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Metal Gear Solid 4 - Guns of the Saucer Men From Mars

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I've never even heard of CEX.

...you're kidding?!

Get your arse down their "flagship" Tottenham Court Road store - it's your heritage as a British gamer and an essential experience.

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Holy shit! I can't believe I've never been there! Tottenham Court Road?! I was only there last night. Jesus, I can't believe I've never seen it.

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Finished the original Metal Gear last night, I'm quite pleased to say. After getting over the "retro-shock" I found it to be a pretty damn enjoyable game. I was also surprised at how many elements were present in this early iteration:

The Codec, rescuing Metal Gear's scientist, card keys, bosses with weird names (like Dirty Duck and Machine Gun Kid) and of course: Characters that double-cross you!

For posterity, here's the plot:

There only one major plot twist in MG, but I'll get to that in a minute. Firstly you arrive by sea to the dangerous, mercenary controlled, "Outer Heaven", where the best Foxhound soldier, Grey Fox, has gone missing on a mission before you. Your job is to find Grey Fox and stop whoever is in control of Outer Heaven from using the deadly super-weapon, Metal Gear, to hold the world to ransom!

Snake is a Foxhound rookie at this point, which is an odd choice to send after Grey Fox into an impossible mission... or IS it? *wiggles eyebrows mysteriously* Your only contacts during the mission are Foxhound leader Big Boss and several local resistance leaders. After much fun hiding from baddies and cameras, using remote control missiles and hiding in cardboard boxes (yes, really as far back as this!), you learn from a hostage you rescue that Grey Fox is in a secret part of the base, and the only way to get to get there is to be captured yourself.

Soon afterwards you're captured and find yourself in a cell with no apparent way out. Using nothing but your incredible fists, you knock down your cell wall and find yourself Grey Fox's cell. (Lucky!)

You untie Grey Fox and he tells you that you need to rescue Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar in order to discover HOW to stop Metal Gear. Madnar, who helped design it, is also being held hostage in the same building... Find him!

So off you go to find Dr. Madnar (Gray Fox offers no assistance, the swine), but not before fighting your first silly-named boss baddie, The Shotmaker! Once you've gotten all your stuff back, and killed the baddie, you notice that someone has placed a Transmitter in your inventory! *Tricksy!* You dump it and continue your search.

After much more hijinx (the majority of the game, in fact), including jumping off a building wearing a parachute, wearing infrared goggles, using enemy uniforms, taking down a helicopter... You finally make it to Dr. Madnar! Only to discover it was a trap. That's not the real Dr... the floor suddenly opens up and you nearly die... Nearly.

You push on to find the real Dr. Madnar, and who when you finally meet him, he says he'll only help you if you rescue his daughter. Ungrateful bast-- So anyway, you rescue his daughter and the real Dr. Madnar tells you how to defeat Metal Gear.

On your way to Metal Gear you get a call from the resistance leader who has been helping you. He tries to warn you that the leader of Outer Heaven is non other than -- oh no! He dies. No need to worry too much, though, as a rescued hostage soon reveals the truth: Outer Heaven is controlled by Foxhound leader Big Boss!!! You've been betrayed!

As you get closer to Metal Gear, Big Boss tries to trick you into getting lost or becoming trapped, but you finally discover Metal Gear itself and blow the crap out of it.

Only then does Big Boss reveal himself in person: You were a rookie. You were never supposed to reach this far, let alone destroy Metal Gear and ruin Big Bosses plans to create a world for battle heroes. If he's going down, he's taking you down with him... He sets off Outer Heaven's auto-destruct sequence and starts to attack you.

Snake, of course, defeats the git and manages to escape before Outer Heaven explodes. He sends one more message via his codec to Big Boss's frequency: "Mission complete".

Roll credits...

Just when you think it's all over, Big Boss comes back after the credits to tell Snake that he hasn't heard the last of him just yet...

Roll on MG2.

Edited by ThunderPeel2001

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For anyone wanting to play MGS1, I think the gamecube version uses the engine and models from MGS2; it might prevent you from experiencing the 'retro-chock'

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Plus it looks fucking gorgeous and was a super-erotic 3 way creative cluster fuck between Shigsy, Kojima-san and Silicone Knights. :tup: :tup: :tup:

I'm desperate to play this on GameCube, but you can't find a copy of the bastard thing anywhere--it's even more rare than Subsistence.

(Besides, I don't think the MGS graphics are that nasty--they're hugely charming in my opinion.)

