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Do you still care about the MGS franchise?

The Metal Gear series is like this long running television show that a certain hardcore viewership is always going on about that looks really interesting every time you catch a few minutes of it. Then every time you try to sit down and try watch it, you totally don't get it and nothing makes sense and it seems really weird to the point it makes you uncomfortable.
 
Of course, It's still one of the best franchises in gaming. MGS4 gets shit on by some vocal people but it's still an amazing game and worth playing.

I look forward to Ground Zero.
 
I care, but the franchise is definitely pretty inconsistent for me. I'm currently re-playing all MGS games and that made me realize how hit and miss these games really are and how the more recent entries are definitely less enjoyable than the earlier ones. I arrived at MGS4 yesterday and I'm still not feeling it at all.
So if that trend continues I'm probably not going to be the biggest fan of GZ and Revengeance. Both look pretty neat, though, and I definitely still care enough to find out how good they'll be.
 
Peace walker is my favourite handheld game ever and had the best mgs game play. MGS4 had plenty I loved about it too. MGS is as strong as ever for me.
 
Hell yes. I loved the hell out of MGS1/2/3/4 and I'm sure I will be all over GZ. As much hate as MGS4 gets, I played through it four times and still think it has the best final boss fight in any game ever.
 
Story: 4 was so atrociously bad I can't find myself to care anymore

Gameplay and level design: Still awesome for the most part, only reason to keep with the series at this point as far as I'm concerned.
 
With Ground Zeroes being announced YES. MGS: Ghost Babel, MGS1, 2 and 3 are all just too damn good to ignore. MGS4 is obviously pretty polarizing but still has its moments.
 
Of course I care about a top notch franchise directed by a top notch director.

But I would care more if instead of GZ we got a new ip or a new ZoE title at least.
 
All Metal Gear games have flaws (some more glaring than others) but I always find the games to be more enjoyable than mostly anything else out there. Im in it for life.
 
animlboogy said:
What did you think of Peace Walker? I'm thinking of grabbing a used PSP for cheap to play it, and I often agree with your cranky ass.
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It's the worst MGS I've ever played and for some reason people like to consider it part of the main series, but I don't. As much as I hate MGS 4 it's still a legitimate and complete MGS experience, this isn't.

-Instead of cutscenes you get crappy comic book style stuff because either the PSP wasn't strong enough or they were too cheap to do real scenes.

-The game was cut down to work in more bite sized pieces. Missions are given from your base and they're usually 3 or 4 extremely small areas with a couple guards in each. Stealth mechanics are chopped down and some from the past games don't even exist in this.

-The story is virtually non existent until the last Act of the game. That you may want to youtube at least so you can be caught up for Ground Zeroes

-The game is incredibly grindy, like playstation 1-JRPG grindy. You have to repeat missions dozens of times to get supplies or people for your base or AI parts. And the only way to get more AI parts is to do the really really bad robot/mech boss fights over and over and over again.

-They do have a leveling up a base mechanic but I don't think it was fleshed out enough. It contributes to the grinding and many of the stuff done in the base is rather hands off. You usually just assign people to stuff and the computer handles it.


On a side note the controls are apparently awful on the PSP version due to 1 stick but they work fine enough on the HD collection. It was reworked for that.
 
The gameplay and the engine deserves something better than to be shackled to what has become a massive mess of a story. You could be playing something new, simple, fresh, and unencumbered but instead you're going to dive back into an utter morass.

There are going to be lots of zeroes. There's even a zeroes in the title. I think Kojima is attempting to justify the ending of MSG4 with this new game. He's going to justify the killing of Zero. I don't think I need any more of that.
 
Derrick01 said:
It's the worst MGS I've ever played and for some reason people like to consider it part of the main series, but I don't. As much as I hate MGS 4 it's still a legitimate and complete MGS experience, this isn't.

-Instead of cutscenes you get crappy comic book style stuff because either the PSP wasn't strong enough or they were too cheap to do real scenes.

-The game was cut down to work in more bite sized pieces. Missions are given from your base and they're usually 3 or 4 extremely small areas with a couple guards in each. Stealth mechanics are chopped down and some from the past games don't even exist in this.

-The story is virtually non existent until the last Act of the game. That you may want to youtube at least so you can be caught up for Ground Zeroes

-The game is incredibly grindy, like playstation 1-JRPG grindy. You have to repeat missions dozens of times to get supplies or people for your base or AI parts. And the only way to get more AI parts is to do the really really bad robot/mech boss fights over and over and over again.

-They do have a leveling up a base mechanic but I don't think it was fleshed out enough. It contributes to the grinding and many of the stuff done in the base is rather hands off. You usually just assign people to stuff and the computer handles it.


On a side note the controls are apparently awful on the PSP version due to 1 stick but they work fine enough on the HD collection. It was reworked for that.
Click to expand...

I have yet to play PW, but it sounds like your typical Japanese portable game that is made for commuting.
 
