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[Ned Flanders]

I was at Gamestop today and on a whim I picked up this fascinating piece of literature that Konami published. It's an interesting read, but boy is it sure long-winded. It's called "Metal Gear Solid 3", and, interestingly enough, it comes on a disc that you put in your PS2! No pages to speak of, only screen after screen of boundlessly bloated dialogue between innumerable characters. It even has these brief interactive parts, I guess to help realign your vision between the 45 minute reading sessions. Occasionally they put moving pictures to accompany some of the dialogue..a fantastic idea really.

I appluad Konami on their move into the realm digital literature. After all, focusing on making videogames isn't a stable business model in the long term. Here's hoping for "Metal Gear Solid 4: War and Peace Aint Got Shit On Us"..

 

[radios shipping overview]

Play past the prologue (you'll know you're done when "Snake Eater" plays) and your complaints will be remedied.

 

[DCharlie]

they run gyms too....

 

[Socreges]

Play past the prologue (you'll know you're done when "Snake Eater" plays) and your complaints will be remedied.

This is true.

I made the same complaints. The Prologue is so painful. But I was amazed at just how infrequent and short the cut-scenes were afterwards.

 

[Ned Flanders]

Yeah I actually just cleared the prologue earlier. So the cut-scenes are shorter..but what about the codecs? I don't want to miss any critical info, but damn those things are lengthy.

 

[Dujour]

If you're ever murdered, Ned, I hope that I was the one that did the murdering. >:|

 

[Socreges]

Yeah I actually just cleared the prologue earlier. So the cut-scenes are shorter..but what about the codecs? I don't want to miss any critical info, but damn those things are lengthy.

Yeah, they become pretty short, too. Any significant story line is told in the cut-scenes, for the most part.

 

[Kato]

Oh man.. Forget the prologue, it has 2 flies on it.

Snake Eater becomes gaming bliss after that. Grab something to eat and drink, call off your social life and enjoy the greatest (imo) PS2 game of 2004/2005.

 

[Triumph]

I keep putting off playing this game because I know I'm going to hate the prologue, and I don't know if I'll will myself past it. Damnit I hate you Kojima.

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

Speaking of interactive literature, we need ports/remakes/sequels of Snatcher and Policenauts. Or *GASP* something entirely original from Kojima for once. Don't get me wrong, I love MGS, but three installments this generation (plus Ac!D). Yipes!

 

[Lakitu]

Speaking of interactive literature, we need ports/remakes/sequels of Snatcher and Policenauts. Or *GASP* something entirely original from Kojima for once. Don't get me wrong, I love MGS, but three installments this generation (plus Ac!D). Yipes!

I agree totally, it's about time Kojima works on something original now, or does something in the Snatcher/Policenauts universe. He claimed that he wanted to in an EGM interview and let his young ones handle MGS 4.

 

[bobbyconover]

I keep putting off playing this game because I know I'm going to hate the prologue, and I don't know if I'll will myself past it. Damnit I hate you Kojima.

I didn't hate it, and I traditionally can't stand extended cut scenes. There's hope for you yet.

 

[Dujour]

I don't understand why the Virtuous Mission gets so much hate. There's two really long radio calls and another one of average length. And they're skippable. If you can't appreciate something as good as the voice acting at least, then this game isn't for you.

 

[Fantasmo]

I don't understand why the Virtuous Mission gets so much hate. There's two really long radio calls and another one of average length. And they're skippable. If you can't appreciate something as good as the voice acting at least, then this game isn't for you.

Well, I timed it. In the approximately 30 minutes of gameplay it took to beat the initial sequence, the game clock displayed three hours. Three hours!

That means 2.5 hours of watching and listening and 30 minutes of playing. And this man had the gall to eliminate gameplay features instead of learning to streamline a script.

I'm loving the game myself, but I cringe when I hear things explained in such detail. My god, only in MGS3 do both the good guys and bad guys talk about killing/shooting/doing something, do something, then both explain afterwards why it did/didn't work. Kojima's Snake is not a silent assassin, he's a loudmouthed dramaqueen.

He also relies way too much on "boss character slowmotion entrance" suspense and that adds a good 15 minutes to each cutscene.

Still entertaining, but painful nonetheless! Kojima needs to keep the mentality but really take a long, hard look at the tradeoff between descriptive, captivating storytelling and eye-rolling, irritating storytelling. The man is on the verge of perfection, but then gets carried away... it's like "damn dude, it was perfect until you blew it!"

 

[tetsuoxb]

Well, I timed it. In the approximately 30 minutes of gameplay it took to beat the initial sequence, the game clock displayed three hours. Three hours!

That means 2.5 hours of watching and listening and 30 minutes of playing. And this man had the gall to eliminate gameplay features instead of learning to streamline a script.

I'm loving the game myself, but I cringe when I hear things explained in such detail. My god, only in MGS3 do both the good guys and bad guys talk about killing/shooting/doing something, do something, then both explain afterwards why it did/didn't work. Kojima's Snake is not a silent assassin, he's a loudmouthed dramaqueen.

He also relies way too much on "boss character slowmotion entrance" suspense and that adds a good 15 minutes to each cutscene.

Still entertaining, but painful nonetheless! Kojima needs to keep the mentality but really take a long, hard look at the tradeoff between descriptive, captivating storytelling and eye-rolling, irritating storytelling. The man is on the verge of perfection, but then gets carried away... it's like "damn dude, it was perfect until you blew it!"

