Metal Gear Solid (1987 - present)

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  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Well, focused on creating a classic MGS experience, and recreating MGS1's story as part of an elaborate ruse. MGS3 is where the series took its initial turn.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Hey, folks, guess what PS3/PS4 players get to do once Ground Zeroes comes out? They get to play as PS1 Snake running around Camp Omega, evading PS1 Genome Soldiers and looking for the PS1 DARPA Chief!

    http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/15/metal-gear-solid-ground-zeroes-deja-vu-mission-only-on-ps3ps4
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Presenting the greatest MGS related video ever made. The internet is over.
  • Posts: 151
    Got a great christmas present from my brother a metal gear solid novel written by none other than Raymond benson chuffed to say the least!
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    karl007 wrote:
    Got a great christmas present from my brother a metal gear solid novel written by none other than Raymond benson chuffed to say the least!

    It's a decent novel, though there are some characterization issues, a couple timeline issues (at one point Meryl is said to be eighteen, her age during MGS1, and is then said to have been ten during the Gulf War in 1991, which would have been true if MGS1 took place in 1998, when it was released, but just doesn't work for 2005), and a whole slew of jokes that neither make sense nor are funny ("Merry Christmas." Snake punches guards. "Forgot to tell you, Christmas came early this year." No, Snake, no...), plus Snake's equipment gets screwed up a few times (Benson constantly forgets that he has Snake pick up an assault rifle, because he gets three of them through the novel, doesn't use them, and barely ever lists them among his equipment).

    Now, on the other hand, there was some decent foreshadowing (Ocelot mentions meeting Big Boss in the 60s, Otacon mentions Emma), the further into the novel you get, the more faithful to the game it becomes, a couple of things are hinted at that were glossed over in the game (Miller's death, which, thanks to MGSV, that chapter is now obsolete, unless Miller got prosthetics at some point; the fate of the employees who were already working at Shadow Moses when FOXHOUND took over), and there are some explanations of the equipment that the game didn't have (the soliton radar, the codec).

    On the whole, the MGS2 novel got a lot better. It's more faithful to the game, includes deleted material (such as the complete Arsenal ramming into New York sequence) and has less mistakes (though Snake still takes an AK at one point and never uses it again). Finish the MGS1 novel, then go out and buy the MGS2 novel.

    Does anybody here have Project Itoh's MGS4 novelization, because I've yet to buy it. Plus, an MGS3 novelization is coming out in Japan sometime in the next couple months.
  • WillardWhyteWillardWhyte Midnight Society #ProjectMoon
    Posts: 784
    With Ground Zeroes coming out next month and the excitement building, my brother and I (who have both been with MGS since 1998), have come up with our own theory on how this project will come together. Here's what we have come up with:

    Ground Zeroes will feature Big Boss (David Hayter), with the events following Peace Walker. At the end of Ground Zeroes when Mother Base is attacked, Big Boss is injured..almost killed but saved as he falls asleep into a coma.

    Fast forward to Phantom Pain...Big Boss has spent 9 years in a coma, during that time his DNA has been used to create the Les Enfants Terribles project. If you notice in the trailer his body is slim with barely any muscle mass. At this point imagine his voice changing as he has not used his vocals cords in 9 years. Enter Kiefer Sutherland as Big Boss.

    Potentially at the end of Phantom Pain or MGS6, Big Boss will confront Solid Snake for the first time in battle, with Keifer as Big Boss and David as Solid Snake.

    This would be the ideal situation. Given the past, Kojima has always been a step ahead of us in pretty much every aspect( he knows how important this series is to fans)...I would not be shocked if this plays out in some kind of way.

    But I am confused at what age Snake was when Big Boss was the commander of FoxHound.......and how this might play out.


    The excitement is in the air, this is by far the most anticipated game of the year for me. nothing will come close to this.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Ground Zeroes will feature Big Boss (David Hayter), with the events following Peace Walker. At the end of Ground Zeroes when Mother Base is attacked, Big Boss is injured..almost killed but saved as he falls asleep into a coma.

