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Part 3 in a series examining different method of storytelling used in video games. This week is a comparison of tradition cinematic cutscenes and interactive scripted events.
With fall releases in full swing the crew at Goozernation looks back to their ever growing backlog which includes games such as Red Dead Redemption, Fallout New Vegas, Goldeneye 007, Enslaved, Borderlands, Bulletstorm, LA Noire, and Metal Gear Solid 4. The bigger question here is how can a gamer find anytime to play this stuff and how did these games end up in the backlog?
Just get a ps3? Well there are a ton of exclusives that are must haves. Goozernation tackles the list and looks at the must haves such as the Uncharted series, Resistance, God of War, Heavy Rain, and many others
"First and foremost let's state the obvious, Escape From New York is 100% one of the biggest influences on the MGS series ever. The look of the characters, their names, even some of the settings influenced MGS in some way. Not that you have to believe me or anything... Just, ya know Hideo Kojima, creator of the series said so himself that Escape From New York was a big influence so I guess that's all the proof I need! Shame on you for doubting me. Obviously there's the code name of the main ch..."
"When it comes to media, the two most important things to me are story and character. Whether it be movie, book or game, I want to be drawn in by it. It's for this reason that I prefer the action/adventure and, to a greater degree, RPG genres in games. Unfortunately, these genres (especially RPGs) are afflicted with a terrible and awesome thing: Cutscenes."
"Of course Nathan is in this list. I mean, who doesn’t love Nathan Drake? He is the quintessential action hero and was probably trained by Indy himself. Drake has not just met zombies and Yetis, which actually transpired to be ancient guardians dressed up as Yetis, but he has met them all without batting an eyelid. While some would be scarred by the perils Drake has faced, he shrugs it all off with a wry smile and a cheeky joke. He can easily climb to any seemingly out of reach places, and can..."
"Game developers, would you kindly stop talking in my head? I know that in an interactive medium like video games it can be difficult to guide the player character, but the horse is just about dead. This tends to happen in the FPS genre more than anywhere else. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a design choice that has led to some of my favorite experiences such as BioShock or Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece, Metal Gear…"
"Multiplayer has existed in videogames since the industry formed, however, things changed dramatically when the first games of Doom were played over network in the nineties. From that point, online multiplayer became increasingly popular. Subsequent game releases pushed the technology envelope until 64 player deathmatches and Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) became the industry norm. There is no doubt that there has been a massive rise in prevalence of online multiplay..."
"Video games are a medium filled with lousy stories, absurd scenarios and otherwise ridiculous plot points. That said, there are also some real gems out there. The sort that rise above the stupidity of their bretheren and prove that yes, gaming can be a real, honest-to-goodness medium for storytelling. Sadly, few can do this perfectly. Even in the best games there are those moments where you just have to sit back and wonder what they were thinking.
This week: Metal Gear Solid 4"
"The next E3 is just around the corner. But before the innovation (3DS) and excitement (new Natal and PS Move games) begins, join me as I look back on this impeccable event and rank the show’s past five years."
"1. Most people recognize me as Raiden, but my real name is Jack. I also went by a few others like Jack the Ripper and White Devil.
2. My name originated from the Mistubishi J2M fighter plane in World War 2. The American nickname for the plane was Jack, while the Japanese nickname was Raiden.
3. In the Civil War during the 1990s, I fought as a child soldier for Solidus Snake. I found out later he murdered my parents so that he could raise me to kill for him.
4. ..."
While a Metal Gear Solid movie is looking pretty unlikely, that hasn't stopped Gamerzines.com from putting together a list of the actors and actresses they would like to see star in a MGS movie.
Don't worry, Christian Bale isn't on the list :-D
""An Ending with a Twist
However the Metal Gear Solid film would have ended, you can bet it would have included some kind of twist, if only in the form of a voice-over that immediately followed the credits. Just think of all the subtle plot twists and/or sequel hints that could have been thrown into the last little bits of dialogue. It would have been amazing.""
"Sam Fisher isn’t the same as the previous version gamers are use too. Sam Fisher is quicker, badder, and better and in terms of gameplay Sam Fisher beats Solid Snake in many ways making Splinter Cell Conviction the official rebirth to this franchise in every way."
"25 Things About Me - Psycho Mantis:
1. Welcome…. I’ve been expecting you… but let’s not make this all about me. After all, we both know why you’re here…. You came to see if I really am the most powerful practitioner of psychokinesis and telepathy in the world!
2. So, you don’t think I can amaze you as I did for millions that played Metal Gear Solid? Well, my powers have already connected to your mind! Yes… through these very words, I can see your deepest thoughts.
