The "Gamespot's reviews are crappy" thread

[OB1]

It's coming out this week! WOO!!!

Believe it or not I'm actually slightly more anxious to play MGS3 than MP2 right now, mainly because MGS3 will be a newer experience. And I can't wait to see where they take the story. Who else is getting it this week?

Here are some jaw-dropping screens to help with the short wait:

[Private Hudson]

Curses to my eternal PAL existence. I don't even know when I'll be receiving the game. And unfortunately for you, seems like you may have to wait until then to have a discussion about it on these forums. :D

And it's hard to believe that those are PS2 screens. Though, it has definately improved, I dare say that it only looks so strikingly better than #2 due to the more vibrant colours, over the drab browns and greys. The shadows manage to look even better.. even natural. It's very hard to make light/shadows from a tree canopy look real. Perhaps they've been playing a lot of ICO?

Can't wait. Let me know when you get it. *so excited*

[OB1]

Weird, it didn't show that you replied here on the MCD page. I had to go into this thread intent on complaining that nobody else liked Metal Gear to see that you posted. :D

Curses to my eternal PAL existence. I don't even know when I'll be receiving the game.

I've heard March and even July. I feel so sorry for you.

And unfortunately for you, seems like you may have to wait until then to have a discussion about it on these forums.

Man I know. Everyone else here is dumb for not being excited about this game.

And it's hard to believe that those are PS2 screens. Though, it has definately improved, I dare say that it only looks so strikingly better than #2 due to the more vibrant colours, over the drab browns and greys. The shadows manage to look even better.. even natural. It's very hard to make light/shadows from a tree canopy look real. Perhaps they've been playing a lot of ICO?

Can't wait. Let me know when you get it. *so excited*

Well the resolution won't be that on the your tv screen and there probably won't be as good anti-aliasing, but yes indeed it looks gorgeous. Aah, two more days!!

[Great Rumbler]

I'm hoping to get MGS3 for Christmas, since it's unlikely I'll be able to get it before then. Not impossible though...

[OB1]

I might not be able to afford a DS this week because I want to get Echoes and MGS3.

Echoes and MGS3: *are better than a DS*

[Great Rumbler]

DS, Feel the Magic, and Echoes: *are better than MGS3*

[OB1]

Echoes and MGS3: *ten times better than a DS and XX/XY and Mario 64*

*also less than half the total cost*

[Great Rumbler]

It isn't if you exploited the system and traded in DVDs you bought for $3 for $8, per DVD, in Blockbuster store credit to get said handheld and game.

[A Black Falcon]

It'll look closer to that if you have an HDTV and high quality cables... :)

[alien space marine]

The PS2 can have some guts if they actually use it.

[OB1]

It isn't if you exploited the system and traded in DVDs you bought for $3 for $8, per DVD, in Blockbuster store credit to get said handheld and game.

You could have traded it in for MGS3 and Echoes though...

[Great Rumbler]

Or I could trade it in for a DS, a DS game, and then buy Echoes...which is what I'm doing.

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/metal...eview.html

Solid review at Gamespot. Not as good a score as MP2, though... :)

[OB1]

I haven't read the review yet, but I heard about the score and it really makes me chuckle. Halo 2 gets a 9.6 or something and MGS3 gets an 8.8? Those guys are so laughable.

[OB1]

Or I could trade it in for a DS, a DS game, and then buy Echoes...which is what I'm doing.

... but Echoes & MGS3 >>>DS and Echoes

And a fraction of the cost.

[A Black Falcon]

8.7. And the review is well done, I would say... from a standpoint of the writing...

[OB1]

Again... quality of writing does not prevent a review from sucking. If the opinion is retarded then Mark Twain himself couldn't prevent it from being retarded.

[A Black Falcon]

Yes, I absolutely agree that you are fully qualified to say that about this review without having read it. Yup. Uh-huh.

[OB1]

Judging by 99% of their past reviews, I'm pretty confident that when I read it it's going to be just as idiotic as it always is.

And let me guess: Greg Kasavin was the reviewer, right?

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah. He's one of their top editors so he gets a lot of the big games... not that I complain about that...

