourself son

lol.

2 is not great. loooooong cutscenes, unlikable protagonist, lame setting.

i thought the mgs2 ship is supposed to be some classic shit? but i'll give 3 a shot first.

i played from start thru the 2nd vulcan raven fight in mgs1 yesterday. gonna beat that fucker tonight. feel a mgs marathon coming on. any opinions on acid or portable ops? have peacewalker via the HD collection.

i couldn't hang with mgs3. :( got too frustrated by the controls and either waiting forever or committing suicide every time the alarm sounded.

did you play mgs2 at all? i'm looking forward to rescreening it.

btw there is a cyborg ninja-themed action game coming out (with kojima "input" but made by the bayonetta/vanquish dudes) and it is called METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE

nope, although i have it on the HD disc now.

what are you playing the first one on?

ps3 via the ps1 classics thing. $10, kind of a lot for a game i've bought twice already but honestly i got more out of that $10 yesterday than i've gotten out of say skyrim. mgs1 rules though honestly i am not looking forward to the vulcan raven fight when i get home. the 2nd sniper wolf fight was already pretty frustrating. i'd forgotten what huge strides were taken, control- and content-wise, between 1 and 2 (and the gamecube remake). i keep wanting to hide bodies and look in lockers and aiming is impossible (hence sniper wolf nerdrage).

waiting for a good deal on the HD collection, i'd love to play 2 again after so many years. still have yet to play any of the games past Twin Snakes, though

snake eater has the best gameplay

I have MGS4 and never finished it for some reason! didn't get that far in. Maybe I'll restart it sometime soon, but I have the suspicion that means 45 minutes worth of exposition.

i've found MGS games have gotten more fun with the advent/widespread adoption of wifi etc as i can sit in front of the couch with my laptop and dick around on ilx or whatever while people in the game babble about foxdie etc.

also at the end of 2 many years ago during the 45 minute cutscene i just rested the dual shock on my balls and read a magazine. nice way to spend an afternoon.

oh hey i was wrong, mgs2 is in fact great. the part where snake is all sneaking around in the cargo hold of the tanker w/ all the marines and the commander dude has them stretching their necks and doing drills to prepare for intruders is fucking brilliant.

Played a little of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance tonight. OMFG. Easily the best MG game I have ever played. I tried the others and I just can't deal w the oblique control scheme. This is more like playing Contra. In fact, it's like playing the game you made up on the bus home from school w your BFF the day after playing NES Contra for the first time. My sole complaint is the music (generic techno/emo/electro/goth Rob Zombie remixing My Chemical Romance) but even when it's really cheesy, it adds to the Visual Kei flair of the whole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysBLfZhGWvQ

LOL. How is that not awesome, in a b-movie kind of way? This is Michael Bay X anime only you are the cinematographer and lead character. And your name is introduced (by the Prime Minister, in a limo) as Mr. Lightning Bolt. 20 minutes later, I am leaping from missile to missile (still in full control of the camera) and then on top of a giant robot that I slide down the entire length of (while more missiles shoot at me) (like in that Mission Impossible movie) while I slice him in half with my giant sword (which levitates and is electric for some reason). No action movie comes close to topping this.

Who needs Citizen Kane? This is video gaming's Die Hard.

The sense of humor is great, too. The game is ridiculously fast paced (hyper real) and you NEVER have to walk. If you want to walk, the key is the hard-to-reach "Tab" and it's so slow, it seems sarcastic.

revengeance rules. ground zeroes kinda does too, gross japanese stuff aside.

platinum games should be handed every franchise and allowed to go to town

MGRR is Contra X Ninja Gaiden

Ok now im somewhere neat/at the canals in Italy ninja-sword-fighting a bunch of Boba Fetts.

The 'slice the enemy into as many pieces as you can' trick never gets old because this game looks amazing, and having 200 individual glowing robot pieces floating in slow motion while you dice them is just....wow

Finally * FINALLY * made it past the title screen on Metal Gear Solid. The gameplay is pretty nice, but I really love the cutscenes. Every time the screen changes to the green skype of a surrealist military soap opera, I love it. The voice acting is the BEST EVER and they got the most grizzled colonel guy ever, he sounds so effing tough when he's telling you "Press the action button to go up a ladder"! I can already tell this game is going to rule, like first-person Japanese James Bond. Konami: where games about shadow military organizations come with more depth, drama, horror, philosophy, surrealist banter, poetry, special effects, one-liners, graphic design, and artistic integrity than the All-Time USA Box Office Top 10 combined.

Hah!

Make sure you use the comms as much as possible, even in the middle of boss fights, if you want to fully enjoy the skype drama.

i've been playing through 3; beat THE END the other day. i was following his muddy footprints up a hill when a sudden glint from his scope on a neighboring ledge made me drop prone and slither through grass up the rest of the hill, and just as i reached the crest a light rain whispered in, slowly. kinda transcendent.

mgs2 deserved a vote here; it may be the funniest game i've ever played.

I made it past the first boss fight and had a long rumination on the dangerous post-war proliferation of nuclear weapons with the president before he had a 'heart attack'. Before he died he told me to check the back of the CD case LOL.

I wrote down these names because they are amazing:

Psycho Mantis
Sniper Wolf
Decoy Octopus
Vulcan Raven
Revolver Ocelot
Liquid Snake

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091226190134/metalgear/images/d/d9/Mantis_Castlevania.jpg

Snake: "You're a ninja!"

I just met up w the otaku dude. LOL this game is amazing. And of course Snake is this total super-serious badass who doesn't mind just waiting for this guy to say whatever he wants to about Japanese anime or cute butts or whatever. I love that shimmering camouflage effect, it sort of looks like someone made a programming mistake one day and Kojima saw it and was like "Oh, I'm going to write that in as a plot device!"

There is some history of metal gear thing on youtube where they have all the characters on playing cards or something and go through the entire series chronologically and it is one of the nerdiest things I have ever watched.

I just beat Psycho Mantis and it was AMAZING. The whole black screen of death and switching controllers (didn't find anything on my memory card tho) really amped up the tension in the fight. The gameplay in MGS is tight and the cut-scenes (which are a big issue for Kojima's critics) are so well-written and pretty much perfectly integrated into the game. I'm not a fan of the modern trend towards cut-scenes, but in this game they are MASTERFULLY woven into the gameplay. It is quite the seamless experience!

Predator, Star Wars, and The Terminator are all big influences on the writing. Got to give a hand to Jeremy Blaustein for the English translation!

The whole sequence where you are running up this giant Communications Tower up like a dozen flight of stairs and bad guys are shooting at you from behind, so you're chucking flash grenades at them, then you get to the door and it's frozen shut, so you end up on the roof in a standoff against a helicopter, who ends up blowing up the roof while you leap from explosion Die Hard style is AWESOME. I am finally comfortable with these controls :)

Hal and Dave, that's a good one! Maybe we should take a trip to Jupiter!

i just bought the new one

basically because i have about 50000000 things to do in the next 6 days and this seems like a good way of not doing them

i died about 100000000 times

So I just started playing MGS2, and I've made it past the first part of the game and onto the second protagonist. The "Did you say 'nerd'?" "Not nerd, node." exchange felt VERY David Lynch. In fact, the whole story is feeling more and more David Lynch. What's the deal w that skull mask? How come there is an all-new, far less cool, scene showing whenever you die? I know, I know, the game gets meta, nobody spoil anything but answering my questions please.

But sweet Jesus the cutscenes in this game are overkill. There are some in the first one, but here they really do seem to last a long time. Again, this is both ok because the writing in this series is pretty special, and not ok because the gameplay/controls/graphics are so far improved over the first MGS that whenever it's taken away from you, it sort of sucks. This is the big auteur game? Has anyone played Policenauts?

The cutscenes do not get any shorter

Hahaha, wait until you get to the end of the game

as this poll reflects mgs1 is mad superior to mgs2 (which I actually just didn't like much: terrible dialogue, uninteresting plot (also nonsensical, but that's ok), silly villains, not much new gameplay) and also to mgs3 which has great gameplay but really lacks a good storyline and omg enough with the "what is a warrior"-philosophizing omg infinite codecs.

just completed mgs2 yesterday and almost fell asleep during final codec-conversation (but thematically mgs2 is pretty good, just doesn't translate into as fun an experience as 1 or 3)

but still they are all pretty good games compared...

but now i'm gonna play mgs1 :D

btw really nice to read your "live-posting" on mgs1 :)

raiden's nonstop bewilderment in 2 is hilarious. "!?". he is a man who has only played video games and does not expect them to be like this one. said it in the other thread but iirc he's told at the very beginning that there's "30 billion dollars in cash" involved in the affair, and then every time he asks about it after that nobody knows what he's talking about. it just blows away in the wind of the "plot".

(that was technically a spoiler, but don't worry; this game is in the volume business.)

we need to link this thread in: Metal Gear Solid 2

Yeah Raiden is hilarious, when he takes over. I finished Revengeance last week and he's basically and unstoppable killing machine in that, so it's funny to see where he came from. Nontop bewilderment otm.

The more I read about Kojima the more it seems like a George Lucas case, of an artist who accidentally made a huge genre-defining work and is now forever beholden to that work if only out of monetary necessity. Every successive game he says is the last one, and yet they won't let him go. The list of all the Metal Gears he has written/directed/produced comes to nearly 30 games in the past 15 years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideo_Kojima#Metal_Gear_series

Btw the PC port of MGS2 is amazing, one of the best ports ever. It even recognized my Rock Candy wireless PS2 controller at the key config. (And of course the controller always turns itself off during the cutscenes. Then someone in a cutscene goes "Snake! Snaaaake!" and I turn it on again, ready to play. Then the cutscene continues for another 5 minutes and the controller turns itself off again LOL)

lol volume business

this talk is almost inspiring me to finally pick up Snake Eater. almost. i'm almost there.

The build up and ending of MGS2 is the most nonsensical thing I've ever encountered in video game form! It's kind of amazing that it exists.

this is a common Japanese conversational device, drives me nuts when i hear it - "this cake is good" "... so, you think this cake is good?" "yes ... yes" "... i see" - well thank fuck they established the cake is good

I thought I heard that there is no cake, though.

this talk is almost inspiring me to finally pick up Snake Eater. almost. i'm almost there.

setting/plotwise i prefer time-crisis-on-acid to coldwar fantasia because while both are "dumb" the first one is video games devouring themselves and leaving nothing behind and the second is them wading kinda ineptly into a different pool, but 3 really does have terrific gameplay setpieces. the muddy greens/browns of the "soviet jungle" were kind of a problem for me on the ps2 (compared to the clean, anonymous "facility level" lines of the big shell, or even shadow moses) but i expect that's a lot better in the hd remaster. anyway the sniper duel alone is worth whatever you get it for.

