Forums

Topic: Metal Gear Series Discussion

Posts 81 to 100 of 131

RogerRoger

@oliverp Thank you for taking the time to read and reply, that's very kind of you!

The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection on PS3 is worth owning if you don't already, because it's absolutely the best way to experience the three games it includes (at least for now). Have you not played Peace Walker before, then? If you're a fan of the series, I'd encourage you try it, at least. It's a little different but also comfortably familiar, and there's fun to be had there, for sure.

But yeah, it's not going anywhere. Best of luck with your Resi games in the meantime!

***

@belmont I'm approaching the end of the pre-grind story, and am slightly dreading what's to come. I'm hoping that it isn't as bad as I remember, but I also noticed a thirty-hour clock on the old save I deleted before getting underway, and I'm pretty sure I did the bare minimum before, so... yeah. Eek.

Kaz is definitely finding his feet, in terms of performance and tone. He's much better in MGSV. I agree that that's a fine send-off for David Hayter you've linked there (because yeah, I think you're right, that's the last time he ever showed up in a Metal Gear game). I really like Kiefer Sutherland's casting and performance in both MGSV games, but it's been cool going back and hearing Hayter these past couple games, and enjoying what he did with the role, across various characters and age ranges. He can sound heroic one moment and then villainous the next, which suits Big Boss brilliantly.

And yeah, I always skip the date missions. They're just... not for me. At least they provided a bit of balance with the Kaz option, I suppose! Makes some of the other dialogue make a lot of sense!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

RogerRoger

Am done with Peace Walker, thank goodness.

That whole "Oh noes! Zadornov keeps escaping! Go play hide-and-seek with him!" nonsense is a real drag, but it was a drag I was willing to put up with, as I remembered the fight with Metal Gear ZEKE being worth the effort. Well, I remembered wrong. It's not a very good boss battle; between your own efforts, the Mother Base consoles, and ZEKE's skittish attack patterns, there's just too much going on, and I didn't appreciate the random J-Pop soundtrack, either. Whilst the surrounding story serves Snake and Kaz pretty well, Paz is a disaster, and I'd clearly put a mental block on her randomly wearing a bikini and being shown from all sorts of leering angles. At least I saved some of the better Side Ops for the effort, but still. Urgh.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

RogerRoger

Best.

Untitled

Game.

Untitled

Ever.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Th3solution

@RogerRoger It’s rare to see an older game’s encore playthrough live up to the nostalgia-ridden memories. Great to see MGS5 didn’t disappoint.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

colonelkilgore

@RogerRoger Yesss!!!! I honestly thought that I was the only guy who felt that way about it… incredible game!

**** DLC!

RogerRoger

@Th3solution @colonelkilgore It's truly outstanding. I'm still finding new jaw-dropping details, and love how tense I get during gameplay, even when I know exactly what I'm doing. I have a foolproof, tried-and-tested strategy for the Traitors' Caravan mission, for example, and yet I was on the edge of my seat the entire time whilst executing it. Because of the game's sheer scale, though, I've forgotten some other missions entirely (often those peppered between the "major" events) and have decided to roll with whatever happens, rather than restart anything. I'm gonna have to go back through for my S-Ranks anyway!

That being said, I had no idea (and still have no idea) how to avoid Sahelanthropus at the end of the Huey retrieval mission, when your cover is automatically blown and the freakin' thing just stands in front of you. Kaz says "Boss, hide!" and I'm running around like a headless chicken, shouting "Where?!"

So much fun. Such perfect gameplay. One heck of a thing.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

oliverp

I find it very cool how MGS5 came to be. How the developers successfully developed the game to run on so many platforms. I wonder how many people were involved in the development team, what their schedule looked like, things like this often pop up in my head.

Are also a bit curious about what all the relented developers are working on these days given how Komija production was “restructured ” after MGS5 was released.. Maybe a few have moved on to working on other ambitious Japanese games like Nioh and Elden Ring to name a few.

Edited on by oliverp

oliverp

RogerRoger

Stopped short of an MGSV platinum run. I was forced to step away for a while and when I returned, the grind just got the better of me. I hadn't even finished the story properly, as I'd never used Quiet as a buddy, so my bond wasn't sufficient to trigger her relevant missions.