3. Startled? Don’t ..."
"Cover systems aren’t exactly something that have been there since the start for the shooter genre. My own first experience of the cover systems are the snap-on cover mechanics used in Metal Gear Solid, and also the flawless chunky cover system in Gears of War for the Xbox 360. I am a huge fan of developers implementing cover systems into any shooting games, but then again I may be outspoken. For example, a massive number of gamers may play Gears 2 online which may suggest that covers systems ..."
"With releases on just about every platform from the past twenty years, numerous sequels, remakes and non-canonical spinoffs, Metal Gear is one of the most prolific and longest-living series in gaming. It paved the way for stealth gaming in general, and in particular, broke ground for tech-stealth games like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Syphon Filter. It's impossible to do justice to such a wide-ranging experience in so few words—that this history can only hope to scratch the surface is a te..."
"So the global economy is taking a giant dump, and your job is among the waste. Your house is worth less than you owe the bank. Your town/state/country is bankrupt. Big banks are rolling in your future taxes. Meanwhile, you couldn't get a loan if you offered a shylock your ring finger up front. Times are tough, but you can take comfort in this undeniable fact: Never in your life have you had so much time to game. Sure, you could use your time on the unemployment dole to take some classes and i..."
By now I'm sure we're all aware of Resident Evil 5's racism issue, but racial stereotyping is an issue that seems to go beyond beyond just one game.
Darion White, from Edge Online, takes a look at the way black characters are portrayed in video games, both the positive portrayals and the negative ones.
The article mostly focuses on newer titles, such as Resident Evil 5, Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid 4, while also taking a look at the games of a decade ago, including Final Fantasy...
"I am sure that everybody, at some point in their lives, has been playing a videogame and suddenly found themselves questioning the sexual preferences of the characters involved. Ultimately, one finds one's self asking the final and most pressing question of all -- is that character a dom or a sub?"
"If we think about LittleBigPlanet, Age of Conan or Mirrors Edge, we notice they have two things in common: very successful and well received demo versions (or beta stages) and very poor, lower than anticipated game sales. And since these are not the only titles in which a demo (or the lack of it) appears to be connected with their commercial success, I believe we should analyze the influence demos have in the game world and debate: are game demos game killers?"
"Fanboys have been plaguing the Internet for quite some time with their silly propaganda, heinous slander, & a laggard intellect that leaves the rest of us sane humans flabbergasted at the fact that these are the type of people we not only have to deal with on forums or blogs, but also in person typically at retailers where I purchase my games from. I just don't understand the logic behind being a fanboy, I mean the way I see it it's a lose lose situation. These companies do not compensate you..."
"Lets not forget about the console wars! There are sale charts, there are fanboys slamming other fanboys data, there are all sorts of ways to decide the winner of the console wars One of them is, of course, checking the exclusive games and thats exactly what were planning to do now. So, the battle is on: PS3 vs. Xbox 360 vs. Wii which console has the best exclusives?"
"As we all know, the one thing that sets videogames apart from other forms of media is interactivity. Being the catalyst for your own adventure is something that makes gaming more interesting to me than any movie or book. With videogames, one can stop being a mere passive observer and actually be a part of the action.
That said, if there's one thing I may have done more than playing videogames, it's watching videogames. Whether patiently waiting for my turn or being astounded by the skills..."
"So here's the thing, Wii Fit has mass-market appeal, and Wii Sports comes packed in with the Wii, so it's understandable for them to outsell AAA titles from the other consoles. Wii Play, however, isn't even a GOOD GAME. No one will tell you that it is. Yet the fact that it comes with a Wiimote for only $10 more has encouraged nearly 20 MILLION PEOPLE to drop down their precious cash for the thing. More people own this game than Halo 3, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Gears of War COMBINED.
I think..."
"After 12 months of playing and enjoying as many games as possible, its time to take a break, look back and choose the best of the best - the best 10 games of the year 2008. As you can imagine, its a really tough mission, especially because the overall quality of the games released this year was pretty high (there were exceptions, of course), but we must choose the game of the year here, at the Unigamesity!"
Not only will LittleBigPlanet receive a Metal Gear Solid Costume pack, but it will also receive a MGS 'Level Pack', which comes with all that is mentioned below all of the below too!
All of this is coming to the NA PSN Store on the 23rd of December. The costumes will cost $1.99 each or $5.99 for all 4, whilst the 'Level Pack' $5.99 too. And the best part is, that you don't even need to own to the levels to be able to play them!
Recently there was a picture put up to do with the next metal gear. hardcasual.net has been "busy at work" attempting to figure it out.