Japanese conversational device!?

haven't played any metal gear since the first MGS, but i'm playing Revengeance now and it's just damn fun, plain and simple. it's like everything i could want out of an action game. platinum games is definitely becoming one of my favorite developers.

Interested because I see it as one of the options on this poll -- did anyone ever play Ghost Babel? iirc it was a color remake of MGS, but with different characters... I had a friend who played it (a guy who didn't own a tv console after the SNES, but was pretty faithful to portable gaming) and he said it was fantastic, one of the best portable games he'd ever played. I am fascinated, but probably not enough to go back to a 2000 game boy game.

I did! can't say I remember much but I was super impressed at the time. I'd bet that it holds up.

It has a good reputation, though I've never played it either.

Holy shit MGS2 is starting to go crazy on me! I love this:

Colonel: I hear it's amazing when the Purple-stuffed worm in Flap-jaw space, with the tuning fork, does a raw-blink on Hari-kiri Rock! I need scissors! 61!

Colonel: I was a North American Fall Webworm in my past life. Those were the good old days... What were you in your former life?

Sorry, if these are spoilers, this is amazing, like walking into a David Lynch movie.

At that point, I was just like, oh good... they're finally going with full gibberish instead of pretending the game makes sense

Haha, by the time the game gets to this point nothing really makes sense anymore

This stuff about the rise of junk data is so OTMFM it's like Kojima predicted the future.

Yeah this is incredible. It's also a little sad cos so many games rip off stuff that this game did first, only they do it with really lame storytelling. This and the first MGS are basically every mainstream AAA video game from 1998 onward, including current gen. I have to say I have heard a lot of hype about this game over the years, and this ending completely rids me of any doubts as to it's greatness.

OK I just finished it completely, back at the title screen now. I haven't felt like this since the first time I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think I prefer the first MGS as a game but good gracious the end of this game is amazing! Best ending ever!

Also, I like how the last words spoken in the game are "What the hell?"

Pretty insane that this came out in Novemeber 2001. Especially with the heavily anti-authoritarian stuff, one of the heroes being called a terrorist, the villains being called The Patriots, etc. This was at a time when "Leaving on a Jet Plane" was banned from US radio. I suppose Japan is just years in the future, and Hideo was seeing things 5 years in the future (who was talking about internet leaks in 2001?).

The meta stuff really works because the AI is very convincingly self-aware.

RAIDEN!! TURN THE GAME CONSOLE OFF NOW!

Gonna play some VR missions. But reading for later:

http://junkerhq.net/MGS2/

This could be a BS rumor, but I remember hearing somewhere that the original setup was even more NYC-based, with a WTC setup for the part of the setting, that for obvious reasons had to be changed quickly

i like that all its deepthoughts are couched in a mean joke about how the player is an underqualified girlyman manipulated by uncomprehended forces who doesn't even deserve to "play" as "snake"

don't they reveal the "patriots" or w/e have all been dead 100 years?

lol

the new Captain America movie felt very very Metal Gear at certain points

Captain America: Winter Solidus

It's really insane the amount of stuff they put in these games (at least MGS2). There are hours of unrepeated dialog that is hidden Easter egg type stuff you may never hear playing the game normally. Tonight I was hiding in a locker and some guard found me so I punched my way out. The door to the locker ended up getting torn off and falling to the ground. I couldn't put the guard in the locker because the door had fallen off! I know that's a very small thing, but it's also something deliberately programmed in, another variable that can be triggered for further immersion. They don't make games like this anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAUDFch-2UI

haha, that's a great video.
also totally otm wrt kojima anticipating junk data/internet control, thematically works really well - personally i just grew tired with a lot of the dialogue. otacon's monologue is so terrible...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P5qbcRAXVk

lol @ raiden in the bathroom

I use the MGS alert as the notification sound on my phone. Makes me jump every time I hear it.

that is an excellent idea

i might make that change.

my ringtone has been "uppers nsfw" for like a year now

Mine is the dungeon music from NES Zelda.

I just bought the HD collection and Revengeance for cheap thanks to the current PSN sale. Having never played any MG games before, should I bother with MG 1 & 2 or just jump straight ahead to MGS? My completist tendencies have me leaning in the former direction but suggestions are welcome.

I couldn't stomach the early MG games,when I got Metal Gear Solid 3, with them included.

its a bit like slogging through all the Zelda games prior to Ocarina of Time. Good games, but you might find their aged game mechanics put you off the 3D goodness that the second generation brings....

I'd go straight to MGS, sit down for the night and dig in deep.

Yeah, I got roughly ten minutes into MG 1 before I came to that conclusion. Perhaps another time.

I was never able to beat the original MG. I think there's probably a bonus menu somewhere the later games in that that will catch you up storywise

(OG Zelda/Link to the Past still classic IMO though)

Metal Gear 2 (not Snake's Revenge) is pretty dope IMO. Worth checking out. A lot of MG gameplay standards originated there. I didn't even know the game existed (wasn't released in English language markets back in the day) until it started showing up in MG anthologies.

MG2 is a quantum leap over the first one. recommended if you like the later games

Yeah, it's basically 8 bit Metal Gear Solid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nolq5EPpOcA

Ended up buying the HD collection for a birthday present for someone. So yeah emulators leading directly to sales ftw.

I use the MGS alert as the notification sound on my phone. Makes me jump every time I hear it.

I would hide in a cardboard box.

The days I wish I could do this!

Just disappear in a cardboard box, tailored to the building I was escaping.

Nhex? Nhex?!?

Damn Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes is AWESOME. Silky smooth control. A huge open playground to do tons of missions in. Great graphics. Can't wait for TPP.

I got my first S ranking in the main mission. I was trying to finish on hard mode for an hour or so and never made it more than 5 mins or so before getting an alert. Enemy view range seems to be drastically improved in hard mode. Anyways I was having a real tough time in hard mode and then when I decided to switch back to normal, I had my best playthrough yet.

Sometimes you will find a thread somewhere on the internet talking about this game and you will see someone say something along the lines of "Oh this game is so easy I S-ranked the first level in 15 minutes" or otherwise complaining about how easy it is. Those players are either liars or totally insane gamemasters cos if you aren't paying attention you can get spotted real easily in this.

I don't know what it is about this game but it looks really really good to me. Particularly in that very first area, right after the intro cutscene, where you are on the hill overlooking the base. The way the spotlight looks on that rain-soaked hill is just incredible. Also the intro cutscene transitioning seamlessly into gameplay is pretty rad, and it seems like they are trying to keep that style from what I've seen of The Phantom Pain. I really think Kojima has some genuine film chops (the intro cutscene from MGS1 instantly sold me on his talents) and it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the full game!

Is MGS3 going to be released on PC? I read that rumor somewhere...

That closing cutscene where Miller and Big Boss are looking out the chopper at their base being destroyed was pretty amazing and feels like 80s Konami videogame box art COME TO LIFE.

Also the sound design in this game is godlike. I particularly love the attention paid to the cassette tapes, they are little found sound collages of music, dialog, tape noise, environmental sounds, etc. The attention to detail in this game is miles above any comparable AAA release.

Also, level design anyone? Most open world games I've played really have that movie set feel to them, but this feels like a real world. GZ is a big enough environment where I've already had a number of very different situations unfold depending on where it takes place. I am so hyped for The Phantom Pain, I haven't been this excited about a videogame since Mortal Kombat II.

no pS3 release i'm guessing

(for TPP, i mean)

i never replayed this, or any of the unlocked missions - i probably should! i remember thinking that it was pretty fuckin hard, and that i maybe preferred the more linear, fake-open-world steez of the classic games to this almost totally open thing. but maybe i just hate change. it's true that even on my 26" TV it looks fucking bad-ass.

yusssss

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is bound for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

I did not play MGS4 but it didn't look entirely different from 3 - levels being mostly linear areas that are all interconnected through various exits/entrances? The open world type experiments in 3 were a mixed bag: on the one hand you had that amazing fight with The End (which is something I really hope they replicate in MGSV) but on the other you had that wide-open area at the top of the mountain, or after the mountain when you end up on that base. I think the less linear approach fails when there aren't enough places to hide/take cover. For some reason the big maps at the end of 3 just felt too exposed. Maybe I need to replay 3...

An open world Metal Gear is a super exciting idea because Kojima has shown he really likes to micro-manage everything, and put massive attention to detail, making every part of the experience unique, with maybe little easter eggs or quirks or new gameplay mechanics that you don't discover until you've played through the game several times. The main reason open world games (western/ubisoft style) have gotten stale is that they emphasize quantity over quality. Kojima seems like his values are in the complete opposite direction.

OK I'm playing V again and fuck, is this a different game?

I think the first time around I was too hung up on the differences from the earlier games, particularly the "marking" system for enemies, and how much better eyesight they have. But now that I'm used to it I'm loving it. It makes it feel much more dangerous and unpredictable.

It's also NOT really very open-world. There are still set pieces, which the arrangement of villains and cameras guarantees will be approached in a certain way. So Kojima still gets to craft the experience, which is all to the good imo.

First step forward: not being afraid to interrogate and knife motherfuckers. Second step forward: not being afraid of heavier combat, running and hiding. It CAN be done. Unfortunately I lost my tranq gun in the truck I climbed into right at the beginning (I swapped it for a crazy pistol that my comms guy said he'd never seen before), so when I enter "Reflex mode" and have to shoot a fool in the head it alerts everybody, and I have to wait it out.

Right now I've got Paz, but I'm fucked if I can figure out how to thread the needle between these two security cams and their attendant guards in order to get to a helicopter drop zone. It's tempting to see if I can find that other truck, dump Paz in the back and just burn rubber, calling in the chopper as I drive.