And it really is a positive review. The main complaints are probably about gameplay... how MGS3 plays the same as MGS2 instead of changing to keep up with other action or stealth games.

[Great Rumbler]

but Echoes & MGS3 >>>DS and Echoes

BUT: Echoes, DS, Feel the Magic, and Mario 64 >>> Echoes and MGS3

[Private Hudson]

Well.. I can just picture TeamXBox

"HE GAVE IT A TENTH OF A POINT HIGHER THAN SPLINTER CELL! BIASED! BIASED!"

8.7 is a good score from him. Though, if he complains about it not being more like current games (aka Splinter Cell), then that's a complaint I can live with. I much preferred MGS2's gameplay. And with all the major additions that have been included to the gameplay this time around, I can't wait!

[Great Rumbler]

I much preferred MGS2's gameplay.

I did too, though I never played Splinter Cell very much.

[OB1]

Yeah. He's one of their top editors so he gets a lot of the big games... not that I complain about that...

And it really is a positive review. The main complaints are probably about gameplay... how MGS3 plays the same as MGS2 instead of changing to keep up with other action or stealth games.

HA! How did I know that it was him?

And could you post the written review? Because if what you're saying is true then Kasavin made a complete lie. MGS3 adds more to the MG formula than MGS2 did to MGS1.

BUT: Echoes, DS, Feel the Magic, and Mario 64 >>> Echoes and MGS3

Yeah let's see which one's better!

Echoes, DS, Feel the Magic, Mario 64 = $260

Echoes and MGS3 = $100.

Now which one's the better deal, huh??!! HUH!!!!

[A Black Falcon]

You can't read it yourself? ... you're at work and they've blocked Gamespot?

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah let's see which one's better!

Echoes, DS, Feel the Magic, Mario 64 = $260

Echoes and MGS3 = $100.

Now which one's the better deal, huh??!! HUH!!!!

I'm not going by COST, I'm going by VALUE. *OB1 is teh pwneded*

[A Black Falcon]

Value often does include cost, you know...

[A Black Falcon]

8.7 great
Gameplay - 8
Graphics - 9
Sound - 10
Value - 8
Tilt - 9

Snake is in for another richly cinematic, occasionally convoluted, and ultimately satisfying adventure in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the latest installment in Konami designer Hideo Kojima's long-running stealth action series. Much like its predecessors, Metal Gear Solid 3 begs to be talked about, if nothing else. After all, during the course of the game, you'll experience a story dense with detail and intrigue, one that's often presented using some of the most dramatically staged video game cutscenes to date. You'll also spend about half your time with the game just watching (or listening to) the story unfold, and for every sequence that's extremely exciting and thought-provoking, there's a part that seems needlessly drawn out. Meanwhile, the gameplay itself--despite an all-new setting in a Soviet jungle during the 1960s--really hasn't changed much since the last installment, and it's aged noticeably during these past few years. Consequently, the mechanics of Metal Gear Solid 3 can be just as confounding as the storyline--but also just as rewarding, especially once you reach some of the game's memorable, dramatic confrontations. In short, this is a great game that embodies both the impressive style and the one-of-a-kind spirit of its predecessors.

There's much that needs to be said about Metal Gear Solid 3's story, mostly because it's such a huge part of the game. Of course, there's much about the story that ought to be experienced firsthand. So suffice it to say that the plot here is very much in the same vein as that of the previous two Metal Gear Solids. It's better than the second, in that it ties up its loose ends and ultimately delivers a strong sense of closure. Yet it'll still keep you guessing and second-guessing till the bitter end. Unfortunately, the story gets off to an almost painfully slow start--you'll have to put up with a lot of wordy, sometimes tedious exposition in the first couple of hours, and these hours are almost literally devoid of gameplay. Another possible impediment is the game's highly self-aware and self-deprecating sense of humor, which should appeal to the series' hardcore fans but nevertheless takes you out of the moment, oftentimes on purpose. Playful anachronisms are plentiful, and there are more than a few jokes at the expense of Metal Gear Solid 2's effete protagonist, Raiden. Some of this humor is rather lofty and clever, while some of it falls flat, as if lost in translation from the Japanese. So it's fortunate that the game seems to simply abandon the goofy aspect of its personality somewhere around the halfway point.

