Reilly2040's Blog

I love the Metal Gear Solid games.  Metal Gear Solid was one of the first games I bought with my PS1, and after holding out on the PS2 for over a year, the release of MGS2 had me running out to the local branch of Game.  So now I’ve finally got a PS3, MGS4 was a must-play.

Following on from MGS2 (Metal Gear Solid 3 being a prequel that filled in some of the backstory) the action picks up several years later.  Snake is suffering from accelerated aging as a result of being a clone, but is pressed back into action when Liquid Ocelot finally resurfaces.

For people familiar with MGS2, you’ll find yourself in familiar territory.  The plot is fantastically complicated.  I hadn’t played the MGS games in years (thinking about it, possibly a good 8 years or so), so trying to remember everything that happened was a bit of a struggle.  I’d played the game through a lot, so most of the stuff about the Patriots I could remember, but I eventually had to cave and check wikipedia to figure out who Sonny was for example.  The other stalwart of the series is the long cutscenes.  In Metal Gear Solid 1 every boss took about 20 minutes to die, as they had to tell you their life story first.  In Metal Gear Solid 2 the cutscenes got even longer, especially in the later parts of the game as Raiden starts to find out about the Patriots and Arsenal Gear.

In Metal Gear Solid 4, there is, at least, one new innovation in the cutscenes.  A pause button, and its so very welcome.   I remember playing MGS2 and thinking “I’d better switch it off in 5 minutes” only to hit a cutscene and be trapped until it was finished (or risk having to go back to an earlier save).  In MGS4, if you hit a cutscene (and some of them are incredibly long – on completing the game, I was sitting for about an hour watching the various cutscenes at the end of the game) you can at least pause it to nip out to the loo, or if you’re replaying you can skip them entirely.

To help make the briefings more interesting, there’s also a really nice level of interactivity.  While the main characters are chatting, you can flick to alternate security cameras, or even to the Metal Gear that follows you around in missions and then drive it around the area.  Its a really nice feature, that helps underline just how nice the graphics are as these highly-detailed cutscenes are just being rendered on the fly with the graphics engine rather than the pre-rendered scenes you used to get in games.

However, while the cutscenes can sometimes give you the feeling you’re watching the game rather than playing it, what about the gameplay itself?

Well, its classic Metal Gear Solid.  Enphasis remains on stealth, but with a few new wrinkles.   As opposed to the contained environments of Shadow Moses Island and the Big Shell from the previous games, there’s a much bigger feeling of openness in the areas in this game, and the ways to avoid being detected aren’t always as obvious as a result.  Whereas previously there would be a convenient stack of boxes to hide behind, now the scenery doesn’t always lend itself to obvious hiding places.  To help compensate though, Snake’s got a new trick in the form of a suit which can automatically change to appropriately camouflage against whatever surface you’re standing beside.  Its a nice, dynamic system and again, you can see the camouflage patterns remaining on Snake’s outfit even through the cutscenes which is a nice touch.

The soliton radar from the previous games is absent this time, replaced by a new invention of Otacon’s called the “Solid Eye”.  Taking the form of an eyepatch, it provides a new radar system, which while it doesn’t provide the cone of vision of the old radar, does come with various settings, including night vision.  The only limitation though, is that using things like night vision will run down its power, leaving you without a radar until it recharges.  Also, having the solid eye means that Snake looks that much more like Big Boss, which is a nice touch.

In addition to the solid eye, you also have your own Metal Gear following you around which adds another aspect to the gameplay.  Normally its invisible, however you can activate it and use it to access areas Snake is unable to access on his own, or sneak past enemies that Snake wouldn’t have been able to get around.   I must admit, playing the game on easy, I didn’t use it a whole lot, but I can see how it could be very useful on the higher difficulty levels, and on my second play through I’m determined to try and get more use out of it.

It goes without saying that the graphics in this game are fantastic, however there’s also a real atmosphere to what’s going on.  Whether you’re trying to sneak around the war-torn middle east, follow someone around a city or the climatic fight against Liquid Ocelot these things are perfectly realised, with the final fight especially having a real epic and dramatic quality that you’d expect from the series.

