Wow, I've honestly never known Terra to get this fired up about an issue. I've known her for running on 6 or 7 years now and I don't believe she's ever done this.

In other news I'm one of "those girls" (variation of "that guy") who love to play the game time and time again and to call this one unpolished is inaccurate. Just because someone went the run and gun route doesn't mean you can't take the stealth route, and that's what Kojima wanted. He wanted this last game to be accessible to all in terms of game play. Storyline I admit could have been presented a little better as far as back story, however he already had quite a few answers he had to get in for the fans and that was his primary concern; answering the questions. He didn't even want to do MGS3 but fans begged him back, begged for him to continue with the series. Kojima was ready to hand MGS to his team and be free of it entirely, didn't even want to produce really.

I also believe that some of the narrative could have been handled better and taken some out of the cutscenes ala draining the sound and having like a sort of flash back conversation or something while still keeping the player in the game.

The controls I found to be spot on once you get to know them. No I didn't like the lack of a duck and cover fire system, but I got by just fine. And stealth, when you get the controls down and understand the enemy AI its easy to do. No its not going to happen first time, maybe not even second time through, but it will happen. On the harder modes stealth feels almost rewarding.

However to say that its bad writing, please. The writing was wonderfully done and with each cutscene it seemed to present a new twist to the game's story, especially if you knew the background to the game.

If you haven't played any of the previous games, DON'T pick this up. I told a friend of mine he was better off playing each game in succession rather than diving into the fourth because he would have no clue as to what's going on or why a certain scene just felt so fitting to fans even if that scenes controls were a touch weak. People who have BEATEN the game know exactly what I'm talking about, think about it.

ovset:

That being said, Yahtzee was 100% correct.

you cannot be 100% correct with an opinion.
i am used to some real original thoughts yahtzee's reviews and there are none in this one.
it's just whine whine whine i have the attention span of a gnat and expect you all to have the same so i'm going to string all my blurbs together in a torrent of manically edited animation and redundant criticisms.

oh wait that's all his reviews.

i just happen to be a ps fanboy and yahtzee in recent months has clearly become a 360 addict and it's starting to come out in his reviews and it's annoying.

Yahtzee, silenced pistol with infinite ammo and one shot knock out? Raise the difficulty past Liquid East please, cmon man.

I love you but, you fail to mention things like that.

yzzlthtz:

ovset:

That being said, Yahtzee was 100% correct.

i just happen to be a ps fanboy and yahtzee in recent months has clearly become a 360 addict and it's starting to come out in his reviews and it's annoying.

Correction he hasn't been a 360 addict, 360 games are AS OF NOW more around the areas of BANG BANG entertain friends and frats at drunk partys and not. EPIC STORYS OF DRAMA AND WOE WITH GRAPHICS TO BACK UP CLUNKY BAT ADQUEATE GAMEPLAY. Hell PS3 games have YET To fully utilize all of the little bits that came along with it, the reason WHY he's a given 360 better reviews is not because hes a 'fanboy' its because most gamers play games to HAVE FUN and the games coming out for Ps3/2 are in all fun but not fun in the sense that the AVERAGE at HOME gamer. Yathzee speaks honestly, and if you read my previous post you'll understand I'm in the same position at you and what he stated were FACTS so he is 100% correct. Too much dialogue and 'adequate' gameplay are what makes up MGS4, if you dont LIKE the story there isnt much to get out of the game. That is why people no not people FANBOYS are going to always complain about reviews on games where the Story holds together the game SO SHUTUP ALREADY ABOUT IT argg

Pliskin321:
Yahtzee, silenced pistol with infinite ammo and one shot knock out? Raise the difficulty past Liquid East please, cmon man.

I love you but, you fail to mention things like that.

His review comes from the standpoint of someone at the first time playing and people who are playing the game for the first time, or just want to complete the game for reviews will pick an easier path. The diffculty of the game SHOULD NOT have a drastic impact on a games review if its good THIS IS A FACT.

Metal Gear Solid 4 has to be one of the most popular, and most attacked, video game series of all time, and while the review was amusing, I'm sad to say I heard every single ounce of it before. It read like a highly unoriginal laundry list of every grievance I've ever seen. Nothing particularly wrong with agreeing with other people about problems, but it unfortunately makes for a highly predictable, and less funny, review.

yzzlthtz:
you cannot be 100% correct with an opinion.

Thank God you reminded me. I completely forgot this was an internet forum full of opinions.

While I agree with Yahtzee, he needs to stop being a wuss and play on Hard. That's how you fully experience any game, especially something as detailed as MGS. Let's try wearing our big boy pants now, Yahtzee.