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For anyone wanting to play MGS1, I think the gamecube version uses the engine and models from MGS2; it might prevent you from experiencing the 'retro-chock'

While this is true, if you were referring to Thunderpeels post, he was talking about Metal Gear 1 not Metal Gear Solid 1. No way to avoid that retro shock :)

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Man, these older MGS games have become rare quickly. I remember getting a new copy of Twin Snakes about a year ago just because my old one was lost, and had no problems ordering it online new a year ago from Play.com:

23/03/2007 13:26

Item : Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

Price : GBP 17.99

Quantity : 1

Delivery Cost : Free

Payment : Credit Card

Now it's bloody £66 from Play.com, and that's through a reseller. :eek:

Same for Subsistence, which I got just before Christmas. Crazy, and you'd think they'd sort new copies out considering the release of MGS4 which is bound to trigger loads of people wanting to catch up.

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Twin Snakes [is] bloody £66 from Play.com, and that's through a reseller. :eek:

Yeah, it's stupid.

I was looking on eBay UK last night and the Twin Snakes auction nearest to finishing was already on £49--plus a rip-off amount (£12.99?!) for postage on top of that. :violin:

Computer Exchange have dog-eared copies for £26, but it'd mean a trip to their Birmingham store for me. Which would probably bump the price up to around £50 at least when all said and done.

Console makers really need to sort their digital back catalogue services out. It would probably help if they included a caveat with the platform publishing rights, along the lines of mandatory opt-in to their back catalogue program (including profit sharing from such sales in future).

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For anyone wanting to play MGS1, I think the gamecube version uses the engine and models from MGS2; it might prevent you from experiencing the 'retro-chock'

Metal Gear 1 is not Metal Gear Solid :)

This is what I meant by "retro-shock"...

Mgear.png

(Does Wikipedia allow hotlinking?)

Quite a bit different, eh? :)

Also, I have Twin Snakes, I luckily picked it up on eBay recently for about £25 (guess I got really lucky!)... problem is that it was the US version, so I needed to pick up Freeloader, too (an additional £10 - bah, at least I can use it for other things, I guess). At first I was irked by the changes (the "techno" music, the over-the-top bullet time effects, ridiculously extended scenes of Ocelot spinning his gun, and a totally different Game Over screen - shock!), but I've gotten used to it now and am enjoying playing through the classic storyline once again!

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Finally got MGS4 this weekend.

Fuck me this game is good.

I've seen two completely different types of environment so far that feel so full of energy and unlike anything seen in MGS before. The visual and audio design in this game is incredible — without a doubt the best I've seen yet this generation. And that's not even the cut-scenes I'm talking about.

I noticed the term 'fan service' used in a number of reviews, and I see exactly what they mean now. The game is pretty much crammed full of stuff that'll twig nostalgia, etc. I had to break into a smile when at a certain point you enter a (fucking huge) area that reeks of MGS3, and one of the MGS3 music cues is even worked into the music to subtle effect.

Gameplay-wise this is definitely the best yet. They've done a fantastic job of fine-tuning and reworking the MGS3 standard of play, but without the repetitive annoyances such as healing and hunting. I think MGS4 has kind of done what MGS3 did, in that it refines practically every element of the game to be more enjoyable. It really is at a high here, combining the absolute best of both the stealth and combat from all three predecessors — and giving both much more depth to boot.

It's a shame the thick story that's definitely dependent on the previous games' completion to really get immersed in will prohibit a lot of people from experiencing this.

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I so want to play this now. I've just reached number 3 in my epic MGS replay marathon, and once that's done I'll have nothing left. Ahhhg somebody lend me a PS3 please!

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I've got to the end of Act 1, and although quite good, I've sort of lost interest in it a little. Guess I should pick it up and give it a better go.

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I've got to the end of Act 1, and although quite good, I've sort of lost interest in it a little. Guess I should pick it up and give it a better go.

Indeed. If you enjoyed the first Metal Gear Solid then there is stuff more relevant to you a lot further on... stuff that had me giddy like a school girl :D

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Could someone who's finished MGS4 tell me roughly how far through I am? I'm not going to be playing for a while as I have some other stuff to do so it'd be nice to know if I've got plenty of playtime to come back to.

I've just landed in the snowy place (Act 4).

