Topic: Team [404 - Team Name Not Found] Deliberation Station

Sorry for being late to the party, comrades. Busy week was busy. As such, I'm gonna skip straight to my final, locked-in categorisations and give brief justifications below.

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Madden NFL 15 - Existing
Madden NFL 16 - Not Important
Madden NFL 17 - Not Important
Madden NFL 25 - Important
Major League Baseball 2K11 - Existing
Major League Baseball 2K12 - Not Important
Major League Baseball 2K13 - Pointless
🎮 Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Very Important
🎮 Metal Gear Solid HD Collection - Existing
🎮 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Very Important
🎮 Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes - Very Important
🎮 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - Very Important
Metro: Last Light - Important
Michael Jackson: The Experience - Not Important
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor - Not Important
Midnight Club: Los Angeles - Important
Midway Arcade Origins - Existing
Mindjack - Pointless
Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition - Important
Minecraft: Story Mode - Existing
Mini Ninjas - Existing
🎮 Mirror's Edge - Very Important
MLB 07: The Show - Not Important
MLB 08: The Show - Existing
MLB 09: The Show - Important
MLB 10: The Show - Very Important
MLB 11: The Show - Important

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Where obvious, I've just supported the research and / or feedback from others. Folks who've indicated that they've played the game in question get precedence!

Apologies for the low ranking of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. Whilst it's unquestionably the very best way to experience MGS2: Sons of Liberty and MGS3: Snake Eater, we're here to judge the collection release itself, not the individual components. Both of those games I'd award the highest honours if we were judging their PS2 versions, but I have issues with giving re-releases and / or remasters anything higher than "Important" (remakes are different). And then there's the lack of Metal Gear Solid itself, the PSone classic that rebooted the franchise and secured its popularity for all time.

The damning nail in the coffin, however, is the port of MGS: Peace Walker. It's not great. I'm not a huge fan of the game anyway, although the story and soundtrack are excellent, but I have an objective objection to the stop-start gameplay, re-use of tiny environments and repetitive grinding to see the "true" ending. Not only that, but it was a PSP game designed to be played co-operatively, and yet they didn't take that into consideration when porting it to the PS3, which is single player only. This makes some of the boss encounters drag on way, way too long (the battle with Peace Walker is designed for four players to attack it, not one, but they left its health bar at maximum and so draining it becomes a boring, resource-draining slog). Of all the franchises that needed forced multiplayer... I'm sure it worked great in Japan (and indeed, the Japanese version of the HD Collection didn't contain Peace Walker, because it was selling great guns on PSP as a digital download and everybody was playing it together) but over here, we got an badly-thought-out, rushed port, simply because the plot was important to forthcoming games. I'd call it borderline "Existing" / "Not Important" and that, coupled with the lack of the PSone original, drags down the overall score for me.

Genuinely feel awful about that, but I'm trying real hard to be objective here.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a game I never thought I'd enjoy. I played the demo and really struggled to get a handle on the gameplay, but got it at launch because I think Raiden might be my favourite Metal Gear character of all time. After having a rough time with the first couple levels, everything suddenly clicked. It's a challenging-yet-fair, spectacularly gorgeous experience with memorable characters, a unique and deliberate tone, technical complexity and some surprisingly prescient things to say about modern society. PlatinumGames does it again. Amazing.

I have actually played Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on PS3 (not my copies; I've completed both, fully, on PS4 but have experienced them briefly on PS3 and can therefore speak to the only major difference, a lower graphical resolution and very, very temporary framerate slowdown in sporadic parts). So whilst I'm counting them as games I've played up there, it's kinda a technicality, and therefore won't mind if @Jaz007 reads this and wants to only count my vote once. As for the games themselves, they're examples of what MGS: Peace Walker should've been. I'll defend them to the death.

Mirror's Edge had such a cult following and reverence (until Catalyst came along and ruined everything) that I can't rank it anything other than "Very Important". It's a beautiful game to play, one I'd probably rank a bracket lower if I were judging it in a vacuum, but those few intervening years of it being mentioned in hushed whispers, praised and revered, give it extra cultural weight beyond its box. Plus it launched at the peak of the "brown shooter era" and so was a pretty bold, mould-breaking statement piece as a result.

Thanks to everybody who's done the heavy lifting elsewhere this week, especially @themcnoisy with all those sports games; that would've taken me a lot of Google time!

@mookysam I didn't need to elaborate on my reasoning for giving MGS4: Guns of the Patriots top honours, because you've said it all so well. Thank you!

@RogerRoger thank you. I'm in the same boat playing them on Ps4 and I am rating them as such. Prolly the wrong way to do it.

@themcnoisy As long as you can find evidence to suggest that the content and gameplay is the same, and it's just the graphics and framerate that differ between the versions, then I'd say cross-generational impressions are valid. It's why I'm grateful for @Jaz007 @Th3solution and @ZeD highlighting that the nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor was removed from the PS3 version, because that's where you start to have a real impact on considering a game's ranking.

You can watch some MGSV PS3 gameplay on YouTube and it's amazing. At times, you'd swear you were watching footage captured from the PS4 version.