Monokeros:
Too much dialogue and 'adequate' gameplay are what makes up MGS4, if you dont LIKE the story there isnt much to get out of the game.

god you people really talk like you're experts.

the game-play in mgs4 is brilliant and very open ended and the main reason i play the game.

whatever, maybe i'm a masochist or a douche who likes being shoved into small places with a bunch of cunts, but i find the game to be a fucking blast.

that's my opinion, just like when i say things like "i find Yahtzee's review of my new favorite game pedestrian and insulting" or "this review has lowered my opinion of Yahtzee's intelligence, his ability to play games, his video editing skills, his family, any bedraggled pets he might take care of, and his clothing style."

i don't know why i do it, it's mostly just release. it feels good, like dishing out a limit break.

i mean, i can understand why someone might not like this game. it's weird and hard to get into at first. i spent my first hour of playing running around like a screaming idiot bird with a target sign on his bottom. but when i finally got into it, i started to SERIOUSLY enjoy myself, more than i have in any other action game. i might have to go back and play all the other metal gears after i'm thoroughly done playing through 4 on both the top difficulties...

again, i was just hoping for something a little more original from Yahtzee. i'm sure my feelings will mend themselves in a month or so, or if Yahtzee slams NG2, which is unlikely since it's plastered all over the place on this site.

have you even played mgs4, Monokeros? if no, please don't waste our time responding to this post.

sry to all that said not to buy games based on his opinion, but other than the massive hype machines this is my only method of finding good games to buy.

If he likes it, I will buy it. If he doesn't like it for reasons that don't bother me, I might. If he hates it, probably not buying it. If he doesn't review it (Hellgate) I'll probably forget to buy it even if I was interested.

but this one i'm buying anyway

"This shit is bananas"
...b-a-n*Twomped* right, sorry!

I love the game, but the review was still a bit funny.

His review comes from the standpoint of someone at the first time playing and people who are playing the game for the first time, or just want to complete the game for reviews will pick an easier path. The diffculty of the game SHOULD NOT have a drastic impact on a games review if its good THIS IS A FACT.

No, it's not a fact. People could say Halo 3 is piss easy, because they finished it on easy without dying once. In MGS4, you get alot less ammo/rations. You get seen ALOT easier on the harder difficulties. Plus, you die alot quicker, so it almost forces you to sneak. This changes the gameplay alot when it's either sneak or die.

If you're worrying about standing up from behind something to try and shoot someone, then maybe you should try harder to stay OUT OF SIGHT. lololol

Well, no game is perfect. I think this game is at least on par with the other Metal Gear Solid titles. If you liked the other ones, you'll like this one. If you don't like the other ones... heck, there have been three of them so why are you even bothering with the fourth?

Plays "Ayo Technology" intro. Stops music.

Great review.

However, what the hell? Did anyone else sit there at 4:15 seconds looking at the credits thinking, "Oh YES! Another great ZP short!" Well, I did and I don't care a rat's ass if you did or not.

Little did I know (now I do, much to my chagrin) that it was an advertisement for Heavenly Sword((S)) 2, which they now have on the XCrap360. Jeeeesus. Nothing like ruining a perfectly good review by adding on a TWO MINUTE AD on the end.

Seriously, this makes me hesitant to even watch after the credits now. I went from giddy as a schoolgirl to as scared as the chic off of that crappy movie, oh what was it... the one with the blind girl that got new eyes? It doesn't matter, names are unimportant. What is important is that you realize how craptastic that was. Damn you.

Plays "Bohemian Rhapsody" while the credits roll. Stops.

AND DOESN'T CUT TO AN AD.

TerraMGP:
The "Extra crap" as you call it is the detail that makes it so interesting. It feels alot more like playing a tabletop that way, or reading a book. Thats what I don't get about people why all this extra data is not lifted up as one of the high points of the game. Its like back when the original "Star wars guide to ____" books came out and you got to read up on details about all the diffrent droids/ships/ext.

When I read this, all i thought was, if it has a lot of extra stuff most people might not care about, why couldn't it follow in the footsteps of "Star wars guide to ____" and release all that extra content to people who want more information? I know with certain things I like, (Blizzard games being my example) I do go out and buy the books to learn the extra information that doesn't need to be presented in the storyline. It makes it fun because, even though I am paying extra, I get to do the research about what I want to learn about. It's also nice because its not forced down everyone's throat, turning people away from the game because there is just too much to try to absorb.

