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Metal Gear Solid Master Collection |OT| Les Ports Terribles

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
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Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Switch, Steam
Release Date: October 24, 2023

Three of the best games ever made are now available in a brand new collection.

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MGS1: Release Date 1998, Story Date: 2005
This version includes the VR Missions, originally released separately as MGS: VR Missions or included in MGS: Integral depending on your platform & region. These are hundreds of bonus missions that focus on stealth, weapon mastery, and fun novelty modes like Mystery and Puzzle.

In this game you play as Solid Snake, a retired mercenary super soldier. Terrorists have taken over a nuclear weapons disposal facility in Alaska; they are demanding the remains of Big Boss from the US government. If their demands are not met, the terrorists have the ability to launch a stealth nuclear warhead using the bipedal tank Metal Gear REX. The main antagonists of this game are known as FOXHOUND, an American special ops team who went rogue.

MGS1 focuses on top-down stealth action. In many ways it plays more like a 2D game than a 3D game. I recommend either Easy or Normal for a first playthrough so you can use your Soliton Radar. Remember to call your support team on your CODEC for tips; you can use it during boss fights if you get stuck.

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MGS2: Release Date 2001, Story Date: 2007-2009
This version includes almost all of the Substance content, originally released for Xbox, PS2, and PC after the initial PS2-only release. You get VR Missions like in MGS1, but also an additional set of missions called Alternative Missions. Alternative Missions include Photography and Hold-Up Modes which are quite fun. There's a boss rush mode, a new insane difficulty called European Extreme, and a mode called Snake Tales where you play alternate universe non-canon stories as Solid Snake.

In this game you play as Solid Snake Raiden, a former child soldier & VR-trained trooper. Terrorists, led by Solid Snake, have taken over an offshore cleanup facility off the coast of Manhattan; they are demanding thirty billion dollars from the US government. If their demands are not met, the terrorist will kill the US President James Johnson who is being held hostage. Also they have a new Metal Gear: RAY. The main antagonists of this game are known as DEAD CELL, an American special ops team who went rogue.

MGS2 utilizes the 3D space more deliberately, with first-person shooting, hanging off ledges, and swimming all being added mechanics. The radar is still extremely useful, but you will often have to find a NODE computer console in most levels to activate it. European Extreme is no joke, and will test your mastery over every mechanic. If its your first playthrough, remember to select TANKER-PLANT option when starting a new game.

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MGS3: Release Date 2004, Story Date 1964

This version includes the modified Subsistence version of the game, which adds a new Splinter Cell-esque camera for easier control & European Extreme difficulty similar to MGS2. This version also gave us new translated ports of the 2D Metal Gear games, which had never made it to the West before Subsistence. These 2D ports are included in the Master Collection as well.

In this game you play as Solid Snake Raiden Naked Snake, an American special ops soldier. A Soviet military faction, led by Colonel Volgin, have kidnapped a scientist named Sokolov who has created a powerful tank-like weapon called the SHAGOHOD which will let the USSR stealthily launch an intercontinental nuke to anywhere in the US. Naked Snake must rescue Sokolov and prevent Volgin from using this weapon, which even the Soviet government does not want in order to prevent rising nuclear tensions with the US. The main antagonists of this game are known as the COBRA UNIT, who in a rare twist for this series are an American special ops team who went rogue.

MGS3 builds upon the foundation of MGS2 and features a more elaborate CQC (close quarters combat) melee system. Details are added like Suppressor durability, a stamina system where you must gather food to remain effective in combat, along with QOL features like being able to use a sniper rifle from the hip instead of being forced into scope mode. Its considered many fans' favorite entry (although all 3 are considered classics for a reason).

Finally, here are some detailed maps I made for your guys' use based off my memory of playing these games 20+ times. Backtracking is required in all 3 games.

MGS1
mp.jpg

MGS2
photo-2023-10-22-20-32-32.jpg

MGS3
photo-2023-10-22-20-32-48.jpg



Trophy List (Spoilers)
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
I’m really eyeing this in hopes the mod scene can come through with better resolutions and fps.
 

Elios83

Member

78 metacritic, reviews are generally good, the lack of significant technical advancements hasn't been considered a deal breaker.
 

