Good stuff! Just finished Act 2 and loving every second

I am really struggling with MGS4; and not really enjoying it. I shall grind on for a bit longer (I am halfway through Act 2), and see if I enjoy it more.

Anyone fancy trying to get a MGO gamenight organised? I only played it a couple of times but remember it being quite bizarre.

I'm planning on recording the show on Tuesday 27th July at 9pm. PM or reply (if not already) if you want to take part and air your views.

As it's summer I was wondering if any of you guys who'll be on the show would consider nominating some handheld games for next month. Give us folks who'll be away on holiday something to play.

Great idea

Great idea.

I to agree that having a special edition of the replay show, discussing handheld games would be both timely and interesting. Any chance this could be recorded before mid August as I'm heading off on hols & need inspiration of what DS games to pack Plus I just like hearing more of Xan's radio professional voice, in a manly non-homosexual way, ha! ha!


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You are in luck. We record tomorrow.

Great stuff, is this the MGS4 show you mean? Will it feature suggestions for handheld games to replay, pick-up?


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I will ask the guests to nominate handheld games for the Replay game in August.

Cool, really looking forward to it


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Pocket billiards?

Cheap and easy and you don't even need a console....

Excellent, I leave for Menorca on Monday so will take a punt the leader at the end of the week. Happy podcasting tomorrow dudes.

Just need confirm the review panel for tomorrow: so far I have

Tenia
Silent?
Dits?

Is that correct? Have I missed anyone who wants to take part?

Reminder. Year in review is 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_in_video_gaming

Replay game nominations must be handheld titles at least 2 years old and playable on current hardware.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ds_games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_psp_games

Just starting Act 3 now so I haven’t been able to finish the game yet, but I did manage to also play MGS2 and MGS3 on the PS2 this month. Anyway here are my thoughts on the games I have played so far.

The first thing to say that this is fast becoming one of my favourite single player games on the PS3. It has a lot of the same mechanisms as the earlier games but everything is just far more polished. The automatic camouflage for instance is miles better than having to manually change the different suits in MGS3.

I found the ability to join one of the warring factions and help in tipping the balance and pushing through a section really rewarding. Especially when you do eventually succeed and all the other soldiers start cheering. Again I think this is an improvement on the disguise ability found in the earlier games. The option still remains of course to not join any of the factions and go for a pure stealth approach.

The actual game play seems to be much more forgiving in this game than in the earlier ones. I usually start out by attempting to use stealth to make my way through a new section but if I am spotted I feel in this game that I have a much better chance of fighting my way out of it. I much prefer this approach than being forced to constantly retry the same section again and again until I can finally get it just right.

I think the story is a big draw for anyone who is interested in the game. Throughout all the games in the series I have felt that there is a pervasive and deeper story unfolding than just what might be required to pad out the role that you happen to be playing at the time. I certainly won’t say that I understood everything that was going on but I never felt totally lost at any point and could always at least understand what my next objective was and why I was supposed to be doing it. I had plenty of speculations as to what else might be going on but I was also happy to wait and see these unfurl or not in the cut scenes.

Ah the cut scenes... These are the best cut scenes I have ever seen in a video game and I would happily watch them over and over again. The fight scene at the end of act 2 was just jaw dropping. I won’t give details in case someone hasn’t played it yet, but I actually laughed with joy and appreciation at the spectacle.

The creature designs are also awesome. The animal references have always been in the games but with each new game the creature and boss designs have been more and more a blend of machine and animal.

Humour; there are a lot of self referential jokes in the games and other light hearted moments and I find that these help to balance the otherwise very gruff battle hardened, aspects of the game.

Trophies; I have to say that it has been a pleasant break playing these older games in that I haven’t been distracted from the game by the hunt for trophies. I think trophies and achievements are still great in general but for some games they are probably best if ignored until a second play through.

Lastly one of the themes I get from the games has to do with the cycle of death and renewal. There is a repeating cycle in these games of the old coming to an end and passing the torch on to the next generation. Then each new generation pursues new advancements but essentially just ends up fighting the same battles as in the past. Not sure if that was a deliberate theme or just an inevitable side effect of a game that is on its 4th iteration. Anyway at least the game does make you think.

I really enjoyed my time with Metal Gear Solid 4, after all it was the game that convinced me to get a PS3 in the first place! I was a little reluctant to dive into it without playing MGS3 so I took the easy way out and watched the GameTrailers retrospective videos to catch up.

The game is much more forgiving than previous iterations as it allows a run and gun approach that works in most situations. This does feel like a cop out but it comes in quite handy when you're in a tight spot.

I couldn't describe what's happened in the series after playing the games, watching videos and reading the MGS database! Some parts of the game feel like blatant fan service at the expense of a coherent story and some of the pacing during the lengthy cutscenes can be a a bit slow and takes you out of the action far too frequently.

There is still a lot to love about the game ... not all of the cutscenes are slow moving, some are full of some amazing action that's been expertly choreographed like a Hollywood blockbuster. Without going into spoiler territory, if you didn't like the Raiden character before, you sure as hell will now
Overall, the game is a collection of some of the very best gaming experiences I've had, particularly a couple of scenes in the final act, although I would have likes to see the ending pan out differently if I'm honest. I wouldn't call it a perfect game, but it's worth perceiving to the end to experience some of the great moments.

Having played and enjoyed the previous MGS games my hopes were high for 4. As it turned out, these hopes were misplaced. The game mechanics in themselves were ok but it was almost like the game couldn’t decide if it was a third person shooter or a stealth action game. In the end it turned into an average hybrid of both and a master of neither.

The torturous cut scenes, splendid as they were visually, made little sense and broke up the action. One minute you were fighting a ton of geckos, the next chatting up some irritating corny arms dealer. Frankly, anyone that says they were perfectly paced needs to give themselves a slap in the chops.

This is one game that quite literally lost the plot, with any narrative or pertinent plot points lost in a barrage of lengthy, pointless and probably expensive FMV’s or whatever their called. They really did fall into the “matrix” trap and tried to be way to smart for their own good with the woeful plot.

In the end it was all a bit rubbish with some ok third person shooter / stealth sections. The rest was filed under “mostly forgettable”. The lack of trophies is almost unforgivable IMO for a big Sony title as well. Releasing a AAA title without trophies in it really devalues your systems extrinsic reward scheme, never a good thing when you’re already miles behind the 360’s achievements.

Could you imagine Halo being released with achievements? Wouldn’t happen, MS know the value of gamer points and their impact on game sales. How many people played, traded and instantly forgot about this thing? Probably thousands, after all, what point was there playing it again? The awesome multiplayer? Oh wait…..

Come on Nory, the game was released just before the trophy system was introduced and had been in development for at least 3 years. They were probably too far along with development to easily put the trophy system in.
Trophies only became mandatory for all games in 2009 and there should be no expectation that older games have to get retrospectively patched.

Sure trophies would have been nice, but you're always going to struggle with transition when the trophy system was introduced after the console's release!

There were dozens of other games that were backwards patched for trophies Benjo. Dozens. And they were not even close to being the same stature of MGS 4 in the PS3's catalogue. No, I'm afraid the "it was to late" excuse simply does not cut it, if anything it was just plain laziness on the part of developer relying on the brand name to shift units and sticking the middle finger up to Sony's fledgling reward scheme.

Trophyless games are dead to me.