WE MOVED

THE BLOG IS NOW HOSTED OVER HERE:

lookingatathing.wordpress.com

lookingatathing.wordpress.com

Looking at: Denny's Blog

Caught in the Interweb

Occasionally I take a break from doing game reviews to discuss other things, be it an ill fated election campaign, terrible, horrible ideas, expensive lies, or just weird magazine covers. I do have a review of the recently 1.0'd Prison Architect that I'll be posting real soon, but in the mean time I received a message on Facebook that sent me down a weird, weird path:

When I get a message like this I need to investigate. Aside from playing/reviewing games, my greatest joy in life is uncovering the worst things mankind hase ever created, be it bad movies, books, or yes, even games. Bad things make me happier because:

1) I believe we can learn more from the bad things then the good; and

2) my life sucks, so seeing shittier things then my life makes me feel good, even for a moment

With that in mind, I clicked the link, wondering to myself "Why would Denny's, home of the Grand Slam and overall mediocre breakfast food need a blog?". That question was soon replaced with so, so many more. 

The Madness begins

the very first thing you see. It goes only downhill from here.

The first thing you see when you load up Denny's blog is a wall of incomprehensible madness. Denny's has opted to use Tumblr to host their blog. There's only two things I know about Tumblr, first is that it's fucking full of moronic feminists and Social Justice Warriors that hate white, straight men. The second thing I know about Tumblr is that it's layout is a fucking affront to the eyes and completely non-sensical. There's no rhyme or reason to it, it's just a random mash of images puked out in a vague grid.

average 

Not that the content on offer does anything to help. Denny's blog seems to be a mishmash of vague and confusing memes, nonsensical images, and bizarre references Denny's menu items, mostly french fries for some reason.

Fucking explain any of this, I dare you

Give in to the darkness

I stared for 20 minutes, and I still don't get it.

I'm using screenshots here in the hope that one day someone at Denny's realizes what a fuck-awful idea this blog was and deletes it. The downside to using screenshots is that it doesn't convey the absolute fucking madness of all the .gifs on offer. Milkshakes sliding down throats, women applying make-up with french fries, Let's check in with my friend that initially reported the site to me:

Looking good!

Some of the images on offer were oddly sexual. I've had Denny's before, there's nothing sexy about their food. The most emotion I've ever gleamed from a meal was bursting into tears eating authentic Amish steak on my father's birthday, nothing near orgasm from sub-par breakfast sausages and syrup-soaked flapjacks.

Some of the images reached Tim and Eric levels of confusing, but where Tim and Eric have mastered surreal humour and made it an art form, Denny's seems to just be throwing shit, or rather spaghetti, at the wall and hoping it sticks. I honestly can't tell what was an actual attempt at humour, and what was just nonsensical shitposting.

The memes become to dank, my will to live stripped away

A recent trend in marketing and PR is attempting to subvert youth culture on the internet and use it to sell a product. There are a few issues with this tactic, listed below:

1) It never fucking works, not once.
2) Your company becomes a laughing stock, since most of the internet doesn't take itself that seriously
3) The people running these campaigns are so completely out of touch, and internet culture moves at a million miles a minute that any campaign is out-of-date the second it begins anyway.

Ignoring all these facts. Denny's went ahead with their dankest home cooked memes, trying so hard to become relevant.

This image might be their worst idea. The Pepe frog meme has exploded in pop-culture lately, really for no reason other then it's simple and mailable to fit your needs. Pepe the frog is the bastardization of a comic book character and the unofficial mascot of 4Chan's Robot 9000 board, an autism awareness board (?). Considering that R9K and Pepe have both been connected to a recent string of school shootings as part of a perceived "beta uprising", the use of the Pepe imagery comes off as somewhat insensitive. 

God I hope that's the weirdest paragraph I ever write. 

Denny's use of word play is approximately on par with my five year old niece. They take a word, make minor changes to it, then say it's a joke. The difference is my niece is a five year old, and Denny's is a multi-billion(?) dollar company that, presumably, has an entire PR department making these jokes. The picture above isn't even wordplay, it's Senpai, the Japanese word for someone you look up to, but they spelled it like pie the food. You know what? fuck you, because the fucking caption explains that, meaning that they killed their own joke. 

Fuck. 

When not misusing wordplay, there's stupid jokes about things the internet loves, such as skeletons and, while not pictured, you better believe bacon. This is the saddest attempt at PR I've ever seen, the only thing that could be worse is Denny's asking people to send in funny pictures of themselves at Denny's

FUCK.

As I give in, I begin to embrace eternity beyond

Fry shadow. Gross.

Denny's unfortunately isn't the first company to attempt this type of viral marketing, and they won't be the last. I've only seen this shit work once, and even then it's arguable, but the strange case of the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter PR account seems to fly in the face of all logic, but let's face it, Sonic's PR couldn't get any worse then it already was. 

I guess, to their credit, Denny's attempt at marketing sort of worked, insofar as it got me to look at their content, and I hate them for it. It probably won't go very far, in fact if I hadn't been told about it, the whole thing would've flown under my radar. But it's there, and it's real, and it's awful.

Looking at: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Hot Cold War

Ashley Wood;s artwork looks amazing, even in motion.

Ok, full disclosure here: I haven't beaten PW at the time of this writing. The reason I'm jumping ahead is twofold:
1) Peace Walker is an insane god-beast of a game that never ends, and I just found out I need to do like four hours of grinding to beat the second last boss, never mind proceeding to the final boss; and
2) MGS5 was on sale for 33% and is currently sitting in my Steam library.