Derrick01 said:
It's the worst MGS I've ever played and for some reason people like to consider it part of the main series, but I don't. As much as I hate MGS 4 it's still a legitimate and complete MGS experience, this isn't.

-Instead of cutscenes you get crappy comic book style stuff because either the PSP wasn't strong enough or they were too cheap to do real scenes.

-The game was cut down to work in more bite sized pieces. Missions are given from your base and they're usually 3 or 4 extremely small areas with a couple guards in each. Stealth mechanics are chopped down and some from the past games don't even exist in this.

-The story is virtually non existent until the last Act of the game. That you may want to youtube at least so you can be caught up for Ground Zeroes

-The game is incredibly grindy, like playstation 1-JRPG grindy. You have to repeat missions dozens of times to get supplies or people for your base or AI parts. And the only way to get more AI parts is to do the really really bad robot/mech boss fights over and over and over again.

-They do have a leveling up a base mechanic but I don't think it was fleshed out enough. It contributes to the grinding and many of the stuff done in the base is rather hands off. You usually just assign people to stuff and the computer handles it.


On a side note the controls are apparently awful on the PSP version due to 1 stick but they work fine enough on the HD collection. It was reworked for that.
Click to expand...

A reasonable opinion about Shit Walker?? I can't believe it!!
 
Yes absolutely. And I've beaten MGS4 twice, I find it to be a fantastic game when it is a game. Story isn't already great but there are some amazing cinematic moments in there as well.

Plus, Peace Walker was ridiculously good.
 
I really liked Peace Walker. I enjoyed the comic-book style scenes, the wacky balloons, the AI prototypes that sang as they tried to maul me, fighting Rathalos, I even got emotional when
you kill the Boss' horse.

I love how Metal Gear can be goofy and unbelievable one minute and serious and emotional the next.
 
Not the main series, no. They lost me with the pants-on-head retarded story in Metal Gear Solid 2 and I struggled to care about MGS3 when it first came out, but gave up on it about half-way through. Just didn't care. Then like a dumbass I bought MGS4 at launch and gave up on that within two hours. It's just not for me.

However, I am very interested in Metal Gear Rising.
 
Syntsui said:
A reasonable opinion about Shit Walker?? I can't believe it!!
Click to expand...

Tell me about it, I cringe whenever I see someone try to Argue that Peace Walker is actually a good game. The only redeeming factor was the boss battles which were impressive for a handheld. The sneaking gameplay was dumbed down, linear with brain dead A.I.
 
entrement said:
With the recent trailer of Ground Zeroes, do you still care about the MGS franchise? Especially with the critical failure of MGS4--i liked the game but it seems age has not been kind to it--and the ho hum reception of Peace Walker.
Click to expand...

Critical failure of MGS4? What?

And yes, I still care.
 
AwShucks said:
Plus, Peace Walker was ridiculously good.
Click to expand...

I just don't see how a fan of the series could say that. It has less mechanics and worse stealth gameplay, it's a grind fest that everyone claims to hate about jrpgs and less focus on story and real cutscenes which is a big part of why it's famous. Unless you count the radio talks between characters before missions as story, but listening to Paz ramble on for 30 fuckin minutes about butterflies made me want to jam a pencil through my jugular.

There's 0 redeeming qualities about the game.
 
Maybe its the fault of the game by not telling you, but it expects you to do the side missions and as you unlock them and capture a fleet of vehicles as well. If you do that, then it shouldn't be super grindy.

I enjoyed Peace Walker. Thought it was a little silly how blind the guards were but it worked with the PSP's crappy controls. Always thought that they should have adjusted the HD version to scale the levels to 2-3x the size and make the guards as aware as they were in MGS3.
 
Of course. It's the first series I truly fell in love with and have liked every game that came out of the main franchise. And yes that includes mgs4 and PW. Im trying to finish PW HD fully now, I wish PO was playable on Vita.
 
Derrick01 said:
I just don't see how a fan of the series could say that. It has less mechanics and worse stealth gameplay, it's a grind fest that everyone claims to hate about jrpgs and less focus on story and real cutscenes which is a big part of why it's famous. Unless you count the radio talks between characters before missions as story, but listening to Paz ramble on for 30 fuckin minutes about butterflies made me want to jam a pencil through my jugular.

There's 0 redeeming qualities about the game.
Click to expand...

All the crap your whining about is optional. You can essentially just play through the story and enjoy it just fine nor have to even talk to Paz. Great thing about PW was how you could play it as you want.

Course it seems like everything makes you want to stab yourself, so it's hard to say how anything can please you. Think you enjoy the pain really
 
BattleMonkey said:
All the crap your whining about is optional. You can essentially just play through the story and enjoy it just fine nor have to even talk to Paz. Great thing about PW was how you could play it as you want.
Click to expand...

If you don't do any of the optional stuff then all you're left with is a game with no story at all and bad gameplay.
 