Madden NFL 15 EA Tiburon - Existing
Madden NFL 16 EA Tiburon - Not Important
Madden NFL 17 EA Tiburon - Not Important
Madden NFL 25 EA Tiburon - Important
Major League Baseball 2K11 Visual Concepts - Existing
Major League Baseball 2K12 Visual Concepts - Not Important
Major League Baseball 2K13 Visual Concepts - Pointless
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Platinum Games - Important
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Kojima Productions - Important
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Kojima Productions - Very Important
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Kojima Productions - Existing
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Kojima Productions - Very Important
Metro: Last Light 4A Games - Very Important
Michael Jackson: The Experience Ubisoft Montreal - Existing
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Monolith Productions - Not Important
Midnight Club: Los Angeles Rockstar San Diego - Important
Midway Arcade Origins Backbone Entertainment - Existing
Mindjack feel plus - Pointless
🎮 Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition 4j Studios - Important
Minecraft: Story Mode Telltale Games – not important
Mini Ninjas IO Interactive - Existing
🎮 Mirror's Edge EA Digital Illusions CE - Important
MLB 07: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - Not Important
MLB 08: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - Existing
MLB 09: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - Important
MLB 10: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - Very Important
MLB 11: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - Important

Dragging in from behind...

Madden NFL 15 EA Tiburon - Existing
Madden NFL 16 EA Tiburon - Not Important
Madden NFL 17 EA Tiburon - Not Important
Madden NFL 25 EA Tiburon - Important
Major League Baseball 2K11 Visual Concepts - Existing
Major League Baseball 2K12 Visual Concepts - Not Important
Major League Baseball 2K13 Visual Concepts - Pointless
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Platinum Games - Important
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Kojima Productions - Very Important
🎮 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Kojima Productions - Very Important
🎮 Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Kojima Productions - Important
🎮 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Kojima Productions - Very Important
Metro: Last Light 4A Games - Important
Michael Jackson: The Experience Ubisoft Montreal - Existing
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Monolith Productions - Not Important
Midnight Club: Los Angeles Rockstar San Diego - Important
Midway Arcade Origins Backbone Entertainment - Not Important
Mindjack feel plus - Pointless
Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition 4 Studios - Very Important
Minecraft: Story Mode Telltale Games - Existing
Mini Ninjas IO Interactive - Existing
Mirror's Edge EA Digital Illusions CE - Important
MLB 07: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - Not Important
MLB 08: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - Existing
MLB 09: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - Important
MLB 10: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - Very Important
MLB 11: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - Important

Alright team, final results.
Madden NFL 15 EA Tiburon –EXISTING
Madden NFL 16 EA Tiburon - NOT IMPORTANT
Madden NFL 17 EA Tiburon - NOT IMPORTANT
Madden NFL 25 EA Tiburon –IMPORTANT
Major League Baseball 2K11 Visual Concepts –EXISTING
Major League Baseball 2K12 Visual Concepts - NOT IMPORTANT
Major League Baseball 2K13 Visual Concepts –POINTLESS
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Platinum Games –IMPORTANT
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Kojima Productions –IMPORTANT
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Kojima Productions - VERY IMPORTANT
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Kojima Productions –IMPORTANT
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Kojima Productions - VERY IMPORTANT
Metro: Last Light 4A Games - IMPORTANT
Michael Jackson: The Experience Ubisoft Montreal –EXISTING
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Monolith Productions - NOT IMPORTANT
Midnight Club: Los Angeles Rockstar San Diego –IMPORTANT
Midway Arcade Origins Backbone Entertainment –EXITING
Mindjack feel plus –POINTLESS
Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition 4j Studios –IMPORTANT
Minecraft: Story Mode Telltale Games –EXISTING
Mini Ninjas IO Interactive –EXISTING
Mirror's Edge EA Digital Illusions CE –IMPORTANT
MLB 07: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - NOT IMPORTANT
MLB 08: The Show SCE San Diego Studio — EXISTING
MLB 09: The Show SCE San Diego Studio –IMPORTANT
MLB 10: The Show SCE San Diego Studio - VERY IMPORTANT
MLB 11: The Show SCE San Diego Studio –IMPORTANT

@Th3Solution May 18-30th I'll be out of town and unable to tally up the votes and such. Would you be able to tally the votes and such during that time?

@Jaz007 Sure thing, boss. Be happy to. 😃
I don’t know of any conflicts I have as of now. Are you traveling for business or pleasure?

@Th3solution Pleasure. I''m having a nice vacation visiting a girl and her family.

@Jaz007 Sounds awesome! Glad to do my part to make it an enjoyable escape for you. Just remind me when we get closer as I have a tendency to forget things more than 2-3 days in advance. 😜

@themcnoisy Why is our team getting almost all of the trash games?

Again haven't played them and am going to be virtually no help with these kinds of games. I'm a JRPG and Japanese games buff, I might as well not even be here at this point besides the time when we voted on the ToCS games...

I do play western games too, but these ones are...uh...pretty low caliber releases. I don't mind some sports games either, but this is just...WOW

@TowaHerschel7 you are talking about last week's games Ruk.

The new week's games aren't here yet lol.

@TowaHerschel7 This week is Boss Week. All teams are collaborating over in the Team Microtransactions (MTX) topic on a huge mid-way group. Head on over, there are quite a few Japanese and sports games which might take your fancy and we could use your help.

@Th3solution. I’m not sure what @themcnosy has planned for next week, but I’m going out of town tomorrow until May 30th so I’ll need you to tally up votes and a stuff. If you at @ me I should be able to answer any questions you have. I’ll try to still participate a bit in all this, but I’m not sure what that will end up looking like.
Edit: just a reminder.

@Jaz007 Will do. Have a great trip. Pop in if you can, but otherwise enjoy yourself and I’ll do what I can to follow Noisy’s plan.

@Th3solution you have to step If if Jaz is away and you become the boss of 303.

@themcnoisy Yeah, I will try to be on top of it. Just let me know what your plans are for the next stage. I’ve been a little out of touch comparatively speaking but I’m still engaged.

@Th3solution back to the normal routine again. Fingers crossed we only have 1 month to go!