    I wish this were true, but it's already confirmed that Kiefer Sutherland is Big Boss throughout the game. There was already an English version of the opening cutscene that not only has Sutherland doing the role, but lists him among the credits. And the grunts Big Boss makes during the English gameplay videos are very obviously Sutherland's.
    Fast forward to Phantom Pain...Big Boss has spent 9 years in a coma, during that time his DNA has been used to create the Les Enfants Terribles project. If you notice in the trailer his body is slim with barely any muscle mass. At this point imagine his voice changing as he has not used his vocals cords in 9 years. Enter Kiefer Sutherland as Big Boss.

    Problem 1) Solid and Liquid are already alive and twelve years old by the time Big Boss awakes from his 9 year coma. They were born in 1972, two years after Portable Ops and two years before Peace Walker. Miller mentions them in the "Secret Tape" you get for finishing all the main and extra ops missions in Peace Walker.
    Problem 2) The voice thing would make sense if it wasn't already confirmed that Kiefer Sutherland is Big Boss throughout the game.
    Potentially at the end of Phantom Pain or MGS6, Big Boss will confront Solid Snake for the first time in battle, with Keifer as Big Boss and David as Solid Snake.

    I'm saying the end of The Phantom Pain. Unless it's a remake of Metal Gear 1, I seriously don't want an MGS6. I'm betting the post-credits conversation of The Phantom Pain will either be the opening of Metal Gear 1, with Snake arriving at Outer Heaven, or their meeting after Snake takes down TX-55 (which, hopefully, would have retooled dialogue that doesn't make it seem like Big Boss is talking to a five year old who just happened to wander into Outer Heaven's basement).
    But I am confused at what age Snake was when Big Boss was the commander of FoxHound.......and how this might play out.

    Snake was born in 1972, making him 23 at the time of the Outer Heaven Uprising, and he's considered a rookie then, so I'd guess Snake joined no earlier than 1994, and Big Boss took him on a training safari (Snake says in a codec call in MGS4 that Big Boss taught him CQC, which had to happen some time before Outer Heaven, I'm also assuming this training safari to be the time Big Boss told Snake that he was his father, as it never happens in Metal Gear 1 or 2, and Snake thinks Big Boss is dead between 1995 and 1999).
    The excitement is in the air, this is by far the most anticipated game of the year for me. nothing will come close to this.

    Not even the possible release of The Phantom Pain later in the year? (Not like I think it'll happen. I'm saying next March at the earliest.) Sorry to knock your theory out of the water, because I wish the parts regarding Big Boss's voice were true, but all you need to do is play Snake Eater to learn when Snake and Liquid were born (and possibly Solidus). I really don't know where this widespread idea that the arm Big Boss loses in MGSV is what the Patriots used to make the Twin Snakes, because the same people that point this out will also bring up the theory that Eli is Liquid (a theory I agree with), and he's clearly older than 9 years old in the trailers. Oh well, at least you're not saying that the already-confirmed-to-be-Chico kid is Snake.
  • edited February 2014 Posts: 4,813
    I'm still holding onto the hope that Hayter is indeed somehow playing Solid Snake- even if it's just an epilogue.

    One thing that's still a mystery is this: in one of the earlier Phantom Pain trailers, Ishmael (the bandaged guy accompanying you in the hospital) clearly had Sutherland's voice- what was up with that?
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    One thing that's still a mystery is this: in one of the earlier Phantom Pain trailers, Ishmael (the bandaged guy accompanying you in the hospital) clearly had Sutherland's voice- what was up with that?

    Ishmael was Kiefer Sutherland in not just the Phantom Pain reveal trailer at the VGAs, but the GDC gameplay trailer the following year. Considering the GDC trailer showed us that Kid-Who-Looks-Like-Psycho-Mantis is in the hospital, and the other trailers show us that Ocelot just picks up Big Boss, I'm going to assume that Ishmael is a hallucination that KWLLPM makes up to lead Big Boss to the Possibly-XOF soldiers that are raiding the hospital. Then, Ocelot swoops in on a horse and shows Big Boss that Ishmael's a fake.