I do plan on finishing PW, likely on my Vita so I can take more time and enjoy the side missions, but the fact is I'm tired of playing it in straight sittings, and thanks to MGS5 and Ground Zeros I sort of know how it all ends anyway. Regardless, here's my review based on the twenty or so hours I did put into the game.

Small Scale Conflict

Despite the PSP's limitations, detail has been pumped into every facet of the game.

The story of PW returns once again to the cold-war setting that MGS3 had, albeit ten years later in 1974. Naked Snake, now called Big Boss, has formed his own pseudo-nation of mercenaries called the Militaire Sans Frontieres (Soldiers without Borders) and makes a living solving problems for people in need. One such person is a professor of peace from Nicaragua and his student Paz. Paz and the professor implore Snake and his men to save their country from a rouge CIA unit that seeks to destabilize the entirety of Central America, believing that Central America is the key to winning the cold war. Snake agrees, mostly because there are echoes that his former mentor The Boss may be involved.

What follows is one of Metal Gear Solid's more normal plots, a breath of fresh air after the downright insanity of MGS4, and a return to the simpler form of MGS3. There's no big ideas at play here, no pan-global conspiracies with different parties, just the good guys, the bad guys, and a nuclear missile.

In a lot of ways, like MGS3, it plays like a misinterpretation of a James Bond film, with infiltrations, damsels in distress, and the occasional full on fire-fight. But it all remains relatively grounded in reality, as long as you can believe that a team of super-scientists could create fully functioning AI weapons in 1974. If you've played the rest of the series like I have, that won't even phase you.

There are some concessions to be made in PW's story telling, however. The PSP wasn't capable of the grand, expansive cut-scenes of actual consoles, so instead the story is told through somewhat interactive comic-style movies. The art in these scenes is amazing, thanks to Australian artist Ashley Wood and series artist Yoji Shinkawa's work. I've always admired the use of art in the MGS series, and here it's presented front and center like an underground comic from the 80's. There were times that these scenes got annoying, especially any of the QTE's presented, and two later in the game that damn near broke my poor gamepad's triangle button, but for the most part they're great to look at and do a perfect job of telling the story.

Portable Operation

Aiming, like MGS4, is more natural and closer to a traditional third person shooter.

There's no way I can discuss the gameplay, or graphics, of PW without making one thing abundantly clear: this was not a game meant for it's original system. The fact is the PSP just wasn't that great of a console, and in terms of both gameplay and graphics PW is pushing it well beyond it's limitations. It's worth noting that I played PW on both the PSP Vita and PS3, the latter of the two being an "HD" version.

On the Vita, at least, the controls were... strange. the original PSP only had one joystick, so the face buttons are used to control the camera. It's as awkward as you'd expect, even worse then MGS3's camera. Lining up precision shots became a chore, and it's only slightly remedied in the PS3 version, which makes use of both joysticks. Other than that controls are kept to a minimum, mirroring MGS1 in many ways. There's aim, shoot, and interact, and that's about it. You can't crawl this time, but crouch-walking is available for extra sneakiness.

The actual gameplay is serviceable, making subtle improvements over MGS3 and learning from MGS4. There's a camouflage system again, which I promptly ignored since enemy line of sight is hilariously small, once again thanks to the PSP. Sneaking is reasonably easy and I found it no challenge to remain stealthy through most of the missions, removing threats as needed either with a well placed shot or through the easy to use CQC close quarters combat system.

The big change is that this time around there's a tangible benefit to remaining silent and, more importantly, utilizing a non-lethal weapon. You're scored after each mission, with higher ranks granting rewards, but that's not the best part. There's now a base building meta-game around maintaining Snake's private army. Incapacitated enemies and captured prisoners can be removed from the fight using a Fulton recovery system, where they're extracted to your base and put to work, developing new weapons, researching enemy forces, or even fighting battles for cash and weapons. It enhances the game without being too distracting, and it's all very simple to command through a series of easy to use menus.

Compounding this is a massive laundry list of side objectives, playable either as Snake or or one of your soldiers. There are dozens upon dozens of missions to partake in, miniature bit-size offerings to test your skills and give you cash to upgrade weapons and items back at base. None of them are particularly special, except maybe going on one of video-gaming's worst dates of all times. These are best enjoyed in short bursts, and reinforce the idea that PW is, all told, a mobile game, meant to be played on a bus trip, or in the back seat of a car.

Graphically PW is... well it's a PSP game. On the Vita it looks like a PSP game, and on PS3 it looks like a PSP game that someone tried to fix in MSpaint. For the PSP, it's a great looking game, filled with detail everywhere. But the fact is, it only barely looks better then the original PS1 game, and nowhere near as good as either PS2 game. It's blocky, awkward, and levels are absolutely tiny. It's a game straining against it's own confines, and very easily could have been an absolutely amazing console game.

Last Walk

The Fulton Recovery System, or "attach a balloon to fucking everything"

Peace Walker is a game that, in many ways, shouldn't have existed. The PSP wasn't capable of handling it, and some would say didn't even deserve it. It's some of Kojima's best writing, crammed into some of his most awkward gameplay.

Despite all of this, Peace Walker does exist, and in it's moments that work it feels like a perfectly fine entry into the series. Moreover it does a great job of carrying on Big Boss' story arc, creating a memorable character and a sympathetic villain for the later games. It's a great game to play, best enjoyed in short bursts and over a long, long stretch of time.

It's worth noting here, I just found out there's a MGS game I missed, called Portable Ops for the PSP, preceding PW both in terms of plot and release. I'll probably play Portable Ops at some point, but the entire plot was outlined in MGS4, so it won't be part of my series reviews.