Make no mistake: This is a serious story, filled with some shocking scenes of graphic violence, and a helping of strong language and sexual references for good measure. You've never seen any game pull off some of the stunts that this one does. Fairly early on, the high stakes of Snake's mission are plainly exposed. You're introduced to the game's central villain, a sadomasochistic Russian colonel named Volgin, and you also catch a glimpse of the Cobras, a gaggle of bizarre military commandos whom you'll face one by one in some of the game's biggest showdowns. These characters make pretty good foes, but with maybe a couple of exceptions, they're just straightforward comic book bad guys. It's Metal Gear Solid 3's other key characters (and the events they manage to stir up) that are especially interesting.

Much of the story revolves around Snake's complex relationship with a woman known only as the Boss, who apparently trained him to become the elite operative and deadly fighter that he is. The Boss turns out to be a great character, and in many ways Metal Gear Solid 3 is her story as much as it is Snake's, so it's fortunate that she's as endearing as he is. Another major player in the story is Ocelot, whom Metal Gear Solid fans will remember as the eccentric Russian gunslinger with a penchant for torturing his victims. Of course, he's depicted here in his formative years--he's presented as an extremely talented marksman who's still impressionable, despite an arrogant streak. The rivalry that develops between Ocelot and Snake is pretty remarkable: They seem to be at each other's throats less like mortal enemies and more like bitter siblings. Another character, Eva, fills the token "Bond girl" role in the story. Her sultry appearance leaves little to the imagination, but of course there's more to her than meets the eye.

In addition to these key characters, Snake will frequently communicate via radio with an off-site support staff. The most notable voice on the radio belongs to Major Zero, Snake's commanding officer, who sounds perfectly official, thanks partly to his British accent. The radio conversations you'll be listening to are functionally identical to the codec conversations from previous Metal Gear Solid games, in that they're sometimes too numerous and not nearly as interesting as the game's also-numerous cinematic cutscenes. Nevertheless, they help flesh out and tie together important elements of the story, and they thankfully drop off in frequency as you press further into the game.

The story takes place in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis, and involves Snake's attempts to rescue a brilliant Russian weapons specialist--someone who's developed a machine so dangerous that it could disrupt the Cold War standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, and shift the balance of power squarely into the hands of people like Colonel Volgin. Snake's mission is ostensibly to rescue the scientist, but if you've played previous Metal Gear Solids, then you'll rightly expect that his mission won't be so cut-and-dried. At any rate, Snake's encounters behind enemy lines will take him through everything from dense jungles, leech-infested swamps, and quicksand to heavily guarded military complexes. The game's setting is cohesive and believable, and it offers a good amount of variety and plenty of tactical opportunity. In the jungle, Snake is forced to be a survivalist and use the environment to his advantage. This leads to the game's new elements of play.

These include having to use camouflage to remain well hidden, the ability to mend broken bones and treat other serious injuries, and the necessity of eating anything that's even remotely nutritional to recover stamina. The camouflage system is the most important and best implemented of these. Basically, at any time, you can access a menu to choose from various uniforms and face-paint schemes, different combinations of which can help you blend in better with your surroundings. More types of camouflage can be found hidden throughout the game. The optimal camouflage for any situation tends to be pretty intuitive, but you needn't rely on intuition, since there's a percentage indicator onscreen to explicitly tell you how well hidden you are. If you lie prone while decked out in the right camo, you'll be virtually undetectable. Conversely, if you go running around, guards will either see or hear you. So you'll need to move carefully and slowly to avoid detection, especially since you don't have access to a fancy radar like you did in the previous games. You'll need to actually look and listen for signs of foes in your vicinity, which gives the game a very deliberate pace. This may not sound exciting, but the environments are so convincing from an audiovisual standpoint that it's easy to become immersed in the hunt.

