What are you currently playing?

[Kenny]

Replaying MGS4.

Jesus.

I really hate how they lumped the cast in MGS3 and MGS1 in this thing. Just EVA, Zero (not in the flesh), and Naomi would've been okay (and of course Otacon and Campbell) but everyone else was completely unnecessary. It also doesn't make sense how cunning Snake was in MGS2 but then became relegated to being the dumb clueless agent again in this one.

So much fucking fail all around.

[OL]

I don't know if I'd call it "fail," so much as "Kojima fucking with everyone."
After the crap he'd gotten from fans (even down to the literal death threats he got when he said he was going to stop directing the series) MGS4 felt to me like just about the most technically well-crafted middle finger in the history of videogames. So much of the ridiculousness seems totally intentional to me, now that I look at it that way.

[Henry Spencer]

Yeah, he basically went all out on putting in all of the fans requests, pretty much saying "oh, you want Meryl back? Well guess what? She's a bitch, who gets married to the joke of the series (Johnny) so have fun with that." "You want Raiden to be a badass ninja in this game now? Sure, well guess what the catch is? He's now a whiny emo who gets injured all of the time and spend most of the game spewing up white blood. We won't even tell you how he became a cyborg ninja in the first place." "Oh yeah, guess what else? 2 Codec contacts through the entire game. We're half assing this part of the game. [Otacon and Rose talk about pretty much nothing of worth. Ever.] Solid Snake being a shadow of his former self. And the worst possible ending imaginable (overlong, retcon city, pretentious as hell but without any real meaning behind it all).

It's almost as if Big Boss' line at the end "This is good, isn't it?" is like a shout out from Kojima to the players - saying "well, you like this, huh?"

He wasn't originally directing MGS3 either, just writing and producing before getting bombarded with requests to do it, again probably wanting to work on other new stuff like Zone of the Enders.

I think it's safe to say he absolutely loathed working on that game (MGS4, I mean) and was practically kicking and screaming not to make it. I'd often read interviews with him prior to the games release and after the game's release stating he hated making it and is sick of Metal Gear now and that he was disappointed with the game. It was almost like a revenge against the fans who demanded what he did with his life. It's sort of understandable why MGS4 turned out the way it did when you think of it like this.

I still have a lot of hope that MGSV that will be more in line with MGS1-MGS3, which is by my view, the best/most consistent game trilogy I've ever played. Ground Zeroes, as short as it was, felt like the kind of revision/update I wanted for the series.

[OL]

The funniest thing is that, even though he was clearly just messing with everyone throughout so much of it, the game itself still turned out incredibly solid (ha) as far as gameplay and technical matters go. It's like he's almost incapable of actually making a bad game. And even if the story was mostly one big ridiculous joke, I still found it really entertaining either way. Stuff like the motorcycle chase with Big Mama, the Raiden/Vamp battle, Rex vs. Ray, and lots of other things still make the game stand out in my mind.
Actually, thinking back on it is giving me kind of an urge to play through it again. Strange that a game that's so easy to rag on can still make me want to play it. Like I said, just about the most technically well-crafted middle finger in the history of videogames.

[Kenny]

Even if you want to sell it on the fact he's just trolling the fans, it's still wasted potential. Even the gameplay is too short, just as I remembered it. It kind of reminds me of Anno getting back at the EVA fans by making End of EVA after all the hate he got for the TV show finale, which is also a big proverbial middle finger to the fans.

But seeing how MGR:R turned out with different people at the helm, I doubt MGS4 would've been any better if Kojima was not on board. I think it was destined to fail no matter what. The best thing about the whole game are the Raiden and Vamp fights, especially the way they were in the old E3 videos where it had a more appropriate score than the final game.

phpBB [video]

That's some of the best shit ever. The motorcycle chase is pretty cool too.

[Henry Spencer]

The funniest thing is that, even though he was clearly just messing with everyone throughout so much of it, the game itself still turned out incredibly solid (ha) as far as gameplay and technical matters go. It's like he's almost incapable of actually making a bad game. And even if the story was mostly one big ridiculous joke, I still found it really entertaining either way. Stuff like the motorcycle chase with Big Mama, the Raiden/Vamp battle, Rex vs. Ray, and lots of other things still make the game stand out in my mind.
Actually, thinking back on it is giving me kind of an urge to play through it again. Strange that a game that's so easy to rag on can still make me want to play it. Like I said, just about the most technically well-crafted middle finger in the history of videogames.

See, I was even disappointed by the gameplay too. There was a promise off Kojima that the game would be about stealth in an open battlefield and that there would be four different sides fighting and that you could choose. I was sad to see that the stealth had been reduced to "lie against the ground to camouflage against the background and nobody will ever see you". Then there was just too many guns in the early game, so if you did get spotted, it was fairly easy to fight your way out. It felt like having the stealth camo and infinite ammo unlocked from the start of the game. The boss battles were too basic, forgettable and repetitive (especially if you wanted to save them). I think they relied a little too much on fanservice and nostalgia for my tastes. The B&B Unit just felt like retreads. I also greatly disliked Acts 3-5 for various reasons. I liked the chase sequences and some of the music. In the end, the only part of that game that I truly liked was Metal Gear Online and even that was flawed as hell too (Konami ID, glitchy as hell, full of cheaters).