By the way, when I jumped into that truck near the beginning, I stayedin so long that I went "out of bounds", got Mission Failed and got told off by the game - "Fine! Have it your way! Mission aborted!"

lol that I slept on this game for 8 months

So sick, all the side missions are incredible, so glad I am finally seeing things in the DAYLIGHT now

the helicopter mish is such a thing of unbridled beauty and so satsifying; after tense hours avoiding surveillance cameras and listening for the sound of footsteps you suddenly get to just blast fools with extreme prejudice

Yeah, this game has so much insane replay value it's amazing. I remember when it came out one of the big criticisms was that it was a rip-off and you could beat it in 15 minutes. All of the side missions really have their own flavor to them, you have to approach them in pretty different ways. Last night I was playing through the Renegade Threat one so I could find the cassette tape and sniper rifle (so I can have it from the start, for making future runs in this side op way easier). Big Boss starts off on a mountain side with an enemy posted looking out from a cliff, and it's easy to run/walk right up to the guard and CQC him from behind. After restarting the mission a few times I got tired of sneaking up to the guy and just ran full-force at him, hitting the dive button rather than CQC. BB just lunges into the poor guard, who flies backwards and off the cliff! It's a new approach that I thought of trying after dozens of playthroughs.

I tried playing MGS3 last night and it was really hard to go back to those controls!

Looooool

I will admit to having quite gleefully thrown many, many dead dudes off those same cliffs

I am looking forward to coming back to these missions and doing them better, I have a tendency to jump in the heaviest vehicle I can and just gunning it to about 100 feet of where I need to be, jumping out and hiding til the coast is clear

This sounds dramatic, but it's difficult to convey the feeling of liberation once I decided that it was OK to fire on some motherfuckers once in awhile. (The game itself doesn't seem to agree with me; I've gotten "E" on every mission aside from the chopper mission)

is IV worth playing at all?

4 has some real moments iirc. they have lost steam with every iteration imo but MGS is still the most compelling (if often deeply flawed) vg series of the last 20 years... so play 4.

i bought a used copy WITH my PS4 about four or five years ago and never got around to playing it!

I never played it because it seemed too complicated.

4 is fun but man those cutscenes are no joke

you want to know shame? a few years ago, i bought a used PS2 and the MGS trilogy to play Snake Eater... didn't touch it.
years later, got a PS3, bought the MGS trilogy again. still haven't played Snake Eater, but now I have Peace Walker, MGS4, and this new stuff on the docket

I think the raw gameplay in V is the best so far but yeah Snake Eater is a classic and really must be played

In the new one they need to work on the radio stuff a little, like when you're in a fire fight, diving for cover, popping off a couple of rounds, a jeep explodes behind you, and the guy on the radio is saying "find the cassette tape after making contact with the agent"

Do you mean that you should have a button that makes Snake say, "Piss off Otacon, I'm busy rn"?

He seems to know everything else that you do, not sure why he's so dim about actual live fire situations

I hope TPP has MGS's trademark weird humor and homoerotic tendencies, this edition is great but super-grim

Every now and again I have to remind myself that I'm playing a game where American soldiers are the baddies and I'm rescuing abused detainees from Guantanamo Bay

started ground zeroes last night, looks amazing and the stealth is great. the a.i. is very good but only up to a point. i got spotted and it became an all-out firefight until some guy at the base suddenly calls it off, like "yeah that guy who killed a bunch of us? i think he's gone! return to your posts."

Heh well yeah it's a videogame :/

I mean, logically, the second you've been spotted by anyone, the guards should be searching for you indefinitely, until they've either killed you or you've managed to finish the mission

i just figured they'd keep rushing until i was dead, like stealth was required for the mission. there was one great moment of a guy searching for me and i hid inside a little guard building. the guard poked his head in and shined the flashlight but missed the corner i was in. very tense

Love those moments!!

They usually do keep on unless you manage to run some distance away.

i think i had just killed the last guy in the vicinity so the threat level immediately changed, just seemed funny. the heal animation made me lol. also "iDroid"

ok i think i wanna play Ground Zeroes now

think it was $7 in that holiday sale when i grabbed it, well worth it

I played MGS4 for the first time about a year ago and was pretty disappointed. The cutscenes were longer than they've ever been and the actual gameplay portions felt relatively meager. The control scheme and basic mechanics were really starting to show their age too.

On the other hand, I played and beat Ground Zeroes for the first time last night (thx to this thread) and had a pretty good time with it! They've done a great job of streamlining just about everything. Made the experience much more immersive and less gamey. Kojima's saying the cutscenes are getting pared down too which I'm grateful for. Definitely looking forward to The Phantom Pain now.

Anyone ever mess with Metal Gear Online? It's no longer playable, but we're getting a fresh iteration with MGSV.

Yeah the incredible irony that this Metal Gear game has an insane amount of play value vs. cutscenes is wonderful.

I got to the point where I can finally play through the main mission without being spotted for at least 10-15 minutes if I'm working my way across the map sneakily taking out guards and stuff. I've been trying to S rank these but they are tough and all the side ops take different strategies to beat. For instance you can S rank Classified Intel easily on normal by just staying in the truck, jumping out once you get inside the gate, climbing up the ladder to the tower, shooting out the camera, snatching the tape, then rushing back to the truck and letting it take you outside the mission. I tried doing this in hard and found out I didn't have any guns, and thus wasn't able to down the camera, and thus got spotted once I snatched the tape. Cue a couple frantic minutes racing to ground level and CQC'ing a few guards while trying to hide in back of the truck. Eventually things calmed down and a soldier came over and started to drive away. However, rather than driving right out of the mission, he stopped the truck right near the exit, with a guard tower and a few guards standing around. I had to throw some magazines to distract them and then jumped out and ran for the exit. A rank! It looks like you have to avoid being spotted altogether...

One thing I tried for taking out that camera was throwing magazines, and I wasn't able to do it. This guy seems to have no trouble:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0OIpdcQB2w

Note the hilarious "ping" sound.

That video is incredible.

holy shit. i didn't even know you could throw those

dying @ 00:59
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMsQbk5tXhM

amazing

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9m473uWalA

okay sure

AMAZING that they got the arms flapping animation it's like watching a dream.

I love all the self-referencing they do in Ground Zeroes to Kojima and his other stuff. The snatcher mission has some amazing remixed chiptune music cues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t60WHzQGm7w

That song "Creeping Silence", wow that is cool. Nice vibraphone samples in there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNonpKKoh0A

I love how they mixed this, the kick drum is way up in front.

So yeah I've started to figure out this whole modding thing. Here I've swapped out birds for prisoners:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX6ScUwoExY&list=UUQ0yN_aOFfVZgHUeaUb2o_Q

I misread that description and thought it would be Hatoful Snakefriend

i jsut played thru mgs1 (up to disc 2 bc my friends got tired) with three people who had never played it, bc a friend insisted we play thme all together before he moves away. one HOLDS UP. i truly feel like i am one SPINAL FUNCTION away from going over the top about this game right now, so i'll reel it back, but goddamn i played it for WELL OVER AN HOUR and it was excellent.

bring it Will!!!

I bet you feel like some kind of legendary mercenary. MGS1 is still SOLID.

it's still my favorite, really wish they would do a port to a newer system.

Unreal. I expected it to feel dated and difficult to control, but goddamn if it didn't feel awesome. The onyl thing that is lacking, I guess, is that they didn't implement the somersault/roll until MGS2, I guess, so I had to stop myself from trying to press X just before getting to cover (and lying on the ground like a fuckin' lump every time). But once I got used to that, excellent.

The first SWolf fight is the only one I felt wasn't as good as I remembered. Felt kind of unfair at times. Virtually everything else is just as shiny and awesome as before. I really wish I'd had some other Konami game saves on the PS3 just to see that part of the game again too.

I always hated that Nikita missile part.

I am making a Ziggy Stardust texture mod for Big Boss stay tuned...

for some reason the one i remember the most is Vulcan Raven (had to look it up), sending remote-controlled missiles around through the boxes.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_GP2h-U8AEbD38.jpg

Time to get hyped

remember when we just announced things instead of announcing we were going to announce then

Well hopefully this isn't an announcement of another chicken hat or something.

September 1?

http://jogos.uol.com.br/videos/assistir.htm?video=metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain-04024E1B3168E4995326

Update: I started playing MGS2 (the hd re-texture from a couple years ago) last weekend with the same crew, two newbies and one who'd played it before.

It is insane. It still feels like a game that came out this year. And all of the themes are like ripped from the fucking headlines of now. WHY IS THIS GAME SO GREAT.

I might skip MGS3 during this series of marathons because we don't have a lot of weekends left before my buddy moves and I really want one of the guys to see MGS4. I know 3 is most people's fav but it's also SOOOO long iirc.

Also I don't think I realized in 1998 or whatever HOW MANY REFERENCES there are to MG1/MG2 in MGS!

there was some fan disappointment at the time due to the Raiden/Snake switcheroo, but i loved the hell out of MGS2 and its craziness. i'm thinking/hoping history has vindicated the game

and yeah, MG1/2/Solid/Sons are all reiterations of the same story, aren't they? m/l

I do definitely remember some blowback due to that, but honestly, the game wouldn't have worked if it were Snake. Like, the game ONLY works because it ISN'T snake. I remember by the time I finished it the first time, way back, I thought, "yeah... I'm okay with this being a new dude." Really excited to complete it again.

xp MGS1 and 2 are more or less, can't remember for MG1/MG2...

what about the alternative tradition where history has noticed these aren't really videogames /:

???

A fallout between Kojima Productions and its owning publisher, Konami, has led to senior staff at the studio being restricted access to corporate internet, emails, and phone, GameSpot understands.

Along with the restricted communications, key developers at the studio, such as Hideo Kojima, will now have limited opportunities to lend their appearance to promotions of the studio’s upcoming game, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.

Power struggles between Kojima Productions and Konami have convinced the publisher to make drastic changes, including amending the employee status of its Metal Gear team. Some senior staff at the studio, including Kojima, now essentially work as contractors, not permanent employees.

The extraordinary measures were revealed by a source within Konami, speaking to GameSpot on the condition of anonymity. The person explained that, once the Phantom Pain project is finished, in all likelihood the management at the studio will disband.

"After we finish MGSV, Mr. Kojima and upper management will leave Konami. They said their contract ends in December," the source claimed.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/kojima-expected-to-leave-konami-after-mgs5-inside-/1100-6426024/

RIP Konami?

Silver Gear Solid coming to an indie publisher near you in 2017

https://www.musterbrand.com/collections/metal-gear-solid/snake-leather-506

Pretty damn cool.

http://i.imgur.com/duxu7Uu.png

just needs a "!" above snake's head

not often am i pre-convinced that a game is gonna be my #1 for the year... but it's going to take some serious stumbles in this game's execution for me not to stick it at the top of my c+p ballot.

7. Buddy System (Crap on Command)

As you complete more missions with a Buddy, your relationship grows. For example, the Diamond Horse (called D-Horse) can defecate on command. It sounds silly (heck, it is silly) but you can use that manure to spin out enemies vehicles on the road.

call of duty did it first

Yeah this is def GOTY material, probably one of the best games of all time. Fox Engine looks great and plays AMAZING and the control is buttery smooth which is a long time coming for this series, which has always struggled with complicated and sometimes counter-intuitive controls.