    That's just my two cents. It could just be that Sutherland's pulling double duty and forgot to put on a different voice for the two characters.
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    Lord, I've been spending an embarrassing amount of too much time over at a couple of MGS forums I'm a member of and some of the theories people come up with and this is with obstinate conviction I might add are just infuriatingly moronic. Don't even get me started on the hoopla surrounding the the length of GZ....anyway, Hayter is not reprising his role as BB . This is concrete fact. Also, I'm not delving too much into anymore theoretical scenarios just in case things play out as theorised and mainly because I'm sick of reading moronic comments from people on said forums who refuse to apply the slightest modicum of sensible logic to discussions. That being said, I'm getting GZ on release day for the PS3 hard copy.
  • WillardWhyteWillardWhyte Midnight Society #ProjectMoon
    Posts: 784
    your not knocking my theory out out of the water..I will wait until the release. As I said Kojima is no fool. he has tricked us in the past and loves playing games. I could see him doing this, which gives me hope. Until I hear the voice next month on release day I will have hope. Its all a big cover up as far as I am concerned. The small bits of Sutherland voice in the trailer could have been added to cause the confusion. It would make sense.
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    edited February 2014 Posts: 11,139
    I really hope you're joking. Hayter is no longer BB. What more proof do you need? You guys are all paranoid. Kojima pulls a few stunts in the past and now you're scarred for life; it's almost funny but I'm not entertaining this. When both GZ and TPP come out I'll be here to say, 'We told you so'.

    Also, you're theory is invalidated from the off even more because, the LET project never took place in 1975. It took place a few years prior aaaaaaand BB wasn't in a coma when they took his DNA to get the project under way. Additionally, wtf are you talking about? BB's voice will change significantly to sound like another person because he hasn't used his voice in 9 years? Are you kidding me?? Where they teaching you voodoo science at school or something? Such an explanation for the voice change is absurd. Look, it's the same with recasting any role, it just is. James Bond has 6 official actors playing the same man. His change in voice and appearance isn't explained because there's nothing to explain other than the role has been recast and it's the exact same thing here. Sutherland is the 3rd actor to voice BB, following in the footsteps of Hayter and Doyle. You're too deep in the forest to see the trees, buddy. Take a step back. Waaaaaaaay back.

    Mate, you're a long time fan and you're not one of those people who jumped on the bandwagon post MGS3. Like you, I've been a fan (well a die hard fan) since MGS1. You need to come better than this and update your knowledge with the facts......and now you have me sounding like a bloody fanboy.

    P.S. It has been officially and factually confirmed that the kid that looks like Psycho Mantis IS Psycho Mantis, BB besides being kept in suspended animation after the events if MG2 only falls into ONE coma, which is the 9 year one. There is the usual after credits dialogue sequence involving Ocelot at the end if GZ and Hayter is no longer BB!
  • WillardWhyteWillardWhyte Midnight Society #ProjectMoon
    Posts: 784
    Wow you need to relax bub. My theory involving LES (yeah I was miss understood thought with the accelerated aging Liquid and Snake would grow faster leading into current events....sorry my bad relax kid) was off. I should have doubled check the dates, no need for crucifixion...

    Yes a persons voice could change significantly while being in a coma for that long. The muscles are not being used, and if you look at his body in the trailer in the hospital..he is much thinner with little body mass.....changes have occurred. Oh wait its not plausible at all......must be the voodoo......

    All I am saying is the theory with the voices could be a plausible way to change voice actors, without causing major head trauma to die hard fans. Don't you understand that?

  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Like I said, at least you're not the guy who said Chico was Snake just because of a hair color change.
    doubleoego wrote:
    P.S. It has been officially and factually confirmed that the kid that looks like Psycho Mantis IS Psycho Mantis, BB besides being kept in suspended animation after the events if MG2 only falls into ONE coma, which is the 9 year one. There is the usual after credits dialogue sequence involving Ocelot at the end if GZ and Hayter is no longer BB!