I wasn't a big fan of the Raiden vs Vamp scenes either. Just seemed like something out of Twin Snakes cutscenes to me.

I'm still just confused as hell why so many reviews gave the game a 10/10? I bet Kojima was too.

[Kenny]

Oh I disagree with that. The Twin Snakes cutscenes were over the top all the time and were choreographed in a very cheesy way when Snake was involved (with the bullet time and whatnot). When it was Raiden and Vamp, it was essentially a ninja vs a supernatural being. Totally made more sense for them to be over the top and Kojima did it better than Ryuhei Kitamura.

But I do agree the gameplay was too ridiculously easy. Only way to have a good challenge is to crank it up on Extreme and turn on the "Game Over When Spotted" option. But even then, the older games didn't need you to do that and they were better constructed.

[OL]

Finally got around to playing a bit of Xillia 2. Just the first hour or so.
The good news? It's more of the same, but with a new story. I'm cool with that. Xillia was excellent.
The bad news? The trailers really didn't lie; the little girl seriously does have one of the most annoying voices they could have possibly picked for her. I'm sick and congested at the moment, so having to hear her gratingly-nasally voice was almost torture. I could feel it in my nose when she was talking. A shame, because everyone else seems pretty good so far, just as in the first game.
Whatever the case, more Xillia = good. Not sure I'll be finishing it any time soon, but it's good to know there's something solid waiting for me.

[AnimeGamer183]

I will also be firing up Xillia 2 this week. I beat Trails in the Sky for the second time, and I usually give a few days or weeks before I jump into another game like that.

[Raithos]

Same here. Been wanting to fire it up but after spending 70 hrs on Trails again, I'm not ready for another JRPG. Bout to fire up inFamous (the first one) and see what its all about. Got it free on PSN back when it got hacked lol

[Henry Spencer]

I have played a bit of the new Wolfenstein which I picked up during the Summer sale on PSN - it's a game which was made by lots of former members of Starbreeze Studios (who worked on The Darkness 1 and the Riddick games). As far as FPS goes, it's incredibly solid; enemies are varied and the game is definitely gory with its graphic violence. I've not played a new FPS in ages now, so it's pretty nice to go back to genres that I've not played for a long while. I'll also say that the storyline is surprisingly excellent for such a ridiculous premise (Nazi robots, Nazi experiments) then this is made by a really talented collection of people. I also like how the game's story branches at the start adding great replay value (two games in one, pretty much, since it's at the prologue that the choice is made).

And there's no multiplayer or DLC that I can see, so they've really concentrated extremely hard on a single player game with everything included as is. Looking forward to playing more of it this weekend since it seems really well designed so far.

Mainly been getting back into my handheld stuff again lately, especially since I've been swamped with a new project at work, so that's been taking up a lot of my time. I've gotten back into Ys II on PSP and Jake Hunter on DS. Both are solid.

[Axm]

Dooooooood.
Just played a little more of Xillia 2, and man... it really is darker than the first. Darker than most Tales games, at that.

So an entire train's worth of people gets brutally massacred, and as you're heading through it you get to see their dead bodies crumpled up over splatters of blood on the floor. And there are little kids in there too!

Didn't expect to see that in a series that was previously so cheerful that it actually gained scorn as the epitome of cliche anime optimism.
I mean, it's nowhere near as graphic as other games out there, sure, but the amount of blood present here would still have easily gotten it an M-rating back in the PS1 days.
I'm ever so slightly more inclined to keep on playing... wasn't planning on it initially (just because it requires a big investment of time to play through a JRPG), but I just might now.

[Raithos]

Yeeeaaah, thanks for that OL. Spoilers much? An entire train full of people get massacred, I did not know that. Whether that happens in the first two hours or not, there is now way that's not a significant part.

[*Kenshin Himura*]

wasn't planning on it initially (just because it requires a big investment of time to play through a JRPG), but I just might now.

It's worth it dude.

[OL]

Yeeeaaah, thanks for that OL. Spoilers much? An entire train full of people get massacred, I did not know that. Whether that happens in the first two hours or not, there is now way that's not a significant part.

It's part of the basic story setup. Honestly, it's no more of a spoiler than saying that the airship at the beginning of Tales of Destiny gets attacked, and Stahn finds a talking sword. It's part of the concept itself.
Apologies all the same, if you were hoping to go into it entirely blind. I just figured it wasn't really tag-worthy since this stuff actually featured in the original japanese trailers. I was personally only surprised by how graphic they decided to make it.
Edited anyway.