Metal Gear Solid 4 is only hours away

[SergeXIII]

I havet been this excited for a game release in quite some time, Smash didn't even do this for me and that day was quite epic, with me rushing out of my house and racing 3 hours ack to my college where I had pre-ordered it (Metallica blaring to further enhance the epic) and proceeded to play it until around five in the morning with my dorm mates before having to stop for the next days classes and our Smash launch party.

But I am a major MGS fan. I see the franchise as one of the three strongest cases in the argument of games as art (the others being Silent Hill 2 and ICO). As a scholar, an artist (to whatever extent that may be), and a gaming enthusist in general I am quite excited to see the impact the game will have on the market. My expectations are high, and that tends to warrent only dissapointment, but screw it. I can't wait for the conclusion to the tale of Solid Snake.

So... any Gener Metal Gear enthusists?

For anyone wondering what the hub bub is about check out this retrospective ala Game Trailers.

[Levi-chan]

Totally. I think I'll pull a cinematic compilation instead of actually playing it (ala Substance DVD). I'm more interested in how the story is going to resolve than the actual gameplay. I'm sure I'm not alone.

Considering this is the penultimate installment, you gotta expect Some Shit To Go Down (TM).

[Killbert-Robby]

There is something you should understand about Robby.
He is not a fanboy. Hell, he is endlessly apathetic "Sure so and so is fun, but this game is also good, not much, you know, whatever... hell... dont play any games. Just, you know, whatever you have..."

But MGS?.... I am a HUGE MGS fanboy. Like... I've played ALL the games, I know the backstories, full time line, theories, spoilers, character bios, science, etc. I just..... LOVE MGS o____o Every game I go "Wait a few weeks, its expensive just after release"

AND I ALWAYS SNAP

This snap will cost me a PS3 too...

[DJMayhem]

This is one of the many reasons why i went and bought a PS3 (that, and i was deathly scared of overheating Xbox360's at the time). I was actually in the beta for Metal Gear Online, which save for the retarded patch system, had a little glimpse into the game's control schematics (and i loved them to hell), and online play was rather fun.

As soon as my paycheck comes in tomorrow, i'm playing this game.

I cannot fucking wait.

[ZeroHero]

Post reviews as soon as you can, I'm trying to decide about the PS3.

[Brockway]

Welp, I'm part way into it, like 9 hours or so play time. And after playing it that long, I could give a flying crap that it runs at 1024x768, its the smoothest looking game I've seen this gen. It looks like freakin' Advent Children when you play it. OMG moments have been plentiful, and I would have bought a ps3 just to play this game. There's an 8 minute install at the beginning, with a 2-3 minute additional one between acts. Its not bad because it lets you know how much time is left, and you get to watch Snake smoke a cigarette with little warning notes saying smoking is bad for you. I'm like 5 acts in I think. Had to stop at about 3am this morning. Can't play it now either, the only hdtv at home is in the living room, no way in heck I will play it in SD.

[SergeXIII]

Blah, tomorrow evening is my G'nerds deadline and I can't think of anything very good for a strip. I don't want to spoil anything, so there isn't much I can talk about. Inspiration usually strikes me in the shower, so here's hoping dawn shall bring me my muse.

Do you guys think revealing the Codec team (all two of 'em) is fair game?

[Mvmarcz]

I watched my husband play the whole thing

and since I'm a woman I'm not ashamed to say I cried

I freakin cried

It was pretty awesome to watch and Steven enjoyed playing it. Team knows my husband isn't a ps3 fanboy and now he's telling friends to buy one just for this game.

It's visually amazing, except some of the facial emotions were a bit stiff for me. But that's me being an animation lover and doesn't really effect the game. I've only ever watched the first MGS all the way through (I have trouble playing games with shooting that requires thought and aiming so I just watch them getting played.) I never saw but tiny bits of 2 and hubby played through snake eater so fast I only saw a few parts. But the way they told the story I didn't feel much out of the loop.
Steven said the octo camo was a great feature. I can't really review the gameplay since I didn't play it but I'll say again it made me cry!!!!

[Levi-chan]

Saw a compilation of clips from the game, from the end to the beginning. Thoughts:

- No specific torture scenes (I assume), as opposed to the other MGS games; the whole affair looked like a long, drawn-out session of torture for Snake. I was more relieved when it was over. You could feel his growing, overpowering weariness with his every movement.

- Kojima strikes again, with his over-exposition. The scenes where he explains what is what could have been done much better.

- I came when I saw The Boss' gun, The Patriot.

[SergeXIII]

I count the button mashing at the end of the game as a tortutre scene. I mean, look how snake ended up from that.

[Levi-chan]

Haha. I'd call it superior to the torture scene in MGS3, if not for that blasted song.

What a thrill...

[SergeXIII]

Well I made this week's comic about the Psyche gauge. I'm not too terribly happy with it, but its the thing I feel safest about.

[Brockway]

I've played through it twice now, starting the 3rd run (can you tell I like it?) on Big Boss Hard. It is understandably harder than Solid and Naked Snake modes. Bad guys hear you now. While I'm sure they did before, now they do it very well. I saved up enough to buy the tornado flintlock. Its a sight to behold watching everyone get sucked up into it while there gear flies everywhere, too bad it seems so random. Still trying to save up for the bandana and stealth camo.

I've been looking for hidden stuff too, actually using the codec to hear new stuff, taking different routes. I keep seeing new stuff, its cool all the details in this game. I was crawling through a tunnel (in lieu of killing everyone in the area) and outside the end of the the tunnel was a local militia guy crawling backwards saying nono, he looked and saw me, then a pmc shot him. This didn't happen before, it makes me wonder how many of these random moments are in the game.

There's no way I'm ever going to be able to unlock the Patriot. You have to play the perfect game. You have to beat it in like 5 hours, no alerts, no continues, Boss extreme mode. Thats too crazy for me, it took me 10 (non stealthy) hours my 2nd time skipping most of the movies.