大象传媒

Sorry but you are waaaaay behind. The published interview in which Kojima was alleged to have said the PS3 constrained his vision was criticised by Hideo himself some days later. Apparently, the translation from Japanese to English ended up misleading the reader greatly.

Oi! There's nothing simple about Balamory. Could you guess which coloured house we're going to, without first carefully assessing the day's dilemma and weighing it up against the skill-sets and interests of the town's various inhabitants? And then remembering where they live? And what colour their house is? Eh?

Come to think of it, if you wanted a review of MGS4, which coloured house would we have to go to? Anyone?

Is it me or have you posted the two worst reviews the game has received? It's averaging 92-93% on both metacritic and gamerankings.

I'm not questioning your journalistic integrity but surely you checked the score aggregation sites out before publishing this blog? Can you please point me to the "lots of eight out of 10s".

@darrenwaters I agree, eurogamer and edge are generally the most trustworthy reviewers. Glad to see you've corrected your post though.

If only there where enough worthwhile titles on the PS3 to warrant buying one. For me MSG and FF are the only series that get me excited.

I love these titles but will just have to wait until everything comes down to a reasonable price.

I mean MGS....im a plonker, and I know it.

@darrenwaters (#2),



Similar but more in-depth article on Kotaku around the same time but the site is blocked at my workplace!

Gametrailers gave it a 9.3 out of 10.

So far it looks to me one of the best game ever made (graphically). They are many cut scenes but they are really well made. I personally like cut scenes, even though I think they start to be too many.

What is really interesting is the very low marketing that was made for the game, mostly compared to GTA IV.

For GTA IV, they were mady ads on every big websites, like the NYTimes, billboards and more. Every technology website was making a review of the game, because they described as "the game of the year" (in the number of sales). This helped the sales too.

GTA IV is very different to MGS 4 but I think MGS 4 still deserves to be reviewed by many sites, as was GTA IV. It won't achieve any sale number close to GTA IV, due to the fact that GTA IV was available on two consoles and a lot of advertising was made, but I am sure it will be a big hit for the PS3.

Kojima is an extremely talented game developer, but he has always had a tendency to go overboard on the cut scenes.

It reminds me of the halcyon days of mid 90s Sierra graphic adventures with interminable full motion video sequences.

Open door.

Watch full film for 10 minutes.

Pick up key.

Watch another dull film for 15 minutes.

Switch off PC. Go to pub.

@darrenwaters



here's that link that you asked revolutionblues for

Looking forward to playing this as a series fan but even I wont be able to watch a 90 min film, I mean cut scene! Fans may well adore this but most gamers will be skipping like mad straight back to the action. Unfortuanltey MGS is centered around the plot so the danger is a slightly empty or confused game play experience unless you stump up the 'many' hours Kojima requires you invest in the pinnacle of his life's work.

@kryton101

I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. Too many games are dumbed down these days to satisfy the mainstream. Having said that if all games required quite as much effort as MGS the industry wouldn't be as big as it is today. Just a case of balance. Nothing screams hardcore quite like the Metal Gear series though! That's why so many people love/hate it.

Many people are complaining about the fact that video games try to look like Hollywood movie but does not at all.

MGS holds one of the most complex game story of all time and even if it is a little too much, it is coherent.

That said, the great cut scenes and the general graphic aspect coped with the story makes it a game that is close to a hollywood movie to me.

Hmm you actually trust Edge and Eurogamer reviews!?

Both of these contrived to give Halo 3 (which is little more than a bit of graphical polish on Halo 2) 10/10.

I would question their platform impartiality as much as I would either of the 'official' console publications.

Don't forget - you CAN skip cut-scenes you know!

Sorry, but anyone habitually trusts Eurogamer, and they obvious bias to anything 360, instantly looses any credability.

Actually, I am starting to believe that you may infact also be biased, as it appears you have carefully selected the worst reviews you can possibly find for this game..

So come on, what console do you own? I think we know the answer - the one that keeps going wrong all the time...

How about some of these reviews instead?

IGN UK:
If you've ever loved any one of the Metal Gear games, or any moments from the series, there will come a moment when MGS 4 will send your spirits soaring. If you've loved them all, well then there'll be many, many more. It鈥檚 a masterpiece.