Snake's a one-man army, so even if he is detected, he can usually fight his way out of a bind. He's a master of "CQC," which simply stands for "close-quarters combat," a fighting style that lets him use a pistol and a knife simultaneously to capably deal with any threats. Among other things, CQC lets Snake take hostages and use them as human shields while returning fire at their cohorts. However, getting into out-and-out firefights really isn't desirable, and it's usually avoidable. For one thing, it's quite easy to take down your foes with a well-placed shot to the head from a silenced firearm (or any of the game's numerous real-world weapons, for that matter). For another thing, even if you are caught, you can often simply run right past your enemies, whose AK-47s and other weapons cause surprisingly little damage to Snake at the normal and even the hard difficulty settings. So, in contrast with the game's realistic looks, its action really isn't realistic at all, and the consequence of failing to be stealthy tends to be more of an inconvenience than a penalty. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in gameplay terms, but it dampens the sense of danger that the game tries to evoke, since it's so easy to gun down or simply evade droves of enemies.

It's fairly easy to recover from all the injuries you'll sustain, too. You'll notice that, unlike in previous Metal Gear Solid games, there aren't tons of life-giving rations lying around this time. Instead, you'll gradually recover your health through natural healing. For best results, you'll want to keep your stamina meter maxed out, as well as quickly treat any serious injuries you've sustained. Snake will sometimes suffer deep cuts, fractures, burns, or other major injuries, indicated by part of his health meter turning red. You can treat these injuries literally at any time by going into your menu and using a combination of healing items like disinfectants, sutures, and bandages, all of which you'll usually have in ample supply. The idea of having to use survival medicine is a good one, but the abstract way in which you administer the treatments and the fact that you can heal yourself even in the middle of a firefight makes this system hard to swallow. It mostly just serves to interrupt the pacing of some of the game's major battles, since you'll find yourself switching to your cure menu each time you're hit.

As for recovering your stamina, which gradually dwindles as you go about your business, that's where eating comes in. The game's jungle settings are teeming with critters like snakes, rats, spiders, birds, and more, and all these are fair game. You'll have to kill or tranquilize them first, though.

Snake can hoard a ton of food in his backpack, to the point where it seems like he's carrying around a zoo instead of just enough food to stay alive. While it's pretty fun to experiment with eating all the different types of plants and animals you can find, if only to hear Snake's reactions at having to sample each of them, the food system ultimately isn't a big deal--it's easy to find enough food to keep your stamina gauge nice and high at all times. If you let it dwindle, your healing rate will slow down and your aim will grow unsteady, but you'll rarely find yourself low on stamina unless you let it drop on purpose. If nothing else, though, all these new features do help give a sense that Snake really is out there all by himself, trying to survive in the harsh jungle.

Like Metal Gear Solid 2 before it, Metal Gear Solid 3 features a tremendous amount of detail in its gameplay, but most of it is purely optional, and so subtle that you might never notice it unless you look for it. There's tons of stuff you can do in this gameworld, such as catch poisonous snakes and fling them at your unsuspecting enemies, shoot beehives out of trees and cause them to drop on hapless victims below, contract a bad stomach virus from eating spoiled food, and even fake your own death. Many previous Metal Gear Solid gameplay elements, such as the ability to stick up a guard with a gun to his back, shoot out his radio to prevent him from signaling for reinforcements, and sneak around while hiding in an inconspicuous cardboard box, are also intact.

All this stuff is there for you to play around with if you like, though the numerous battles against boss opponents are where Metal Gear Solid 3 does the best job of actually encouraging you to experiment. Metal Gear Solid's boss battles have always been one of the series' best aspects, and Metal Gear Solid 3 certainly continues this tradition. In one especially protracted and challenging battle of cat and mouse against an enemy sniper, you'll need to use such tools as sonar, a directional microphone, and thermal goggles--not to mention weapons like an M16, an AK-47, and a Dragunov SVD--to kill your foe before he kills you. Most of the boss battles present you with several viable paths to victory, although Major Zero is always there to clue you in if you can't figure it out. In short, the boss battles are the highlight of Metal Gear Solid 3's gameplay. With a couple of exceptions, they're not difficult, but they're dynamic and exciting encounters nonetheless. The game's climactic confrontations are especially memorable and intense. The earlier battles are enjoyable as well, though not all the characters you'll be fighting in them are well developed, so these sequences are relatively lacking in dramatic impact.

As mentioned, Metal Gear Solid 3 mostly plays like Metal Gear Solid 2. This means you'll be moving Snake mostly from an overhead third-person perspective and frequently switching to a first-person viewpoint for looking, aiming, and shooting. You're given very limited control over the game's camera, so you often feel like you're running blind in the game's environments, which tend to contain enemies who can see or hear you even when they're offscreen. In addition, the game makes use of the PS2 controller's pressure-sensitive buttons, so different actions (such as putting a foe into a choke hold or slitting his throat with Snake's survival knife) are triggered depending on how hard you push down. All this is done in the signature style of Metal Gear Solid, so it's tried and true. But by today's standards, it's rather awkward--so if you've been playing other first-person or third-person action or adventure games lately, get ready to spend at least a good hour getting accustomed to this game's particular way of doing things.

Actually, a great way to learn the ropes of Metal Gear Solid 3 is by practicing in the Snake vs. Monkey mode, a funny little extra that best exemplifies the game's sense of humor and its sneaking-and-shooting gameplay.

In Snake vs. Monkey mode, Snake is given a lengthy, convoluted mission briefing about how he's expected to, well, capture a bunch of monkeys--monkeys that bear more than a passing resemblance to those of the Ape Escape series. Catching monkeys involves sneaking up on them, blasting them unconscious either with a special pistol or with stun grenades, and then just running into them--you'll hear Snake enthusiastically shout "Gotcha!" with each successful monkey capture. There are several different, progressively tougher Snake vs. Monkey levels (each one with better-hidden monkeys than the last), and the game challenges you to beat these stages as quickly as you can. Beyond this neat extra, Metal Gear Solid 3 also invites you to download additional camouflage patterns online, though this is the extent of the game's networking features.

The bulk of the game's replay value lies in the single-player campaign itself, which should take you 15 or more hours to complete the first time, provided you don't skip the cutscenes. It's a good game to go back through a second time, since you'll pick up on some nuances in the story that you originally missed, and you'll also get to play around with some of the obscurer elements of the gameplay (as well as some new items you'll unlock once you finish the game for the first time). Like its predecessors, Metal Gear Solid 3 contains a distinctly limited number of gameplay sequences, but it also feels noticeably bigger than the previous games, partly because many of the environments you'll explore are, in fact, a lot bigger than the claustrophobic corridors that are the series' hallmark. At any rate, there's no filler here--every single gameplay sequence is a set piece of some sort. There's always some sort of tactical twist to each new area or encounter.

Of course, each area is simply beautiful to behold. Metal Gear Solid has always been on the cutting edge of video game graphics, and this third chapter is no exception. The visuals on display this time are less of a shock to the system than Metal Gear Solid 2's were back in 2001, partly because few games have since managed to squeeze much more visual fidelity out of the PS2, and partly because Metal Gear Solid 3's bigger, more complex environments trigger the occasional drop in frame rate. Also, the game noticeably recycles some of the character animations from its predecessor. However, it still looks superb by any standard. Impressive little details abound, such as how gunfire causes the dense jungle underbrush to violently sway and tatter, how blood soaks through Snake's uniform when he's injured, and how the jungle's various indigenous creatures move just as fluidly and realistically as the game's human characters.

The game's cutscenes are by far the most impressive aspect of its visuals, though. They all feature incredible motion-capture work, as well as camerawork, choreography, and a sense of spectacle that are on par with what you've come to expect from big-budget action movies. Metal Gear Solid 3 also sports some of the best, most expressive 3D character models in the business--the lip synching leaves something to be desired, but amazingly enough, the game's character models sometimes do an even better job of emoting than the professional voice actors attempting to lend the characters their personalities. And even though you mostly just sit back and watch the cutscenes, some minor interactive elements really help sell the experience as being part of a game. These are things such as how Snake's appearance always mimics whichever camouflage pattern you're wearing, how you can zoom in on a cutscene at any time, how the controller's rumble feature is used to give tactile feedback during key moments, and how you can occasionally switch to a first-person viewpoint at the touch of a button. Metal Gear Solid 3 truly feels like an interactive movie.

An impeccable audio presentation certainly helps. Metal Gear Solid 3 sounds even better than it looks, thanks largely to some incredibly authentic ambient effects, as well as an excellent dynamic soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams, whose previous work includes the soundtracks for Metal Gear Solid 2 and a bunch of Hollywood productions. The musical score perfectly captures the tension and intensity that the game's action sequences attempt to convey. Meanwhile, the voice acting in Metal Gear Solid 3 is good, and of similar quality to that of its predecessors. That is to say, it's closer in quality to what you'd expect from a cartoon than from a movie. Some of the characters, such as Colonel Volgin, sound way too over-the-top, which undermines their personalities a little, since their voices seem as unbelievable as their appearances. However, most of the main actors do a fine job, and it's great to hear David Hayter reprising his role as the game's gravelly-voiced main character. Yet what's most surprising about Metal Gear Solid 3's audio is the inclusion of a couple of songs at certain points in the story. The brassy, James Bond-style Snake Eater theme turns out to be an incredibly catchy piece of music that's used to wonderful effect during the game.

Metal Gear Solid has always aspired to be more than just an action adventure game. The series has pushed the envelope in terms of storytelling through the video game medium, and it's also concocted some downright postmodern plot twists that are about as thought-provoking as games get. Yet these types of things have come at the expense of pure gameplay, which sometimes takes a backseat to the story and to the high concept. All this continues to be true of Metal Gear Solid 3, which contains more than a few moments that are worth the price of admission all by themselves, and which offers a free-form gameplay experience that can be seen as either a polite formality or a sandbox in which you and your imagination can run wild. At any rate, times have changed since Metal Gear Solid's last major outing, which is why some of the game's imperfections are harder to swallow today than they were in years past. Nevertheless, this is still a great achievement, one that fans of the series will love and vividly remember long after most of 2004's other games are forgotten.

[OB1]

You can't read it yourself? ... you're at work and they've blocked Gamespot?

.... I even made a damn thread about that a few weeks ago! You even posted in it, and said that you don't know anything about de-blockers!!

:screwy:

I'm not going by COST, I'm going by VALUE. *OB1 is teh pwneded*

... These aren't priceless, you know...




And wow, I just read that gamespot review. That only further confirms Kasavin's rank among the biggest idiots in the gaming community. The gameplay hasn't changed much? Did he even play the game or just have someone else play while he closed his eyes until the cut scenes came on? There's been so much added to MGS3 in terms of gameplay and innovation that I seriously believe that he didn't play the game. There's no other explanation for it.

[A Black Falcon]

He talks about some things though... healing, for instance, got a big part... but as to how much the gameplay has changed, I'd obviously need to play it to know. He clearly wishes it was more like a stealth game though... but that's a style thing -- do you want a realistic game with stealth or an unrealistic one where you can just blast through? MGS takes the latter. He may be correct that it's more "out of date", but is that style more fun? For many people, yes, it probably is.

[OB1]

Well let's see, first up we have the camouflage system, something that has never been done before. Depending on the type of camo you wear, how easily enemies see you changes. Clothing also affects your stamina, so if you're wearing lots of camo your stamina is going to lower, but if you take off your shirt for instance, enemies will be able to see you more easily. There's also the new CQC (for close quarters combat), where you have a variety of different close-combat offensive abilities. In past Metal Gears if you were near an enemy you could do two things: choke/grab him or punch/roll into him. In Snake Eater you can interrogate the person, slit their throat (which makes conserving ammo easier to do), throw them over your shoulder onto the ground, the standard choke/hold and punch, as well as a more effective hostage/body shield system. There's also the new way of gaining health. To eat you have to find animals and kill them. To heal yourself you have to manually take bullets out of your flesh, bandage yourself, and so on. If you want to you can leave everything and have scars the the like.

That's the greatest amount of change MG has seen since the first MGS.

[A Black Falcon]

He does mention a lot of those things, you know...