Next up: the latest and greatest game in the series, and one of the greatest games of all time? (I haven't played it yet, I really don't know)

images sourced from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAi7xd4YPuY

Looking at: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

End of an Age

Age doesn't slow Snake down a bit, and he's still in fighting form.

Jesus fucking christ was that a long game to sit through.

I say "sit through" because the truth of it is, that despite being clocked at about 20 hours long, most of my time with MGS4 was spent in cut scenes, occasionally begging the game to let me play it again. Good god.

Regardless, MGS4 is the last of the Metal Gear games, chronically speaking, and serves as a way to tie up every loose end in the series. Does it succeed, or is this an OP not worth getting prepared for?

Endless War

Snake will routinely fight with companions against Liquid's insurrection.

MGS4 opens in a world that's been ravaged by almost constant war, to the point where war is no longer an isolated incident, but the driving force behind the global economy. Private Military Companies now employ millions of personal (the opening scene of the game reveals one company has more men then the combined population of Canada and Mexico) and battles are fought everywhere over anything. All of this is run by a complex system of AI that controls nano-machines in man and machine, making average soldiers super-powered and locking firearms to people's DNA.

Solid Snake returns to battle, now an old man, much older then he should be. As it turns out, while the FOXDIE virus he was infected with in MGS didn't kill him, it did accelerate his ageing ten-fold, and despite it only being ten years since the first game Snake now appears in his late seventies.

What follows is an incredibly intense and emotional journey as Snake hunts down Liquid Ocelot, a combination of Liquid Snake and Revolver Ocelot.

Ok, I'll be honest with you here, this game is fucking insane with it's story telling and script. Like, clinically insane. Probably best described as bi-polar, or even full on schizophrenic. It's like MGS4 is trying to be serious, much more serious then the previous games, and at times it goes to some really dark places, particularly Snake dealing with his age, or the various boss' back-stories. But there's still a sense of levity everywhere, constantly cracking jokes or doing dumb things. It's jarring to say the least.

In the end though, this is the most mature story I've seen in the series. It's a story completely and 100% aware of every moving part, even as it introduces new story elements. It wraps up everything, not only from itself, but MGS and MGS2 as well, and leaves nothing untouched. It's a dark story, dealing with the old VS the new, but it is a story worth listening to, as long as you have the patience.

Electronic Old Men

Drebin and his monkey, providing Snake what he needs, when he needs it.

MGS4's biggest strength is it's interesting wheelhouse of characters. Snake himself is probably the most interesting part, and this is the most interesting Snake we've ever seen. Not only is he dealing with his failing body, fighting against time, but it serves as a greater metaphor for Snake as a character. He's an old soldier fighting in a new soldier's war, and living in a world completely passing him by. It's an interesting deconstruction of the character, and it makes Snake actually interesting to pay attention to.

Not to say that any of the side characters are less interesting. Most of the cast is returning from the older games, like Meryl, Colonel Campbell, or Otocon. The new characters it introduces are great too, particularly Drebin, your personal gun launderer. All the guns in MGS4 are DNA locked to users, and Drebin can remove this lock, for a fee. More interestingly, he can sell you guns and ammo in the middle of a fight, reducing the need to scavange. Some people will find this distasteful, as it removes most of the need to avoid a fight, but his prices keep everything balanced, and you'll forget any misgivings when you order the silencer you need just in time.

MGS4 also carries on the series' tradition of character interaction, jilted and strange though it may be at times. Character talk to each other, and feel like real people with flaws. The relationship between the various characters is the most interesting it's ever been in the series, be it Snake and Otocon with their adopted daughter Sunny (don't ask), Meryl finding true love in the middle of a gunfight, or especially Snake and Liquid's strained and bizarre relationship the reaches a crescendo during the game's intense finale.

Grab the Popcorn

There is one major complaint I have above everything else in MGS4:

SIX FUCKING HOURS OF CUT SCENES.

True story, MGS4 broke and still holds a record for this, including two specific records: The longest continuous scene at 29 minutes, which itself is part of the longest sequence ever at 79 minutes long.
Simply put, MGS4 is not a game for the impatient, and admittedly I lost my patience with it during the overly long finale.

Most of the scenes are, however, not boring, which is a great far cry from MGS2's insane Codec conversations. There's things happening on screen that make watching it worth my time. The 79 minute sequence I talked about above features a great fight scene, and a scene that all but explains the entire game in a way that was interesting. Suffice to say, watching a man destroy an entire battalion of soldiers with his fingers is engaging to see. Even the finale, or at least the first part of it, features one of the most brutal hand-to-hand fights I've ever seen in a video game.

But it's not all great, and there were times where I stopped paying attention just because I wasn't engaged any more. When you're sitting there, not doing anything at all for forty minutes it can be hard to remember that MGS4 is classified as a video game for a video game console, something that people usually play.

Sneaking Mission

That's to bad, because the gameplay in MGS4 is the most refined it's ever been in the series. First and foremost is the camera. While MGS3 introduced a full 3d camera, that was added later, and it showed. MGS4, however, was built with the ground up, and its smooth and easy to use. Moving snake around too, is better then previous games, including the ability to crouch walk for added sneaking. There's no more dedicated sneaking controls like MGS3, but the PS3's controls handle better then the PS2, so it's not much of a problem.

The other major improvement is shooting. No more using a face button for firing your weapon, rather MGS4 plays like a more traditional shooter, and while the control change was jarring coming from MGS3 it quickly became a pleasant way to play. Aiming and firing a weapon felt good, especially with proper iron sights or scopes on all weapons, and it made combat engaging and fun.

