Let me first say that I'm not one of those irritating fanboys that nut at every cutscene in MGS4 or write half-assed reviews with the words "own3d".

We all know how many people love this game and the couple of handful that hate it. I'm currently waiting to get off work so I can get on the last act of the game. So far, I'm enjoying what I've been playing. What particularly intrigued me is the people watching me play.

During the day the game debuted, I had plans with a few old friends that wanted to go out and watch a movie and later have dinner. When they arrived at the door, I had them plop on my couch so I can continue my game and they began asking me what I was playing. I just started in Act 1. One couple (guy and girl) never played any video games in their whole lifetime while the other couple (yes...also a guy and girl) owns a Wii and just casually plays games. They continued to watch me for an hour but I was already 2 hours into the game - a short reward after running a million chores in the house. Considering how Kojima loves lengthy cutscenes I wanted to eat badly so I just stopped and saved the game in the middle of a scene. My friends were pissed off and wanted me to finish the scene. I reminded them about our movie night but they decided to change plans just to watch Metal Gear. I was starving and I wanted to run out and get a sandwich so I told them to just take over. All of them were hesitant in touching the controller. It felt alien to them. "I know you guys have played games before" I said. I assured them that they can just start over if they wanted to and I told them that I wasn't too far into the game. Still, none of them wanted to try playing. I told them they can watch TV if they want or checkout the showing times for movie night. I opened the manual for them and restarted the game. Of course, I didn't want to be a bad host so I asked if anyone wanted anything eat. I went to Safeway to get some snacks and food. An hour after I got back, I see them playing and arguing over how to get to point B. I stood back and watch as I saw my friends gnaw at each other like two kids fighting over a new toy. I resisted in asking for the my controller back and just threw tidbits of tips here and there. Despite the initial awkwardness, the group seemed decent in controlling the game. Then again, the game's difficulty was set on easy.

So we traded the controller after every death. It was interesting to watch my friends play. One of my buddies was so frustrated at the number of deaths we had that he decided to to make it into a drinking game. The person that dies holding the controller must take a shot of 151. Needless to say, we never got passed Act 2. After getting sober, one couple stayed over wanting to finish the game. The controller was changing hands for many hours and we got to Act 4. It was 4am in the morning. Today, they're coming back to finish off Act 5 with me. I'll write a review later. From what I've seen and played so far, this looks to be a strong contender for some pretty good game awards.