It also seems very symbolic, sort of ending Konami's masterful career of console video games. The scene depicting the Mother Base raid when all hell breaks loose in "Ground Zeroes" is the stuff of really awesome big-budget action movie dreams, the kind hinted at in the box art for games like Contra and Metal Gear.

They finally have the technology to really make those crazy cutscenes come alive, the camera not even stopping between the cinematic pulp action and the player's control.

have to admit, i was wary of the cutscenes in ground zeroes after all i've heard about mgs4 but i didn't mind sitting through them at all cuz they looked amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RngF7QxzA7w

those horse turds are comically large

i just played through ground zeroes a couple times over this weekend, and guys, i think phantom pain might be the last great game ever

i MIGHT be being melodramatic, but seriously, with the amount they packed into that pre-game game and with the maelstrom of swan song-y pr and with how much i am playing thru 1-4 + peace walker this year (once each btw) i am geared up to just stick this whole medium on a boat and set it on fire after mgsvpp

i'm inspired by that, tempted to do the same, and I never played 3, 4 or Peace walker

3 is amazing play that before all the others. At least fight The End and make it to The Sorrow.

and then they release a trailer with a new order soundtrack

PHANTOM PAIN, STOP READING MY MIND

when you say play 3 before all the others, you mean before 4 & PW, right? surely not before MGS1...

3 is first chronologically ;)

If you've never played any of them I don't know which one I'd recommend I guess Ground Zeroes cos the control is best. I played the first NES one in the 80s but did not get far. Got hooked with MGS1 though.

working through them i have determined that there isn't a single game in the main series that has poor controls. Ground Zeroes possibly the worst to start with though because it's definitely the least representative of the "experience" of the other games (hyper-authored, rife with gonzo politics, etc.) plus if you haven't played 1 how are you supposed to enjoy the secret bonus mission Deja Vu?!

The end theme music for MGS1 is beautiful.

The death screen in MGS too.

damn

http://me.ign.com/en/metal-gear-solid-5/108073/video/metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain-e3-gameplay-de

i have the fondest memories of playing MGS1 (and the original MG for NES), but couldn't get through the intro of MGS3 because of the controls. :(

whew, that looks impressive.

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--CbcgOyN8--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/1302771358818106794.gif

You get to pet doggies! ^_^

lol. that does look great, although i hope you can sneak all the way through it when it makes sense (at the end of that demo it looked like all the soldiers were automatically alerted to your presence for a big exciting getaway, but maybe that was just for the demo).

loving MGS Ground Zeroes so far, and i've only just gotten inside the fence.

i think he got spotted on purpose

this looks absolutely insane

https://i.imgur.com/VMYnyxK.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur6vhxVg6gE

New footage from TPP. Awesome use of his robotic arm at 24 minutes in. Just insane. Think Batman's remote-controlled batarang.

Rocket punch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGGuvRIIx8c

the multiplayer component of other players invading your online bases is gonna be crazy

I just beat MGS4 again last night. That makes 1, 2, 3, PW, and 4 beaten in the past 6 months or so.

It's somehow better than I remember it. (I think I was a lot more angry at the cutscenes then, which makes sense because I didn't have a smartphone to dick around on while half-listening to them). While it holds up fantastically and is among the best games of the last console generation, it is completely a relic in the sense that no game anymore seems to be willing (and I guess with good reason) to ship with SO MUCH authored content. I mean, how long did the Rex v. Ray battle take to conceive, create, fix, recreate, polish, debug, etc.? And you're in it for like 10 minutes. This game was infinite-budget blockbustering at its finest, and we'll never see anything like it again.

Also notable, and it's something that I guess kind of faded in my memory, is just how final that game is. Every other game was all about leaving loose ends and it really feels like MGS4 does everything in its power to be final. Which kinda makes the existence of 5 funny (even though it's a prequel, it feels like the metanarrative of 4 is "kojima is fucking done with this").

My final rankings for the greatness of these games is going to be challops as hell, and keep in mind that my 4th & 5th favourites are still games I really really like...

MGS1 -> MGS4 -> MGS2 -> MGS3 -> MGSPW

I can't wait to see where 5 fits in, based on what I've seen so far I'm projecting between 1 and 4. But it'll be incredibly unlikely for anything to beat 1, that game just fires on every possible cylinder at all times.

I am hyped for it beyond all reason.

The more I go back and play games that are NOT Metal Gear the more it becomes clear that the series has always been heads and shoulders above most other 3D games. Go back and play some of MGS's contemporaries: they all have awkward tank controls, over-reliance on menus, horrible voice acting, etc.

MGS aged incredibly, maybe more than any other game from the time. No camera problems at all. Even Mario 64 has camera problems.

https://www.gfycat.com/PalatableSadDunlin

I just 100% Ground Zeroes this morning. I'm going legit for TPP so if anyone here wants to be Steam friends hit me up at Adam_Vania.

Apparently there is no pre-loading but the game will start dling as soon as it comes out in New Zealand. Which I think for most of the US means you actually will get the game the day BEFORE it official comes out. Maybe?

hah, that gif is awesome!

no fuckin way

did she SHOOT the grenade in the air??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngySxUOj-VI

if you multiply the scores for "series best known for their emphasis on story" and "series with the worst story" together, does metal gear hold the top rank?

Pac Man probably has the worst story. I mean have they ever explained what those pellets are?

Pac man has a better story than metal gear

out run has a better story than metal gear

Pac Man basically is Metal Gear

Altered Beast may have the craziest story.

new one getting crazy 10/10 reviews everywheeeeere

tbf, plenty of mediocre videogames have reviewed well but hopefully this deserves all the praise coming its way

the footage i've seen look absolutely amazing. wish i had a ps4!

Man I can't imagine not playing through the other games and instead mainlining these cutscenes, it sounds horrible.

MGS series is not like other series either, the cutscenes are super interwoven into the gameplay, to a level that most games never do. If you skip all the gameplay you are skipping at least half the story imo. The very first game had you playing while the credits were still rolling.

Anyways who really cares about 'story'. What is the story of 2001? What is the story of They Live? Why did they focus on that 15 minute fight scene when they could have been explaining what planet the aliens are from and what their ultimate mission is? No. That would be horrible. I watch the movie cos I want to hear "Kick ass and chew bubblegum", not because I need to see where this alien invasion is going.

Story doesn't matter it's all about execution. Has there ever been a work of fiction with a great story but bad technical execution that was still considered a great work? Almost always it is the other way around.

but that 15 minute fight scene from They Live actually IS important to the story! it's just also massively, hilariously entertaining as well is being a symbolic manifestation of the main character's struggle, and it's important to the plot, because you know, PUT ON THE GLASSES. (I just saw this movie again a few months ago, it holds up shockingly well)

you are absolutely right about MGS cleaving the story heavily into the gameplay; not to mention the weird shit like all the Codec stuff, the fourth wall breaking, meta-commentary etc. i mean, the funny thing is that so clearly comes from someone who desperately wanted to be a filmmaker but couldn't, so instead he made all this...

isnt altered beast just a 'save the princess' type deal

kick things in the nuts and get ripped and save the princess

i never understood this "wished he were a filmmaker" meme for Kojima. The guy clearly CAN'T do what he does best in film. The thing that puts this series over the top is how it plays with gameness and controls, and subverts a lot of the control stuff over and over that it sets up, and fucks with the idea of agency (or lack thereof)/places predestination as a theme in almost every game...

also it's pretty fucking insulting and incorrect to think that it's somehow easier/a fallback plan to become an enormously successful AAA video-game creative director than to be a filmmaker.

i could swear that i read in an interview at some point that he admitted this long ago, and somehow stumbled into video games. better for the world that he did!

and yes the games constantly spit in your face as a player, that you're ultimately nothing more than a rat in a maze

In interviews, I always say that, "just as humans are 70 per cent made of water, so I'm 70 per cent made of film!" You may think I'm exaggerating - but, remember, I'm the guy behind Metal Gear Solid, which was inspired by many, many movies. I've loved cinema since I was a kid - they were a way for me to explore other peoples' experiences.

http://www.metalgearsolid.net/features/hideo-kojima-at-the-movies-the-great-escape

so why wouldn't he have started making movies in like october 1998? someone would have funded that. or did konami have a 17-year inescapable contract for him?

http://www.metalgearsolid.net/features/hideo-kojima-versus-the-big-robots

Kojima moved his attention to movies, diligently working with a friend who owned an 8mm camera to produce short children's films. Sill his parents discouraged his creative urges. "It made me feel even more desperate," he explains. "My family never understood my ambitions. I knew this deep in my soul, so I didn't share my creative hopes and dreams. My friends concentrated on their education and spent most of the time studying. We had a pop band, but it was only a simple hobby project. My friends never shared my dream of being able to support myself within the framework of a creative work, neither in music nor on film."

along with other parts of that interview, easy to see why he stuck with Konami for so long for the stable income

Getting a job at a video game company in the 80s was way easier thing than becoming a filmmaker imo. He didn't start out as AAA creative director, he didn't even invent Metal Gear, he was hired on and that was one of his assignments. It was his desire to make it like "The Great Escape" that turned it from a standard game into the Kojima auteur series.

Pretty sure yeah Konami had a contract on him, in Japan lifetime employment has always kinda been a thing.

i'm still saying if he wanted to get out and make movies he's had at least a few opportunities. he almost definitely could've gotten out after MGS3 and DEFINITELY could've gotten out after 4.

I do love how so many anecdotes from '70s/'80s video game developers are to the tune of "well, I had a college degree in some completely unrelated field X, and nobody really knew what was going on or what would be appropriate qualifications for this job that never existed, so I got hired"

I really thought that after Konami appeased him with his own sub-studio he would have gone on to make non-Metal Gear series. Not sure what happened there.

Sounds like a pretty big gamble, quitting a job you've held your entire life. I'm sure he makes some kind of money of MG sales but since he is a contractor he probably isn't rolling in millions of dollars from royalties. The amount of money Konami pumps into these games, I would be surprised if they are giving him a large cut.

Also yeah he has his own studio, but it was just closed down by Konami. As in, he didn't really own it himself.

Karl it will be out on PS3 as well!