Of course, combat is only necessary if you get caught, and thankfully stealth in MGS4 is at it's best too. There's a slew of tools you can use to remain stealthy, from an active camo-suit that changes dynamically to blend into the environment, to various items you can use to distract or knock out guards. All of it controls naturally and feels great to use.

Fading Sun

One of the Beauty and Beast boss battles.

MGS4 came out in 2008, but there's no doubt that it looks as good, if not better, then later PS3 releases. This is an amazing looking game, pushing the PS3 to it's absolute limits, and there were times where I forgot that it was animated.

Character models are stunningly good and detailed, from Snake's aging body, to Raiden's robotic ninja. Face animation is nearly perfect, making every character expressive and interesting. There's a million little details in everything, be it the environment, weapons, or characters, and it all looks great. The only problem is that the PS3 can't seem to keep up with everything all the time, and the framerate was as inconsistent as the story's tone. It never got to bad, but one scene looked like a slideshow, and another scene would be blazing fast.

Audio, however, never suffers, and it's the best it's ever been in the series. The music is amazing and matches every scene  perfectly, creating the perfect mood. There's even an in-game IPod (as well as a Mac Book. I guess Kojima likes Apple) to allow you to listen to music from the entire series.

Voice acting, and there's a lot, is great too. The cast is mostly returning from the old games, and they all give a stand out performance. Once again, top spot goes to David Hayer, doing his best work as Old Snake, and I have to imagine he was all but exhausted after all the recording he must have done. All the voice work is great, and the characters all come to life perfectly thanks to it.

Black Out

Liquid Ocelot, a clone of one of the greatest soldiers, in the body of another.

In the end, I did like MGS4. When I got to play it, the gameplay was amazing, and by far the best in the series. Despite the onslaught of cut scenes, more of them were interesting then those that weren't. And most importantly, it does tie up most, if not all, of the story threads weaved throughout the games. It's a mature and emotional journey through the past and future that demands patience to get through. I doubt I'll play it again, but I'm glad I played it through.

Next up: One more challenge from one of hand-held gaming's best, and a return to the past.

all images sourced from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmNpzP1JKvI

Looking at: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Old Snake

The jungle can hide you, or swallow you whole.

I've already played MG3, and my original thoughts on the game can be found in this article. While playing the game for a second time as part of my ongoing examination of the MGS series, I found my thoughts were mostly the same. It's almost a masterpiece in every way, and it holds up rather well, despite the age. There were some things different, mostly better due to playing it on the PS3 with updated graphics, but the game is still amazing and deserves to be played by any stealth game fan.

Rather than just review the game again, I thought I'd go over things about it I liked, and things about it I didn't like, point by point.

Revolver Ocelot

Ocelot and Snake spar for the first time.

All of the major characters and villains in MGS3 are amazing, probably some of the most interesting and memorable in the series, but Revolver Ocelot, much younger than the other games, is by far my favourite. He steals the scene whenever he's on screen and his presence is amazing. He oozes confidence and style like no one else in the game, and his mix of smarmy and stylish is great. Throw in his fancy revolver tricks and on-going rivalry with Snake throughout the game and he's at the top of his game.

All the other characters

Two of the Cobras, twisted super-soldiers.

MGS3 is so completely over the top, and the characters reflect this perfectly. Be it the insane, bisexual rapist General Volgin, the seductive femme-fatale EVA, the powerhouse legend Boss, or naked Snake, a man that would become a legend of his own. That's not even looking at the Cobra unit, the super soldiers trained by the boss that act as the boss fights. There's a man that controls hornets, a spider-man that fires exploding poison bolts, an ancient sniper that might actually be a tree, a crazed, flame-thrower wielding cosmonaut, and a ghost that controls the dead. Each of these have their own back story akin to the bosses of the first game, and drip personality out of every pore.

The controls

MGS3 introduces a host of new ways to use the environment.

The controls in MGS3 are terrible. I can't really tell who they were designed for, but it wasn't a human, that's for sure. My best guess is that they had to many ideas and the PS2 couldn't accommodate them all, but they tried anyway. Moving and interacting is fine enough, but the much touted CQC hand-to-hand combat system is a complete joke. Unlike MGS2, you can now capture enemies in choke-holds, interrogate them for info, and choose their fate. In theory, anyway. What will actually happen is you'll tap the button to hard, because for some fucking reason it's pressure sensitive, something I didn't even know the PS2 could do, and you'll either fling the guard to the side like a ragdoll, or you'll slit his throat. Either way you'll mess up, not get any info you wanted, and there's a good chance you'll alert his friends too.

God help you if you want to try and use a weapon in CQC. Ideally, you can use a one-handed weapon while using your captive as a shield, but the finger gymnastics you need to preform that are insane, and I only successfully did it once, maybe twice.

Aiming and firing in general are a bit of a hassle. First person aiming returns from MGS2, sans the laser-pointer on every weapons, since it's 1964 this time around. Once again, though, shooting is assigned to a face button, and weapons react differently based, once again, on how hard you hit the button. It's annoying and I never quite got used to it. Sniper weapons proved particularly tough, and if you wanted to aim a rifle while raising your view over an obsticle you had to hold down all four triggers, aim, then tap the square buttons just right to actually fire. It's aggravating and can pull you out of the moment in a second.

The Cut-scenes

The radio dialogues are kept much shorter, and usually more interesting then MGS2.

Cut-scenes in MGS3 are kept to a minimum, sort of, for the series. Make no mistake, there's still a lot of them, and they can get long-winded, but unlike MGS2 there's a much larger focus on the actual gameplay, and the super long cut-scenes are mainly kept to the end, specifically the half-hour end sequence.