    Other than the "David Hayter is no longer Big Boss" thing, when was any of this confirmed?
  • WillardWhyteWillardWhyte Midnight Society #ProjectMoon
    Posts: 784
    Its clearly Chico in the cell, and its clearly liquid (ELI) sitting in that chair. Liquid (Eli) looked to be like a teenager..but how fast does the accelerated aging take?
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    Like I said, at least you're not the guy who said Chico was Snake just because of a hair color change.
    doubleoego wrote:
    P.S. It has been officially and factually confirmed that the kid that looks like Psycho Mantis IS Psycho Mantis, BB besides being kept in suspended animation after the events if MG2 only falls into ONE coma, which is the 9 year one. There is the usual after credits dialogue sequence involving Ocelot at the end if GZ and Hayter is no longer BB!

    Other than the "David Hayter is no longer Big Boss" thing, when was any of this confirmed?

    Over the last couple of days. With game informer giving their review of playing GZ, which included their comments about the game being controversially too short to warrant the pricing of the games, KP have been doing a bit of "damage control" which IMO was unnecessary because the MG community are blowing this way out if proportion but subsequently a few tidbits were released and confirmed and game informer have an online 20page coverage of MGSV which was released a few days ago. You guys have all been sleeping! Haha

  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    edited February 2014 Posts: 11,139
    Wow you need to relax bub. My theory involving LES (yeah I was miss understood thought with the accelerated aging Liquid and Snake would grow faster leading into current events....sorry my bad relax kid) was off. I should have doubled check the dates, no need for crucifixion...

    Yes a persons voice could change significantly while being in a coma for that long. The muscles are not being used, and if you look at his body in the trailer in the hospital..he is much thinner with little body mass.....changes have occurred. Oh wait its not plausible at all......must be the voodoo......

    All I am saying is the theory with the voices could be a plausible way to change voice actors, without causing major head trauma to die hard fans. Don't you understand that?

    Mate, we're all friends here and part of a unique gaming community. I'm not trying to crucify you or anything, my post was highlighting how far-fetched your theory is and the lack of info and misunderstanding of the facts you have. If I've been playing these games since '98 like you have, I'm pretty sure I'm not a kid. So my friend, you need to shut that down right there. That being said, a person not using their voice for 9 years isn't going to result in a noticeable and drastic voice change as is the case with going from Hayter to Sutherland. It's ludicrous to even suggest such a thing as being scientifically sound let alone advocating it. I can appreciate your preference towards wanting Hayter to return and I was at first opposed to the voice change but I got over it quickly because Sutherland has a great voice for BB/Snake, Sutherland is able to emote better than Hayter's BB voice and where the character is going requires more than a one note vocal presentation. Would I bring Hayter back given the chance? In a heartbeat. I grew up with the guy and I personally don't have a problem with his voice but I understand the artistic reasons behind his recasting and I won't let nostalgia get in the way of what is one of the most pivotal moments in MG history. The story and cinematics and overall production take precedence over who the VA is imo.

    Check these

    http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2014/02/06/exclusive-playthrough-impressions-metal-gear-solid-v-ground-zeroes.aspx




    These 2 vids, particularly the YouTube one that conveys the 20page exclusive review and factual tidbits of both GZ and TPP is what you need to watch.


    Sutherland on his role as Snake/Big Boss/Whatever the hell you wanna call him:

    Quote:
    “Oh man, that's been a gig and a half! I've been working on that for over a year.”

    “You know, I've got, like, 50 metal dots on my face, 50 cameras recording my every facial movement,” Sutherland said of the process of making the game. “The process and the technology and what I have to go through just to do a line, and what the engineers and technicians have to do, it's unbelievable. But then when I saw it… There was a guy who was applying the dots and was just in charge of that part, and he was making his own game; he's some technical wizard, and this game is supposed to be really cool. But they were showing us some stuff that they had just finished in Japan, and they were showing it back to us. It was this one little clip that’s final, final, final, and it's me on a horse. I'm riding the horse, and then I go from a run to a lope to a walk, and then standing still. I don't know a lot about games, so I'm watching it, and the guy who's watching it with me goes, ‘Oh my God. Your ears moved.’ Then he was looking at the throat, and he said, ‘You can see the pulse.’ I mean, it was so real, and all I kept thinking was, ‘This is how they're going to make movies soon.’ They're halfway there now, you know, but they're going to make films like this. This is not far off. “