Haha, well I don't have that either right now. I sold my 360 about a year ago so I am modern console-less (modern inconsolable?) at the moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlRErLFIOhQ

just got an email to let me know my copy has been dispatched, so i guess i might be playing this tomorrow. retailers breaking street date embargoes is always a pleasant surprise

Removing bookmark, see you guys in 2019 when I finally get around to this game

my copy arrived! time to get on the mgs rollercoaster and corkscrew from 'wow' to 'wtf' to 'ugh' one last time i guess

lol at adam's video btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y8vs7EsP_s

I am relying solely on you guys to tell me whether I should get this or not

if it turns out that the 'quiet is really chico' fan-theories are true, i swear i'm going to throw my ps4 out the fucking window

can't wait 4 pc's nude quiet mod

if i don't know or care about the storyline will i enjoy this? i have the preview game on the ps4 just not sure i'm a bad enough dude to play it

i'll let you know in my #1 count and plick writeup in march

mgs stories are usually difficult to follow and the parts which are understandable are totally ludicrous - the fun (for me at least) is much more in the mechanics of the game and the weird fun you can make for yourself with the systems available, and it looks like this will be the most open and flexible mgs yet.

best thing to do is prolly give ground zeroes a shot and if you like the way it plays pick up the phantom pain.

same, i kinda sucked at Ground Zeroes and the stealth was making me frustrated rather than inspiring that "just one more try, i know i can get this" feeling.

the story is kind of a backdrop you can follow or ignore, enjoyment of the game is not contingent on it

same, i kinda sucked at Ground Zeroes and the stealth was making me frustrated rather than inspiring that "just one more try, i know i can get this" feeling.

i sortya had this problem until the first time i completed a "tag everyone on the battlefield" challenge thing, and realized the power of all that taggin'. basically lets you find the easiest route anywhere ever when you've properly scouted.

i spent ages getting frustrated at ground zeroes too for the same reason, then i realised that if i got caught out on a stealth mission there was a lot of scope to improvise and go straight to murdering everyone around me and blowing shit up and everything got much more fun

There are a lot of mechanics that you don't realize until you play for dozens of hours. I finally 100%'d GZ and it took me ages to do those marking trials. One thing they don't tell you is if you kill someone stealthily then it counts as neutralizing the enemy, but if you kill them when there is an alert they will simply send in new enemies to replace the ones you kill. Thus you can run around w reflex on headshotting everyone and as long as no alarm goes off those enemies will be permanently gone from the map. Also on the map there are a 4 or 5 areas that always save the game when you pass through them (again, only if there is no alert at the time), and you can simply neutralize enemies right behind these save spots. Knock them out bring them over kick them awake and then hold them up. If you hold up an enemy they will remain down until a guard wakes them up. You can have a dozen guards all held up together and they will never break neutralization. You do this near a save point and then if you mess up just reload from a checkpoint and you will respawn at that save point w all the guards still neutralized. Of course getting the car and piling them in that and driving it to the chopper is the fastest way to extract.

Super jelly of y'all playing the game early. Hoping Steam downloads as fast as bittorrent.

The original Metal Gear was in my top 5 when I was a kid
Never played Snake's Revenge
MGS I replayed through three times, twice with those proto NG+ super-equipment they gave you and once from scratch. Would have 100%ed it if you could do such things back then
Thought MGS2 was just ok
Snake Eater is in my top ten GOATs
Could not deal with MGS4 and bailed early
and that's it.

Love crazy collecty slow-w-w-w tac-ops and fantasy tech geekery
DO NOT LOVE being made to sit through endless movies and/or radio dramas comprised of backstory gibberish

cant remember if i said this upthreda but having a smartphone with smartphone games has revolutionized how much patience i have for codec conversations

Then this will probably be your favorite MG, all stealth gameplay, little to no forced cutscenes and codecs.

Metal Gear NES, no question

http://www.heisanevilgenius.com/wackywiki/images/2/22/Metalgear_sleep3.png

http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/metal-gear-trackhavestarted.jpg

played a couple of hours last night and yeah, this is utterly insane and weird and hilarious. also a lot of fun so far, and the graphics are frequently fantastic - the way the light shifts across the landscape of afghanistan is beautiful.

the long, frequently minimally-interactive prologue has some really cool horror flourishes which make me sadder than ever that silent hills got shitcanned :(

yesterday i spent 40 minutes stalking, tranquilising and fulton-ballooning a bunch of sheep back to mother base, then i adopted a scrappy wolf pup who is now my best friend in the world

best game ever obv

i spent some time playing ground zeroes again, to limber up, and god i was shit

the unresolved tension in MGS between patient realness and arcadey-ness holds pretty much limitless fascination for me though regardless

/ glances over to see what the install %age is up to

lol at what happens w/the "choose your face" "minigame"

yeah! i'm assuming that the face you choose will be what you look like to other players in online stuff but ingame it come across as a classic kojima troll

the unresolved tension in MGS between patient realness and arcadey-ness holds pretty much limitless fascination for me though regardless

otm. the enemy ai in this game in particular is really impressive - they'll call in threats as soon as they see them, work together as a team to flush you out when on alert, etc - but it's so finely balanced with your own outlandish abilities that there's almost always options in how to approach a given situation and if you fuck up it's always your own fault.

i had a fucking awesome time yesterday patiently scoping out a base from a clifftop, then tranquillising the closest guards from my position, sneaking in past their dozing bodies, tranquing more of their comrades, and getting within inches of the guy i was supposed to be snatching out of there before a guard i hadn't seen spotted me and i ended up in a blazing firefight with him and a couple of his buddies. it was tense and exciting and just so much fun.

a lot of the open-world stuff in this game really reminds me of the feelings i had while playing army games in the woods with my friends when i was a kid, and that's a pretty amazing thing to be able to rekindle as a 35-year-old.

everything that happens before afghanistan is straight up nutso in the butso

yeah, the relatively realistic world of afghanistan makes the insanity of the prologue even more striking. it really feels like some weird, horrible fever dream.

i've become unexpectedly fascinated by listening to the cassette tapes, which are either boring or batshit with little inbetween. it's fun listening to kiefer sutherland and troy baker gingerly pick their way through the minefield of kojima's dialogue.

This game is pretty amazing. Still trying to figure out how it fits in cos it's really so different from the MGS games that came before it.

Intro was awesome, and the setting - Afghanistan in the 80s - is PERFECT. Feels very Rambo 3.

Yesterday I came upon a propoganda billboard that had US forces and Mujahideen side-by-side. In the world of Metal Gear everyone is eventually double or triple crossing everyone else to the point of ridiculousness but when you see a thing like that you realize the timeline of real life warfare is just as insane.

Enemy AI is really pretty good. Gonna be nuts to play these missions on hard later.

So far my favorite new mechanic is the sandstorm. Several times I have been scouting an impossible-seeming area w heavy patrols when suddenly a sandstorm sweeps in and I have ultimate easy stealth for a limited time.

Do you guys use the ammo magazine? After seeing the GZ runthrough where the guy used ONLY reflex mode + magazine to score S rating on the main game I've been trying to use it more and it seems to work pretty f'in well

I need better/quicker ways of neutralizing dudes though. I get so anxious at the amount of time it takes me to knock a dude cold and then stow him somewhere

I tried but couldn't keep a magazine streak going. Inevitably there would be someone popping up behind a fence or far away.

Wanna change it up from the endless tranq but some of these bases are really intimidating. It reminds me a lot of the end of MGS3.

I was looking for the target practice minigame on Mother Base and overheard two soldiers talking about DD. One of them kept saying they wanted to touch his paw pads. I think he said "Don't you ever wonder what a dog's paw pads feel like?"

yeah, the incidental dialogue among the troops at mother base is fun - i've heard the gossiping about the relationship between snake and the boss a couple of times

so if you load the game when it's your birthday; this happens:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2da3zzgSSU

i herd u can customize the helicopter music to anything

on pc version

http://gfycat.com/FairAngryAssassinbug

That is rad. I am kind of disappointed w the music tbh. I got a tape that said "Ride a White Horse" and thought OH SHIT the Laid Back song while you are riding a white horse shooting rockets at a tank caravan but no it was some very stock music sounding 80s thing. I'm not sure if it's from the 80s, is it? It still sounds kinda cool.

What I'm trying to say is yes I will put the Laid Back song into the game.

It's really a unique game I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. Most open world games are either entirely cutout or the buildings are all unenterable and you can't have fun without some bloody unavoidable blinking text box in the way for you to start the next cut scene. I mean it is here a little but it's fun to finally not worry about doing some mission and then accidentally walking outside of the QUEST ZONE or whatever because you wanted to, I dunno, PLAY and make your own fun with this supposed GAME. Assassin's Creed I'm looking at you.

I do kinda feel like this was going along and Konami decided to stop putting money into it and let Kojima go. The game feels weirdly desaturated to me compared to Ground Zeroes, like one final attempt to smear a AAA open world game style on the game. Highly recommend doing most missions that involve base sneaking at night because it looks so much better than daytime. You get more lighting variations, and besides, it is easier to sneak.

Love D-Dog. He's the best! One time I was between missions just running through the Afghan mountainside w D-Dog alongside me (which is an awesome moment) and he barked about some sheep up ahead. So briefly the game switched from Mercenary Simulator to Sheep Herder Simulator. I love how he barks once every time he detects an enemy.

Also love how beating up your crew earns you their respect. It's hilarious and fits in with the whole 80s action hero thing.

Ok just copied in White Horse, White Lines, and the Scorpio Rising soundtrack. The Ventures "Wipe Out" is perfect for this game. Box surfing time!

I don't think I've ever seen mountains done right but these are pretty amazing. In Skyrim it was always questionable what slopes you could walk up and what were too steep. Here the design is much more lifelike so it's harder to really glitch your way over them. Far Cry 3 had the same kind of problem but you could take a wrong step and slide down the entire mountain if you weren't careful.

This is easily the best level design in an open world game. There are dull areas but the bases and outposts are all so intricately interlocked into the surrounding idiosyncratic mountainsides that I would gladly trade a few boring areas in for this large world of custom and hand-crafted areas. It really feels like a big open world, whereas after a certain time period even GTA feels like buildings in the way of checkpoints.

Shooting/combat is wonderful. Again better than any 3rd person game should be.

I appreciate the care given to the UI, even if I want to mute the lady that voices your iDroid. Her voice is super loud and drowns out the cool environmental sounds and ambient music, maybe they will mod it to be quieter. I really love the marking system. You can now mark individual people, collectibles, pretty much anything, while looking through your binoculars. And the markings vanish when you approach them, so you can open a map, throw down a bunch of markings, and go around collecting stuff without worrying about opening it back up and doing housework. Also the game does not automatically mark things (well D-Dog does but that is part of his special ability) which is nice. You deploy from the chopper and have to pull out the map and figure out your plan of action. Other open world games would simply spawn you there with the destination already marked in the background.

MGSV is super immersive.

yeah, i always intended to play red dead redemption without using the HUD but it seemed super hard to do and i never did. it's awesome to have the whole game engineered around not having it.

interested in this game but i've never played any of the previous ones, will that matter? i love all the splinter cell games, esp the most recent one - is this anything like that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=100&v=gF8I3yaeueE

hahaha amazing

crazy that they don't make that clear and that it's secret
the madness surrounding this game has seduced me, i can see playing it in 2016

the fulton animations and sound effects are so unbelievably pleasing

i'm having a lot of fun with this. adam otm about night being easier (usually). i sort of suck at this, and one of the very earliest missions was just defeating me, but i waited til night and then boom walked right in. part of it has to do with light CUES, i.e. high-value areas are usually lit up so you don't waste time messing around with useless outbuildings.

lol i also decided to fire like half my guys cause they were "E" level in everything and suddenly my overall capability dropped and i'm unable to develop anything anymore. i guess shitty staff is better than no staff. i have ZERO idea about staff strategy and don't care; i hope that aspect of things doesn't become too important

I'm pretty sure when you get better soldiers they replace the worse ones automatically, cos yeah I made the same mistake!

my wife joined me on the couch for a while last night, just in time for the mission which introduces quiet. she was moderately interested in the sniper battle, then totally nonplussed when the ace sniper was revealed to be a woman in a bikini and ripped tights, whose prone form the camera shamelessly ogled.

it's really fucking embarrassing that kojima has created this beautiful, absurd, incredibly fun world to play in but every now and again he's going to take control of the action for TITSTITSTITS

male gaze solid morelike amirite

well, he's always put some "sexy/silly" aspects and innuendos in MGS. like the p0rn magazines, the crazy peep sessions in MGS3...
it's part of the game !

yeah, it's a shitty, tiresome part of some of the best games ever made and it's not at all just 'part of the game' - there's nothing in these games that's not a result of a deliberate choice by the developer. kojima has chosen to bundle leering sexism into these games and it's fucking uncomfortable to be forced to take time out from messing around with this game's utterly sublime mechanics to stare at some tits for minutes at a time.

yeah sure but just like many other cut scenes that are so long and unnecessary (I don't know about this one but the previous ones...).

you're right, bizarro (also the nurse's tits in the very opening cutscene) - but in the MGS series as a whole i'd say there's as much, possibly more, explicitly sexualized male leering? which is quite unusual for a video game

ahah, yeah, that's true !

i mean "leering at males" if that wasn't clear

I guess the idea is to make as many people uncomfortable and thinking "wtf" as possible, with all the silly ideas, including the creepy/sexy ones, throughout the games !

well and also to give the young male target demographic a stiffy by presenting women as sex objects, come on now

oh of course. hence the trolling with the same approach with some clearly homo-erotised scenes.

i don't think i'd say there was more leering at male characters but it is there for sure. however, there's not an entire team of traumatised men whose bodies are lingered over by the camera like the beauty and the beast squad in mgs iv, for example, and the sexualisation of men isn't compounded by the rest of the videogames industry's ongoing history of treating women like objects, so it's not exactly striking for a blow for equal opportunities to be focring gamers to look at raiden's butt every now and again or whatever.

i think what annoyed me most about the introduction of quiet was that, although i knew she was going to show up and it was going to suck, was that the mgsv is much less cutscene- and exposition-heavy so, fifteen hours into the game, i'd kinda managed to forget about the chest of the nurse from the prologue and enjoy tooling around the countryside with d-dog improvising my way through missions. quiet showing up and the game immediately going into TIIIIIIIITS mode was a real disappointment.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/287700/discussions/0/527273789700149875/

kojima obviously pervo nerd who loves boobs

the figurine has squeezable breasts

if ever there was a visionary video game creator who was likely to own a realdoll

yeah I suppose he might have real dolls of each of his heroines...

Solid Snake: Other people just complicate my life. I don't like to get involved.
Meryl Silverburgh: ...You're a sad, lonely man.

;_;

tbf he reproduces via cloning

Snake, that is. Kojima.... maybe someday

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--aNiuhLhY--/1419446399640225348.gif

related to the prior conversation:
http://boingboing.net/2015/09/07/the-queer-masculinity-of-steal.html

also that gif has made me add the game to my wishlist

ahah. great gif. so MGS...

it makes me think that in some of the sexy moments in the games there's also that off the wall and absurd approach.
like there's the obvious objectivization of the women's (and sometimes, men's) bodies but with a twist.
doesn't make it less creepy and problematic but... different from other misogynist games.

i want to agree with you but the games do nothing to question or subvert the general staring-at-tits proposition

yeah, as much as i might want to give kojima the benefit of the doubt after enjoying his games for two decades, there's really no qualitative difference between staring at tits for its own sake and staring at tits as part of some type of absurdist metagame whose rules and underpinning motivations are unclear and which might not actually exist at all.

I don't think it questions the "staring at tits", it simply plays with the idea and does it in a different way, maybe.
I don't know, these sequences seemed sillier than sexy in my memory but I don't really remember the other games and haven't played this one (yet !).

yessssssss

http://giant.gfycat.com/ApprehensiveGiantAllosaurus.gif

nice

i still have my plain old fulton

this is going to be like a 100+ hour game isn't it

i'm only on mission 12 or something and i'm already like 24 hours in so yeah that seems entirely possible

(admittedly some of that runtime is leaving the console on while i'm waiting for a mother base expansion to be completed)

surely the phantom cigar would do the same thing?

nah, unfortunately you have to wait out the development in real time - the phantom cigar doesn't work to speed that stuff up, presumably so you don't end up building everything within the first couple of hours

in the MGS series as a whole i'd say there's as much, possibly more, explicitly sexualized male leering? which is quite unusual for a video game

Not unusual in videogames at all really. Maybe more pronounced but I think that may have to do with cultural differences between Japan and the US. You won't play Call of Duty and run into a 10 minute cutscene about the horrors of nuclear proliferation or philosophical debates on the nature of war because of this cultural difference either.

As for the series as a whole, go back and play MGS and it is filled with James Bond-style flirting and fawning and objectifying. It's part of the style. It's also designed to be played primarily by teenagers sitting in their room with all the free time in the world rather than a mature married couple staying in for the evening.

I mean the first MGS has a character named after Otaku, who are an entire class of shut-ins that favor that kind of stuff. Giant robots and giant tits. It's part of his audience.

I'd say it's much more mature aside from the costume. The writing is way less pandering to a male only view immo (in my male opinion). In the first game Snake is hitting on women as soon as they meet and they are in turn incessantly receptive to his advances. In TPP Big Boss meets Quiet as a buddy by first having to best her in combat. You can't kill her in this combat. Actually I think the very first time you meet her she is wearing full clothes also but not sure that may be a storyline thing.

I want to say more but don't want to spoil anything. Suffice to say she is integral to the story and gameplay in far more than a sex object way.

She's also apparently integral to wiping your save file based on what my friend said & what the daily updates said, y'all make sure you don't bring her as a buddy to either 'Mission 29' or 'Mission 42'.

ilg lookin out for ilg

sheesh it's true!

https://uk.secure.konami-europe.com/link/portal/30031/30044/Article/2809/Regarding-save-data-for-METAL-GEAR-SOLID-V-THE-PHANTOM-PAIN-becoming-corrupt-under-specific-circumstances

I'm taking my sweet time just spent half an hour walking around the zoo watching animals grace amongst flowers.

If you were gonna choose between this or The Witcher III?

This by miles. Witcher III seems cool but I don't really care for the story and the open world thing is much more locked in, this game really lets you goof off and go nuts. I remember the start of W3 was a pixel hunt in a room to advance some cutscene hence it really didn't start off on the right foot for me.

i should prob play ground zero first tho' yes? excellent indicator of how this plays?

did you miss it when it was on ps plus?

yeah tho ground zeroes is a LITTLE different but it's mostly representative + the space is actually a little cooler (albeit way smaller) than what i've seen so far in TPP. highly recommend GZ.

no, it's on my hard drive. if it's basically the same it should tell me whether to buy this or not... so thanks!

GZ is amazing. Still the best level ever though I really hope there is some cool stuff awaiting in TPP.

FoxR 36 minutes ago
Islamistic bs
Why the hell you are fighting for mujahids in this game?
And why the ♥♥♥♥ everyone thinks its OK and never mention in reviews?
Last edited by FoxR; 36 minutes ago

He should watch Rambo III.

everyone should watch rambo iii

http://w.webms.org/m/QyBnMWyH.webm

um

nightmare-fuel

This...

Now I'll show you why they call me "Revolver."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcyygfXIfzE

i've had that happen to me!

woah I didn't realise the game reacts to your play style and adapts its difficulty accordingly

so for example if it notices you're doing lots of headshots, guards will start being sent out with helmets. you can counteract this by sending out your own combat deployments to fuck up the CPU's supply of helmets which will reduce the number of helmeted guards during the next three or so missions

maybe i'm not at that stage of the game yet, but i haven't come across how to send my dudes out on deployments

guys one of my soldiers is called 'spunky macaw'

God this game. Maybe not the best "Metal Gear" game -- which it doesn't need or want to be. It was missing voice actor David Hayter so it would be a contentious entry for fans for that alone. But for immersive storytelling gameplay it is incredible. I was just doing an important yet obscure sideop looking for a mission soldier from the Ground Zeroes campaign. I took along D-Dog for maximum detection and have customized him to have white fur, looking even more like GOT Dire Wolves. I was playing as an A++ black soldier named Tree Frog -- you do not have to go through the whole game as Big Boss. You can be other soldiers, male and female, complete with changed voice acting. Again with all the options. Some non-story spoilers if you haven't played these exact missions (side op 51 and a tank destroying one).