Do you need a tissue to dry the eyes? Maybe some cheese to go with your whine instead? Really, you are complaining about the best game to come along in ages. Metal Gear has always been long winded, but it is definetely more interesting than hearing someone bitch and moan about a game that sits on top of most peoples stacks and would literally shit on the games under it if it weren't for a lack of bowels. I mean, honestly, I'd rather have 2.5 hours of exposition on the characters than get the standard "terrorists have a bio weapon in building x, you are the only chance to stop it".... the virtuous mission does a great job through insane difficulty in familarizing you with the systems, and it also has my favorite joke in the game - "Major Tom". Take it as a 3 hour prologue/tutorial - which beats the shit out of splinter cell's "Now you have a machine gun, aim it at a target" tutorials.

 

[Gek54]

I fell asleep during the last speech by the Boss.

 

[DJPS2]

Oh, no! There are people who don't like MGS3? Just wait until the GameFAQs boards hear about this! :lol

 

[Fantasmo]

Do you need a tissue to dry the eyes? Maybe some cheese to go with your whine instead?

Nope. Never said it was a gamebreaker. I'm playing through and enjoying.

Did I say anywhere that I want to chop up the game, because I don't recall that? I'm saying cut a few lines here and there. Take 2 minutes off of

Spoiler

Ocelot

walking around. It's an 8 minute cutscene and we see him do it in 2 different scenes, and I've only just started the second mission. Also, there is too much battlefield talk, stuff you talk about over a cup of coffee.

Kojima ruins his own flow. He is both the reason for MGS's success, as well as the reason it will never achieve perfection. Kojima is the amazing storyteller (much better than I could EVER hope to be) but he forgot to hire an editor. Just a bit too much excess suspense and detail. There's something to be said for implications and implied storytelling. Streamlining is not a bad thing. Length =/= Quality. Sometimes less is more.

Again it's not stopping my enjoyment of the game. Also, you should know that I don't subscribe to "good enough" when flaws exist.

 

[Belfast]

Geez, guys, most of the codec calls in the beginning are tutorial-esque. Don't get your panties in a wad, just skip them if you don't need to know how to play the game.

 

[Belfast]

I feel asleep during the last speech by the Boss.

Fixed.

 

[border]

If you just read the codec dialogue instead of sitting through all of it, then it goes five times faster...

The only really tiresome codec stuff was the first conversation with Boss at the game's start. I had already played it on the OPSM demo disc, so I just skipped through it anyhow.

Kojima's Snake is not a silent assassin, he's a loudmouthed dramaqueen.

What are you talking about? He probably doesn't have more than a page of dialogue in the cutscenes. Even in the codecs, he mostly he just reacts and asks questions and listens to explanations. EVA, Volgin, Ocelet, and The Boss each have probably twice as much dialogue as he does.

 

[Fantasmo]

Geez, guys, most of the codec calls in the beginning are tutorial-esque. Don't get your panties in a wad, just skip them if you don't need to know how to play the game.

I understand where's you're coming from but,

Yeah I actually just cleared the prologue earlier. So the cut-scenes are shorter..but what about the codecs? I don't want to miss any critical info, but damn those things are lengthy.

and since the game doesn't give you a notebook, there's no way to know for sure if you did miss something.

Really guys, relax. I don't think it's a deathblow to the series to say it could use just a bit more tweaking in some of the storytelling.

 

[Tabris]

Unless you have beaten MGS3, stfu, your opinion is almost guaranteed to change by the end.

 

[Bebpo]

Well, I timed it. In the approximately 30 minutes of gameplay it took to beat the initial sequence, the game clock displayed three hours. Three hours!

That means 2.5 hours of watching and listening and 30 minutes of playing. And this man had the gall to eliminate gameplay features instead of learning to streamline a script.

I'm loving the game myself, but I cringe when I hear things explained in such detail. My god, only in MGS3 do both the good guys and bad guys talk about killing/shooting/doing something, do something, then both explain afterwards why it did/didn't work. Kojima's Snake is not a silent assassin, he's a loudmouthed dramaqueen.

He also relies way too much on "boss character slowmotion entrance" suspense and that adds a good 15 minutes to each cutscene.

Still entertaining, but painful nonetheless! Kojima needs to keep the mentality but really take a long, hard look at the tradeoff between descriptive, captivating storytelling and eye-rolling, irritating storytelling. The man is on the verge of perfection, but then gets carried away... it's like "damn dude, it was perfect until you blew it!"

Errrrr..............what?

I never skip any cutscenes or dialogue and I cleared the prologue part in like 1 hour 10 mins. So you saying there is 2.5 hours of cutscenes/dialogue in it makes absolutely no sense on any level.

 

[Azih]

If you can't appreciate something as good as the voice acting at least

MGS3 voice acting is decent. Nowhere near top-tier though.

 

[Fantasmo]

I never skip any cutscenes or dialogue and I cleared the prologue part in like 1 hour 10 mins. So you saying there is 2.5 hours of cutscenes/dialogue in it makes absolutely no sense on any level.

Well, my clock said 3 hours. So to me, yours makes no sense of any level. There's no way the whole virtuous mission, including cut scenes only took 1 hour and 10 minutes even if you do it perfectly. You either skipped some things or I call bullshit.