There are radio calls again, but if I recall there's less then 20 that are mandatory, and these are usually pretty short explanations of game mechanics, or reminders of your objective. However, there are dozens of optional calls for everything from advice on your current situation, to run-downs of your equipment, and humours asides about your food. I genuinely enjoyed most of these and looked forward to the radio call any time I got a new piece of equipment or food.

The Setting

It's not quite the Vietnam War, and it's not quite James Bond. Instead MGS3 chooses to mix these two styles together in a mix that, probably, shouldn't work as well as it does.

The dense rain forest of Russia provide plenty of sights to see, even if they don't exist because Russia has no rainforests. It's stocked to the brim with animals to hunt, food to find, and Russian soldiers to stalk and take out.

Setting the game in 1964 was a great way to completely de-construct the stealth gameplay from the series and take it in a new direction. Gone is the radar in the corner, replaced with an unreliable motion tracker that can run out of batteries. You also need to utilize proper camouflage to stay hidden in the forest, and getting your camo just right can basically make you invisible.

You'll actually need to rely on classical stealth techniques too, and it's a good thing MGS3 introduced the 3D free camera to the series, because trying to get around without it would suck a tonne. Spot guards, recognize paths, and sneak around like a classic spy.

The Ladder

At around the half way mark of the game you need to climb a really big ladder. It's a completely magical scene.

The Escape

There's a section at the end of the game, right before the finale, where you and a female need to escape a never ending tide of soldiers. The problem is she moves slower then molasses, and can't really do anything useful whatsoever. This section actually goes faster if you knock her out and drag her body all over the map. Make of that what you will, but it stands out as the worst part of the game by a wide margin.

That's all for MGS3. It really is a great game and I enjoyed playing it immensely, even a second time. Next time: SIX FUCKING HOURS OF CUT-SCENES!?

all screenshots taken from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvebBY1DXlU&feature=iv&src_vid=8_jHpQW9QuI&annotation_id=annotation_694572

Looking at: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Ongoing Legacy

get used to this screen, since it's like 40% of the fucking game.

Continuing on my play-through of the Metal Gear Solid series, we come to my least favourite entry to the legacy, MGS2. My previous experience with MGS2 was only the first few hours on my PS2 before doing a proper play-through in the PS3 Legacy collection. I didn't enjoy it then, and I don't think I enjoyed it now.

MGS2 is... not that great, especially when compared to the rest of the series. It's a bit of a mess, both in terms of the game, and the twisted, convoluted tale that it weaves.

For Your Ears Only

Snake appears in the opening, to bait-and-switch players in the worst way possible.

The setup this time is... ok, here's the thing: it's been ten years, so if you haven't played it already there's a good chance this has already been said elsewhere anyway, but you don't play the game as Snake, at least not most of it.

You do play as Snake, for the first two or so hours, during which time you'll infiltrate a US Navy ship, gather data, have a quick boss fight, then everything goes to hell and you're assumed dead. Enter again two years later as Raiden, a mercenary hired to infiltrate an environmental cleaning facility known as Big Shell and free several hostages being held captive aboard. Along the way you'll have to battle an army of Russian special forces and a group of elite super soldiers known as Dead Cell, being led by the mysterious Revolver Ocelot.

If that all sounds eerily familiar that's because it's sort of supposed to. I won't really go into it, but there are some really, really big and hard to comprehend ideas tossed around in this game, probably more than should be put in a video game. It delves into the ideas of social constructs, virtual reality, and the nature of biology and technology in the 21st century.

It's goddamn weird, and really hard to pay attention to.

I complained that MGS used cut scenes to often, but I whole-heartily resend that accusation in the face of MGS2. Good God in heaven are there ever a lot of cut scenes in this game, especially at the end. The finally is a 30 minute movie, followed by a five minute fight, followed by a 15 minute movie. I got so bored during this I made lunch and cleaned my apartment a little, just to do something. Worse, much of that conversation is via the dreaded radio, meaning absolutely nothing was happening on screen.

It's not that the plot of MGS2 is bad, in fact it's amazingly layered and complex, greatly surpassing most other games on the PS2 and most games to come after it. But it's so fucking boring and hard to watch when you're not engaged at all. For whatever reason most interactions with people end in you talking to them via radio, even if you're literally a foot away. I suspect that's because the cut scenes were nothing short of taxing on the PS2, but it's really boring and takes me right out of the game.

Compounding this problem is the new main character of Raiden. Raiden is nowhere near as likeable as Snake was. He doesn't look like a good soldier, and he doesn't have the chops to be a great main character. He's a pretty boy and his emotions constantly bog him down. Snake was a cold, hard badass, and Raiden isn't.

Stealth Tactics

There's now a host of non-violent interaction options for dealing with guards.

Gameplay, too, is something of a mix-bag. On the one hand, it was great to be able to use my thumb stick again, something sorely lacking from MGS. MGS2 plays a lot smoother then the old game, and an expanded range of movement helps too. Most importantly is the addition of proper weapon aiming, allowing you to line up insta-kill head shots or target specific things in the environment. It's still a little awkward, but it does make gunfights that much more bearable.

The problem is that the game doesn't always play nice with itself. The camera is still locked, meaning that you have to hope you can see what you're doing. It wasn't much of an issue, but there were parts where I found the camera angle to be a hindrance. To further compound this is that you don't have a map for every area this time. You need to log into a computer node to get a map, meaning that you enter every area blind as a bat. That wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for enemies.

Guards in MGS2 don't fuck around, at all. If you're discovered you'll probably die, because they'll send endless waves of soldiers at you. Seriously, and avoiding them is damn near impossible at times. There's not good places to hide in Big Shell, and a minor mistake can turn into a twenty minute running battle as you pray they'll leave you alone. Combat is better, but enemies are now much harder to take down and it's just not an enjoyable experience.