Kaijima said:
The Metal Gear series is like this long running television show that a certain hardcore viewership is always going on about that looks really interesting every time you catch a few minutes of it. Then every time you try to sit down and try watch it, you totally don't get it and nothing makes sense and it seems really weird to the point it makes you uncomfortable.
Click to expand...

& the bad news is what? :) ...
 
BattleMonkey said:
All the crap your whining about is optional. You can essentially just play through the story and enjoy it just fine nor have to even talk to Paz. Great thing about PW was how you could play it as you want.

Course it seems like everything makes you want to stab yourself, so it's hard to say how anything can please you. Think you enjoy the pain really
Click to expand...

Well.....for once I kind of agree with him

I mean even if you do what you said, and just play through purely the mandatory stuff, then what?

There's no difficulty levels and because of how weapon leveling works you're completely overpowered for everything you just played by the end making any attempt at a replay pretty pointless

Snake's moveset is drastically simplified, and the moves he does have are extremely overpowered in the context of the game around him, making the difficulty level of the game extremely low.(at least for all sneaking missions. With hold up, smoke grenades and chain CQC S ranking every sneaking mission is an effortless task. The vehicle bosses are a different beast entirely and I won't get into how I feel about those.)

I think Peace Walker was a fun game that accomplished what it set out to do.(A more playable portable metal gear than PO that appealed to the younger Monster Hunter generation in japan)

but it by far has the least to offer from a gameplay perspective than any other Kojima directed Metal Gear game.(In terms of balance and compelling content) I don't think it holds a candle to any of the mainline entries frankly.

The only thing I'd like them to take away from PW and develop further is Co-Ops, a concept only half baked in PW because they chose to balance every mission around single player as to not alienate players in the west.(Co-op missions in huge open environments like the ones promised in Ground Zeroes sounds like itd be pretty amazing)
 
MGS4 a critical failure lololol.

Anyway I still think MGS4 is the best game of this gen. Of course I am excited this franchise never stops being amazing.
 
Derrick01 said:
It's the worst MGS I've ever played and for some reason people like to consider it part of the main series, but I don't. As much as I hate MGS 4 it's still a legitimate and complete MGS experience, this isn't.

-Instead of cutscenes you get crappy comic book style stuff because either the PSP wasn't strong enough or they were too cheap to do real scenes.

-The game was cut down to work in more bite sized pieces. Missions are given from your base and they're usually 3 or 4 extremely small areas with a couple guards in each. Stealth mechanics are chopped down and some from the past games don't even exist in this.

-The story is virtually non existent until the last Act of the game. That you may want to youtube at least so you can be caught up for Ground Zeroes

-The game is incredibly grindy, like playstation 1-JRPG grindy. You have to repeat missions dozens of times to get supplies or people for your base or AI parts. And the only way to get more AI parts is to do the really really bad robot/mech boss fights over and over and over again.

-They do have a leveling up a base mechanic but I don't think it was fleshed out enough. It contributes to the grinding and many of the stuff done in the base is rather hands off. You usually just assign people to stuff and the computer handles it.


On a side note the controls are apparently awful on the PSP version due to 1 stick but they work fine enough on the HD collection. It was reworked for that.
Click to expand...
Great post. Those are my biggest beefs with the game. Though, I like handheld gaming, the majesty of MGS belongs on the big screen.
 
Haven't played a mainstream MG to completion since the likes of MGS2 and Ghost Babel on the GBC. I don't see that much changing any time soon, unless GZ really stands to pique my interest.

But for Revengeance, I couldn't be hyped enough. GIMMEGIMMEGIMMEGIMME!!!
 
On a side note the controls are apparently awful on the PSP version due to 1 stick but they work fine enough on the HD collection. It was reworked for that.
Click to expand...

The controls actually worked pretty well on PSP. I'm pretty sure the game was designed with less accuracy in mind so the hit boxes were pretty large and generous.(I could headshot with tranq gun from a distance pretty consistently.)

I don't think they were altered for the console port so I think that version just ends up being even easier rather than fixed
 
entrement said:
Though, I like handheld gaming, the majesty of MGS belongs on the big screen.
Click to expand...


mgs_hd_edition_vita_boxart.jpg
Click to expand...

.
 
The series lost me after 1 and the first half of 2... and yet I've bought (and kept) them all since then. LOL Go figure.
 
entrement said:
do you still care about the MGS franchise?
Click to expand...

Yup.

It's gotten to the point of being comparable to the Star Wars Prequels at times, in terms of story. But they're ambitious games that never tail coat ride on the previous installment and they have a lot of character.

Watching the reveal of Ground Zeroes gave me that same giddy feeling I've had, each previous game announcement. The series sure has it's problems, but it's just such an exciting one to follow and i'm still hooked for the foreseeable future.
 
I could agree with some of those flaws, but peacewalker still remains my second fav in the series. Mother base with all those extra ops was great and the co-op was great with me and my bro trying to s rank all those missions.
 
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