Killer8

Gold Member
Thanks for the OT!



The notion that these are 'bad ports' is slowly eroding in the face of more and more evidence that Konami have fixed numerous longstanding issues with the last HD Collection.

If this is somehow 'bad' work, then what was Bluepoint's original port work? Dogshit?

It's such a shame that clickbait like "PS1 game takes 10 seconds to pause!" (*which is for a new pause feature not present in the original), and the resolution debacle (which can be for numerous reasons like effects breaking at higher res), has basically sunk the Master Collection in the public perception before it's even officially released...
 

Roni

Member
The notion that these are 'bad ports' is slowly eroding in the face of more and more evidence that Konami have fixed numerous longstanding issues with the last HD Collection.

If this is somehow 'bad' work, then what was Bluepoint's original port work? Dogshit?

It's such a shame that clickbait like "PS1 game takes 10 seconds to pause!" (*which is for a new pause feature not present in the original), and the resolution debacle (which can be for numerous reasons like effects breaking at higher res), has basically sunk the Master Collection in the public perception before it's even officially released...
Konami is notorious for spending the minimal amount of money on anything. The fact that you have to dish out yet another full price amount for what is a simple patch that should have been delivered to the HD Collection itself is laughable.

Launching in a poor state is bad, not fixing it is horrible and asking for more money to fix it is appalling.
 

rkofan87

Gold Member
Hate to be that guy. I know I'm part of the problem. But my standard for these ports at this point is "do they run on PS5" and "do they have trophies."

I know that's pathetic and I'm sorry. Day one.
me as well i am a simp for mgs
ps day 0 for me i got it on psn befor i knew of the lame port job.
 
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Killer8

Gold Member
Konami is notorious for spending the minimal amount of money on anything. The fact that you have to dish out yet another full price amount for what is a simple patch that should have been delivered to the HD Collection itself is laughable.

Launching in a poor state is bad, not fixing it is horrible and asking for more money to fix it is appalling.

Porting a PS3 game to modern systems is not just a 'simple patch'. It's a completely different architecture. There is no conceivable way of doing the Master Collection today in any other way than a full re-release. Whether the HD Collection was perfect or not would not change how Konami would approach making these games available to the current generation.

Historically, when the HD Collection came out it was lauded as a perfect conversion by people like Digital Foundry, and was not considered as launching in a poor state. Far from it. Bluepoint were the anointed ones who could do no wrong after their God of War and Team ICO collections. It was only when the super fans compared every single detail over the years following release that they realized there were numerous minor issues. By that point, the patch ship had sailed because Bluepoint were working on the Uncharted PS4 collection, and besides, the mainstream opinion was that the HD Collection was perfect already.

Konami recently enlisted the help of M2, who are considered possibly the best in the industry for porting, for their Contra Anniversary and both Castlevania collections. Konami are going in and fixing a lot of these minor issues in the Master Collection which were not caught the first time in the so-called perfect Bluepoint conversion. These points don't sound like something a company who's looking to spend minimal money or doesn't care would do.
 
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rkofan87

Gold Member
Porting a PS3 game to modern systems is not just a 'simple patch'. It's a completely different architecture. There is no conceivable way of doing the Master Collection today in any other way than a full re-release. Whether the HD Collection was perfect or not would not change how Konami would approach making these games available to the current generation.

Historically, when the HD Collection came out it was lauded as a perfect conversion by people like Digital Foundry, and was not considered as launching in a poor state. Far from it. Bluepoint were the anointed ones who could do no wrong after their God of War and Team ICO collections. It was only when the super fans compared every single detail over the years following release that they realized there were numerous minor issues. By that point, the patch ship had sailed because Bluepoint were working on the Uncharted PS4 collection, and besides, the mainstream opinion was that the HD Collection was perfect already.

Konami recently enlisted the help of M2, who are considered possibly the best in the industry for porting, for their Contra Anniversary and both Castlevania collections. They are going in and fixing a lot of these minor issues in the Master Collection which were not caught the first time in the so-called perfect Bluepoint conversion. These points don't sound like something a company who's looking to spend minimal money or doesn't care would do.
they should of had m2 do it from the start..
 