Playstation Official Magazine UK:
Guns of the Patriots is almost intimidating in the consistent quality of its ideas, invention, and execution...Even by the series' stratospheric standards, MGS4 is a remarkable high point.

GamePro:
The Playstation 3 finally gets its "savior", Kojima gets his masterpiece, and gamers get one of the best games of all time.

Playstation: The Official Magazine (US)
If you come to the game with no prior MGS knowledge, you'll still uncover one of the most absorbing stories ever told.

what would happen to 21st century kids - they would talk about only second life not anything else

There are no 90 minute cutscenes

Does seem a bit on the negative side here.
The 90 minute cut scenes were debunked a while back.
The reviews have been pretty good across the board, gamer reviews that are cropping up now show that jaws are dropping.

Also "a decent sprinkling'" and "modest crowd" suggests the launches were universally limp.

"Hundreds of Metal Gear devotees braved moderate temperatures and clear skies yesterday to be the first to get their hands on a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4... "

"Needless to say, things ran a bit over as the monstrous line, still stretching around the length of the Hollywood Best Buy continued to demand things be signed."

"The epic crowds were here to get their brand-new copy of the game signed by Hideo Kojima"

"throngs of people had already started lining up long before the event had begun to kick off. When I arrived, the energy was unbelievable"


Then of course there's this clarification from Hideo regarding a certain magazine interview, for what it's worth.

@darrenwaters,

"Once held up as an example of how the PlayStation 3 was going to revolutionise gaming, even the title's creator Hideo Kojima has seemed a bit more pragmatic about his achievement. He even seems to suggest that the PS3 itself constrained his vision, which may be why Sony itself has not tried to extract a marketing dividend for the console from the game's launch."

"The fact there are two almost 90-minute cutscenes seems, to my mind, a touch absurd."

When are these sections going to be struck through or deleted? These statements are not true as has been proved at several links posted here.

By the way, that is an extremely (and conveniently) selective set of review comments to include. You could just as easliy have posted three comments which were highly approving (but chose not to include one, of course).

You seem to act more and more like a fanboi every day. A touch absurd, one might say.....

To be honest, I'm not worried if there are long cutscenes as it will be showing the beginning of the end of one of video games greatest characters ever created.

I'm glad it didn't have a full scale launch like GTA4; I did enjoy seeing pictures of Kojima (and various others linked to MGS4) at signings around the world. The fan base is undoubtedly different between the two games, but both deserve the recognition of excellent games.

Hideo Kojima has done an outstanding job on Metal gear series, and, although he feels he hasn't achieved his full visualisation of the game, loyal fans of the series will praise him for his efforts.

It'll be interesting to see what Kojima comes up with next, as he parts with the MGS series.

How do you explain thee closing comments from IGN?

"Is it possible to give a game an 11? If so, this would be the game that would merit that score. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a title that exceeds all of the hype that was attached to the title. Regardless of whether you've seen every trailer and screenshot, read every preview and heard every interview, you won't get a full sense of how phenomenal this title is unless you sit down and experience it for yourself.

Legends die hard and deserve a heroic story that lives on when they are gone. Metal Gear Solid 4 is such an ending for the legendary warrior Solid Snake. Not only does it sum up the full franchise of Metal Gear, its depth and its complexity, coupled with its technical prowess, make it one of the best games of the year and, indeed, one of the best games ever made. Get some well earned rest, Snake. You've earned it. We salute you."

The general tone of this article appears to be that MGS has a high price of entry and does not make this elusive breakthrough of action, narrative and interactivity (whatever that may be).

Not every developer is striving to emulate the latest Summer Blockbuster. Just as the movie industry is wide and deep, there's room for all types of games.

To objectively review MGS seems futile. I can easily critique the obtuse storytelling, the slightly unintuitive controls, enemies spawning in dead ends until invisible triggers are tripped and so on.

MGS is an experience, made all the sweeter to those who have been there since the beginning. 90 minute cut scenes (in this case) should not be deemed a 'bad thing' because some individuals find them absurd. To other's 90 minutes of MGS dialogue is worth it's weight in gold.