Incidentally, I really am very impressed by this game. The most impressive thing is the depth of the gameplay, with lots of areas you can very easily skip but are full of additional enemy encounters and goodies. It's kind of like MGS3 in that respect, which had a number of places you could run straight past but provided some superb gameplay — especially if you got noticed by enemies. MGS4 seems to have more such areas, and they're also more detailed. On the first play you don't feel too motivated to check the other routes out, but it's awesome for replaying as you can really challenge yourself.

The little collectables everywhere are a great incentive to explore (and get yourself in unnecessary trouble) too, although I've been preoccupied with following the story this time and will probably have a better look when I replay. The things I like finding most are the iPod tracks: podcasts, music, etc from/about the whole Metal Gear series. Seem to be loads.

Clearly there's a lot more replayability value here than previous games, particularly because you can also pump up the difficulty to dramatically change the whole experience. I don't normally find the prospect of replaying a game with added difficulty too interesting, but I've always enjoyed it in MGS because of how differently you're forced to play. The enemies become much sharper with their senses, and there're more of them.

I remember spending well over a bloody hour trying to get past the first area (ie: before you even get to the heliport) with Twin Snakes' hardest difficulty level, even though I could do it with my eyes closed on the easier levels. :shifty:

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I'm a real twat, so in the name of further procrastination I just couldn't resist playing a bit more.

(Act 5 spoilers)

I think this act is quite possibly the biggest bag of nostalgia I've ever had in gaming. I knew Shadow Moses was coming due to the teaser before release, but I didn't expect it to be anywhere near this thorough. It's just amazing retaking the old journey after years of decay (It's been 10 years in the real world, too!).

It's like the most carefully orchestrated exercise in triggering nostalgia ever. The best surprise was when you can explore the ground around the comms towers. I had a peek around some cliffs and there was Liquid's old Hind D all smashed up, half-buried in the snow! The audio flashback of the chopper crashing and Liquid screaming was the icing on the cake.

Talk about indulgent fan service to the extreme, but you've got to love it. ;

(I haven't gone past the comms tower area yet.)

All I'll say is that anyone who liked MGS1 but hasn't progressed beyond it really ought to get themselves the whole series. MGS4 is a great game on its own merits, but the ridiculous levels of references and nostalgia takes the experience to a whole different level. It's kind of weird in that respect, because it totally alienates those who might be new to the series or who missed earlier games. Act 3 must be rubbish for those who didn't play MGS2 and MGS3 and don't recognise the returning characters.

At this point I can very easily see me rating MGS4 overall on the same level as MGS3, which I still cannot say is better or worse than MGS1 — both are masterpieces of their time. MGS2 is the odd one out in a way, although I still love it only slightly less.

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This is why it's impossible to recommend to anyone other than existing fans. Such a shame really, especially when you consider the number of gamers who don't even like it to begin with :shifty:

I have to echo your feelings on nostalgia though. It's quite overpowering - I've not experienced it in games before.

Thrik; I don't know how long you have in general, but I would suggest rationing out sessions in close proximity. The final act in particular really benefits from being played in one sitting. There was an incident where it wouldn't even let me pause which was a bit of a problem as I had to leave the house! Thankfully my controllers 'SELECT' button wasn't remapped to open the codec so the default help screen provided a little respite instead :D

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Just finished it. God damn, that's one hell of a game. A most worthy end to the Snake story for sure. :tup::tup:

I just about wet myself at the return of Mantis.

I'm looking forward to playing it through on the hardest mode so I'm forced into using stealth a bit more, although that won't be until I've done a complete series replay at some point — on hard in each of those too, of course.

Seems like the full two-disc soundtrack is nigh on impossible to get hold of outside of Japan, so I'm grabbing that bastard from Play Asia just in case it never sees a Euro release. :tmeh:

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I'm surprised I haven't looked into this before seeing as I love Metal Gear Solid and I love multiplayer games, but Metal Gear Online sounds really good. The Wikipedia page gives the impression it actually incorporates a hell of a lot of the MGS experience, right down to one mode which lets one player play as Snake while the rest are patrolling a map for him — Snake has to CQC and steal the dogtags from three of them. :woohoo:

Adding to the awesomeness is that one of the five stock maps is MGS3's Gronznyj Grad. :tup::tup:

I'll give it a go this weekend I think. The only offputting thing is that you have to buy expansions, the first of which comes with three new maps and some new characters. I'm not sure how much they cost though, so if it's affordable I guess it's not bad if you play it to death.

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I would like to play MGS4 online, but was put off that you have to register a seperate user account - arrrrg! which numpty thought THAT was a good idea?

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