Most Anticipated Video Games

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Even so, 15 hours is still only one-tenth of the estimated time that it takes to beat the game. I just feel like doing 150 hours of gameplay on a single game run without any side-quests and that is briskly paced and always throwing something new at you seems far-fetched. By all means, maybe the game does pull that off, but I've never seen any game that's not an RPG come even remotely close to that, and RPGs are notorious for being padded in terms of gameplay.

[Foggle]

True, but I think with the amount of time, money, and effort put into this game, it has a good chance of being awesome the whole way through.

We'll find out in four months!

[Foggle]

Current mission involves helping rebel militia by blowing up Soviet vehicles on route to suppress their activities. Really good example of 'open world' stealth as you have a large region in which to ambush the vehicles.

iDroid map tracks tanks' journey, to help plan attack. Pumping manpower into Mother Base Intel team improves map details too. Mission recommended missiles, but I've not invested in those yet – going sneaky with C4 traps instead. Takes a lot of C4 to take out tanks – learn the hard way when I disable the wheels and the turret continues to pummel me. Also! Easy to run out of C4, so need to order supply drops. Feel like a real pro until I drop supply crate on Big Boss' head.

Mission throws in bonus objectives – free a political prisoner being transported, or ambush an arms truck for rocket launcher. Snipe out truck driver (the weapon feels great, by the way) and steal his truck to reach distant tanks.

You can steal tapes of 80s pop songs and play them mid-mission as your own soundtrack. Blowing up tanks to The Man Who Sold the World is pretty spectacular. I also upgraded my iDroid so I can play music out loud [through the speakers] – not great for stealthy runs, but good for dramatic entrance.

Before the mission it's possible to select initial equipment, with two primary weapons, two secondary, gadgets. Also, Snake's uniforms, the buddy and his equipment (in this case, the horse).

it's possible to position yourself on the left or right side of the horse to avoid detection, and of course it's possible to use weapons while driving.

There are many possible approaches, some parts I have done completely stealthy, others in combat, but these are harder. Playing stealth gives lots of satisfaction, because you manage to explore, hit your targets and recover objects in a clean way. It's important to explore the outposts before your objective, there are blueprints, diamonds, cassette tapes to collect.

Every mission comes with optional side ops, which can be discovered by interrogating guards and exploring the area.

The approach of missions can change a lot, depending on the hour of the day and the equipment.

The missions are modular, with diverse objectives, in localized areas of the immense game map.

a boss fight integrated into open world progression. Tension at the highest levels. Kojima has a passion for snipers.

All 60 [FPS]. Dips almost absent, really sporadic and mostly during cut scenes.

[On base customization] Very deep, well implemented even if initially not too intuitive. You can build bridges, place armies and create divisions of soldiers with specific tasks who can help you during missions (recon, gadget development).

The game doesn't follow your conventional MGS formula. It's new and fresh and I'm sure newcomers will love it.

The attention to detail is incredible: the day light effecting your vision, wild life, and 80s music.

The mission I'm on, the 6th, reminded me of Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade in terms of locale.

Arrived at a temple carved into a mountain on a horse that's pimped with camo-armor. The moonlight makes me look like Zorro. I spent most of the 1st hour of the mission gathering medicinal plants and hunting birds.

Fan of David Lynch? Yeah, you'll enjoy playing what I'm playing now.

OK, one last thing: if a certain MGS1's villain's mindfuckery was your thing, then The Phantom Pain will be right up your alley.

I've completed 12 principal missions and 6 secondary missions. Narrative is episodic like a TV show.

So, let's talk Mission 7. Here's an interesting fact – we're doing this one AFTER mission 10. Goodbye linear mission orders. Our objective is to eliminate three Platoon commanders who are meeting in a small town surrounded by guards. Our loadout includes a silenced AM MRS-4 assault rifle, a RENOV-ICKX sniper rifle, the WU S.Pistol for tranq darts, and C4... By the way, the loadout is totally our call. Want to take nowt but rockets (provided you've researched them?) and 'nades? Sure! So, three targets and total freedom on how to approach. One target is already at the location, but the other two are en route. Thanks to our Intel team, their expected routes are on the iDroid map. So we pick our heli drop off point far to the south and plant some C4 in the expected path of one jeep. Boom, one target down, and the base infiltration gets a lot easier. The action is so good that it's always a temptation to go in loud. And there are gun emplacements everywhere to tempt you... But we're old school, so we choose to be quiet. We picked the mission start time at night, so it's dark. That gives us the edge. TPP is ALL about gathering intel to press forward. By systematically interrogating guards we uncover the meeting room. Every small town feels like classic MGS setup, with multiple infiltration points and routes.

I can't wait.

[talonmalon333]

Think this will be the best MG game yet?

[Foggle]

Remove "MG."

[talonmalon333]

You're really looking forward to this game.

[Foggle]

To be honest, I've kind of figured out a way to level my hype. While I do think this sounds like the perfect game for me, and may post about how excited I am for it fairly often, I'm still able to keep my expectations in check. It just gets a bit harder when literally everyone who's played it keeps going on about "GOTY" and "Kojima's masterpiece."

That said, even if it turns out to somehow be lackluster, the sheer fact that you can even do a lot of this stuff in the game at all (no matter how clunky or unintuitive) is going to put it up there for me. This is everything I've wanted from a game since I was a little kid.

[talonmalon333]

I'm also glad Kojima has admitted to finding long cutscenes to be outdated. Now we won't have to sit through 1 hour cutscenes thinking "Can't I just play a game here?" like the last numerical entry.

I'd call this my most anticipated game alongside Zelda Wii U.

[Foggle]

I'm also glad Kojima has admitted to finding long cutscenes to be outdated. Now we won't have to sit through 1 hour cutscenes thinking "Can't I just play a game here?" like the last numerical entry.

Yeah. Sounds like this one is probably similar to the MSX games in terms of gameplay/story distribution.

Which only serves to increase my hype.

[talonmalon333]

I feel like pretty much everyone agrees on MGS3 being the best in the series, currently. I'm really curious and excited to see if MGSV can top that.

[gunswordfist]

The End style boss fights and a Psycho Mantis successor? I hope they have a Predator type boss fight like The Fear should have been with these open world boss fights.. And horse camo-ARMOR and something David Lynch-esque?

[Peanutbutter]

Phantom Pain sounds absolutely incredible. Like something delivered from Heaven. I can't wait until this is out. This could be Game of the Decade if it meets the hype.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Okay, I bit the bullet and pre-loaded (first game I've ever done that with) Splatoon. I got the impression it's the type of game where having a disc is just not necessary.

If anyone else is going out inking on the 29th, I'll see you out there. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yoshi's Woolly World preview.

Looks like Good Feel really hit it out of the park. It's also nice to have a Yoshi game with an incredible sounding soundtrack. We haven't had one of those since the first game.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Itagaki's Third thingie.

I'm expecting a big push for this at E3. Since it's basically done and all.