"For fear of spoilers, Konami invited journalists to review the game at five-day 'boot camps' tied to strict NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). We played between 9am to 5pm, with no unsupervised play outside these hours. That's a maximum play time of 40 hours, assuming no stoppages for eating, drinking, stretching… or reality. So you're trying to complete a 35-50 hour game (or longer, depending on your play style and the nature of your 'completion'… I can't say more), that you've been anticipating for five years, in a realistic window of 30-35 hours. On one hand, you're finally immersed in one of the deepest, most experimental, open-worlds in history – overwhelmed by side-missions, upgrades and secrets – on the other, haunted by a tick-tock race to reach the 'end' without knowing when that is."
Wow, who DOESN'T dream of spending 40 hours over five straight days under intense pressure?
"My god, there are none so blind as those who choose not to see."
...or who are so blinded by conspiracy they see that isn't there.
@Random_Virus: Junkets such as this aren't unethical. Feel free to view them skeptically — hell, feel free to think that the letter "e" shouldn't be a vowel, I don't care — but they're not unethical.
@Random_Virus: Who cares what "most long time MGS fans" thought of it? GameSpot reviewed it as its own entity, not with regards to its place in a series.
"The same house that did not disclose they were flown out to a private hotel and reviewed the game under supervision and a contract."
From the review:
"Peter has played every Metal Gear game there is, and spent almost 50 hours with The Phantom Pain for this review. His total completion percentage, after beating the main storyline and playing a few dozen side ops, amounted to 40 percent. He played the game for one day at a review event at Konami's Los Angeles headquarters, but completed it at home using a copy of the game provided by Konami. For the review event, Konami paid for travel and other accommodations."
@sepsis216: Oh, wow. You replaced the capitalized letter S in the abbreviated form of Microsoft's name with a dollar sign as an indictment of its unique goal as a business to make money!
@neowarrior793: As someone who had multiple — not one, but multiple — rechargeable battery packs from the "Play & Charge" kit eventually go bad on the Xbox 360, I'm glad Microsoft kept the option to let me just throw in some AA batteries. I would much rather do that than have to buy a new controller.
@not_a_sheep111: No, giving up would be Nintendo sending the two games that had any chance of breaking the "Nintendo can't do grown-up stuff!" mindset out to die in December. You want to see giving up? Look no farther than Kyoto.
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