[Private Hudson]

Even with all those additions, I still think the fundamentals of the game will remain true to MGS2. That's probably what he criticizes it about. And I really don't think that he believes it to detract from the game that much.

[OB1]

He does mention a lot of those things, you know...

Yet he still says that not much has changed. That's what we like to call a contradictory statement, Brian.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, he describes the new health system (and says how now that you can heal anytime on a pause menu and how this isn't the greatest thing), and mentions the eating of animals for food, the camo system, and inventive ways to deal with the baddies... did you really read the review, OB1? The only thing on your list there that you could even say he did not talk about is going into depth about the "new CQC system", and he discusses that some. The other three things he definitely covers in plenty of detail. As PH says, it's about the gameplay as a whole being very similar to the previous games -- how you can take very unrealistic amounts of damage and not die, how the stealth isn't really required because you are fully capable of killing them all in straight out firefights, etc...


It's not contradictory. Not if you are saying that despite some relatively small things changing, the overall facts of the gameplay, and the issues that he mentions most specifically as "problems" (whether they are or not is opinion of course) are things that were in the previous games as well.

[A Black Falcon]

http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/met...899p1.html

You'll hate Gamespy's review, OB1. They say that "Kojima wisely reigns in the high-minded metababble that tarnished MGS2." :)

Well, they like MGS3 a lot (and it's a decent overview of the game with a good (4.5/5) score), but that aspect of it I'm sure you don't agree much with. :D

[Private Hudson]

Well, I read the first sentence of the Gamespot review and fell in love with the game already.... the story is convoluted! YES!!

[OB1]

Yeah, he describes the new health system (and says how now that you can heal anytime on a pause menu and how this isn't the greatest thing), and mentions the eating of animals for food, the camo system, and inventive ways to deal with the baddies... did you really read the review, OB1? The only thing on your list there that you could even say he did not talk about is going into depth about the "new CQC system", and he discusses that some. The other three things he definitely covers in plenty of detail. As PH says, it's about the gameplay as a whole being very similar to the previous games -- how you can take very unrealistic amounts of damage and not die, how the stealth isn't really required because you are fully capable of killing them all in straight out firefights, etc...


It's not contradictory. Not if you are saying that despite some relatively small things changing, the overall facts of the gameplay, and the issues that he mentions most specifically as "problems" (whether they are or not is opinion of course) are things that were in the previous games as well.

That's like saying that OoT is not any different from LttP because the gameplay is overall the same.

There's no defending your boyfriend Kasavin this time, Brian. The man has proven time and time again that he's got the absolute worst opinion on games in the reviewing community.

[OB1]

Yeah, he describes the new health system (and says how now that you can heal anytime on a pause menu and how this isn't the greatest thing), and mentions the eating of animals for food, the camo system, and inventive ways to deal with the baddies... did you really read the review, OB1? The only thing on your list there that you could even say he did not talk about is going into depth about the "new CQC system", and he discusses that some. The other three things he definitely covers in plenty of detail. As PH says, it's about the gameplay as a whole being very similar to the previous games -- how you can take very unrealistic amounts of damage and not die, how the stealth isn't really required because you are fully capable of killing them all in straight out firefights, etc...


It's not contradictory. Not if you are saying that despite some relatively small things changing, the overall facts of the gameplay, and the issues that he mentions most specifically as "problems" (whether they are or not is opinion of course) are things that were in the previous games as well.

That's like saying that OoT is not any different from LttP because the gameplay is overall the same.

There's no defending your boyfriend Kasavin this time, Brian. The man has proven time and time again that he's got the absolute worst opinion on games in the reviewing community.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, the first paragraph of that Gamespy review does not help them improve their standing among game review sites, that's for sure...

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, the first paragraph of that Gamespy review does not help them improve their standing among game review sites, that's for sure...

[A Black Falcon]

Oh great, now a new thread name? Yeah, so accurate...

I don't see what's so hard to understand. He thinks that despite some added variety in ways to deal with enemies and some gameplay changes (like the healing and camo systems), the main gameplay is very similar to MGS2. Which sounds like a very reasonable assessment. Then he continues to say that he would prefer it if it was more of a stealth game. Which is opinion. But a significant part of reviewing something is opinion, so that's okay...