There are already MGS books out there, for anyone that wants the extra story. Now why couldn't some of the other parts of the game that (as many people have already stated) seem unnecessary be put into a "Metal Gear Solid Guide to __" or even just explained in one of the books, because it seems that mainly only the hardcore fans like all that extra detail.

Or how about if Kojima really wanted you to have the extra resources at your command, why not just have a website explaining the other parts. I am sure it would have saved him time and money putting those parts into a cut scene (I haven't played the game, but I will take a guess that at least some of those explanations were just them standing around talking about it, didn't really need to have a fully voiced/computer generated cut scene about it) and he would be generating extra revenue from possibly having advertisements on the page somewhere.

I understand that the story to MGS is most likely its main focus, but it does seem silly to overwhelm many of the players with too much information they couldn't care less about. (Again, I haven't played it, just a generalization from the information I have read about on this forum)

I was laughing out loud over this ZP review. Not that that hasn't happened before but it's the first time I felt the "exact" way about a series. MGS control schemes are always unintuitive as hell, but on the plus side if, and that's a big if, you master them you really do fell like an elite black ops agent.

The winding, pretentious story with lengthy cutscenes has always been the main flaw in the series. MGS3 was the first game I played and it made me an instant fanboy, but the other ones started to make me ill. Even Metal Gear 2 (not Metal Gear Solid 2) had lengthy opening credits that made me want to play something else.

JTM:
Plays "Ayo Technology" intro. Stops music.

Great review.

However, what the hell? Did anyone else sit there at 4:15 seconds looking at the credits thinking, "Oh YES! Another great ZP short!" Well, I did and I don't care a rat's ass if you did or not.

Little did I know (now I do, much to my chagrin) that it was an advertisement for Heavenly Sword((S)) 2, which they now have on the XCrap360. Jeeeesus. Nothing like ruining a perfectly good review by adding on a TWO MINUTE AD on the end.

Seriously, this makes me hesitant to even watch after the credits now. I went from giddy as a schoolgirl to as scared as the chic off of that crappy movie, oh what was it... the one with the blind girl that got new eyes? It doesn't matter, names are unimportant. What is important is that you realize how craptastic that was. Damn you.

Plays "Bohemian Rhapsody" while the credits roll. Stops.

AND DOESN'T CUT TO AN AD.

Had you actually watched it, you would have known it was for Ninja Gaiden 2. And you're a fanboy, congratulations.

And everyone should realize that Yahtzee doesn't choose to play those commercials at the end of his vids. The Escapist puts them there after he puts in his video or they send it to him to plop onto the end of the video.

Also...

Could everyone just stop please?

This is getting worse than the SSBB thread and that was the stupidest thread I've ever seen.

yzzlthtz:

ovset:

That being said, Yahtzee was 100% correct.

you cannot be 100% correct with an opinion.
i am used to some real original thoughts yahtzee's reviews and there are none in this one.
it's just whine whine whine i have the attention span of a gnat and expect you all to have the same so i'm going to string all my blurbs together in a torrent of manically edited animation and redundant criticisms.

oh wait that's all his reviews.

i just happen to be a ps fanboy and yahtzee in recent months has clearly become a 360 addict and it's starting to come out in his reviews and it's annoying.

Then tell me how is he a 360 addict when he ripped apart Halo 3 and Mass Effect?

I'm still quite disappointed with his review, though.

this was...short...but still funny really like the shit=bananas part, just a little short and the rest was filled with trailers of a game, and drawn by pain, (on a different note, YAY SHIRTS!!!!!!)

JakobLogan:

TerraMGP:
The "Extra crap" as you call it is the detail that makes it so interesting. It feels alot more like playing a tabletop that way, or reading a book. Thats what I don't get about people why all this extra data is not lifted up as one of the high points of the game. Its like back when the original "Star wars guide to ____" books came out and you got to read up on details about all the diffrent droids/ships/ext.

When I read this, all i thought was, if it has a lot of extra stuff most people might not care about, why couldn't it follow in the footsteps of "Star wars guide to ____" and release all that extra content to people who want more information? I know with certain things I like, (Blizzard games being my example) I do go out and buy the books to learn the extra information that doesn't need to be presented in the storyline. It makes it fun because, even though I am paying extra, I get to do the research about what I want to learn about. It's also nice because its not forced down everyone's throat, turning people away from the game because there is just too much to try to absorb.

There are already MGS books out there, for anyone that wants the extra story. Now why couldn't some of the other parts of the game that (as many people have already stated) seem unnecessary be put into a "Metal Gear Solid Guide to __" or even just explained in one of the books, because it seems that mainly only the hardcore fans like all that extra detail.

