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Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

Many years after publishing my review for Metal Gear Solid 4: Sons Of The Patriots, I prepare myself for the task of my next, possibly final review.

After this last review, partially due to my inactivity on the scene, a couple of children added to my family and a full time job, I shall sit back and use these reviews to reminisce about the "old days" when I had free time!

MGSV is undoubtedly a masterpiece in technical usage of a console, it has truly fantastic gameplay, controls, story etc

I miss David Hayter. I know his voice acting may not of been say, Nolan North, but he was the spirit behind Snake.

Still, the review won't be on Sutherlands voice acting, I love his work on pretty much everything so as dislodging it can be.

Off I go, still have 50% to clear before I can write the review, 100% or bust!

Metal Gear Solid, Over priced demo or a Konami Kickstarter?

With the impending release of Konami's Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes it's hard not to be put off by the reported game size.

Especially since it started off as a full priced game! Thankfully Konami saw fit to lower the price to a more acceptable level (I've pre-ordered mine from Amazon for £25 squiddies. But seeing all these reports struck a thought in the dark depths of my brain.

Is this an overpriced demo or is it something more?, could this be Konami's version of a Kickstart programme?

Have they release this earlier than the rest of the game to help fund its development? It's no lie that in recent years the western releases from Konami haven't exactly been up to scratch but at the same time they've had some good releases.

This could just be a publicity train to get the punters on board to see the technology and I, for one, am very excited to see what Kojima has done with a new engine, new technology and 1080p visuals. (I am getting the PS4 version)

Expect a review along with some live streaming of it soon!

- Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes Europe Release Date - 20th March 2014

- Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes UK Release Date - 21st March 2014

It's been awhile!

Hello everyone!

It has been quite some time since my last post, life has been a rather messy thing in the past few years but now I'm back so lets get to business.

Today's topic; Season Passes & Early Access

We've seen this in the shovel loads recently and my current gripe actually sits with Battlefield 4 and EA/DICE.

The season pass for BF4 allows you early access to the map pack which unfortunately I have to complain about. For those unwilling to pay for the game twice, we miss out on the maps for a clear two weeks and to rub salt into the wound the people with early access have basically paid for beta access. I suppose a thing to be glad of is the major game breaking bugs in the map pack will be fixed (In theory, we are still waiting for bug fixes for BF4 vanilla).

But when you think about it, all those annoying snipers that have had two weeks to find their sweet spots etc.

Not a good thought, is it?

Especially when this is a game plagued by snipers, it isn't even a skilled class. It's a selfish class for those that don't want to help the team. It's a defensive role by nature and most players use the class incorrectly, forgetting that a high kill/death ratio doesn't mean top of the scoreboard and doesn't accurately show 'skill'. I suppose the 12 year old kiddlings have already swamped the consoles.

I could understand if the season passes offered just a monetary saving but it bugs me that the season pass buyers (in this case 'Premium' members) get exclusive items as well. This takes away from the completionist part of my brain that wants to collect all the weapons, attachments, camos and dog tags. I simply can't achieve any of that due to the fact that I don't want to pay the price of a retail game to get access to them.

It's a sad state of affairs when game companies try to rip the soul from a game by basically charging you twice and expecting everyone to smile about it.

Unfortunately, many players did just smile hand over money and walk away. This species are known not as gamers, but as morons.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

This is just a post about CODMW2.

I've noticed a hell of a lot of chatter about a few scenes in CODMW2, you all know which I'm talking about here.
The terrorist airport scene.


A lot of people have spoken up about their dislike of Infinity Wards use of violence against innocents, a scene (Spoiler incoming) that has you mowing down innocent airporters with a group of terrorists in cold blood.
Killing everyone that stands...

Sure they warn you of "Offencive" content at the very start when you first boot up the game...But what are my thoughts on this?

I felt that the story in CODMW2 was disjointed at best and Infinity Ward dropped the ball a tad with the story telling technique. I felt that throughout the game I had no real idea of what was going on and sure this could of been due to the fact that I was at the midnight release and was a tad tired but even after playing the game the next night I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

That particular scene that has you mowing down civvys?


I'm glad they done it, not because it benifited the story though.
Lets face it they could have explained what kind of dude Makarov was and there was no reason for that actual scene to take place. This brings to mind that they may have done it for publicity? possibly but it doesn't strike me as a move Infinity Ward would make. However, it does strike me as a move Activision would make.

We all know that Activision are bloodhounds for media and publicity so bare that in mind. They could have stopped that scene, personally I think they would have requested something along those lines.


So why am I glad they done it?

Because, it pissed off a LOT of people. And finally we get to see the true face of todays gamers.

The hypocrasy of todays gamer, they watch movies involving genocide, they listen to music with lyrics of suggestive murder and they'll watch a film that actually portraits rape via mutant (The Hills Have Eyes) but suddenly because there is a game that has you kill an innocent as a "Terrorist" it's WRONG!!!



Well ladys guess what, Nico Bellic was just as much a terrorist as those guys in the airport.
The Postal Guy (One of my heros!) was just as much a terrorist and you could name a LOT more.


The true reason why people piss and moan about this particular scene is all due to one simple little misunderstood word.

Terrorist

Now, lets dissect this word.

Ter·ror·ist (tĕr'ər-ĭst

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.

An individual who uses violence, terror, and intimidation to achieve a result.

n.
One that engages in acts or an act of terrorism.

adj.
Of or relating to terrorism.

Now, considering that little bit of information most of the people we know in our own towns are terrorists and most games we play have terrorist characters in them...Sam Fisher being one shining example.

Sam Fisher, the guy that fights for the peace of the United States. Saving the country from various Terrorist attacks actually employs the use of terrorism himself.

Many examples can be found in Action Movies, the hero often uses terroristic tactics to obtain information of their enemies.

Now my point is, just because someone says terrorist doesn't mean people should **** themselves. Terrorism is mearly a form of perspective. The Task Force 141 guys in CODMW2 are also Terrorists in their own right. And in many ways our own countrys are seen as tyranic and terroristic by other countrys so it works both ways. People need to stop the sudden panic over a small misunderstood word.

Terrorist, to use force, violence and fear to get what you want...Funny...That makes every rapist a terrorist but people don't think about these things I guess.

That is why I am glad that IW used that scene and why I am glad it upset people...Prehaps people should consider what the true meaning of terrorist is before they blow their trumpet over a **** game.

Game List (October 2009)

Randomly I thought I'd list the games I'm currently playing through.

  1. [PC] Fallout 3 (With enough mods to make the game actually playable on PC)
  2. [PC] Deus Ex
  3. [PC] Broken Sword - The Shadow of the Templar
  4. [PC] Microsoft's Flight Simulator X
  5. [X360] Battlefield 1943
  6. [PSP] God of War - Chains of Olympus

And the games I am currently looking forward to.

  1. [X360] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
  2. [X360] Forza Motorsport 3

Currently my "Game of the Year" would be

  • [PC] Batman: Arkham Asylum


And my biggest disappointment this year would definately be

  1. [PC] Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
  2. [PC] Arma 2 (Armed Assault 2)

8)

Retrospective Reviews

I decided today to start doing some Retrospective Reviewing and going back to some old titles


My first I think shall be Deus Ex (The good one not the crappy second title), Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis (After I Female K9-slapped OFPDR I feel that showing how good the original was would put Codemasters attempt to even more shame) and possible the entire Doom series!

Also I tempted by the idea of blogging my in-house game development project I'm working on but more on that another time...