I set off down the road that cut through the area where we were supposed to look for the missing soldier and headed towards a guard post on the south end. D-Dog helped me detect all the enemies at the camp, and I pressed Y to pet him each time he barked his detection. I crawled up the side of a hill (they have fixed crawling for the most part meaning they have played through the game and fixed many areas you would think may be uncrawlable, making stealthy snakey crawly possible) and there were 8 guards right out of sight. I threw a decoy to the far end of the base and activated it. Out popped an inflatable clown punching bag in the shape of Big Boss, with a tiny speaker emitting a loop of "Kept you waiting, huh?". The guard closest to it turned around and shouted to 2 others that he found something and they all started walking towards it. I creeped up and held them up, one by one. Guard AI in this game is so well done and it puts all other open world games to shame. Anyways after interrogating and fultoning everyone I found the mission soldier was somewhere in the mountains. After slowly making my way up, I found him. His tag was red so apparently he was an enemy, and he was waiting for me, because he instantly ran up and threw me to the ground before running off across the mountain. It knocked me out so hard my eyelid was down over the screen and I had to physically toggle to get back up. After getting back up I saw he was running down the road I had been to earlier, so I started shooting him with a stun gun. It slowed up down a little but he would get up and run away again, this time back up the mountain.

I eventually caught him but it was a crazy experience, chasing this guy who had no guns but was fast and dangerous, running across the side of a mountain with a Dire Wolf trailing behind us. If I ever do this one again I will try sending D-Dog to deal with him!

After that I did some other missions and ended up infiltrating a huge base in the desert with Quiet. I had sent her there with orders to attack and cover me while I made the long journey on horseback. She was positioned on the very top of the main building, which was a huge bombed-out mansion with cracks in the walls and holes in the floor. After a long fight everyone at the base was knocked out and I was alone to explore for diamonds and stuff to help me build up Mother Base. I was making my way through the ruined mansion when I heard Hall & Oates "Maneater" coming from....somewhere. Was it around this corner? No. Or this one? No. I swing the camera around and try using stereo panning and doppler effects to locate the source of the sound. Then I hear Quiet start to hum. She hums whenever she detects and enemy, so I know that some reinforcements have shown up and I need to be more careful. I keep going up the winding staircase, checking each floor for a boombox, Quiet sniping anyone that approaches the base while I take on this all important mission.

It's amazing, all of these optional systems coming together to tell a really cool story. Playing the game feels very organic. Sometimes you can break the game but it is FLEXIBLE. TPP is rubber while all other open world games are plastic.

The more I play it the more I like it as a Metal Gear game too. It feels like an HD update of MGS3 most of all. The story and cutscene stuff is amazing imo, it's just the stuff that was 10-minute powerpoint presentations in the older games are now cassettes you can listen to whenever you feel like it or not at all.

Awesome description. Makes me want to read more accounts of the gameplay like this. Reminds me a bit of GtA in this way - you can play for a bit, have a unique experience, and tell it like a story the next day to your friends.

D-Dog is still the best though. I like sending him out wo any armor, it means he does not have a knife, and can "keep him busy" by distracting enemies for an advantageous amount of time. You can run up and thrown them on the ground or electrocute them with your robot hand.

It's one of many great gameplay additions. I have never seen a stealth or otherwise game with so many options for play.

i've never used the hand. what should i do.

I don't know I just developed the electric one and you have to charge it up so I've never tried it. If you equip the shock one I think it allows for a clothesline/sucker punch that has a larger reach than the standard melee CQC and results in an instant stun.

Afghanistan has a very strong spaghetti western feel to it at times, the more cinematic parts. I think this is part of why they went for Troy Baker to do Ocelot as a cowboy. It's also Kojima's desire to do a GTA style open world game with classic American anti-heroes.

My god I just tabbed back and ran across a tape of "Rebel Yell" just playing out of some boombox inside of a tent by the side of the road in 1984 Afghanistan while a bunch of Russian soldiers shooting at a Rambo.

I can't believe people are complaining about having to replay missions. None of this happened the first time I did these.

I had R&D develop a water gun that I had Support Team drop into the battlefield because I came upon a radio station and you can destroy electronics with squirt guns.

i need that water gun so bad, i hate having to go loud to take out electronics.

typically what i do is place c4 at all the comm gear and anti air radar and shit and when i'm on my way out of the base (having silently achieved my objective) blow it all

I have renamed diamond dogs 'CAMP BOY'. we have a pink-and-yellow winged balloon as our emblem.

i changed my team's name right before a mission where i had to extract a child soldier from the battlefield, so the poor bastard had to get off the chopper onto a hot-pink mother base emblazoned with my new 'BOY SNATCHER' logo. kinda undercut the gravity of the situation tbh

if u haven't had a shower in a while and lie down in the field, animals will come over and sniff you thinking ur dead

having showers temporarily buffs ur stats btw

http://youtu.be/SkNaUiaGRxw

been playing ground zeroes these past few days and this is totally the kind of game i've been waiting all my life for. like a splinter cell/stalker type game but slicker and better. story is a bit confusing as i don't know any of the backstory but that's no big deal.

i'm waiting for tpp to go cheaper but first i've bought the remastered for ps3 disc with:
- mgs2 sons of liberty
- mgs3 snake eater
- mgs peacewalker
and ive got revengeance for the pc.

which is best to play next? are any worth skipping?

If you've never played any of them I would go chronologically. Have you played MGS1?

TPP is really very different from the others, I would go so far as to say if you really like Ground Zeroes you may be better off going straight into it for the same tight gameplay and returning to the series later to explore the story.

the two tanks mission is fuckin hard.

i had to steal a rocket launcher truck for that one, let them get to the base and park, and then nonchalantly drive in and blow them up.

where the fuck are the showers, i can't find them on the command platform

thanks adam b, decided to go straight for TPP. just finished the prologue, about to enter the game proper. amazing so far.

adam, showers are marked on the idroid map with a shower-head icon

i've discovered that d-dog's supernatural enemy and prisoner-detection skills, teamed with the suppressed tranq rifle to take out people between you and your mission objective, makes being a sneaky bastard super-easy

started this last night, prologue was pretty weird. maybe a little too marvel comic-y. the gameplay is nice but a little underwhelming so far. just feels like more ground zeroes but i prob need to get further in.

no spoilers below... but intended to be read by people who are as far as me so they can agree w/ me

maaaaaaaaaaannnn last night I got through main mission 30 or so and was so relieved to find out that this game definitely has some weird kojima creepy gameyness baked in.

i'll admit to using the binocs on a distant radio to hear 'she blinded me with science' in its entirety

Hah yes me too I finally got through Chapter 1 yesterday. I appreciated the Robocop homage.

The game is a victim of its own hype though. I don't know if I've ever seen a game's fanbase turn so quickly against a new entry as this. Some people really hate it for the things it didn't do.

like what? sounds like it does everything.

i think from what i've read it kinda peters out towards the end, suggesting it's been released sorta unfinished? also not much in the way of trad mgs boss battles.

still having a total fucking blast every time i turn this on tho

just feels like more ground zeroes

that's why it's so good!

what has the longest lasting effect: tranq or cqc sleeper hold

adam, showers are marked on the idroid map with a shower-head icon

i see it but i can't locate the actual showers. are they on an upper level? i have spent a disturbing amount of time looking for this video game locker room

they're not in a room, they're like a port-a-potty kinda thing against a wall on the platform floor

It's basically a blue box you go inside, the size of a phonebox. It should be near the heli pad.

I think tranquing lasts longest. I've CQC'd enemies before that wake up after 2 mins. Best long term strategy is holding them up, apparently they don't get up unless there is an alert or another guard wakes them up.

what has the longest lasting effect: tranq or cqc sleeper hold

i saw a chart somewhere that showed tranq darts were in the middle of the tranq/stun duration spectrum and sleeper holds were the longest-lasting - seems to be true from my experiences playing

Funny moment is when you try tranquing guards on a tank mission, the tank immediately honks it's horn and wakes everyone up.

what are the negatives of just killing them? i hate the idea of these bastards getting up after a while so kill pretty much every bad guy in a village. am i just losing out on meaningless points, or something bigger than that?

aw i was hoping for some weird kojima shower situation

inevitably, there's a weird shower situation with quiet at one point

what are the negatives of just killing them?

if you kill them you can't fulton them back to your base and 'persuade' them to join diamond dogs. also you don't get to hear their terrified screams as they rocket from the ground towards the ionosphere

many xposts --

i definitely get why ppl think it's "missing" sthg vs the old games. I definitely think so (and i may be the resident ilx mgs rockist?). what i loved abt those games is exactly the stuff that a) everyone else hated and b) i hate when other games try to do -- that stuff that's kinda considered pretty anti-game now (hyper-authored content, cutscenes, codecs, etc) because it was all so appealing and subversive and WEIRD.

i think i probably said this upthread a few times, but MGS4 only gets BETTER with age. the opening of that game, you're WATCHING TV (which feels like a hilarious self-zing by hideo) and there's a bunch of fake tv shows and you can flip through the channels (which i don't think i knew the first time I played). there's a fucking bizarre interview with david hayter, playing david hayter but in an alternate universe where he wears an eyepatch and is a movie star or something... the entire thing is very surreal and threatening. and a creepy game show, also super threatening and surreal. that game is a series of moments that are at varying degrees of "playable" and that's kind of ok. and they all feel so LAVISH. (which is probably why the game cost so much to produce). the microwave scene. the 4-part final battle referencing the 4 games. the rex vs ray battle which must have cost SO MUCH MONEY to develop and lasts all of 5 minutes. this kind of game will NEVER BE MADE AGAIN.

i'm super happy i get to play MGSV. it's a great game in its own right. but it doesn't really "feel" like an mgs game, despite a bunch of similarities (snake, ocelot, miller, oversexualized murder-girls, exclamation points over people's heads, etc.). It feels like an mgs-themed modern game. which is fine! but yeah the mission 25ish game twist thing, while cool, doesn't exactly reach the weirdo incredible surreal heights of the previous games -- "you like castlevania, don't you?" / "check the back of the cd case for the frequency!" / FISSION MAILED / "I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hara-kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61!" / etc. (really MGS3 took a huge step back on this front which may be why it's my least favourite in the numbered series.)

goddamn it i need to stop talking about metal gear, i just wrote 3 dumb paragraphs about crazy colonel and fake david hayter interviews

that's a great description of mgs4, gona dive into that next.

xpost, im only on the first mission so don't have the option to send people back to base yet. til then im gona carry on stabbing throats

Are you guys playing on console or Pc?

This is the first one in the series to break the Play sta exclusivity right?

Certainly makes a case to buy a ps4

playing on PS3 and it is magnificent on my 26" screen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DRe3LCCbOA

i think watching videos of this game brings me more delight than playing it ever could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYM-vPKyxfA

carboard boxes really are the best way to travel in this game

i also enjoy running around mother base and knocking my soldiers over in my cardboard box sledge. makes me lol every time they get up and say 'thank you boss!'