Or how about if Kojima really wanted you to have the extra resources at your command, why not just have a website explaining the other parts. I am sure it would have saved him time and money putting those parts into a cut scene (I haven't played the game, but I will take a guess that at least some of those explanations were just them standing around talking about it, didn't really need to have a fully voiced/computer generated cut scene about it) and he would be generating extra revenue from possibly having advertisements on the page somewhere.

I understand that the story to MGS is most likely its main focus, but it does seem silly to overwhelm many of the players with too much information they couldn't care less about. (Again, I haven't played it, just a generalization from the information I have read about on this forum)

Again his last game, he wanted to clear up all loose ends, and by now if you don't know an MGS game is going to be story driven you should not be playing them. Hideo is one of those people who understands how wonderful and amazing the small details can be. If you really don't like it that much skip the cutscenes and play the rest of the game, but I think that playing an interactive book like that is alot more fun and thats what he made. The interactive part was tactical espionage and the rest was what you SHOULD expect from his last MGS game, what were people expecting just tiny blurbs of story?

Once again a flawless review, gratz Yahtzee.

Holy crap....theres 4 minutes of commercials tacked on to this.

FOUR MINUTES OF COMMERCIALS.

What the holy hell. I mean I appreciate that the commercials are loaded at the end but holy christ FOUR MINUTES OF COMMERCIALS.

What planet has the Escapist landed on? Its beginning to smell like Planet IGN.

Dr Killpatient:

If by "greatest ever" you mean "endless convoluted verbal diarrhea", then yes, MGS' story is the greatest ever.

hmm, while it does take a little focus to understand what is being said, i actually find the story pretty intelligent and poignant, and even, at times, very moving.

though the romantic bits are just awful. really just stupid. and the cooking scene with Naomi and Sunny made me want to throw them off the plane.

but "endless convoluted verbal diarrhea"? give me a break. do you have anything resembling a brain in that melon you call a head? did you even play the game?

ahh i'm sorry, we're all entitled to our opinion. the storytelling is a bit anime-ish and Yahtzee is himself an admitted anime disliker. but verbal diarrhea? did you, like, flunk elementary school? i mean jesus guys, why are you defending this guy so brainlessly?

Sorry, but I completely disagreed. I personally love the story and characters, the cut-scenes are unskippable if you don't want to watch them, the A.I. improves on the higher difficulty levels, I found the controls very workable for both action and stealth (and if you think that the tranq gun makes things to easy, here's a novel idea - DON'T USE IT), and finally, when it comes down to analysing how much gameplay there is, remember that you can play the game in all different ways. I'm on my second playthrough (focusing on stealth rather than action), I'm still loving it, and I haven't even changed difficulty levels yet, plus I plan to go after all the emblems at some point. Also, I enjoy Metal Gear Online.

Don't get me wrong, it was a funny review, and I know Yahtzee is supposed to be a 'critic' in the very strongest sense of the word, I just found myself personally disagreeing on almost every single point made.

Pr0:
Holy crap....theres 4 minutes of commercials tacked on to this.

FOUR MINUTES OF COMMERCIALS.

What the holy hell. I mean I appreciate that the commercials are loaded at the end but holy christ FOUR MINUTES OF COMMERCIALS.

What planet has the Escapist landed on? Its beginning to smell like Planet IGN.

more like planet suck!
ohhh!

Plays2:

yzzlthtz:

ovset:

That being said, Yahtzee was 100% correct.

you cannot be 100% correct with an opinion.
i am used to some real original thoughts yahtzee's reviews and there are none in this one.
it's just whine whine whine i have the attention span of a gnat and expect you all to have the same so i'm going to string all my blurbs together in a torrent of manically edited animation and redundant criticisms.

oh wait that's all his reviews.

i just happen to be a ps fanboy and yahtzee in recent months has clearly become a 360 addict and it's starting to come out in his reviews and it's annoying.

Then tell me how is he a 360 addict when he ripped apart Halo 3 and Mass Effect?

I'm still quite disappointed with his review, though.

maybe he was kidding?
there's a lot more to play on the 360 other than Halo and Mass Effect (no really).
i only said that to be snarky. i mean come on - poop all over the best ps3 exclusive to date and follow it up with a NG2 preview? also, he blatantly and without convincing cause dissed the ps3 controller for GTA4, a clear sign that he's become accustomed to the behemoth that is the xbox controller....

sorry, double post.

I watch Yahtzee to laugh mostly, not for serious reviews for the most part.

In general Yahtzee's opinion of what makes a good game and mine are heavily in conflict for the most part. What's more he also contridicts himself, which sometimes makes me wonder.

