Since we're probably in danger of derailing the "good endings" thread, and since it's such a popular franchise, and since the search function turned up nothing, I'll just start up a dedicated MGS thread.
I'm not as big of a fan of the series as some, but I've definitely enjoyed the games I've played (2 and 3) and am looking forward to MGS4, although I own a 360 and am hoping that it will be ported at some point, because I'll never buy a system for a single game (I already have a 360 for Fallout 3) and if it's not ported then, well, I won't play it.
MGS4 has at this point been confirmed as the last chapter in Solid Snake's story, although it's possible they'll continue to make games in the MGS universe. If they do so, they do so without Hideo Kojima, who's apparently going to start focusing on other series after MGS4 wraps. Tentative release date's around May of '08, IIRC.
Recently they revealed the
concepts for the new boss creatures, by far the most enjoyable parts of the MGS series. Kojima's overarching theme here is "Beauty and the Beast", or rather, beauty corrupted by war. They made a big deal of the fact that they used supermodels as mocap actors for the characters. At this point it's not jumping out at me the way MGS3's "emotions of battle" did. There's also some repetition of naming conventions ("wolf", "mantis") that might tie into MGS1 in some way, or might just be simple homages.
Any comments, praise, criticism, memories, etc. are welcome, of course.
To comments made in the "good endings" thread:
Metal Gear Solid is such an epic series that I wish I liked it.
I'm sorry guys, I just don't get it. It reminds me heavily of the GTA series because, while it does entirely unique, new things, it does very few of them flawlessly. Now, I think this deserves some explanation. In GTA:SA (eg.), the food and clothing thing just sucks. Clothes take so fucking long to try on that it's really not worth spending 5 whole minutes trying to decide on new socks. Food is almost as bad, with no ability to rob stores, no ability to steal food, etc., and it also has the same problem of taking literally 5 seconds to cycle between each "meal". The voices get old, and the system itself gets repetitious and aggravating.
That's a very small part of the game, but the same unpolished feel happens through all three games. MGS has the same feel. Codec monologues are plain annoying, and the voice acting on Snake is the most irritating sandpaper-against-my-eardrums noise I've ever heard. It's so completely over-the-top it reminds me of the overdub on Daft Punk's One More Time, except this time it's used 100% seriously. Besides the plot being completely ass-backwards, the gameplay usually feels hollow and old-school, especially the top-down perspective and difficulty aiming with ANYTHING outside of first-person.
Now I know everyone is going to yell at me, but I should say this: I don't hate either series. For all the unpolished feelings, they're still amazingly fun games. I just have never understood people calling EITHER of these two games, perfect.
The only people I know who argue that the MGS series is "perfect" are generally in it for Sony. They're hardly perfect, but they are wildly ambitious, especially the older ones, in context, and when Kojima swings for the bleachers he usually connects. Sometimes he'll go flying off the handles, as in MGS2, yet the guy's got vision. But he's gone on record with his opinion that games aren't really art, which is ironic considering how often his games are used against that idea.
I disagree with you, though, I think the MGS series is pretty well polished. The camo system in 3 can get annoying, but it's supposed to encourage thought, which is something that a lot of gamers are uncomfortable with, seeing as how most games, even the good ones, tend to make it easy for players to coast effortlessly through the gameplay. You can't coast in MGS, nor can you run and gun. You'll get slaughtered. The camo and stamina systems in 3 are extensions of that design concept. You have to be involved. Though, the case could certainly be made for a less clumsy interface regarding the camo. Hopefully they'll address that in 4. As for the difficulty of aiming, like I said, it's not a combat game. The best way through an area is usually not to start a firefight, and the boss fights are usually intuitive enough to be challenging but not impossible.
As for Snake, what do you want? He's just like any other spy hero, void of personality but still a certified badass, much like, say, Jason Bourne. It's only a fantasy only slightly different from Bond.
I agree with you on the plot, though, in principle. Kojima's spent considerable effort making his games cinematic, but as a storyteller he's limited by the medium. He's making stealth action games but wants complex characters and meaningful plot developments, and he tries to accomplish this by throwing in excessive amounts of cutscenes and monologues. Especially in the cases of the boss characters it's apparent that Kojima's biting off more than he can chew, since they're usually only given the amount of screen time it takes to put them in Snake's way so Snake can kill them. Thus you have all kinds of "I shall kill you, but first, I will tell you my tragic life story..." situations playing out, and it gets more ridiculous the more you play. Still, where this works to the detriment of 1 and 2, 3 is obviously a fantastical espionage pulp thriller from the opening credits on, and it works remarkably well, I think.
