3. tom chick is not 'interested in gameplay.' someone who can play mgs4 and conclude that it's 'the same stealth routine' -- that it doesn't differ substantially from mgs1 or mgs2 -- is probably not interested in anything -- lacks the requisite sensory apparatus. look, i've found myself pointing out the profound mechanical differences between dmc3 and dmc4, so i know i'm capable of nerdy perspective loss, but i don't think i'm doing that at the moment. mgs4 comes as close to reinvention as an expensive sequel is going to...in any medium.
4. i wonder about anyone who finds much value in the notion of 'gameplay' -- as distinct from aesthetics, broadly called -- and then finds this notion worth defending. it's a sign of the kind of blunt categorical mind that gets itself a job at gamespot, and twenty godforsaken years of videogame fandom have taught me that these people will never say anything worth hearing. battle garegga is a totality. mega man 2 is a totality. mgs is totally a totality
5. his one legitimate point is that mgs4 requires 'a degree in metal gear solidology' to appreciate -- and i won't argue that such a degree is worth having. e.g.: raiden's development obviously has a lot of comicbook wish fulfillment to it, but it's also shrewd and writerly and loyal to mgs2. maybe the best moment in that game -- one that was prepared for by a lot of stuff that seems pointless on first encounter -- was when raiden, under the pressure of a lot of wacky sci-fi mind control and manipulation, begins to doubt the reality of the things that are real in his life. snake's response was 'don't be weird. she's your girlfriend.' -- one of the rare moments when words don't fail mgs. raiden doesn't recover from those doubts. and his reinvention as comic book superhero involves doing some pretty awful things to himself. it hasn't been mentioned in the game yet, but apparently all that's left of his body is his spinal chord and his head sans lower jaw. it's kind of chilling if you've got a functioning spinal chord...and a degree in metal gear solidology. kojima doesn't just hang out with fringe japanese movie directors
6. the notion that mg4s takes itself too seriously is on a par with the notion that it plays like mgs1 -- it sustains its fourth wall gags and scatology and prurience and wackiness even when it ought to be doing its conventional action movie climax. this doesn't always work, but there's something legitimately artistic in its refusal to let content dictate style
7. smugly commonsensical mgs detractors like to point out that its cutscenes would be laughed out of a movie theater. they're perfectly right. they're pitiably wrong. that mgs would be laughed out of a movie theater is what's great about it -- this couldn't happen anywhere besides a videogame -- we've got too many expectations of established media. on reflection i'm willing to concede that mgs is stupid more often that it's clever, but its cleverness is so potent and so unlike anything else that coddling it is a kind of moral imperative. if passing for an actual b-movie is the highest value to which narrative videogames can aspire, uncharted is a kind of masterpiece. uncharted isn't any kind of masterpiece.
8. i could do this indefinitely