Sea Worthy

Raiden plays exactly like Snake, except he's incredibly annoying.

Graphically, MGS2 is a damn good looking game for it's time. The original was straining against the PS2's limited capabilities, and it shows. There's minor details in everything, from the lettering on a uniform to the pieces of food on a plate in the mess hall. The HD version I played really didn't do that much, aside from update textures and lighting, as well as a widescreen resolution.

Character models specifically look great, with expressive faces during cut scenes. They might not have aged perfectly, looking like they're made of plastic now, but for the time these were amazing. I haven't seen characters this good looking on any other PS2 title, save MGS3.

Sound is equally great. Voice acting is an unparalleled level of awesome, and each of the characters is distinct and memorable. David Hayter shows up once again, along with Quinton Flynn as Raiden, Phil LaMarr as the mysterious Vamp, Jeniffer Hale as computer whizz Emma Emerich, and Maura Gale as the mercenary Fortune. Everyone in the cast is great, even when the stuff they're reading doesn't actually make much sense.

New Beginning

Bosses remain memorable and exciting.

MGS2 has the misfortune of being a middle child, trapped between the old-school charm of the original MGS, and the masterpiece of MGS3. It only barely has it's own identity, but it's mostly known for it's negative points, like a sequence where you flip around the level naked, it's overly complex plot, and incredibly long cut scenes.

I don't think MGS 2 a bad game, per-say, but were someone to ask me I don't think I'd recommend actually playing it. If you're just here for the story then read it online, or watch someone else's playthrough, one of which I've linked to at the bottom of this article. It's a convoluted game that tries to do to much within it's own space.

That's it for MGS2, thank god. Next up: I go back in time and revisit a cold-war classic.

All screenshots taken from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKbYxc_s0_g

Looking at: Metal Gear Solid

Legacy

Snake, in his natural environment

Metal Gear Solid Five: The Phantom Pain comes out tomorrow. I can't afford it right now, as it's eighty fucking dollars here in Canada, which is to bad considering that it might be one of the greatest games ever made. So while I put together the money to buy it/ wait for someone to have it on sale (looking at you GreenMan Gaming) I decided to get better acquainted with the rest of the series, having only played the third game to completion and a few hours of other entries.

To whit, I purchased the MGS Legacy collection for the PS3, the entire series consisting of all five original MGS games (1,2,3,4 and an HD re-release of the PSP's Peace Walker). That's certainly a lot of gameplay, and I decided to write my thoughts on the games as I complete them. That said, here's my thoughts on the 1998 game that started it all, Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid.

Northern Exposure

series favourite, Revolver Ocelot, making his first appearance. 

The set up to MGS is that you are the legendary mercenary Solid Snake. You've been hired by the pentagon to stop a terrorist incursion of highly trained Genome Soldiers that have taken over a nuclear disposal site in northern Alaska. You infiltrate the facility, remain as undetected as possible, and shut down the operation by any means necessary, killing anyone that stands in your way.

That's actually pretty much the whole plot throughout the game. Rest assured, there are twists a-plenty, it wouldn't be an MGS game if it made any damn sense, but the basic goal remains the same throughout. Take out any obstacles, deactivate the terrorists' super weapon, and escape.

It's all the details that quickly get muddled, and while this wasn't his first game, this is certainly the most high profile game Kojima had at the time, so for a lot of people this would be their first exposure to him. It can be... jarring. The game is, to say the least, cinematic, insofar as it feels like you're watching a series of movies inter-spliced with bursts of gameplay. You'll need patience to enjoy MGS, and not just for the stealth gameplay.

I'll say this, at least it has memorable characters. I can likely recall every major character in the game and give a decent account of what that character was or did, because they were so completely fleshed out. The bosses in particular, were almost insanely detailed, each of them having complete back-stories and motivations for why they did what they did, and even why they fought Snake.

That insane level of character certainly plays on both sides, and Snake and his compatriots are just as well conceived, to the degree that there's entire story arc that take place just over your radio. This would become another staple of the series in time, and it's not uncommon to brake for a ten minute conversation in the middle of an action scene.

There's certainly no shortage of plot and character in MGS, but it's just bizarre how the game approaches it's subject matter, like there's a hardcore military historian, a genetic biologist, and a stand-up comedian all screaming at the same time. It spouts rhetoric about the advances of science, the effects of combat, the mentality of soldiers, and the moral ambiguity of combat and genetic science in the same breath that it tells a lame joke, or has a naked character run around for laughs. It's like the game knows it's supposed to be an adult game, but refuses to grow up completely.

Stealth Action

Enough about the story, how does the actual game play, and more importantly, does it hold up? The answer is... sort of, but not really.

On the one hand, the stealth works great, even despite the game's age and limited resources for the time. Not even the fixed camera is an issue due to two factors:
1) the game wisely chooses to go with an overhead or very high isometric view for most of the game, something I wish it's predecessor would have kept.
2) In the top right corner is a radar screen.

It's this latter item that saves the game in many ways, and I found myself actually just playing based on that small screen more then what Snake was actually doing. The radar, when it's active, displays enemy patrols, cones of vision, and camera placement as well. In order to remain undetected, all you need to do is avoid the eye-lines of enemies and you're golden. That said, the radar can be shut off, either by the room, by being detected, or through jamming technology.

