Boy oh boy was MGS3 front-loaded with cutscenes. It starts off with that incredible HALO jump scene, Snake lands like a badass, and then just when you think you're about to get into the jungle it cuts away to Zero spending twenty minutes explaining the entire history of the Cold War to you. Then you climb the tree, get your backpack, and as you hit the ground The Boss calls to waffle at you some more. Thirty-one minutes of sitting there with your thumbs itching to get to work before the game lets you leave the first area (I timed it

). Then the stretch between finding Sokolov and starting Operation Snake Eater is like forty-five minutes.
I love that game with all my heart, and to be fair it obviously opens up a lot more as you get further in, but the opening hours have a
serious case of:
Replaying the series over the last few weeks has me even more excited for MGSV's method of storytelling. I'll take cassette tapes over half-hour exposition dump cutscenes any day of the week.