Architecture

I'm not disputing this, but I'm not sure this is the most efficient way to tell a story within interactive fiction. There's no denying that Metal Gear Solid was a watershed moment for games at large--especially taken within the context of the state of games in 1998. It had a straightforward plot with diverse and interesting characters and inverted the typical power fantasy design that games are wont to employ. But by MGS2 you've got an absolutely nonsensical plot that spends far too much time exploring ideas and then dropping them for something else while introducing concepts that are so alien as to be inscrutable. Even 14 years on I still could not concisely sum up the events of the game for you, let alone even being to explain the concepts of the Patriots (who are all apparently dead), Arsenal Gear, all the triple crosses and so forth. I'm sure some of this is due to translation and cultural differences, as I find a lot of the philosophy in Japanese fiction impenetrable, but that doesn't change the fact that many of story beats Metal Gear diehards take for granted are never communicated to the player in game (or so woefully obfuscated as to appear nonexistent). Between this, the handwaving to explain the supernatural elements, and the purile sexuality of the series, I found myself disenfranchised by the fourth game. If MGS is a masterpiece, MGS 2 is the bloated double-album that followed the breakout hit. Snake Eater manages to strike out on its own, largely due to the fact that it never concerns itself with the acres of bullshit spewed forth in Sons of Liberty. And MGS 4? It suffers from having to follow the stupidity of Sons of Liberty to its illogical conclusion. The Phantom Pain delights me precisely because of how little story intrudes on the player. I don't care about what Kojima has to say--I care about what he and his team have enabled me to say through their engrossing systems.

I don't think this counts considering Disney owns it (he said as much). However, this totally counts: https://twitter.com/ollymoss/status/647494330404311041

Kojima's not a good storyteller. It's all overblown and poorly written and filled with random gobbledygook. The original MGS tells a decent story because it's lean and reined in. By Sons of Liberty, Kojima was off the rez and just spewing bullshit everywhere.

Kojima isn't capable of a great narrative so I'm actually glad that the unfinished portion of the game appears to be the story.

Holy shit. Get that Bezos money, y'all.

Quiet is actually more useful than D Dog. And if you spend enough time with her, you can actually put clothes on her body!

Old instruments will work, DLC will carry over from previous titles.

The songs in MGS V are definitely master tracks. The Man Who Sold the World is a cover, true, but it was released by Midge Ure (singer for Ultravox) in 1985. That being said, I'm using Danger Zone as my entrance theme:

Yes, let us complain that there simply too many topics on which to click. Let us consolidate everything into a single thread.

As far as I can tell, as long as you don't engage in any FOB invasions, you won't suffer an invasion yourself. I have built out my first FOB but haven't played the tutorial invasion so I'm getting the benefits of more staff and resources without the headache of losing it all.

What the hell, man?

I thought the Asp Scout was like the budget version of the Asp and mostly geared toward players with less income as a stepping stone toward the real deal. I haven't played in a couple months. I should dip my toes back in.

Protip: If you're having trouble with a larger base during a mission, quit the mission and go into free roam. From there, go in and pick the resources clean and disable the comms and electrical systems. This will make night ops more viable and prevent you from worrying about the hem-haws and doo-dads you might want to acquire.

It's quite clear Nick's not doing the side ops. This is how he's getting to the MGS V endgame content as early as he is.

There appear to be certain side ops you can complete a second time for additional points. Not sure if it's a bug or a feature. I have elected to redo them.

Episode 29 suuuuuuucks.

It's just a dumb tack to take in this day and age. Nintendo's fighting a losing battle against the march of time and will soon find itself irrelevant if they keep attacking the fanbase like this. Sure, these people are hacking levels together and infringing Nintendo's copyright (if you follow the letter of the law), but modified Super Mario World levels will have exactly zero impact on the sales potential of a game like SMM.

I'm not sure if it's a set period of time, but the Buddy system just works of its own accord. As far as I know, it's unaffected by player input (other than the inevitable ending, of course).

I always preferred the sequel. Resident Evil...Terrible Twos...

Clearly you should have elected for Yankee Hotel Foxhound.

I really hope that some day we get a detailed look behind the scenes of the making of this game. It's such a fantastic piece of design in the face of what seems to be overwhelming adversity. If you can excuse Kojima's misogynistic perversions a bit, you're left with this amazing open world game featuring incredibly complex, rewarding systems. I've played for 72 hours so far and I'm only on Episode 22 or 23.

My horrible emblem:

The worst part of Episode 20?

They really fudge the geography in the first section--HWY 71 is nowhere near the 360 bridge is nowhere near downtown Austin (which looks much more like San Marcos than it does Austin, honestly). Also, people who live in Georgetown (Williamson County in general) have much thicker Texan accents than the city proper. Does the game actually state he was born and raised in the Austin area, or are you just inferring that?

September 16 is still technically summer.