Metal Gear

[Daikun]

So now they've moved on from Dragon Ball Z commercials to Metal Gear Solid ones, huh?

I sense that Ford is reaching out to a very specific demographic, here.

It's part of their "Overdubs" series of commercials. DBZ, Metal Gear, Captain Planet... Nothing is sacred!

[Dr. Insomniac]

It's this generation's DirecTV ads, like those ones where Sigourney Weaver and Kathy Bates reprised their roles on Aliens and Misery to shill channel subscriptions.

[gunswordfist]

Weeaboos gotta drive too.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Finally, we reach the end.

And that's it for Konami's console games.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm either completely done with MGS3 or almost done with it (I defeated The Boss, and it mostly just seems to be cut-scenes left at this point), but overall my feelings on the game are kind of mixed. One the one hand, it's far cry from the experience that I had with Resident Evil 4 a few years ago, in which I heard how great the game was and went in with high expectations, only to have even those expectations exceeded. That was the type of game that really lived up to its reputation for me, but to be fair, I'm a huge fan of action games as it is, and that was an action game first and foremost. It's no secret that I absolutely suck at stealth games, though I was able to grasp the mechanics of this game fairly well after spending a few hours with it. I mostly just got by with the M19 and a silencer, using it to snipe enemies in the head (I don't care about going for no-kills, which is why I preferred this gun over the MK22) to take out any enemies in my direct path, and just skirting my way around the ones too far away to notice me before I got over to the next room or area. That said, while I did enjoy certain aspects of the gameplay, there are other parts that did feel their age to me, and whereas RE4 was a game with an old control scheme but with the entire game designed around that control scheme, there are at least a few instances in MGS3 in which I felt more optimized controls would have definitely been preferable. To be fair, you could chalk that up to my lack of skill on the whole, but it's just my own opinion, anyways.

I also have mixed feelings about the boss fights. While I like the puzzle-based nature around most of them, I do feel that it's a bit too easy to just power your way through with stuff like the M63 or SVD, especially with the reload cancel trick. Once again, though, to be fair, I imagine it would be harder to do this on higher difficulty settings. Going back to the stealth, though, despite the game making it possible to shoot your way through a lot of situations if you get spotted, I actually did want to try and stealth my way through each room. I respect the game for giving you options, but the one part I had problems with was that there was no way to just restart from the last checkpoint aside from restarting the whole game (which takes way too long), or waiting for enemies to kill you (which is quicker, but still takes too long). I usually opted for the latter rather than running and hiding again, because it took too long for the "Caution" status of the guards to go down, and I just wanted to re-start the area whenever I was spotted so that I could learn from my mistakes and go through it properly without getting spotted. I do think that it's genuinely fun and challenging to play that way, but was annoyed at how the lack of one simple feature from the game made it very frustrating to try and play that way once you got spotted.

As for the story, while I love the ideas it presents and the nuances which it endows its characters with, it also has that very Kojima-esque problem of becoming far too heavy-handed with its dialogue, be it in terms of exposition, philosophy, or even in terms of its sense of humor. What I mean is that the story could be so much more effective if several lines were left on the cutting room floor and characters knew to stop talking just when they said enough for the player to understand what they meant and what's going on with the story, without feeling like conversations were dragging on.

Overall, though, I did enjoy the game. I just didn't love it to the extent that most people do. I'm also disappointed that the HD collection doesn't have the extra content of the Subsistence versions of the 2nd and 3rd games (though I do at least still have the original XBOX version of MGS2S for that content). That said, I still plan to play through the rest of the series. I'll try to go in the story's chronological order, so after this I'll tackle Peace Walker, then I'll play Metal Gear 1 and 2, and then somehow I'll find a way to play the original PS1 game, and then come back to MGS2 which I have played and beaten several years ago, but hardly remember anything about, now. If MGS4 is backwards compatible with the PS4, then I'll move onto that game after completing the HD collection, and following that I'll make my way to MGS5, though keep in mind that this will probably be over the course of several months to possibly over a year before I make my way through the entire series.

[Foggle]

I agree with pretty much all your criticisms even though I love the game a lot and stealth is one of my favorite genres. The controls and lack of "reload checkpoint" feature in particular have aged really badly. I really don't think you're going to like the other MGS games though, except for maybe Ground Zeroes. Waaaaayyyyy too many cutscenes and not nearly enough gameplay IMO.

The HD Collection does include most of the Subsistence material, but the Ape Escape and skateboarding mini-games had to be cut out for rights reasons.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The Ape Escape mini-games are what I miss the most.

My friend and I had so much fun playing through just those challenges over a decade ago. I have fond memories of those nights.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I started playing Metal Gear (MSX). I'm playing it on its default difficulty setting, and aside from it being a bit tough at times to find out what you're supposed to do, I'm surprised at how easy this game is so far. Stealth is really simple when you don't have to worry about stuff like making noise and your enemies can only see you if you step within their direct line of sight. It's also extremely easy to knock them out and the few obstacles that the game throws at you are really easy to get around.

It's also kind of bizarre to see a Kojima game that's mostly gameplay and almost no story. I like it!

[Foggle]

It's also kind of bizarre to see a Kojima game that's mostly gameplay and almost no story. I like it!

Yes, I like that very much! It does get a bit more difficult (you might need a guide for one or two parts) and the sequel is much harder, but it's a great game IMO. I think it's aged extremely well.

[Daikun]

I started playing Metal Gear (MSX). I'm playing it on its default difficulty setting, and aside from it being a bit tough at times to find out what you're supposed to do, I'm surprised at how easy this game is so far. Stealth is really simple when you don't have to worry about stuff like making noise and your enemies can only see you if you step within their direct line of sight. It's also extremely easy to knock them out and the few obstacles that the game throws at you are really easy to get around.

You want a challenge? Play the NES version.

It's not canon, but if you want to play a harder version of this game, the sloppiness of the port makes it surprisingly more difficult.

[Daikun]

https://twitter.com/VogtRoberts/status/1017781063903535105

[Daikun]

XOF is real.