Is it sacrilege to call this game a bit samey? I'm only 7% through so maybe it's gonna switch up a little soon.. I mean it is fun as hell - each 3-4 man outpost is a little stealth concerto, a set piece where no matter how many times you've sussed it out, feels a little different each time. But now that I've got the more powerful tranq gun I just zap dudes until one guy's left alone, I interrogate him and that's that. The bigger bases are awesome and challenging but there aren't enough missions like the two tanks mission, where you are like "where is this all going to lead??" 95% of the time I know exactly where it's going to lead: to a heavily guarded set of outbuildings and a prisoner who needs rescuing.

There is only one prisoner / there is only one guard.

They are your senses of fun and efficiency.

Yeah it is a bit samey. When I got to the mission where I had to destroy the tanks I couldn't wait to see what else the game was going to throw at me. Cos in Peace Walker there are lots of side missions where you are, say, charged with destroying 20 tanks in a convoy, and it was a huge and welcome break from routine. Sadly there don't seem to be any more missions like that in TPP.

I did just get to the part where you have to replay missions "Subsistence" style, which means no reflex mode, no buddies, and no weapons/equipment. Not even magazines. You have to find it all on-site, OSP, just like the first MGS. It's like playing an entirely new game. Spent an hour or two trying to complete the first such mission yesterday and it was insanely intense.

i "beat" the demo and once i got past the first difficulty curve of the controls, it became an endless loop of fun.
the story is unwatchable and not justifiable in any way
buying this today i think

http://ec0c5a7f741a6f3bff65-dd07187202f57fa404a8f047da2bcff5.r85.cf1.rackcdn.com/images/D2fJL-S9Lgt1.878x0.Z-Z96KYq.jpg

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-05-16-the-koj-delusion
should be arriving today

Just found Kaz's hamburger tapes. Ah, this is what the game has been missing. Pax Hamburgana

It was further suggested that a game featuring an antagonist called 'Skullface' shouldn't deal with such taboos (which, as an argument, is a non-starter).

is it though

http://i.imgur.com/Q03J5Z0.png

Finally beat this last night (at least the 2nd "Truth" ending), any interest in a spoiler thread to discuss?

Not yet i'm only on like 11%

I found Quiet (at least I think it was she) in some old ruins, and I'm pretty sure I got off a couple of bullseyes on her but then she just vanished and now I'm all alone. Have I blown this??

However in other news I never thought I'd be so happy to find a factory in a video game. At last, a setting that's not random little parched outbuildings on the side of a hill!! Going over those roofs and ducking around corners and crawling under pipes was super fun :)

2%
i think i'm gonna have more fun with this if i relax with the completionist approach. i've redone the first mission five times now trying to do it perfect.

I'm around 45%, finished "chapter 1", hit a bit of a wall when it started requiring me to do Subsistence/Extreme missions to continue. Down for a spoilers thread but I might wanna get further than this before I dip my toe in those waters!

xpost forks yeah just roll through. you can go back and S-rank them later.

You know, ILG Players Club would be a good place for those spoilery convos

You should be fine w Quiet, you can always go back and replay the mission and recruit her.

I only beat the game cos I wanted to read some reviews and felt like I was dodging spoilers left and right. Now I can relax and take my time w these dozens of side ops and main missions I still have left to do. Plus I think there is at least one side storyline ending I have left. For an 'unfinished' game there sure is a lot of stuff to do and see. Probably be playing this well into next year.

Btw you can skip the subsistence/extreme missions entirely if you want to do side ops instead, every 3 it will automatically trigger cutscenes or add new missions to the list. I've saved them all for post-game.

Metal Gear V - The Phantom Pain - Spoilers Ahead

Just got the Quiet ending. Wow. Mission 45 is incredible.

This is like a classic western movie or something. It does things you can only do in video games. I like the symbolic commentary on the ending of Kojima's Metal Gear. Quiet's arc is the best of any character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q401R0JtuFw

hey Adam when I met with the sniper who I thought was quiet and failed to get/extract her, it wasn't during a mission it was on the way to the factory side-op. so I can't redo the mission. I mean I'm not stressing too bad, I assume the game will hook me up again somehow. Right?

Not sure, I met her in Mission 11 but I think as long as you go to the Aabe Shifap Ruins you will run into her.

i'm sure that there's no way to miss her? one or two of the huge plot points depend on her existing

So uh I finally bought Revengeance, which really isn't a Metal Gear game, but I haven't played much yet. From what I can tell, it's one of those games that lets you get away with knowing nothing at the beginning since I've passed a couple areas and my combo percentage is a solid zero. Kind of fun, though. I miss Bushido Blade so maybe this will help me get my fix.

i just couldn't get to grips with the parry system in revengeance for some reason - i really wanted to like it but i got stuck on a boss battle which required me to parry :(

Yeah id didn't learn parry until 3/4 into the game.

I have most definitely not mastered parrying yet

on one hand, it's cool to be able to slowly master things

on the other hand, nothing will ever recreate the moment I played Bushido Blade for the first time and an enemy killed me two seconds in with one hit and I thought I had purchased an elaborate prank

BUSHIDO BLADE!

in my top 5 all time

so good, seems to have the least frills and minimal everything but then you realize the combat is completely ridiculous

the three stances!!

just run forward and spam X

http://gfycat.com/DimpledDeadlyAmericanbulldog

This is great fun but i am TERRIBLE at it. basically i play each episode for two hours just figuring out what the hell is going on, quit mission and then restart with a gameplan

don't be skurrt

on the other hand, sometimes be really skurrt

reflex mode is your friend

same for attracting attention

you need to draw these guys away from their buddies

every time one of them is like "i'm going to investigate" i'm like hey guy, haven't you ever seen a horror movie?

I'm on my 2nd playthrough of MGSV and it just keeps getting better. Knowing how the story finishes, it's almost a new game. This is Kojima's auteur masterwork imo. There is a lot of symbolism and art film style stuff throughout. It's brilliant. It talks about the player's role in the game. It talks about Kojima's debt to Metal Gear and the players. His last game he was forced to make due to death threats. The Quiet story is the best in Metal Gear history. Felt like a samurai movie crossed w a classic western or something, very sad, very optimistic, very symbolic. Game is a love-hate anime art film tribute to the violence of western culture.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/718564-metal-gear-solid-v-the-phantom-pain/72466130

I finally played the factory mission where you try to get, what's his name? The scientist? Emmerich? And OK that was awesome. Proper scripting and tough as shit. C4 is so funnnnnn

i started reading that faq and i think it's spoilery? i'm gonna avoid reading about this game until i finish it, so likely 2017.

Starts slow (so many cutscenes) but as I get better at the game and move away from the default FPS run and gun mindset it's becoming super addictive. Now if only the suppressors didn't blow out after 10 shots.

i recommend developing the better suppressor ASAP. you can redeploy dudes to the R&D team temporarily for exactly that purpose, then deploy them back to where they belong.

i never even got it. i just called in a new ammo drop every time i ran out on my suppressors.

also to anyone who beat the game, ILG players club has the spoiler thread and i just posted like 4 paragraphs up in that piece

well when i say better suppressor i mean better wu stun pistol. which comes with better suppressor. and allows you to get off 3 shots during reflex mode, which is croosh obv

speaking of weapons never used, i have not ONCE used the prosthetic arm for anything :(

oh by the way, you know one of the early missions, where it says "recommended weapon: missile"? like..... really? do i have to develop the killer bee in order to complete it?

i didn't even get that far on the wu stun pistol! i think it's because i started using it a lot less once i got the custom guns (so i had a 3-step suppressed zzz sniper rifle) and the sleep grenades. i will almost definitely go back to get as many side missions as possible and probably soup up the wu for fun.

oh man, some of the prosthetic arms are fun as HELLLLLLLLL. hand of jehuty and rocket arm are SO GREBT once you unlock them!

you can do those "recommended missile" missions with any of the following (with a few exceptions):
- any RPG
- C4
- land mines
- fultons with cargo mode upgrade
- some other stuff i might be forgetting. doesn't need to be the killer bee though.

in fact i have pretty much started using D-Dog w/ stun attachment + hand of jehuty for all of the "heavy infantry" side ops. it's a killer combo (and by killer i mean non-lethal but awesome).

3-step suppressed zzz sniper rifle

see that's what i need, i'm just not levelled up enough yet

i'm finding quiet a real drag (just got her), she keeps shooting guys and waking up the whole camp! guess i need to outfit HER with a zzz sniper rifle too?

as soon as side op 107 shows up, complete it and the ones that follow it. it pops up after mission 13. it will make your life easier AND more fun.

xp and for quiet, eventually you can unlock her suppressed rifles (zzz and kill kill kill), and also another one which is apparently like a crazy anti-materiel rifle (since i don't really use her i never unlocked it! d-dog is my homeboy)

it takes a handful of missions just bringing Quiet along before she learns the "cover me" command and cracks the game open. still prefer D-Dog for scouting reasons but Quiet can tranq an entire outpost for you if you develop her the right gear

oh man, some of the prosthetic arms are fun as HELLLLLLLLL. hand of jehuty and rocket arm are SO GREBT once you unlock them!

I had a hard time w Rocket Arm doing that one mission they used to reveal it. I've been using the electric shock move recently and it is awesome.

D-Walker's drive mode is really good for getting around esp Africa since it is flatter landscape. You can use cars too but you might mess them up, D-Walker can drop from any height.

I really like the buddies system, they are all super unique and cool, and all have individual strengths and weaknesses. Are there any other games where you have selectable AI buddies like this? All I can think of is Elizabeth from Bioshock but she was more like a travelling ammo and health spawning point.

I did the missile recommended scenes with the basic rocket launcher. It takes 4-5 rockets to kill a tank but if you stay close to the HQ in the 2 tanks + MPV one there's a restock of rockets in there.

re: suppressors I was always paranoid that supply drops would alert people but apparently everyone else just calls them in right on the edge of where they're infiltrating/fighting and it's NBD.

yeah, i got slightly closer and closer with them each time and never got noticed. tempted to try dropping them on an enemy's head for a stun, that could be fun.

Oh it's a riot. Any time you are stumped on how to take someone out at a light or gun post or something just mark them and supply drop that spot.

still just playing this in small increments 1 or 2 missions / side ops at a time, only 4% completion. i fultoned some guy not far enough away and a guard called it in as basically "one of our men just flew away on a balloon"

i try to be at least 50M away

i need more time for this. instead i plan out routes of attack as i'm trying to fall asleep.
hopefully in december

jfc at Quiet's bikini and ripped fishnets.