That's the good, the bad is the rest. MGS was before the series introduced the idea of non-lethal play-through's. Killing is the norm, and while it's more than possible to take out one soldier, fighting more than one is nearly impossible. This is because MGS was also before the introduction of first person aiming, meaning to aim Snake you had to spin him around and hope the auto-aim took over properly. Again, one, maybe two enemies this sort of works, but any more and it just falls apart, especially if the enemies are on opposite sides of you. There's one moment in particular, where you have to climb a fucking long tower, all the while being bombarded by enemies. It serves as one of the most aggravating gaming experiences I've had recently.

one of the many, many, many radio conversations throughout the game.

That's actually something that happened a lot, total aggravation. Boss fights often annoyed the hell out of me, rather then challenged me, and several sections were insanely tedious. The last action you do before the end of the game requires you back-tracking through a facility twice in order to (seriously) change the temperature of one of your items. That sort of boring, game-padding back-tracking happens more than once and it grew on my nerves.

The other major issue I had with the game were the controls. Maybe this wasn't an issue on the original PS1, but on the PS3 I found it tantamount to menacing. First, the game doesn't use either of the joy-sticks, not even the left one for movement. I had to control the entire game on the D-pad, and damn near wore that poor thing out. Next, Snake can really only look/move in the four directions, thanks to the aforementioned D-pad controls. This means aiming him, already an annoying prospect due to the lack of proper aiming, becomes damn near impossible. There's a section near the end of the game where you're in control of a mounted machine gun that might be one of the worst vehicle sections I've ever played, and trying to line up a shot properly was almost impossible.

There's other aggravation as well, the lack of crouch movement, something that wouldn't be addressed in the series until MGS 4, ten years later) Trying to aim the few first-person weapons with the D-pad was impossible, making a sniper fight much harder then it should have been, the constant interruptions with cut-scenes, and the over-reliance on radio calls for exposition. All told, MGS hasn't exactly aged that well. I've heard the Gamecube re-release Twin Snakes is better, but I'm unable to play that version.

Cubic Snake

a rare moment of actual gameplay.

I won't harsh to much on the production side of the game, as it is nearly twenty years old now. For it's time, MGS was likely pushing the PS1 to it's absolute limits. The amount of detail pumped into every polygon is spectacular, and it's got an almost retro charm to it. Effects look decent and character models, while low-fi, do look decent. There's no mouth movement on any character faces, but their body language is impressively expressive.

The idea to keep the game localized to a single location was a smart one, and each room of the facility feels incredibly detailed and lived in. Everything from the offices to the prison or a refinery feels completely thought out and believable. There's a logic to how the facility is laid out and everything makes a lot of sense.

MGS's Sound might be the best age'd thing about it, since the voice work is the series' standard over the top and expressive. The characters come to life more then any other PS1 game I've ever played (in fairness, I've only played like, five PS1 games) and it really does feel like a super extended spy thriller movie. David Hayter is doing a damn serviceable job as a young Solid Snake, but there's others that would become series regulars like the illustrious Jennifer Hale, Debbie Mae West, Cam Clarke, and Paul Eiding. All of them doing a great job, even when the script they're reading veers off into the completely insane.

Sound effects and music all work too. Obviously, it's not nearly as good as later entries, but I didn't encounter and major problems throughout the game. Music set the mood well, from the fight with Psycho Mantis, to the unavailing of the Metal Gear itself. All of it worked well and never detracted from the experience.

Soldier's Honour

Snake's relationship with women is...complicated.

If not for it's insane script, unique and memorable characters and completely outlandish plot, it's likely MGS would have fallen into complete obscurity. The gameplay aged like milk and trying to play it much later became a test of patience to me. I don't completely know if I liked it, although it's fair to say I enjoyed it more then my brief experience with it's predecessor, and my next game, MGS2.

The first game created a legacy, and has been called a masterpiece. I don't know if I agree with that, but as far as PS1 games go it's certainly an experience unlike any other.

Next for me: pretty-boys, ninjas, fat men, and one of the best bait-and-switches ever pulled.

All screenshots taken from the Long-play video at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpG9XIfFkE0

Looking at: Alien Isolation

In Space...

Amanda Ripely, spitting image of her mother

Everyone remembers Aliens, the 1986 James Cameron sci-fi classic that pretty much shaped the modern sci-fi world. It's a great film, another example of James Cameron's amazing film-making abilites, and it's easily one of my all time favorite 80's movies, right up there with Cameron's Terminator 2.

What a lot of people don't remember, or don't remember as well, is the predecessor to Aliens, Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). Alien is a decidedly different film from Cameron's choosing to focus on a small cast, few action scenes, and a great horror vibe. It's this smaller, more intimate feel of Scott's movie that we find the setting for Alien: Isolation, one of the best sci-fi horror titles since System Shock 2.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far

Emergency stations are your save points, and their beeping is an odd comfort.

A:I sees you playing as Amanda Ripley, a last name that should be instantly familiar to any fan of the franchise. Indeed, Amanda is the daughter of Sigourney Weaver's character from the films, and was about 10 during the events of Alien. Now, a decade later, the flight recorder from the Nostromo has been found in a backwater station on the far reaches of space, and Ripley, along with some Weyland Yutani executives, decide to go pick it up.

As you might expect, things don't go nearly as planned. Ripley and co. arrive at Sevastopol station to find it nearly deserted and completely in ruins. The surviving humans have split into warring groups and factions, scrounging around and fighting with each other. The station's AI has gone insane, turning the synthetic robots onboard into murderous killing machines. And there's the Xeno herself, come aboard with the Nostromo recording box and killing without mercy wherever she goes. Sevastopol, in other words, fucking sucks.

Under the Covers

Sevastopol is falling apart, and fire suppression almost never works.