That being said, I did get a motivational kick out of clearing the "TRUTH" mission, given the impact it has on your subsequent gameplay. If you know what I mean, then you know what I mean.

Untitled

My save is in a good place for picking up the platinum chase later on, as I was playing online this time, and therefore was able to pop the game's FOB trophy. Just got a handful of S-Ranks, the Quiet stuff, and then a few obscure collectathons (extract all animals, find all key documents, etc.) and I'll be done. On reflection, I think it was unwise to make the attempt after playing so other Metal Gear games, as I became increasingly frustrated with staying slow an' sneaky. I just wanted to cut loose, and the promise of an occasional Sahelanthropus showdown wasn't enough to see me through. Oh well.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

kyleforrester87

@RogerRoger I was playing and loving MGS5, I put about 120 hours in it and was having loads of fun until all of a sudden I just wasn’t anymore, the bottom comes up quick!

kyleforrester87

PSN: WigSplitter1987

JohnnyShoulder

@kyleforrester87 That's what she said!

Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

PSN: JohnnyShoulder

JohnnyShoulder

@kyleforrester87 That long?

Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

PSN: JohnnyShoulder

RogerRoger

@kyleforrester87 It sure does. I think I've previously defended Chapter 2 and its various "hard mode" replays but this time around, it suddenly started to feel like I was being asked to wade through custard. It doesn't help that Chapter 1's ending is really solid (pun semi-intended) so I'm left thinking that, if they knew it'd go unfinished, they should've just cut the whole thing, or incorporated Chapter 2's key narrative beats into Chapter 1, with the major "TRUTH" revelation being an epilogue to bookend the story. Then have all your "hard mode" replays be a separate post-game challenge mode, like the VR Missions used to be.

But hey, by all accounts, the whole situation was a freakin' mess. Hindsight's 20-20 an' all that.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

kyleforrester87

@RogerRoger too long ago for me to remember allot of it now, unfortunately. I just remember getting to a point and thinking nope!

I prefer Ground Zeros overall - less is more..!

kyleforrester87

PSN: WigSplitter1987

RogerRoger

@kyleforrester87 Yeah, I'd agree with that now, for sure. The Phantom Pain is beyond impressive, but it's like the saying goes, "just because you can do a thing, it doesn't necessarily mean that you must" (or whatever the actual wording is). I had a real blast with Ground Zeroes recently. Brilliant lil' game!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Th3solution

@RogerRoger So what did you think of the TRUTH on this subsequent playthrough? It’s been a while since the game was trending, so my recall might be tainted, but I remember quite the outcry of how the game ends and specifically that whole TRUTH reveal. I think most of the criticism had been about the abruptness of the conclusion and the feeling of the plot being wrapped up in an unsatisfying and poorly fleshed-out manner. I don’t know.

For me, this game came out at a time when I was not burdened by a large backlog, so perhaps was more forgiving of large time-sinks that didn’t end well. I wasn’t active on Push Square, so I wasn’t really “in the know” about background development drama. I had a vague sense of the Konami-Kojima breakup, but I didn’t know that the game‘s development was hamstrung and that there was a whole unrealized Act that Kojima intended to make for the game but ran out of time/patience/funding/contractual obligation or whatever. So by playing the game on release, with no prior expectations, I really felt the TRUTH reveal was well done and quite impactful to me. I really enjoyed the ending and it sort of blew me away.

But I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have a deep understanding of the MGS-verse and its tangled web of narrative. Part of that is probably because I was missing the MGS2 piece to the puzzle, I don’t know (sheesh, I need to go back and finish that… I’m pathetic 😅). Nevertheless, MGS5:TPP’s ending felt really satisfying to me, and the TRUTH was a gripping moment in my memory. I wonder if I replayed the game whether I’d see much more of the cracks in the foundation of the game, it’s message, and it’s dramatic conclusion.

This has me thinking about the wider issue of whether sometimes as gamers we know too much background, and it ruins the experience. The wealth of information readily available probably subconsciously biases us against our games (and movies, TV, and other media we consume).