    Sutherland said, of Snake, “The character is one of the few things that they say is, "Lower!” He then affected just such a raspy voice, looking at me as he asked, in Snake style, "What are you gonna do?" Sutherland added, with a laugh, “I’m talking, and I start sounding like Tom Waits. But I've really enjoyed it, and they're really good people.”
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    doubleoego wrote:
    Like I said, at least you're not the guy who said Chico was Snake just because of a hair color change.
    doubleoego wrote:
    P.S. It has been officially and factually confirmed that the kid that looks like Psycho Mantis IS Psycho Mantis, BB besides being kept in suspended animation after the events if MG2 only falls into ONE coma, which is the 9 year one. There is the usual after credits dialogue sequence involving Ocelot at the end if GZ and Hayter is no longer BB!

    Other than the "David Hayter is no longer Big Boss" thing, when was any of this confirmed?

    Over the last couple of days. With game informer giving their review of playing GZ, which included their comments about the game being controversially too short to warrant the pricing of the games, KP have been doing a bit of "damage control" which IMO was unnecessary because the MG community are blowing this way out if proportion but subsequently a few tidbits were released and confirmed and game informer have an online 20page coverage of MGSV which was released a few days ago. You guys have all been sleeping! Haha

    I wasn't sleeping, I just don't frequent (or actually, I've never gone to) the Game Informer website. I miss magazines. So Ground Zeroes also has a post-credits sequence? So it's possible that the Phantom Pain post-credits sequence is Big Boss (Sutherland, or Richard Doyle if they want to go for continuity) talking to Solid Snake (Hayter).

    Y'know, I'm certain the same people bitching about GZ's length paid $50 for the MGS2 demo, with Zone of the Enders attached. I'm fine with GZ's length. Metal Gear 1 and Metal Gear 2 aren't that long, and justifying it as "but they're 2D" doesn't mean sh*t.
  • WillardWhyteWillardWhyte Midnight Society #ProjectMoon
    edited February 2014 Posts: 784
    Great video! Well it seems Sutherland will play Big Boss right from the start. Kinda disappointed in that, as they missed a great way to transition both actors in and out of that role. I have already pre-ordered the PS3 game so it will be here on release day and I cant wait.
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    I've never been to GI's website either. I don't even read their magazines but as I mentioned, I've spent an unhealthy amount of time more so than usual on the MGS forums I'm a member of so I'm just immersed in all sorts of info from various directions. However, I agree with you; many people have blown the length of GZ way out of proportion considering the endless possibilities there are to complete the objectives and other side missions. Plus, it's freakin' metal gear and the story is in a very exciting and critical place within the mythology's timeline. With a potential post credits scene/VA in TPP, I sincerely do hope SS makes a cameo but at this point, I just want to see BB actually be BB and unleash his wrath. I'm praying Kojima doesn't disappoint but with a child Mantis actually confirmed, Eli likely being Liquid, the LET project being elaborated on and conveying much more transparency and with the enthusiasm from those who have played it, we should be in for a cracking good time.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    At this point, the only thing about Les Enfants Terribles that I want elaborated on is Solidus. We already know so many facts about Liquid and Solid, gleaned from MGS1, MGS4 and the novelization of MGS1.

    1) Snake and Liquid were original 2 of 8, but the other 6 were intentionally killed off to encourage the growth of those 2.
    2) Dr. Clark (Paramedic) oversaw the program.
    3) Cells from Dr. Clark's assistant, a Japanese woman, were used in some way.
    4) EVA was the surrogate mother.
    5) The MGS1 novelization states that the successful birth of Solid and Liquid was the ninth attempt at cloning Big Boss, possibly suggesting that the Patriots attempts started far earlier than 1972.
    6) The novelization also states that EVA was given genetic latches to Big Boss to aid the birthing.
    7) Neither Solid nor Liquid are exact clones of Big Boss, nor are they exactly the same to one another. This is meaningless, but Solid's genes are recessive and Liquid's are dominant.
    8) Their advanced aging "terminator" genes were set to activate at around 34/35, and set to accelerate at close to 40 years of age.
    9) Analog cloning and the Super Baby Method. Don't entirely know what those are, but they were important enough for Liquid to have mentioned them. Probably had something to do with the strategic distribution of genes throughout the twins.

