I've been playing Metal Gear Solid 4 this week

[Lafiel]

Amazing review. Kinda hurts here and there, but also delivers laughs here and there. Really fucking good.

I had more fun reading that review than any "pro" review i've read in the last couple of years.

  Himuro  

^

to Lafiel: Dude. 9h30m of "cut scenes". That shit ain't "ok".

On my game save i clocked 12 hours of gameplay and 9 hours and 30 minutes of cutscenes.
Which is not bad for a MGS game imo, considering my final playtime for the first two games are like 8 hours. (and those have like 2-4 hours of cutscenes).

The problem is that the cut scenes are back ended. Basically, you reach half way through the game, and you've already burnt through the core of the gameplay experience, and what comes after is an indulgent mess of a game, with cut scene after cut scene after cut scene.

Yep totally agree with this, really wished act 3-5 had more gameplay, that's probably the one thing that would've made MGS 4 a near-perfect experience in the gameplay department for me.

[The Fake Shemp]

Game sucked, fanboys ate it up.  The end.

[fistfulofmetal]

Can't take the opinion of a person who liked RE5 seriously, sorry.

edit: also Dead Rising.
and Lost Planet (i think?)

and those awful jrpg's

damn.

[Himu]

I've never played Lost Planet beyond the demo.

You have horrible taste, fistful.

I fucking tore this game apart.

[Himu]

Lafiel, i don't consider MGS games high art. I consider them fun and cheese. MGS4 takes itself entirely too seriously. It thinks it is the citizen kane of gaming. The other games treat themselves as if they're b movies in game form. Not this.

[fistfulofmetal]

Any criticism you have against MGS4 is pretty much invalidated because of your love of RE5. MGS4 has issues but RE5 has wide gaping holes of shittyness and you're pretty oblivious to those. How can anyone trust your opinion of... anything else?

[Himu]

You're a fucking tool, you know that?

[Don Flamenco]

I hope he isn't saying MGS4 > RE5...

[Himu]

He is.

[fistfulofmetal]

Well, pretty much any major game released last year is better than RE5. GTA4, Burnout, Gears 2, Dead Space, MGS4, all them.
RE5 is pretty much garbage on a dvd.

[Don Flamenco]

Wii Music is less of a non-game than MGS4. 

[Purple Filth]

i guess the fans got what they wished by ending everything 

luckily i never gave a shit about mgs stories so i can enjoy this like a michael bay flick.

[Sho Nuff]

If you truly enjoyed MGS4 perhaps you might also enjoy things called "movies"

[dark1x]

Wii Music is less of a non-game than MGS4. 

OK, that's just taking things too far.   

I mean, the game portion of MGS4 is still of decent length next to many other action titles.  It features a ridiculous amount of cutscenes, but there is a reasonable amount of gameplay in there as well (at least early on).  If you stripped away the cutscenes it would probably be about as long as Call of Duty 4 (perhaps even a bit longer).

Wii Music is never good.  One of the worst things released by a major publisher this entire generation.  No matter how bad you think MGS4 is, Wii Music is at least several hundred times worse. 

[Don Flamenco]

nope

Wii Music > MGS4.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

c'mon man 

[close]

[Sho Nuff]

If you stripped away the cutscenes it would probably be about as long as Call of Duty 4 (perhaps even a bit longer).

No way bro, I know the numbers, and no way

[Robo]

If you stripped away the cutscenes it would probably be about as long as Call of Duty 4 (perhaps even a bit longer).

No way bro, I know the numbers, and no way

This sentence is cracking me up for some reason.

[fistfulofmetal]

If you truly enjoyed MGS4 perhaps you might also enjoy things called "movies"

movies are pretty great, yeah

[Himu]

Pick another hobby.

[cool breeze]

MGS4 was great, but I still hope that if they continue the series, they just omit such a heavy handed story and stick with the gameplay found in acts 1 and 2.  They can even model it after Portable Ops where you control PMC members.

And has there been anything worse that fucks the pacing of the game than the way this game installs each chapter and subsequently handles the transition between each (BACK TO DA' SHIP!)? Holy crap.

yeah, the installs for every chapter was actually hilarious if you think about it.  I'm a fan of MGS4, but if another game made you do that, it would be seen as unacceptable.

[Himu]

I hope Metal Gear is dead for a while but it won't happen since it's the only game konami gives a budget. I like MG, but  I've also come to loathe it as well.

[fistfulofmetal]

hobby? games are MY LIFE, SON.

[Himu]

oh jesus

[cool breeze]

I hope Metal Gear is dead for a while but it won't happen since it's the only game konami gives a budget. I like MG, but  I've also come to loathe it as well.

Don't really see why.  The only difference between now and 8+ years ago is that Metal Gear is now a franchise.  You can have the heavy handed linear story games like MGS1-4, the turn based card games in ACID and things like Portable Ops and the crappy iPhone game.  I think the Metal Gear Solid linear heavy story based game should be done, but I think they can do more with the actual franchise.  There aren't really too many games that handle different approaches to a situation as good as MGS4 did in Acts 1 and 2.  Upcoming it seems like Alpha Protocol might be doing something similar with more emphasis on rpg elements; other than that there isn't too much.  I guess maybe the next Splinter Cell game might do it too, but past SC games were really stealth or you're kind of fucked.

[dark1x]

yeah, the installs for every chapter was actually hilarious if you think about it.  I'm a fan of MGS4, but if another game made you do that, it would be seen as unacceptable.

