Smart Jason

All right, I couldn't help myself.

Note that the video is in Japanese, obviously, but that you can turn on auto-generated closed captioning and then, in the settings, have that Google Translated as you watch. I highly recommend doing this. One step closer to Star Trek's universal translators.

Just released, here's the same mission from the , which I've now watched at least three times, played using alternate strategies:

Different Tumblrs to chronicle it, though, is my point.

They do! I think they get pretty interesting, and many have rewards for S ranking them.

Oh, to be clear, I was taking Celeb Receipts to task for linking that other Tumblr post, not you. And I think most of what Celeb Receipts and other blogs like it do is really good - when it comes to raising awareness of massive public figures' horrible actions and opinions that are unlikely to change because they live in a big celebrity bubble. Again, that's why I think there's a difference between that and archiving old, controversial work by Erika, whom I believe is genuinely interested in being a more conscious person.

Far be it from me to make an impassioned defense of Erika and manvocate her innocence, but I do think it's worth noting that everything in that #problematic post is from years ago (LUG in particular in eight years old), one of which is even linked along with a sincere apology. Everyone has had growing pains and learns from their mistakes, and currently Oh Joy Sex Toy reflects her as one of the most inclusive and sensitive artists I've found. I think there's a big gap between truly toxic views that go ignored by public figures and audience and the blinders of just being one person with one life's experiences. P.S. I know, poor straight white guy (and ad hominem on my part) but it's not a little mean-spirited to just straight up attack an unrelated picture of her and Matthew? Why was it necessary to link this Tumblr post of any of the chain? It adds to the overall feeling of the entire thing being unnecessarily vindictive to me.

Am I crazy or are Giant Bomb's streams having audio sync issues lately? The best two UPFs, for instance, were both blatantly out of sync. This seems like the sort of thing that must be on my end, but what could be causing it?

Here's The Mary Sue with a good write-up of the situation, citing and dismissing interpretations that the characters isn't strictly a lesbian initially. I wish the author of the article hadn't explicitly wished for the game to be "censored," considering how loaded and misinterpreted that word's become. I'm sure GamerGate is ready, if the content is localized, to apologize for it in context and declare that SJWs have once again hysterically attacked free speech. I have gone from identifying as bisexual to pansexual to queer in my lifetime as fashions have changed. Whenever I see "bisexual" now I actually can't help but internally respond to it as something outmoded and geriatric (this is not at all daring to criticize anyone else's identifier in particular). Like Erika Moen presents in what I consider to be the definitive word on the subject, I think the buck has to stop with one umbrella term before I reach my thirties and my fourth sexuality:

I'd really like to chime in and just say that I thought the actress' performance was completely praiseworthy and I don't get where people calling it melodramatic are coming from. I found it very well done and nuanced.

The string of clips you're missing won't provide you with any new information regarding what you're searching for specifically, but if you want a hint to get them anyway:

You can check the map on the pause screen to see which struts still have bombs. They're marked with icons of the letter B.

Soft resetting in Metal Gear is called equipping cigarettes and standing in front of the makeshift firing squad.

There are some Batmobile AR challenges in this game that are just disgusting. I want to be very clear that there is not a hint of joviality when I type this; I am fuming.

I actually disagree, fighting your way out is not a viable option upon getting caught in MGS2, which is deliberate to the design. Ostensibly the thing to do is avoid the search crew and switch to another area, where the alert phase will be lower. Waiting out the entire caution countdown is a last resort. It was Snake Eater that introduced the concept of gritting your teeth and claiming an area by having guards eventually exhaust their number, which was pretty revolutionary to the series. What part of the game are you on that you have no idea what you're supposed to be doing? All those codec contacts are no help?

I'm definitely feeling syntheticgerbil here. The criticism that aiming is cumbersome in Metal Gear games comes up more than it deserves to, in my opinion. I don't want to be too defiant because I'm not about to boot up my PS3 for the first time in over a year just to test this, but just from memory, iron sights should be a matter of holding a shoulder button for first person view, pressing the face button to aim your gun, and then clicking another button to toggle iron sights? I mean, whatever, typing that sentence felt completely pedantic, but it's just one of those things for me, like playing Final Fantasy VII, that can either feel intuitive if you were there at the time or doesn't. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable saying "This is definitively unintuitive," particularly as Sons of Liberty deserves a lot of credit for what it did in the lineage of console shooting controls. My only big criticism of the PS2-era games is the pressure sensitive face buttons for one action: lowering your gun. This is the one and only thing that even I find completely unreliable and archaic. Once you aim, there's no other way to stop aiming without firing (if you're not using a suppressed weapon, be ready for an alert) but by desperately carefully trying to lift your thumb off the square button one Pascal at a time. You guys complaining about Ground Zeroes being too easy, by the way, I have no idea where you're coming from. Either you're prodigies or you don't play these games to feel like a miserable failure when you're not being Super Duper Sneaky. When I'm playing Metal Gear, I am perfectly silent or I am sent to the punishment shed.