As the conclusion to the Patriots (and most likely Solid Snake’s) storyline, its also nice to see all the returning characters.  Most of the MGS cast turn up throughout the game, and Vamp’s storyline from MGS2 is picked up on.  However, brilliantly there was also the return to Shadow Moses Island in the fourth act. There was a real nostalgia buzz to being back in those familiar locations and it all builds to you getting to control Metal Gear Rex, which amazingly still works despite the kicking it took in MGS, and then fight Ocelot who’s in MGS2′s Metal Gear Ray.  Complete fan service, but so much fun and one of my favourite sequences from the game.

All in all, I really enjoyed the game, but that was always going to be a given.  I’m keen to go back and replay it on higher difficulty levels so I get more out of the gameplay now that I’ve seen the cutscenes and know the story.  While a side of me still prefers running around facilities like Shadow Moses and the Big Shell to some of the open areas of this game, there’s a lot of new aspects to the gameplay here that I’m looking forward to playing with more.

I am wondering, if we can expect an expanded edition like MGS2 Substance.  I always loved the VR missions and that kind of thing.  And if they added in some trophies that’d be good.  Having played a few games on my PS3 now I missed them popping up.

Originally I really wasn’t going to get Modern Warfare 2.

Initially I was put off by the RRP.  £55 is a heck of a lot of money for one game.  Thankfully most places are selling it for more normal prices.

However when the footage of the now-infamous airport level was released, I was really put off.  In a way, that was a testament to to the developers, but for me it was too realistic, and I had no interest in playing something like that.  I don’t mind playing games like GTA or the like, because I’ve always viewed there being an almost cartoony aspect to a lot of the violence.  However Call of Duty has always prided itself on its realism, and for me they got it too right, and it felt a little to much like they were trying to generate some controversy.  I didn’t see why it couldn’t have been a cut scene.  Yes, the ability to completely skip the level is built into the game, and you’re prompted about it when you start a campaign, and again before the level itself, but to be honest, if you do skip it, it derails the story, as the events in that level are pretty vital to what happens next.

However, despite this, I’ve still ended up with the game.  I’d played it at someone else’s house, mostly split-screen multiplayer and enjoyed that part of the game immensely.  With most of my friends buying it and raving about the online play, I was starting to crack before I was finally bought the game as a gift.

So outside of that level?

Well, the game is brilliant.  The single player storyline carries on well from the first game, and is filled with great characters, and epic moments.  Visually, its stunning as well, and the storyline seems designed to take advantage of the visuals and effects the next generation consoles can offer.

There’s also a Special Ops mode, which can be played either solo, or cooperatively with a friend or online.  It presents a series of challenging missions, all of which have the roots in the single player campaign, but they provide a great way to get a quick fix with more of a focus to them than the regular online modes.  There’s a great amount of variety in the missions, with the mission where you’re at the sub base defending your position with sniper rifles and claymores being a personal favourite.

The online play is, of course, what is going to get the most milage in the game.  There’s a wide variety of game modes, and the now-standard system of levels and unlocks is in place.  You’re able to unlock a wide variety of weapons and equipment, not just through gaining levels, but also through completing a series of specific challenges, which really add to the experience of the online play as you’re not just running around trying to kill other players or capture a flag.

Overall, I really love playing the game online.  The basic Team Deathmatch has been my game of choice, as I quite like the idea that not all the other players are trying to kill me.    However it has to be said, the online play swings wildly between incredibly fun, and a complete waste of time.

The infrastructure in place for the online play is excellent.  The maps are varied, the selection of equipment and challenges extensive, and the killstreak rewards add a lot to the gameplay.  However I’ve found game balance can be a real issue.  Its not unheard of to have a team of level range 18-30 in against a team of range 50-70.  There doesn’t appear to be anything in place to mix things up depending on the players own abilities.

It also doesn’t help that I’m not brilliant at these games.  I enjoy them, and I think I can be passable at them, but when it comes down to it, my reflexes and hand/eye coordination is no match for most of the people playing this game.   A large percentage of the online playerbase is incredibly, incredibly good at this kind of game, and have been playing it a lot, so now they now know all the maps like the back of their hand.  This means if you’re a new player, or not as good, then online play can just be an exercise in frustration as you spawn-die-spawn-die in a never-ending loop.  It does mean that some days playing Modern Warfare 2 online is just an exercise in frustration, and I’ve ended up quitting the game more than once as a result.