Does MGS have a high entry price? Yes, but that's not a bad thing at all. Does MGS make a breakthrough in action, narrative and interactivity? No. And if it did it would suggest some sort of formula for success, which I hope never happens, as we'd soon see a milliuo cookie cutter games (as we have in the FPS genre).

Kojima has forged his own path with Snake, through good and bad, but the video game landscape is all the richer for his efforts.

I don't think this game is for you Darren, press eject and forget about it.

@ Darren Waters (post 28)

So you have written your thoughts on a game you have only played for 20 minutes?

That tells me all I need to know about your blog and your thoughts, misguided.

As others have stated, you have picked the worsed two reviews online that I can find to quite from, very balanced. I suggest you stick to Balamory, MGS is obviously a little to complex for you.

And the award for the most unbalanced, badly-researched and pointless blog entry of the year goes to.......

Stick to your Apple obsession.

So, have you actually played the game before writing this or what? And, have you played any of the othe MGS games? If you had, then you would know that the cut scenes are an integral part of the MGS experience as they drive the story on throughout the game. The MGS franchise is a story driven one and these cut scenes are hugely important to that - otherwise no-one would have a clue what was happening!
Your comments seem to suggest that you have little to no experience of the MGS franchise - if you had you would know about the number of cut scenes in the game, I mean MGS2 had about 2-3hrs of cut scenes in it.
As for your quoted reviews - why have you only mentioned negative ones? Surely you are meant to be impartial to this and give people a range of reviews so they can make up their own minds. And, as for reviews - do you always let other people decide what games you are gonna play or films you watch? They are the opinion of 1 person, thats all - I'm sure the thousands of MGS fans all over the world would disagree with the bad comments about this game.
I have played about 51/2 hrs of this so far and its the BEST MGS game there has been - everything about it is MGS to the core and has surpassed ALL of my expectations for this game.
I was gonna ignore your blogs after the interview with the head of PS Global as you had skirted round many of the issues that your readers had asked you to confromt him about; but I thought I'd give you another shot. How dissapointed am I that I did?! Your blog is poorly researched and very one sided - next time, just keep your ill-informed opinions to yourself and let people who actually know what they are talking about do the talking for you.

@ RevolutionBlues - I'm surprised that he aint been raving about the in-game iPod!!!

"I've only played a short part of the game - and I have to say the opening sequence in which you crouch and run through a door amidst 10 minutes of cut scenes has me worried!" - Eject the disc and trade it in if thats how you are gonna be! You clearly have no idea what the MGS experience is all about so just dont bother next time!

I am going to defend Darren, please do not crucify me lol (to the bloggers). I like MGS and some cut scenes I really love. Maybe Darren likes the gameplay (Tactical Espionage Action) but not that much for the cut scenes? That is understandable, even though it is not my case.

Well Darren, you should skip those cut scenes if you want to get more into the action and skip the whole story ahead, even tough you'll loose quite a bit of the experience.

Funny fact I just read about on the internet. MGS4 couldn't be burnt on only one Blu-Ray Disc, so they had to try out for the first time a double layer! Apparently, to be able to be played on an Xbox 360, the game would require 12 discs! Yes it is a huge amount, mind swapping between 12 discs? I just thought I'll share this funny fact.

@ Jary316 - That may well be the case, and if it is then this is certainly NOT the game for him! He should go and play Splinter Cell. And he should most definately not be writing such a one sided unresearched artical about it either!

From a gameplay perspective, I played Splinter Cell (First game) and to me it's nothing like MGS. Splinter Cell is really realistic and spying. It is a lot easier also.

MGS is the only game I can have trouble to do the same thing over and over again, compared to a Zelda, a RPG or a platform game. Splinter Cell does not have the same gameplay because we are lucky MGS has its own proper gameplay.
I also find Splinter Cell a lot more linear than MGS. I used MGS 1 and the first Splinter Cell to drive those arguments, simply because I played MGS: Twin snakes on my wii lately.

That said, I do believe the story line is quite important and interesting, and as mentioned before, skipping all the cut scenes limits the MGS experience.

Sorry I forgot about my last point. His review does not hail the game but it does not crush it either. I am glad I see a review of MGS on a Tech website. Some others that I read did make a lot of hype for GTA IV (as did 大象传媒 Technology website) but did not say a single word about MGS 4. I am glad Darren posted an article about it.