Yeah, if you go onto the major Metal Gear Twitch channel, Twin Snakes is considered anathema there. I wouldn't recommend it to a series newcomer in lieu of the original, but it's great for what it is.

I think the difference of opinions prove that all the games have their own merit and are all worth playing!

OK, well, I don't want to be flippant when it comes to the series' perpetual sexism, because that's something very ugly that it's never been able to shed. So I want to be clear that I'm not apologizing whatsoever for any problematic characterization of women in the plot of the first game (to say nothing of the actual lecherous acts the player is allowed to commit, either vicariously through Snake or as himself in photo mode or whatever; it's all gross and if I could change anything about Metal Gear it would be that). I guess I have the benefit of hindsight to help me reconcile the "tonal shifts," as you describe them. Much of the charm of the series has to be found from how seriously it takes itself, its characters and their pathos, while intermittently pausing for wacky comic relief (see: the Phantom Pain gameplay demo where you're reconning jeeps via speedy balloon). Trying to put myself in your shoes, maybe the game does seem "super serious" during the first couple of cutscenes while Snake is being briefed and entering the mission via SDV, but you have to consider that despite the high tension visuals and soundtrack, Colonel is still talking about the completely ostentatious cavalcade of villains you're about to face - Decoy Octopus, Vulcan Raven ("giant and shaman"), your evil twin Liquid Snake, etc. What Metal Gear and Kojima do right in the eyes of fans of the series is getting this pitch perfect tonally - where we can take succor in this richly melodramatic scenario and keep its authenticity suspended for so long that eventually (say, by the end of Snake Eater and Guns of the Patriots both) you're so swept up in it that it can bring you to tears. As for "I can't believe I'm being hit on by the famous Solid Snake," I think there's something to be said for the fact that this is the only game in the Solid series in which you're playing as a young, virile Solid Snake in his prime. Again, that could very well be me speaking in hindsight, but there's something to the fact that this is the game in which the character establishes the legend that comes to define him - which is thematically extremely important in Sons of Liberty and tragically poignant in Guns of the Patriots.

I'll eat my hat snake if he's the antagonist. You signed up for fast food and got filet mignon! There's a Call of Duty game released every year, and there were like twenty Tom Clancy games at E3 this week, if you want boring military fare. With Metal Gear, you're in for the wildest, most emotional, character-driven series of game plots ever. I would cherish the opportunity to play through the entire chronology from now to Phantom Pain's release.

Does the Legacy Collection include Peace Walker like the HD Collection? Snake Eater, despite being the seminal title in the Big Boss storyline, doesn't have that much to do in terms of either gameplay concepts or characters with where that branch continues, and you'd probably find Phantom Pain to be more of a direct sequel to Peace Walker than Snake Eater.

Calling it now, sleeper for best dog tech in gaming.

Brianna Wu made a salient point (although accompanied by apologist replies interpreting the end of her S-Link arc as permissively reconciling with her sexualization) by saying that this flies in the face of Rise's character, whose struggle in Persona 4 consists of her abandoning fame because she wasn't comfortable with how she was being portrayed as a teen idol. Same as when newer Persona materials display Naoto embracing her femininity in super bombastic ways just because Japanese producers think she's ripe when (while interpreting her as trans, same as interpreting Kanji as gay, is likely a misread) she was still a more nuanced study of gender than games do.

Admittedly, there's a certain part of me that can't help but feel a swell of euphoric disbelief at seeing a Persona property adorn every badge at E3. Put that aside, however, and what a sad, ironic image this is.

I've seen a few thumbs (myself included) pick up a mess of DLC during the sale. I spent a long time away from this game over the past six months or so but still kept it near and dear to my heart, so I'm always up for an Alesso heist or whatever!