What Can I Say, It Is The Best Game Out There
The main things you will notice about MGS4 are the subtle things, you will most likely come across them and go: "Ah, nice" or "Clever!" because the game is simply orchestrated so well. Things like droplets of water on the screen, dust rising in the area because of an explosion off screen or in the what-seems-to-be Skybox area, Snake patting his back etc. All these clever little notions more than adds up for their delays in getting this game on the shelves.
I am one of the few fortunate enough to get my hands on the Limited Edition of MGS4 and have watched their exlusive Blu-Ray video. To be honest with those critivs who despised Kojima with the delays, watching that videos is like playing MGS4 to find the answer to the story. The video details the pain staking processes of debugging, re-coding and re-designing of the game at the last minute, pushing the release date further and further back.
The cinematics I agree can be very very lengthy, the first intro being clocked in as 20 or so minutes before proper gameplay begins. However, this is METAL GEAR, and veterans to the series will appreciate this and simply treat this as second nature. It's a trait of METAL GEAR that complete the METAL GEAR experience, the series has always had life-stories explained, puns and metaphors taking hours to explain etc. It is simply Kojima and really, the long cinematics being the main fault of the game isn't really worthy to shy the game of a perfect 10.
Personally, the game plays like an interactive movie, which I think is beautiful as an art that Kojima has perfected over his 20 years of METAL GEAR experience. Kojima has made the link between Hollywood and "Gameswood" under the title of SONY's best game for the Playstation 3 Console. Ladies and Gents, I give you: METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS.