Tendo City

Well the gameplay aside, Sam seems to me to be pretty much a one dimensional character that, so far, hasn't changed at ALL. A character does need to evolve during a story for it to be a good one... Realism does not equal good story. A story can be good AND realistic, but the latter is not directly responsible for the former. It's must like how my cat CAN be white haired, but he's not a cat BECAUSE he has white hair.

So I assume you got the PC or XBox version? You know, the ones that have online play and can be updated via downloads? If not, you are missing out on a part of the game that could have been sold seperatly.

Back to Kingdom Hearts, it's nice that, so far anyway, they haven't even acknowledged the EXISTANCE of those horrid sequels to the Disney classics... Seriously, Cinderella 2? Lion King 2? The Little Mermaid 2? Those were NOT good ideas at all! I mean, in a tale where people live "happily ever after", how are you going to have conflict? If there's no conflict, what manner of story can you possibly have? What, is there going to be "trouble getting the wedding ready"? Oh my stars! How ever will we cope?! I hate lackluster challenges that pass as stories after a truly epic storyline before that. When you save the world from Sin itself, just running around searching for orbs and a small love story doesn't really cut it. It's like if, in a comic book series for example, they decide to lead up to a massive universe sprawling epic storyline spanning everything they ever did, and when it's all over, they just go back to standard fare beating up of old weak by comparison villians. That's just not going to be enough any more. I really don't care about what happened during Christmas in Beast's Castle after the whole story of him falling in love with a girl and kicking some dashign hunter's arse. I mean, an anticlimax should basically just be wrapping up loose ends, not making up some stupid mini-story that doesn't stack up in any comparison.

Fisher is a soldier, and he has the dark, morbid humor of seasoned soldier at that. And being that he's been at the job for several decades, of course he's going to be pretty one dimensional. It makes him believable, and it makes the story line, which mostly revolves around the political plot the main focus. Fisher may play an important role, but as a soldier, its his skill, resolve, and loyalty that matters, not his emotions and how they evolve. Being dynamic stops when you become a soldier and conform to military life style.

In terms of gameplay, Splinter Cell blows MGS series out of the water, especially this SC3. The whole idea of how the level and how the security detail as a whole responds to your method of infiltration is exceptionally well done. This is something that was partially done in SC1 and a little bit more in 2, and what I would call, probably the most crutial "upgrade" to making the SC series, a truly realistic espionage game (minus some of the video game aspects like healing and areas of absolute darkness). This is not a concept that MGS, so called tactical espionage game, even comes close to doing.

Put together, this makes for an excellent, and consistently done game in both story line (at least so far, I haven't beaten the game yet) and gameplay. As said above, its a military/political game that strives a high degree of realism. That being said, the portray the main character as one might except a veteran field agent might really be, and a plot that resolves around a rather realistic political situation, that currently attracts the attention of many people (this whole Korea, Japan, and China business, as well as miscellaneous terrorists).

Of course I got the PC version. Any game that comes out on both console and PC is usually better played on the PC. Not a rule, but holds fast most of the times, particularly here, since its got all the features console, plus an interesting map editor.

Snake however, is one of those characters who talks like a wannabe veteran, and holds the record for number of cheesy and corny lines. Cripes... A love story in the middle of a mission ? I needn't even start talking about lame comic book type character designs for the enemy.

Well... you seem to have missed DJ's point completely.

You keep coming back to how much more realistic the game is, in both story and gameplay. But that does not necessarily equate to a better game. Of course, in your opinion it obviously does.

As far as gameplay is concerned, Hideo Kojima stated that he lowered the level of realism in the games because he thought that it made them far more fun.

It's funny, as far as your first paragraph is concerned, these are all issues that are adressed by the dialogue in MGS3. :D

Anyways, I disagree with just about everything in your post (i.e. those lame comic book style enemy character designs are 100x more interesting than the characters in SC..) but it's all obviously opinion, so.. no matter. :)

On a side note, those Kingdom Hearts graphics are simply gorgeous. It's just a pity that the characters are all lame cartoon style in design. :(:(:(;)

Quote:This is not a concept that MGS, so called tactical espionage game, even comes close to doing.

Never played MGS3, have you?