So what's the result? Well they decided it's an anagram, coming up with three rather humerous solutions!
"Of course, with a new Metal Gear we know that the series long time protagonist, Solid Snake, probably wont be the hero this time around. At the end of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots he is in retirement and possibly, you never know with Kojima narratives, on his way to the grave. Otacons final comments to Sunny was a poignant reminder to long time fans that Snake has gone above and beyond the call of duty and needs to rest. LET HIM REST!"
"The relationship between introverted computer genius Hal "Otacon" Emmerich and his charge Sunny (seen above) is a diamond-polished window into the soul of the young men who work for Japanese game companies. A doe-eyed nine- or ten-year-old who resembles a child less than she does a scaled-down maid café waitress, she waits on her guardian hand and foot, cleaning, assisting with programming, and serving meals. The pair live as virtual hikikomori shut-ins on a high-tech aircraft that serves as ..."
What do gamers do when people in America are going to the booths to vote? They hold their own elections, for video game characters of course!
Take your pick from the likes of Sackboy, Tom Nook... and even 12-Pack! Even gamers like a good old beer now and then, right? Each candidate has a badge, their promises and their slogan.
So who gets your vote?
"Mandatory installs come from complications developers meet when switching from DVD to Blu-ray. Blu-rays have more space, but they have a different way of reading data that causes longer loading times when given exactly the same data DVDs use. Installs fix the problem, at a cost, but alternative methods are being devised. Fallout 3 has enough space on the Blu-ray disc to copy the game's assets over more than once on the disc, which reduces load times significantly. This kind of innovation is n..."
This topic has already been covered fairly well (see: The Problems with Game Criticism, and The Problem with Game Reviews Part 1 & 2), but until we're in a better state, it's always a positive thing, yeah?
Anyhow, Variety's Ben Fritz offers his take on the situation (as a response to Variety critic Leigh Alexander's recent blog), saying we nitpick too much and actively look for things to criticize in games instead of really valuing what needs to be valued and not letting the little stuff (...
Sniper Rifles are something you love and hate at the same time. You love it when you own someone halfway across the map with a headshot, and you hate it when your on the...well receiving end. Sniper Rifle's have existed since the dawn of FPS's and beyond and this article examines the god like weapon. It's history, its ups and downs, and a list of some of the best of these beastly weapons every to grace a game are all present here.
GameInformer, the popular magazine about all things gaming that has somewhere near three million subscribers, always has a different game on the cover each time. MTV wanted to see if there was a GI cover curse, so they looked back into the past and pulled out magazines from 2-3 years ago.
One game titled Superman Returns didn't so well, receiving 6/10's. That's nothing compared to Fear and Respect, which was at one point on a GI cover, but ended up being canceled!
All in all, the game...
Just how much do video-games affect our very day lives? Mike Fahey of Kotaku has found himself eating eggs nearly every morning after seeing them in Metal Gear Solid 4.
In-Game advertisements might persuede us to buy certain products, but do simple, subtle things in games (like a character cooking eggs) affect our daily life too?
The entire internet is ablaze with discussions about FFXIII going multiplatform. As a result similar discussions have started to happen with other exclusives, such as whether MGS 4 will be ported to the Xbox 360.
Here is a not so serious article detailing why it won't ever happen, with surprising facts to back up the claim.
"Real news from the virtual world:
_BEST OF 2008 (SO FAR): E3, the video-game industry's big trade show, is next week, and you'll be hearing a lot about all the new software coming between now and Christmas. But there's a bit of a lull until Aug. 12, when "Madden NFL 09" unofficially marks the beginning of the fall game season. July is a good time to catch up on some of the games you may have missed. Here are the best of the year so far:
1. "Grand Theft Auto IV" (Rockstar, for the Xbox 3..."
"Is it just me or has Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots not recieved much hype after its release? No, no, before you accuse me of insanity let me explain. MGS4 has recieved superb reviews and will arguably be the game of the year. But that's it. Gaming sites have reviewed it and now gone strangely quiet. There are no blogs on silly Metal Gear related topics, there are no bouts of hysteria from overzealous site editors and there are no top 10 MGS4 lists on Gamesradar. Am I the only one f..."
"After a few days I called him up to check in, make sure he hadn't gone down the rabbit hole of virtual unreality. I asked him what he thought of the game.
"I think," he said slowly, "that they need to decide if they want to make a game or make a movie."
Had he given up, I asked. No, he hadn't done that, instead he had buckled down and muscled forward, enjoying a lot of what he had experienced.