To be fair, that’s not a problem with Modern Warfare 2.  Its an issue with all these types of games.  I remember my one attempt to play the first Modern Warfare online.  The game had been out for a good while, so the rest of the player base was really established.   After 5 dull minutes of constantly watching respawn timers after being repeatedly killed, I quit and never bothered with the online play ever again.  However, saying that, online play is where a lot of longevity for these games is now, and when you factor in the cost of the game, that’s an issue worth considering.   In an ideal world it’d be nice to see some level-restricted game modes added for example.  World at War did this by having a Bootcamp option where only people level 1-8 could play, in order to let them get started without being sniped by level 70s and I thought it was a great idea.

Despite the ups and downs of online play though, I still find myself drawn to it, as when you manage to end up in with a decently matched group, its so much fun.   And for those days, when you just can’t be bothered with online play, then you’ve got the option of the special ops, or the single player.  Or heck, if you still want that online experience without the constant respawning, there’s the option to play the single player campaign co-operatively with people online, so there’s loads of gameplay options.

Modern Warfare 2 is a brilliant game.  The only real issue I’ve got with it remains that airport level, however everything else surrounding it is incredibly well crafted.

But when will they do a version of Nazi Zombies for it?  That was the best part of World at War.  :D

At Christmas I finally joined the next gen gaming crowd, by getting a Playstation 3.

Over the last few years my gaming has been largely PC-based, although I did get a Nintendo Wii when they were released, so this console’s been interesting to play around with properly.   The advantage of coming to the console fairly late on is that many of the big games are now available cheaply either on the Platinum range or second-hand, so I’ve been having a lot of fun playing Call of Duty World at War, Fallout 3 (previously played on my PC, but my PC struggled with it graphically and this is the Game of the Year edition with the extra content), Batman Arkham Asylum and others.

The graphics look stunning of course, even on my non-HD, non-flatscreen trustworthy 28″ CRT TV, although I will say I’ve noticed a problem whereby some text isn’t easily legible as its clearly meant to be read on a higher-resolution TV (the Playstation store is particularly guilty of this).

Outside of gaming, its been interesting to play with a console with online capabilities, and see how the line between PC and console gaming has blurred.  The dashboard which allows you to track your online friends is nice and sending messages back and forward is pretty painless.  Likewise getting online to play is a breeze as your Playstation ID is just used to manage things.  Of course, like PC gaming, the online option means that games can now have patches available. Its interesting to note that this isn’t necessarily a good thing.  On inserting a new game, if a new version is found you’ve then got to install the update.  Given some of them can be a couple of hundred MB that can mean that your console ends up tied up downloading content when you just wanted to try out your new game.  And on Christmas Day, when I was wanting to try out a bunch of new games I’d received, it could get old a bit quickly.

That said, the fact the online stuff also opens up new content for the games.  Downloadable content and micro-payments for games have become a big thing since being adopted by the console market, and while the micro-payments in particular may be controversial, I’m largely happy with things as long as it doesn’t feel like the user is being taken advantage of, and the downloadable content is genuinely extra material and not necessary to enjoy the game you’re already paid for.  I’ve picked up a few extras for the games I’ve got, most of which were free or only a couple of pounds, although so far I’ve found the £7.99 asking price for the Call of Duty map packs a bit too much.

The other aspect of the console that’s really grabbed me is its position as a media centre.  Now, amongst the people I know, most of them that have PS3s primarily bought them as a cheap Blueray player, so Sony targeting that market was a good move, however beyond that aspect of the console, it also supports various other media type stuff.

While I’ve not yet setup a proper media server, the ability, for example, to copy video files to a USB stick and play them on the big TV via the PS3 is a very welcome feature.  Of course, once I setup a media server on my main PC, the fact that I’ll be able to connect to it via the PS3 and stream all my videos to the big TV is great, but in the meantime using a USB stick is an easy temporary solution.  Likewise the (fairly recent) addition of the BBC iPlayer to the PS3 dashboard works well and delivers a great high-quality catchup service (very handy as I’m not on Virgin Media, who I know can get the iPlayer through their set-top boxes).  While I was pretty much expecting the games side of the console, the media centre functionality’s been a nice surprise, and a good bonus piece of functionality.

All in all, while I was originally quite critical of the PS3 launch, having used the console I have to say I’m extremely impressed by it.  The quality of the games I’ve got is very high, and the online and media centre capabilities of the console are well implemented.  Granted, I’ve never used the X-box 360, but I’m very happy with my PS3.