[A Black Falcon]

That's like saying that OoT is not any different from LttP because the gameplay is overall the same.

That is totally insane. MGS3 plays a lot like MGS2! All the reviews say so! Why is this such a hard idea for you to accept?

Is it identical? No. Does he say it is identical? No.

Snake's a one-man army, so even if he is detected, he can usually fight his way out of a bind. He's a master of "CQC," which simply stands for "close-quarters combat," a fighting style that lets him use a pistol and a knife simultaneously to capably deal with any threats. Among other things, CQC lets Snake take hostages and use them as human shields while returning fire at their cohorts. However, getting into out-and-out firefights really isn't desirable, and it's usually avoidable. For one thing, it's quite easy to take down your foes with a well-placed shot to the head from a silenced firearm (or any of the game's numerous real-world weapons, for that matter). For another thing, even if you are caught, you can often simply run right past your enemies, whose AK-47s and other weapons cause surprisingly little damage to Snake at the normal and even the hard difficulty settings. So, in contrast with the game's realistic looks, its action really isn't realistic at all, and the consequence of failing to be stealthy tends to be more of an inconvenience than a penalty. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in gameplay terms, but it dampens the sense of danger that the game tries to evoke, since it's so easy to gun down or simply evade droves of enemies.

No contradictions here, clearly, if you read the paragraph...

So he says near the beginning that the gameplay hasn't changed much from previous installments. But you know what? Based on the various reviews of this game, I would say that that characterization is exactly right. So once again it's just your one-man vendetta against Gamespot (like with so many other things) that is causing a 'problem' here.

[OB1]

That is totally insane. MGS3 plays a lot like MGS2! All the reviews say so! Why is this such a hard idea for you to accept?

Is it identical? No. Does he say it is identical? No.

He says not much has changed. A lot has changed. A far great difference than OoT to WW, MGS1 to MGS2, or most sequels for that matter. LttP to OoT is a slight exagerration.

No contradictions here, clearly, if you read the paragraph...

So he says near the beginning that the gameplay hasn't changed much from previous installments. But you know what? Based on the various reviews of this game, I would say that that characterization is exactly right. So once again it's just your one-man vendetta against Gamespot (like with so many other things) that is causing a 'problem' here.

Hey guess what? I have the game. You do not. And I've played all of the previous MGSs several times over. Just an hour into the game and MGS3 is drastically different from the previous ones. So sorry stupid, but your precious Kasavin has proven that he is once again a dumbass.

And btw that part about stealth not being important shows that he only played the game on easy mode. There's no way you can play the game without using stealth unless you're playing on easy or very easy mode.

[OB1]

Oh great, now a new thread name? Yeah, so accurate...

I don't see what's so hard to understand. He thinks that despite some added variety in ways to deal with enemies and some gameplay changes (like the healing and camo systems), the main gameplay is very similar to MGS2. Which sounds like a very reasonable assessment. Then he continues to say that he would prefer it if it was more of a stealth game. Which is opinion. But a significant part of reviewing something is opinion, so that's okay...

Man TC is screwing up. I can't split the threads properly. This'll have to do for now. Your usual dickhead posts are ruining my MGS3 thread, so as soon as I can I'm gonna fix everything.

[OB1]

More hours into the game and the more idiotic both Kasavin and you look like, Brian. Even in the first part of the game stealth is extremely important, and it's harder to get rid of enemies when you're caught than it is in Splinter Cell! I am now certain that Kasavin played the game on very easy. Absolutely.

[A Black Falcon]

I'd have to play it to know for sure if he's right or wrong of course...

[OB1]

I've already explained how the idiot is wrong. You're as big of a moron as he is if you're still bent of siding with him.

So pathetic.

[A Black Falcon]

Umm, how in the world did you interpret that last post of mine to mean what you obviously did (that is, just a restatement of my past posts in this thread)?

[OB1]

You basically said that you're still going to believe him until you see it for yourself. Which won't happen within the next year or so, so you know that it's an easy cop-out.