Someone has to make the sacrifice by buying this and telling us how terrible the ports are
Knowing konami these can go to be the worst ports of all time
 

Roni

Member
Porting a PS3 game to modern systems is not just a 'simple patch'. It's a completely different architecture. There is no conceivable way of doing the Master Collection today in any other way than a full re-release. Whether the HD Collection was perfect or not would not change how Konami would approach making these games available to the current generation.

Historically, when the HD Collection came out it was lauded as a perfect conversion by people like Digital Foundry, and was not considered as launching in a poor state. Far from it. Bluepoint were the anointed ones who could do no wrong after their God of War and Team ICO collections. It was only when the super fans compared every single detail over the years following release that they realized there were numerous minor issues. By that point, the patch ship had sailed because Bluepoint were working on the Uncharted PS4 collection, and besides, the mainstream opinion was that the HD Collection was perfect already.

Konami recently enlisted the help of M2, who are considered possibly the best in the industry for porting, for their Contra Anniversary and both Castlevania collections. Konami are going in and fixing a lot of these minor issues in the Master Collection which were not caught the first time in the so-called perfect Bluepoint conversion. These points don't sound like something a company who's looking to spend minimal money or doesn't care would do.
You're gonna straw man with MGS4, which is not even announced yet? Kek, good luck.
 

Killer8

Gold Member
You're gonna straw man with MGS4, which is not even announced yet? Kek, good luck.


Season 6 What GIF by The Office


Where did I mention MGS4?

Porting from PowerPC architecture to modern x86 is still a difference in architecture, and that applies to the HD Collection as much as it applies to MGS4.

If you think it's as simple as just pushing out a patch then you have no clue how game development works.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I got it for my Steam Deck. Found a good deal online. I wasn’t going to pay $60 for it. I still have some of my original copies, so I can always play those.
 

Roni

Member
Season 6 What GIF by The Office


Where did I mention MGS4?

Porting from PowerPC architecture to modern x86 is still a difference in architecture, and that applies to the HD Collection as much as it applies to MGS4.

If you think it's as simple as just pushing out a patch then you have no clue how game development works.
Yeah, a difference in how the source code is built. Not necessarily how it is written. I'm assuming they have the source code, so it would be just clicking a button for the engine to build said code to another architecture and debug from there. It's not $60 dollars worth of work no matter how you want to spin this.
 
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Killer8

Gold Member
Yeah, a difference in how the source code is built. Not necessarily how it is written. I'm assuming they have the source code, so it would be just clicking a button for the engine to build said code to another architecture and debug from there. It's not $60 dollars worth of work no matter how you want to spin this.

Bluepoint reverse engineered the games from the retail discs for the HD Collection. It's questionable if the source code still even exists. The Master Collection team therefore does have to put in work to port Bluepoint's work over to newer architecture, as well as fix the minor issues.

They're going to need a whole team of people to do that, including a sizable QA team (this is a huge amount of content to test) and UI artists for all of the front end work. Not to mentioned they're dealing with basically every regional version of the games being included and are releasing on every platform.
 

DryvBy

Member
I already have these on every platform and just to get trophies in them again, it's time to rebuy. It sucks they didn't fix these up a bit better but it doesn't look like Silent Hill HD either.
 

Roni

Member
Bluepoint reverse engineered the games from the retail discs for the HD Collection. It's questionable if the source code still even exists. The Master Collection team therefore does have to put in work to port Bluepoint's work over to newer architecture, as well as fix the minor issues.

They're going to need a whole team of people to do that, including a sizable QA team (this is a huge amount of content to test) and UI artists for all of the front end work. Not to mentioned they're dealing with basically every regional version of the games being included and are releasing on every platform.
I was always referring to the HD Collection's source code. Which they obviously have. The cost of reversing engineering the code was paid in the price for the HD Collection, which is not being discussed here. Fixing minor issues and porting a PS1 game, if we must consider that a relevant expense, is not worth charging users $60. This would've been fine for $30-40.
 

Kerotan

Member
Ugh, I wish it was a all in one package but hey it'll do
I would agree but I like the thought of 4 seperate plats especially now this gives me and excuse to finally play metal gear and metal gear 2. Even MGS1 is the first time that game has a plat.
 
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