I would have argued that point.. but I didn't even understand what he meant.

Splinter Cell's story is the same "realistic", lifeless crap that you'll find in every single military/Tom Clancy game on any gaming platform. Seriously, the story is crap. None of the characters are interesting. The gameplay is fantastic, but as an overall experience it can and will never match the Metal Gear series.

I'm looking forward to getting SC3, but I'm not dying to get it like I was with every Metal Gear game.

Agreed. Honestly so far I do love the game of SC3 and all, but not because of the story. The touches like people having real life conversations, that's great for mood, but the main characters are just too bland.

Side Show Bob: The prison conditions are obsurd! The book reading hour normally consists of me being beaten with books! *shows bruises* These are from the latest Tom Clancy, though I admit it is a great deal less painful than reading them, am I right folks?

But yeah, it has it's moments. One fun part of the game was me sneaking around two guards outside. One of them was talking about a very anime styled fear of lightning. He went on about his childhood when the Americans attacked his home town timing their attacks to the lightning, so whenever the lightning struck a few more people would be dead. That's some good stuff there and all, but it's kind of sad to see unimportant side characters be more developed than the main cast.

I think the story in MGS is so much fun BECAUSE it's so unrealistic. I mean, I could write a story about everything I do during a normal day or I could write a story about waking up one day on the surface of Mars and having to fight radioactive scorpions who quote Shakespear. Which do you think would be more interesting to read? I don't think it'd be the first one, no matter how "realistic" it is.

Ah yes, Kingdom Hearts 2, another one on my must-get list. It was even before I knew that Auron would be in it, although that makes the deal that much sweeter. Watch them give him a crappy voice actor like they did in KH with Wakka and Tidus. He looks very cool in KH2 though. In a video clip I saw, Hades rushes at Sora and company and Auron runs in front of them and attacks Hades with his sword. Hades blocks the blow and actually holds down Auron's sword. After that, you see Cerberus crash down tothe ground and one of his heads bites at Auron. He sticks his sword between his teeth and (with one arm still in it's sling) fends him off. Very cool.

Sephiroth...yeah, he's cool too. I'd probably like him too if I'd actually played through FFVII. Till then, Auron tops my list of favorite video game characters.

I'd agree the MGS3 is a bit better than the rest of the MGS series. I actually thought that taking you back to the Cold War era was rather reminiscent of the old MG games, not to mention its a bit more political. I have yet to finish that game, school is busy, and the game has not captured my full interest yet... and put together its too much effortt to go out of my way to borrow a console and game.

Dude... being a Nintendo fan this long, I have to say - who cares about characterization. Tom Clancy's characterizations match the genre, and when was the last time people really complained about Link's rather bland character. Its not like he ever develops alot during any of his games. He's just a vessel, an important vessel like Sam Fisher, but you really don't know too much about him other than the general premises of his life before his adventure for example.

As I said, MGS is just ridiculous in terms of its story line, and in terms of gameplay, I strongly feel is still a far cry in the tactical espionage genre to compare with SC.

You guys definitely take too much influence from the Japanese. I think having not had a real military for the last 50 years has made them softies, trying to romanticize everything...

The realism is supposed to be the appeal of the Tom Clancy games. Do you guys ever play simulators or maybe even read Tom Clany novels ? For a simulator fan like myself, I can't stand MGS's corny lines, and overly exagerated comic book character and villains.

Dude, I lived in a damn war. I doubt you did. So if anyone romanticizes war, it is you.

Metal Gear's story is simply good. Splinter Cell's is not. Complain about the exaggerated plotline and characters all you want (which shows that you simply don't "get it"), it still bitch slaps all of the Clancy games' "plots" from here to Hong Kong.

And Hong Kong is pretty far away!!

You know it!

It's almost as far away as AFRICA!

Stupid American with your bad knowledge of geography...

What, you were joking? Eh, it's still true in general. :)

I KNOW WHERE AFRICA IS!!!

Near Hong Kong, right? ;)

For your information Africa IS quite a long ways away.

So that means we don't have to learn about it!

So says a very strong and lasting theory in American political thought... ever heard of Pat Buchanan, for instance? :)

:nodding:

Step-Mom'D!!