    We know all of this about Solid and Liquid, but we know so little about Solidus. What we know about him is:

    1) His birthing was separate from the other 8 (later 2) clones.
    2) EVA is not his surrogate mother.
    3) Dr. Clark created him in secret (though, obviously, the Patriots knew about him) from leftover DNA samples of Big Boss. She may have even been his surrogate mother (she did say she wanted to have his baby, after all).
    4) His accelerated aging was set to kick in earlier than Solid and Liquid. Despite being only 14 or 15 at the time he was sent to Liberia, he looks old enough to be in his 20s, and despite being only 32 at the time of the 2004 Presidential Election, he looks to be around 40, and appears 50 in 2009.
    5) The most obvious difference between him and his brothers is that he's a perfect genetic match to Big Boss, capable of fooling JD's recognition system into thinking the master key to GW has been activated. In order to do this, Dr. Clark clearly had to improve her cloning techniques, probably erasing the need to create so many clones for so few births.
    6) Liquid couldn't survive FOXDIE, but Solidus could survive having his spine split in half by a sword, falling off of a building onto concrete, the removal of the majority of his limbs, his skin practically scraped off of him, and he was still in a slightly capable state where he could react to someone approaching him. If Adamantium wasn't involved in his birthing process, I want to know what was.

    In the future, perhaps for a future Rising sequel, I want some focus on the birthing of Solidus Snake.
  • WillardWhyteWillardWhyte Midnight Society #ProjectMoon
    Posts: 784
    good questions...but let us hope there is not another Rising sequel.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    good questions...but let us hope there is not another Rising sequel.

    I only semi-disliked Rising. Good game, not a good Metal Gear game. Plus, I find myself agreeing with Armstrong's "f*ck everything" political stance.
  • WillardWhyteWillardWhyte Midnight Society #ProjectMoon
    Posts: 784
    When it comes to USA politics, that's a good stance to have with how corrupt our government is.
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    Oh David


    tBWr0Gu.png
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    I don't get why Konami has to justify their game's length, COD never does.
  • WillardWhyteWillardWhyte Midnight Society #ProjectMoon
    edited February 2014 Posts: 784
    doubleoego wrote:
    Additionally, wtf are you talking about? BB's voice will change significantly to sound like another person because he hasn't used his voice in 9 years? Are you kidding me?? Where they teaching you voodoo science at school or something? Such an explanation for the voice change is absurd.

    Got thinking about this yesterday. It would have definitely worked in a great transition from actor to actor. When has MGS ever been all about scientific facts? Its a game and things happen, look at some of the bizarre things health wise that have happened in this series. Alot stranger things than a voice change from a 9 year coma.....
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    It would have worked as an actor transition, and I would have loved to see it happen that way, but, to whatever degree of success, we're stuck with Sutherland from Big Boss climbing up the rocks to where ever the hell the game ends.
  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    It's out, it's out, at least here in the US. Ground Zeroes is here, I've played it, I've beaten the Ground Zeroes mission, though have yet to play the side ops, and I want to know, right now, what does everybody think?

    Here's my thoughts:

    Length

    Yes, Ground Zeroes is only about two hours, if you're running around and having fun/looking for stuff/lost as all hell. I imagine, now knowing where everything is, that I could probably run through it in a shorter amount of time, although I'd get caught quite a bit. I don't know the length of the side ops, or the PlayStation exclusive "Deja Vu" mission, however, so they could, theoretically, extend the game's length significantly. I'll tell you right now, I want to go through the Ground Zeroes mission again, because that mission, all the perils and pratfalls included, was damn fun. Take a standard Peace Walker mission and extend it about a hundred times, there you go.

    Style

    "Standard Peace Walker" applies in a couple other ways, too. The ending results screen looks exactly like the Peace Walker results screen, and the game itself is pretty much Peace Walker 2.0 with crawling and first-person view mode thrown in. The open-world aspect of the game is apparent, even in this short mission, which gives me great hopes for The Phantom Pain. I honestly cannot wait for TPP to get released, because a game that's supposedly going to be 200x bigger than this one suggests that epic is too small to describe it. Ground Zeroes alone is pretty damn epic.