The installs didn't bother me as much as I had expected, rather, I hated how broken up the sections were along with the loading between them.  If they are going to install each chapter I expect fucking streaming or something.  Not only were the loads annoying but the prompts to "press start" before each one made it seem even worse.  It is pretty clear to me that Kojima Productions had a difficult time with handling data.

Ah well, pretty typical of non-Capcom Japanese developers this gen (though MT-Framework was pretty rough in Dead Rising with extremely awful loading times dividing up everything small chunk of the mall).

[Rman]

Didn't RE5 run on MT Framework?  The loading times were almost non-existent.

[WrikaWrek]

Loading screens were the worst part of RE5

[dark1x]

Loading screens were the worst part of RE5

Wait, what?  There weren't that many loading screens and each one passed by extremely quickly.  They may as well have been black screens (which would have appeared more polished).

Didn't RE5 run on MT Framework?  The loading times were almost non-existent.

Loading hasn't been a problem with MT Framework games since Lost Planet.  Dead Rising is the only game based on that technology which has serious loading issues (probably due to its earlier release combined with the crazy amount of textures).

[WrikaWrek]

There were plenty of loading screens in RE5. Seeing a loading screen before a cutscene or after, completely kills the immersion and RE5 was running wild with those.

[Don Flamenco]

I know what happened in 1965 in the RE5 world really really well by now  

I don't think I ever saw anything past the first two dates.  


Not sure if that's how it is in the PS3 version.

[Rman]

There were plenty of loading screens in RE5. Seeing a loading screen before a cutscene or after, completely kills the immersion and RE5 was running wild with those.

They go pretty quick, though.  Loading has never been a nuisance for me, even during the PS1 days.

[dark1x]

There were plenty of loading screens in RE5. Seeing a loading screen before a cutscene or after, completely kills the immersion and RE5 was running wild with those.

Yeah, there were plenty of them, but they were super quick.

[Himu]

What is the benefit of replaying MGS4? Is there anything like unlimited ammo or stealth which gives you 100% stealth rating or something? I unlocked a race gun and have no clue wtf that is

[Rman]

Unlockable masks, emblems, and some weapons like the solar gun and the old school Japanese rifle. 

[Himu]

wtf are the emblems

[Rman]

Do you remember the titles you got in the older MGS games?  The best title was the Big Boss title, which you usually get by clearing the game with no kills, no alerts, and completing the game within a certain amount of time, on the hardest difficulty.  MGS4 expands on this system with a new system of emblems. 

For example, if you get a certain number of headshots you get a certain emblem, presented in the game clear screen, and again there's a Big Boss emblem, which is a hell to get.

Some emblems also unlock some rewards as well, mostly masks.

[Himu]

I got the Eagle rank.

[fistfulofmetal]

I'm gonna be replaying through MGS4 on June 12th. I got the weekend planned. It's gonna be awesome.

[BlueTsunami]

I kept getting a single kill in Act 2 during the armored car sequence. It fucking annoyed me so fucking much. I was doing good with saves and No Alerts too. I eventually just gave up.

[Lafiel]

Lafiel, i don't consider MGS games high art. I consider them fun and cheese. MGS4 takes itself entirely too seriously. It thinks it is the citizen kane of gaming. The other games treat themselves as if they're b movies in game form. Not this.

Huh? that wasn't directed at you, was just making a point that the MGS fans that write FUCKING essays about MGS storyline, were really dissapointed in MGS 4. there's this one post from a angry MGS fan about MGS 4 on a official MGS fansite that was just 
Anyway your completely wrong there, how does it take itself anymore seriously then the previous three games? it was still filled with the silly humor of the previous games like the 'insert disk 2' codec call, any scene involving johhny (that whole wedding scene was not meant to be taken seriously), the psycho mantis scene in act 5 etc.

[Himu]

Lafiel, i don't consider MGS games high art. I consider them fun and cheese. MGS4 takes itself entirely too seriously. It thinks it is the citizen kane of gaming. The other games treat themselves as if they're b movies in game form. Not this.

Huh? that wasn't directed at you, was just making a point that the MGS fans that write FUCKING essays about MGS storyline, were really dissapointed in MGS 4. there's this one post from a angry MGS fan about MGS 4 on a official MGS fansite that was just 
Anyway your completely wrong there, how does it take itself anymore seriously then the previous three games? it was still filled with the silly humor of the previous games like the 'insert disk 2' codec call, any scene involving johhny (that whole wedding scene was not meant to be taken seriously), the psycho mantis scene in act 5 etc.

It takes itself more seriously because past MG games would continously poke fun of themselves even in the midst of the distinguished mentally-challenged. In MGS2, when it gets ridiculous and GW is hacked, Raiden runs around Big Shell NAKED. In MGS3, you're found out that you're not Raikov not by actually being caught, but because Volgin GRABS SNAKE'S NUTS and immediately recognizes that his penis and ballsack are of a different shape.

What does MGS4 have? The last time I laughed in MGS4 was this:



This is pure MGS cheese.

In MGS4 the game is like LOOK AT THESE CHARACTERS, LOOK AT THE DRAMA, DON'T YOU FEEL SORRY FOR THEM?!!?!? Especially the HORRIBLE Meryl/Johnny cutscene, which is not a good type of cheese.

I don't know what it is, but it rubbed me the wrong way. It seemed like Metal Gear finally became the game I have defended it's NOT for years.

But you're right. The Psycho Mantis scene wasn't serious, but I saw that over 10 years ago. The johnny/meryl scene wasn't serious but it was DUMB. The insert disc 2 thing was genius, I agree.