I told him I had suggested the game because I thought he would like the themes of military ..."
The Metal Gear Solid series is well-known for it's unique and interesting bosses. From a weirdo who can control bees, to a buxom blonde sniper with a thing for wolves, to a seemingly-invincible bisexual vampire... MGS has every type of odball imagineable up against poor Snake and Raiden.
Here's a list of the insane bosses of Metal Gear Solid.
(For a funny little twist, read the article to find out why Rosemary and a ladder make the list) ...
Gamers from the UK who have Pre-ordered MGS4 from popular chain-GAME have been lucky to recieve something special in their posts - a Post card which when taken to a GAME store near to you, will yield you with a special MGS4 Pre-Order pack containing:
So if you haven't preordered yet, be sure to pre-order from GAME and you may just get on...
It's true... reviewing Metal Gear Solid 4 appears to be a madmans job, because if you review it with anything other than a 10/10 you will (and I mean you WILL) be set upon by angry MGS4 fans who even without playing the game, have given it a 10/10 rating in their minds. Here's an example of what I mean. People actually think a reviewer can't review the game, because they gave it 8/10... hmmm...
However, let's switch over to PSM3... it has been called by a few as "The best MGS4 review" avai...
On a recent Yahoo! Japan poll, the question "are you interested in the game (MGS4)? was asked to the Japanese gaming public.
The poll is only small at the moment... A mere 665 people have currently voted, but over 60% of them either had no interest in the game or had no intentions of buying it at all.
The poll is still open and more people have voted since Kotaku reported, but the results have stayed relatively the same.
Interesting ...
What's Sony's fatal mistake in their poor launch and poor sales? Loot Ninja narrows the option down to the fact that they discontinued the 80GB Playstation 3's. Maybe they'll boost at the 80GB Metal Gear Solid 4 Bundle? Maybe they've lost to towards the gamers that bought the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV. Who knows? We won't unless we rewind back to the release of the PS3.
"With Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots due out next week, the PlayStation 3s install base and lack of TV marketing for the game may hinder sales, according to Newsweeks NGai Croal.
According to Croal, Metal Gear Solid 4s mechanics makes it a better game than Assassins Creed, but pointed out that MGS4 may fall behind in marketing.
Assassins Creed was marketed phenomenally well, Croal said. It had great TV spots. So theyre not doing TV spots for this game, thats somethi..."
"If you haven't played all of the games in the series, there's every chance that some of it will leave you feeling slightly adrift and a bit confused. Heck, even if you've been following every labyrinthine twist and Byzantine turn of the story so far, there's every chance it will leave you pretty confused. That's because with each new game in the series, the story so far has got more elaborate, more complex, and more convoluted, to the extent that trying to make sense of it all is a bit like h..."
Someone on XMBonline believes that not everyone can review a Metal Gear Solid game. He/she believes that the review for Eurogamer did not appreciate the 'core value' of the franchise and believes the negatives(long loading cutscenes) are more of a 'blessing than a curse'. He/she says that only hardcore gamers should be able to review it properly in their perspective, rather than a casual gamer.
"Metal Gear Solid 4 is a huge game, but most previews have only scratched the surface. GamePro senior editor Sid Shuman has played the game: here are 25 gameplay features that surprised and delighted him...
MGS4 voices real social concerns:
A socially relevant storyline: Private military companies (or "PMCs") are a key threat in Metal Gear Solid 4 because they've escalated combat into a never-ending war economy. But in a case of truth being stranger than fiction, PMCs are a serious con..."
"This includes reading up about the series, viewing the franchise’s gorgeous artwork, pulling apart previously released trailers etc. During this time I was also in search for some Metal Gear propaganda and as I was searching around I stumbled upon this cool little Otacon clock widget for your desktop:
[Image]
The sprites are taken from MGS2 (end of the Tanker chapter). As you move your cursor around Otacon follows it with his eyes, he also blinks as well. Very cute."
"Video games have a long tradition of creating tough-as-nails protagonists that fight hordes of oncoming enemies. Still, few have been able to elevate themselves to true badass status. Sam Fisher and Solid Snake are two characters that have been known for years for their ability to strike fear into enemy NPOs and let gamers unleash their inner Special Ops soldier. However, there is only room at the top for one badass to rule them all. Myarcadeplanet is putting that power in your hands. Its..."
![Box shot of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots [Europe]](http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/R2FtZXMvUGxheXN0YXRpb25fMy9TdHJhdGVneS9UYWN0aWNhbA==/metal_gear_solid_4_guns_of_the_patriots_frontcover_small_5mUshoydsJtWvHP.jpg)