Games

[icycalm]

I read the fresh-off-the-presses review by timbilly:

http://www.actionbutton.net/?p=430

It's really enjoyable!

What we end up with, in Metal Gear Solid 4, is a game that, when viewed from the perspective of other clusterfucks, is a masterpiece for countless horrifying reasons. The stone-cold fear and coddling of fans is so rich and absolute that, in some alternate universe, it is no doubt the highest form of human expression. However, right here, on earth, on this Macbook Pro, in this fighter-jet cockpit, Metal Gear Solid 4 is and always will be dreck.

From the paragraph preceding this one, and from several other points in the review, I can tell he still doesn't understand the game/plot relationship, but then as far as I know nobody does except me, so I don't count it against him. On the other hand, if you were going to go into this relationship in a game review (instead of in an article, which is more appropriate, and what I plan to do), an MGS4 review would be the place to do it. There's no other series that goes more wildly astray on this point, and within the series there's no worse offender than MGS4.

Lacking this then, the value of Tim's review is more in the random Japan-only factoids and his extensive knowledge of previous installments, as well as in the quality and flow of the writing, than in actual insight into videogames (all of which, by the way, for those who haven't read anything by him before, is classic Tim Rogers). And really, if you are dead set on writing such a long review of an MGS game, you have no other choice than to waffle on and on about vaguely related matters. MGS is after all merely a game in the Tenchu and Splinter Cell vein, a 3D stealth-focused action game, and so there's not that much to say about it other than to go into the moveset and level design (Tim doesn't say anything about the former; he says quite a bit about the latter).

So if you feel like having waffles today head on over to ABDN -- no one can make them as good as Tim.

[adrenalinq]

Awesome review! I will never understand hysteria about MGS4 and global corrupted incompetent reviews. I just cant get it. How does it feel to face your own creations and say: "Damn. I made a shitty game lol." If I was on his place I would never NEVER face fans to sign this crap of mine. I have no sympathy, no respect to Kojima after this.

[Volteccer_Jack]

The annoying thing about Metal Gear Solid is that it's a good game, but you have to put up with this mentally ill attempt at story-telling the whole time you play. A half-decent editor going through the script with a hacksaw would vastly improve the experience.

[icycalm]

I agree with this:

The annoying thing about Metal Gear Solid is that it's a good game, but you have to put up with this mentally ill attempt at story-telling the whole time you play.

... though note I've only played the first two games.

Also, to be honest, I don't really mind the "mentally ill attempt at story-telling". I didn't even mind it in 2. It's part of the charm, I think.

What I DO mind, though, is when people try to see MORE in the "mentally ill attempt at story-telling" than simply a "mentally ill attempt at story-telling".

[Volteccer_Jack]

Overall, I liked Metal Gear Solid 4, even if it is the worst game in the series. It handles gameplay just fine; in fact it improves on the formula just as much as the second game improved on the first, and the third improved on the second. Where it goes wrong is the plot, which gets horribly wrong everything that the previous games only got marginally wrong.

And then there's the ending. I'll try not to spoil it too much. Basically, MGS2 and MGS4 both lead heavily towards a sort of unstoppably tragic ending. But at the very end of MGS4, there's this character who we'll call Super Deus Ex Machina Man, who shows up. This guy literally wraps up every loose end in Metal Gear history, kills the one man(!) responsible for all the evil in Metal Gear history, ensures that all the 'good' guys live happily ever after, then dies of old age, and roll credits. No, seriouly, that's really how it ends.

And yes, I agree, missing out on the Raiden/Vamp fight was annoying.

I guess I'm the only person on Earth who thought "awesome fight sequence while a video plays of another, simultaneous awesome fight sequence" was awesome. It was almost, but not quite, as awesome as the Snake/Raiden co-op stage at the end of MGS2.