New myth article, some minor updates, and a tiny review

[Ravi Singh]

First off, there is a new myth article up. I actually was thinking about writing this a year ago when Metal Gear Solid: Rising was first announced but I never got to it and I thought the myth itself would die out with people, I dunno, doing some research and reading. I suppose I was a little optimistic, so here you go. I expect some hate mail from fanboys that I will not reply to. Check it out under THE FEATURES.

Next, I made some minor changes to the site. Specifically, THE GAMES page is updated for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (which now has a box art gallery) and Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Nothing big here, let's move on.

With the release of Peace Walker I had to make an update to one myth article. A reader also brought up a good point regarding another article which I decided to also update. None of these updates negate the articles themselves, they just clear some things up better. Once again, these can be checked out under THE FEATURES.

With that, I put to rest the myth article about Old Snake not being Big Boss. I think everyone by now has to know. The only people I could imagine not really knowing this would be a newcomer who just played Snake Eater and, for some reason, thinks Guns of the Patriots takes place inside of a mirror. Anyways I threw this myth article in THE JUNK.

Lastly, I recently finished with both endings of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and unlocking every briefing tape, including "the phone call." Because it took a while (had to finish every fucking EXTRA OP) I didn't have the chance to really write anything about Peace Walker as I planned. Well, now I can. Expect that next month. But it won't be a review.

I think reviews in general are pointless because they're so damn subjective. Now I understand that there are some people with similar tastes with you. Perhaps I am one of them. In that case, I guess it is fair to ask me of my opinion. Some of you did. I generally just write that I "riked" it "for the most part" but one forum member asked recently and I decided to indulge into somewhat of a short review. Here is pretty much what I responded with:

Gameplay - 4/5
Be warned of leveling up and grinding. It's less annoying as it is in Portable Ops but bosses are considerably difficult unless you level up your staff and continuously develop powerful weapons. Sneaking missions are fun though the lack of crawling does continue to bug me. Co-op is fun as well but is really only helpful in boss battles. Controls are largely improved (though still not perfect) but you can still use Portable Ops' control scheme if you want.

Graphics - 5/5
Personally, this is the least important aspect of games in my opinion but it is one of the best looking PSP titles. Whereas Portable Ops had great looking models but bad environments, this one has everything fit in. The models look as good as the environments.

Story - 3/5
Not as bad as MGS4, but still not that great. In ways even Portable Ops has a better overall plot. What Peace Walker does that's better though are less obvious inconsistencies (they're still there, though) and a lot of depth given to the characters that's revealed through briefing tapes, some of which are hidden. Often times the hidden part gets annoying--the final chapter has to be unlocked by doing certain things the game hardly hints at doing.

Overall - Worth buying if you have a PSP already
Not sure if it's worth the purchase of a PSP though if you don't already have one.

Outside of that, if anybody gives a shit about me updating The Snake Soup's MySpace with news and updates, let me know because all I see are bands I've never heard of and fake sluts who want me to pay them to see them on a webcam.

[John]

Great read. Hopefully this will decrease the amount of fanboy stupidity. Or maybe it won't do shit. Maybe they'll argue that Metal Gear didn't become good until it was on the Playstation, and that Metal Gear 1 and 2 are "gay old nes games lol."

Ah, "Old Snake is Big Boss." One of the articles that made me love the site. It made down time in technology class so much more bearable. Glad to see it isn't gone from the site for good.

Also;

[Richter]

The timing seems odd, but it's still a good read. Very weird nobody remembers the ports of MGS2 Substance or the many other variants. The PC port of Integral was what got me started in this series. Good to know your views on Peace Waker too, I'd give it a try if they ever put it on PSN as hinted at in the past.

[jdnation]

You forgot to mention that after Kenichiro Imaizumi said that he added that even if the costs of development were high, the game would not have fit on anything other than blu-ray.

I think the majority of people disappointed in the multi-platform move, and I include myself in this, are disappointed in that the PS3 clearly is the better machine with blu-ray, with the Cell architecture, free online, PSP remote shenanigans, SIXAXIS and now 3-D etc. that Sony's first party titles are clearly showing in amazing games. We want Metal Gear Solid to be of that caliber and this is simply not possible on the Xbox 360.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to Rising, and I don't mind if KojiPro wants to spread Metal Gear out a little, why not? But if there is ever another mainline MGS 'proper' within this generation. I want it to be PS3 exclusive, just so KojiPro can push the PS3 hard with the new toolsets and methods that Sony's first parties are leveraging! Same for ZOE! These are titles hailed for their visual achievements and I want them to so that using the best hardware and assets available.

And finally with the more powerful 3DS handheld on the horizon, I want to see what they can pull off on it that the PSP couldn't.

[Son of Liberty]

I've got to disagree with that mini-review. The gameplay is fine--if the bosses were too hard it was because you didn't bother recruiting soldiers, like you said. Extra Ops are fun. The gameplay is more fun, accessible, and polished than MGS3, MPO, and MGS4. It deserves a 5/5.

The story almost completely avoided retcons and ignored the plot revelations of MPO and MGS4. This in itself should validate its superiority over those games. Plus, it has a unique cast of characters with fantastic voice actors. Codec is back and on par with the earlier games and it's enjoyable listening to characters discuss the Cold War. MPO did not have a better overall plot structure (it was way too dramatized. Elisa foretelling the future. come on.).

This game was mostly grounded and then picked up a lot of speed towards the end. A 4/5 from me.

Overall, I would give it a 4.5/5. On par with MGS3 and even better in terms of gameplay.

[Elman]

[John]

Like Volgin being ordered to fire the nuke at Sokolov's research facility, instead of him doing it because he's nuts.
No mention of RAXA, Sokolov being alive, or Null is made. In fact, it is heavily implied that ZEKE was the first Metal Gear to be called "Metal Gear", completely ignoring Metal Gear RAXA from MPO.

Just ignore MPO and everything is fine.

[Zerim]

[Elman]

[Pollyannax]

[Ravi Singh]

[Pollyannax]

I wish it was 3 dvds i miss the days of swapping discs...

[Ravi Singh]

I'm fine, I do think the loading times were atrocious. The continuous installation for each playthrough is obnoxious. I don't think it's the Bluray's fault, I think Kojima Productions were too hellbent on keeping everything uncompressed which slows down loading times.

[Pollyannax]

I hate needing to press start after every load ._.

[Abel]

I actually had no problem with the loading times considering the quality of the graphics and sounds of the game, it really gave the game overall quality.