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

RogerRoger

@Th3solution Oh yeah, I love it. I think it's one of the greatest "hidden in plain sight" rug-pulls in history. I knew that something was up during my first playthrough but, like you, my Metal Gear knowledge wasn't entirely comprehensive, so I didn't quite manage to see it coming. Going back through the game in anticipation, you get to notice so many brilliant breadcrumbs. My only criticism would be that you're made to replay the entire hour-ish hospital prologue to see the six minutes of final revelatory cutscenes. I kinda get why Mr. Kojima did that but, like I said above, I'd have probably opted for something a bit tighter.

My initial guess was that, during that prologue replay, Ishmael was gonna be revealed to have been a figment of "your" imagination (hence why he's also voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) especially in the wake of all the hallucinatory Paz stuff in Chapter 2. I thought that you'd get to play it again and, whenever Ishmael did anything important, he'd fade away (like a phantom) and you'd take control instead. Because I've never played the original MSX Metal Gear games for myself, I'd only read that Big Boss canonically dies twice, and figured it was just one of those Hollywood-esque surprise resurrections that're so common in sequels (heck, Bond killed Blofeld three times in the pre-Craig movies, and the Kiefer Sutherland connection made me mindful of 24, a show in which nobody ever stays dead) but of course, in hindsight, we'd all just been through the Iraq War, and talk of Saddam Hussein's use of doubles was pretty fresh.

There are so many giveaways, though, the biggest being the revelation that Eli (who is blatantly Liquid from the get-go) isn't a genetic match for Venom Snake; that definitely gave me pause during my first playthrough (but again, my mind went to "Who on Mother Base switched samples? Who's the traitor?" after the whole Huey debacle). But there are other, far more minor things I noticed this time, too. There's a cutscene where Snake confronts Skull Face and the latter sneers, "Follow me, Big Boss." In hindsight, it's just so sarcastic and derogatory. It speaks volumes, but only when you know, y'know?

Sometimes keeping current with behind-the-scenes news can harm an experience, for sure. I'd agree with you there, especially coming off the back of Metal Gear Survive, where I almost felt guilty for buying it (and worse when I started to enjoy it) because of its reputation. Remember the outcry when this site's review gave it 8/10 after all that pre-judgement? Folks who hadn't even played the game doubting and criticising somebody who had, saying that they'd "never forgive" Konami. Again, like you, I wasn't very active in any gaming communities when I first played MGSV and I didn't read gaming news all that much either, so I wasn't as disappointed in the game's ending as I was this time around (and yeah, if this reply has a theme, it's that "context helps you notice more"). I suppose ignorance can be bliss.

You're not pathetic! You're playing MGS2 on PS Vita, and it's tough to stick with handheld gaming when you're surrounded by "proper" consoles back home. Besides, MGSV is designed to bridge a very specific gap in the Metal Gear timeline, and it has the benefit of being the latest piece of the puzzle, so it does feel quite self-contained in some ways, despite its goal and legacy. Being able to recognise things like Operation Intrude N313 on the cassette tape, and the Outer Heaven logo on the door as Venom Snake turns and walks away is neat, but not essential to "get" the story's broad point.

Sorry, I've rambled a bit, but I'm grateful for the question. One thing's for sure, regardless of opinion or level of background knowledge, MGSV is a fascinating game!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

BangEm

I spent decades playing the MGS series and i would certainly pay top dollar for a remake of them all.

Can you imagine if they remastered the below and baked them into one game.

  • Metal Gear Solid
  • Metal Gear Solid 2
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
  • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots
  • Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes
  • Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

If i were to nit pick on this theoretical remake mashup, id want it to be stitched together in chronological order based on the story timeline.

BangEm

PSN: bang_em_berry | Twitter:

RogerRoger

@BangEm That'd be one heck of a huge release! Reminds me of that Legacy Collection re-release they did for PS3, which got spread across two Blu-Rays and still had to include download codes for some of the games (and that was before the MGSV games even existed, as well).

I think presenting the series in chronological order would help some folks, though. That's what the HD Edition did with its remasters of MGS2, MGS3 and Peace Walker on its main menu.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Please login or sign up to reply to this topic