    Controls

    If you're a Metal Gear regular, the controls take no real getting used to. There are new things, like the fact that the binoculars are mapped to the R2 Button instead of having to find them in the items menu. The menus themselves are mapped to the D-pad, with left bringing up the items menu, up selecting your primary weapon, down selecting your secondary weapon and right bringing up the throwables menu. Pressing Select to pause is weird, because Start is now the iDroid button, which brings up your standard open-world map (which, I feel, should be Select, like in the Assassin's Creed games). L2 is now the radio button. Square now makes you do a dive, which is the new version of the roll that previous games had. Other than that, the controls are the same as previous games.

    Story

    I'll not talk much about the story, as I'm sure some people have yet to play it (it's day one as I type this, after all). There's actually very little story in Ground Zeroes, with only a few cutscenes. The ending sets you up greatly for The Phantom Pain, and it pains me that the earliest it'll come out is early 2015, but, I guess, at least it's only a year. There's some surprises, and I'll not spoil those but, Peace Out.

    Sound

    Sadly, despite Harry Gregson-Williams returning to do the music, there's very little of it, and what's there is pretty underwhelming. I'm hoping the "Deja Vu" mission brings back some of MGS1's themes, but otherwise, the game's music is pretty disappointing. Sound effects return from previous games and are par for the course. We've got the classic sounds for the exclamation point (the return of which pleased me, because I don't remember actually seeing it in any gameplay trailers) and the radio/codec. On the voice acting side, it's a little jarring that for all the returning characters, the only voice actor that didn't return was David Hayter, though Kiefer Sutherland does a great job, and it actually went out of my mind for a while until I heard Jack Bauer's characteristic "Dammit!" in one scene. Christopher Randolph returns for a brief voice cameo as Huey. Antony Del Rio and Tara Strong return as Chico (who now sounds a little older) and Paz (who sounds exactly the damn same). I was a little surprised to see the Paz's Diary tapes from Peace Walker return. I haven't listened to them yet, but I'm all but certain they're exactly the same. Robin Atkin Downes is still great as Kaz, especially during the ending sequence when [glerbladifially] happens. On the new side, we have James Horan as Skull Face, who has absolutely no explanation here yet, except that he seems to be out for some sort of revenge.

    Gameplay

    Gameplay is pretty much the same as previous entries, with a couple new additions. As mentioned above, the roll is replaced by the quick dive. Handguns (at the very least, I only ever used the assault rifle in close quarters and never actually used the shotgun except to pick it up for a second or two) are effected by wind and the bullets can can actually fail to reach their targets. You've got to get close enough that it won't matter or aim extremely well from afar. Vehicles are pretty fun, though extremely optional. They make getting from point A to point B easier, but that's about it. Crawling and first-person view return after being absent in Peace Walker, but crawling didn't help me much and first-person view actually became a hinderence in a few places. Stealth can be difficult if you're not paying attention to the guards around you. I ended up with a half-and-half situation, where I was cautious most of the time and got caught off-guard more than once. Vehicles where the guards can't see you certainly help, because then the guards never get suspicious, but if they can see you, they'll get suspicious. I'm a little disappointed that the fulton system from Peace Walker didn't return, but carrying guys to the chopper LZ isn't difficult, especially if you pick a low-risk LZ. I never actually tried to capture a guard... I have something to do next time I play the game.

    Overall

    The game is yet another great entry in the series. That's about the best thing I can say about the game, and that encompasses everything good about it. The few criticisms that I have are minor, and don't hurt my overall experience. If you enjoyed Peace Walker, there's no way you can't enjoy Ground Zeroes, and next year, The Phantom Pain.
  • Posts: 4,813
    Damnit- when does Phantom Pain come out? That was probably like 10% of the package MGS5 is!!

    But what we got is fun and looks great!
    I like how Paz pulled an 'Alien 3' at the end, lol
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