For example he tends to rail about games having a decent storyline. The basic message being that if the game isn't a braindead fragfest it's boring. But then he goes on to praising things like "Silent Hill" due to their slow pace, atmosphere, and story telling.

What's more I don't see what is wrong with sequels assuming people have played the previous games. Frankly I've always found it to be a game killer for sequels if they have to dumb it down or retread the earlier installments entirely so the hypothetical new gamer can "catch up". Especially when the earlier games are availible (usually) for sale through some method.

Now honestly I'm not a big Metal Gear fan for reasons I won't go into, but I occasionally worry that reviewers like Yahtzee damage the industry. Especially given the prominance they enjoy.

Now yes, I do admit that the whole "interactive movie" thing can be annoying when it's done wrong. Perhaps MGS inflicted overkill in this regard (like Xenosaga) when they should have been looking for ways to develop the story as you played. But then again he also lumped games like "The Witcher" and "Mass Effect" into the same catagory where most of that dialogue is delivered as you wander around doing quests in civilized areas (albeit similar ones) not through long pieces of FMV or whatever.

Then there is his Silent Hill obsession mentioned in several articles, which to an extent can be blamed for everything he complains about other games doing.

I understand Yahtzee is a slice and dice reviewer, and we basically like to listen to him pick on the faults of games. However I would like to see a bit more consistincy as what makes a good slice and dice reviewer as opposed to someone just puking bile from a
soap box is fairness and consistincy [SP].

I'm still a fan and tune into Yahtzee every week, and I've made comments about this kind of thing before. I expect him to flame any game he reviews horribly, but too much plot/exposition/atmosphere etc... is not a fair or consistantly judged factor.

Mmm, mailbag showdown sequel.

I loved the review, I completely agree there are too many parts where I find myself saying man i wish I was controlling the action not just a dumb cut scene. Though i found most of them to be very good. Yeah I'm a fan of the series so I guess I'm biased, but I see a lot of your points it could have been better! It almost gave me a FFVII Dirge of Cerberus feel of killing 3 guys just to get to a cut scene with a lot of rambling at times. And like everyone else mentioned that shit=bananas had me rolling!

I think fans of game shouldn't take reviews so seriously. Like even Yahtzee said and this I'm not sure if this is exact word for word, but if you really truly like a game what any reviewer says shouldn't bother you, because it's just an opinion. Anyone going around looking for a reviewer to agree with their opinions isn't looking for a review. they are looking for a lap dog to tell them what they want to hear. Your not going to always hear what you want and thats life deal with it. People still are going to say negative stuff though which may or may not cause a mailbag showdown 2. (I'd look forward to that)

All in all great review, all your reviews have me dying from laughter keep it up man. good stuff!

wow - this was well written - better than the last couple of reviews

I'm no mgs fanboy nor has my previous mgs experiences been drastically limited so upon purchasing this game I was half expecting to be let down and half expecting to be blown across the room by its sheer aura of awesomeness.
Neither happened and i'm still not sure if i like the game or not, I think i'm around 65, 70% of the way through and thusfar the game seems to be fun and unique yet at the same time annoying as hell. I've never played a game before where i cant definitively say 'its shit' or 'it rocks' cause its neither. Its like your inevitably going to be 1 of 3 people, a fanboy who loves every waking second, a hater who loathes every waking second or an 'on the fence' gamer who feels like hes in the middle of one massive clusterfuck of indecisiveness like myself. I think yahtzee made some damn good points though. The game is pretty much broken in alot of areas, and the cinematics go oooon and ooon for so much longer than they needed to. I'm hoping when I finish it i'll know whether or not I like it but it almost feels like the game is trying to hard in some areas(story for example) and not hard enough in others(like say the action areas aka rail shooters). Kojima is certainly one weird dood.

I think Yahtzee is abit confused, Metal Gear Solid isn't a game, its a movie.

bobnine:
I think Yahtzee is abit confused, Metal Gear Solid isn't a game, its a movie.

one of the most fun movies i've ever played!

bobnine:
I think Yahtzee is abit confused, Metal Gear Solid isn't a game, its a movie.

lol so now he is a film critic!!! good stuff :D
(I think this is kinda true too about it being a movie)

My my. Who could have seen this coming? [/sarcasm]

I have never really got into any of the MGS games so I don't really have any opinion on the game or the series itself. I thought the review was pretty funny, even though I don't know how much of it is true (not that I care).

So now he's bashed to pieces all three console front runners! Hurray for PC!

true completely, every word he speaks.

But that doesn't stop MGS4 from being awesome out the ass.