Gameplay wise A:I is largely about stealth over everything else. Combat is hugely risky, the few times you actually can engage in it, and you'll spend most of your time crawling around avoiding a fight. Human enemies are easy enough to engage, and while the game emphasizes avoidance, you can lure single foes away and bean them over the head with your maintenance tool. That only works a fraction of the time, however, and only on humans, who aren't really your main concern. Synthetics, on the other hand, can't be attacked in a stealthy manner, can withstand a fury of blows, and will hunt you relentlessly, even through a hail of gunfire. They're creepy, monotone, grey as the moon, and really hard to kill, making them the perfect enemy for a game all about sneaking around.

Of course the biggest threat is the Xeno, huge, hulking, and black as night. Everything about how the Xeno is handled in this game is amazing, and it makes the whole experience that much more terrifying and authentic to the film it's based on. The Xeno doesn't even show up for the first 90 minutes, rather you follow her path of destruction and death so that when you do get a look at her you're instantly aware of how dangerous she is.

Dangerous indeed, since the Xeno's attack is an instant game over. This might seem aggravating, and it is at times, but it reinforces the idea that you need to avoid her at all costs. A:I is a game that demands patience, and you'll find yourself waiting out the Xeno in cupboards or under tables while moving through her patrol pattern. If you get board easily, this is really not the game for you.

Fear and Loathing

Alien: Isolation's lighting does a great job of creating atmosphere.

There is combat, but as I said, it's mostly a last resort option. There are a few weapons, a trusty revolver or a flamethrower, but open firefights draw the Xeno, and no amount of ammo can take her down. The rare time the game does force you into a fight, it's usually in a way that you can easily control the situation, and only with a handful of combatants.

This is for the better, since A:I might be one of the worst shooters I've played in a while, strictly speaking as a shooter. Weapons handle like shit, and they're just not fun to use at all. Again, this all feeds back into the stealth and avoidance, but when you do have to pull iron and fire it's a horrendous experience that almost made me long for Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Just kidding, no one has ever longed for that pile of steaming Xeno shit.

Thankfully the stealth works great, with a full compliment of leaning controls and the ubiquitous motion tracker from the films. It's easy to avoid a fight, and that works very well in the game's favor. To compliment this are a handful of tools you can craft, everything from smoke bombs and noise makers to pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails. Let me tell you, there's no more satisfying feeling than nailing the Xeno with a Molotov, and it's probably the only effective way to get some breathing room.

Crafting itself is handled pretty well, sort of similar to The Last of Us. There's several types of crafting components scattered through the levels and the different items require combinations of them. Medkits are, of course, the easiest thing to build, but some of the better weapons, like the aforementioned Molotovs or pipe bombs, can require a bit of time to put together, and it makes using them that much more costly.

Gunmetal Grey

The ubiquitous motion tracker, capable of tracking the Xeno and other living beings.

There's an art to making something as boring (relativity speaking) as a space station look good and A:I nails this perfectly. Sevastopol is a dilapidated derelict falling apart and on the edge of complete breakdown. In a lot of ways it reminds me of the tunnels of Metro 2033, and it's a dark, gloomy and very claustrophobic affair. The station is absolutely cramped, with no breathing room, and it actually manages to justify the lack of a jump button. Even better, is that it actually looks lived-in, with clutter everywhere, rather than just a boring run-of-the-mill space station. It's possible to believe that, until recently, Sevastopol was a bustling industrial station, now it sits in ruins falling apart at the seams.

Graphically A:I looks amazing, with stellar lighting effects that help sell the mood perfectly. Smoke effects look great and the art direction of Sevastopol is top notch. Character models all look pretty good in-game, but it's in the cut-scenes that they really shine, and we dip deep into the uncanny valley with some of the characters.

My favorite part of the visual design of A:I is how it approaches it's look. It's a retro-future feel that fits perfectly with the original movie, considering it was made in the late 70's. Computer screens are mono-chrome green, with scan lines, and there's chromatic aberrations on every screens, making them look like old worn-out CRT technology. Everything is bulky and old-fashioned, exactly like they would be in a future created back in 1979, and it's an extra touch that does a lot to sell the game as part of the franchise.

On the audio front, the game is equally great. Sound design is excellent, with Sevastopol creaking and moaning, creating a tense atmosphere that something isn't right. You'll constantly hear the Xeno hunting you from the vents, and enemy footsteps and conversation pieces echo through the abandoned halls alerting you organically to their presence. The machinery littered throughout the station beeps and blips and computers all sounds like they came directly from the early 80's. Most importantly is the save stations, who's beeps can be heard a mile off. At first they seem annoying, as the beeping is constant a la the low health warnings in Zelda, but as you progress you begin to savor this annoyance, as it's a sign that safety, however relative, is nearby.

Voice acting too is really great. Ripely sounds decent enough, considering the wide range of emotions that she has to go through. Other characters sound good to, and there's no one that stands out as annoying or particularly bad. The synthetics deserve special notice for being so monotone and creepy that the very sound of them unnerved me to no end.

Game Over Man

The Xeno is a terrifying sight, and often spells the end.

In a lot of ways A:I shouldn't be as good as it is, and there are some complaints I have against it. There were parts that I just found aggravating, especially one early encounter that became almost Hotline Miami-esque for me and took me several dozen tries and completely breaking the game to move past. The loading splash screens may say Ripely isn't a violent person, but in my hands she sure as hell was.

Alien: Isolation reminds me of games like Metro 2033, Bioshock and the aforementioned System Shock 2 in the absolute best way possible. It's a scary game the emphasizes the idea of survival and patience, and flies in the face of other games in the genre. It's certainly not for everyone, but Alien: Isolation is easily one of the best sci-fi horror games I've ever played.