Interestins point Jary - why is a videogame review in the Technology section? Surely a videogame is a form of entertainment and should therefore be covered in the entertainment section where people who know what they are talking about can give us some constructive and usefull comments on it!!!

Ok, someone please tell me how Edge is a trustworthy reviewer. People complain that its Metal Gear and Sony fan boys being bias giving it a 10/10 or 90%+, but if you have played this series from the beginning there will never be a better game out there. Even if you dont get the story anyone should admit that this is a brilliantly well made game. As for non fans reviewing the game, why make the story being inaccessible for non fans a bad point when the game is part of a series, you would'nt watch Lord of the Rings starting from the third film, not even knowing who Frodo is, and then say its a bad film becasue you dont understand the story or why characters are doing what they are doing or that its a bad film because you need to watch the previous films first. Here is a list of the masses of bad reviews MGS4 got:

LEVEL #26 (SE) - 10/10
Cynamite (D) - 10/10
Select (D) - 10/10
OPM UK - 10/10
PSM IT - 10/10
Meristation (ES) - 10/10
Gamepro (US) - 5/5
OPM US - 5/5
IGN UK - 9.9/10
Chief ( BL ) - 97/100
GamesMaster (UK) - 97/100
Hobbyconsolas (ES) - 96/100
PSM NL - 96/100
OPM ES - 96/100
PSM3 UK - 95/100
PlayFrance (FR) - 95/100
Joypad (FR) - 19/20
Man!ac (D) - 94/100
PSM3 (PT) - 94/100
Gamepro (D) - 93/100
Play3 (D) - 93/100
Games Aktuell (D) - 92/100
JeuxActu (FR) - 18/20
Console + (FR) - 18/20
HardGame2 (ES) - 9/10
Gamona (D) - 88/100
Console.at (AT) - 88/100
Jeuxvideo (FR) - 17/20
Eurogamer (UK) - 8/10
EDGE (UK) - 8/10

@ coosmikael - nicely made point and some good review stats - mayber Darren can take a few pointers from this before his next game review!!!

As for the story being inaccesable - bull! You could get up to speed on what the game is all about from wikipedia in about 20mins!

@ martyboy35:

You seem to be a very dedicated fan, so I do not want to offense you in any way but I do not read the entertainment section because I believe it is where they speak about music, TV shows, movies and celebrities.

I like video games being spoken about in Technology for one reason: It is a technology. A video game is made with and by technology, it uses technique. Entertainment, appart from "science fiction and special effects" could not be placed in technology.

This is where the barrier stands.

@ Jary - no offence taken - BUT - the definition of entertainment is -

1. the act of entertaining; agreeable occupation for the mind; diversion; amusement: Solving the daily crossword puzzle is an entertainment for many.
2. something affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement, esp. a performance of some kind: The highlight of the ball was an elaborate entertainment.

This is what a game is - entertainment. As far as I am concerned it is a form of entertainment!

@martyboy:

I agree with your definition of "entertainment" and I agree that video games are part of it. The problem is, to me, that entertainment is a synonym of gossip and celebrities, which I define as non interesting and leading to speculation.

Even further, I believe that the audience who is reading the technology page is not the same one as the one reading the entertainment, thus making the technology page the right place to put a game review.

Man are you dead on. . . This game brought tears to my eyes for all the wrong reasons. They were actually glazing over as I stared blankly at the screen waiting for the painfully long cut-scenes to finish. Man, everything I DON"T want in a video game and more. If the cut-scenes weren't enough, then I had to endure the egg-frying and silly UN-FUNNY infomercials meant to hide the LONG loading, . . no, no thanks. . . I want to PLAY my games not WATCH them.

Ok i havent read all the thoughts of everyone but i would like to say this.
The scores that people give in magazines are another man's/women's opinion.
MGS4 is a piece of art but like art, not everyone will love it but for the people that look at the fine detail, they will find something great there.

Ok the cutscenes might be a tad long but since when did MGS actually have short cinematics?. Also bare in mind that the ps3 pad came with a start button.

Graphics? well what i have seen of them, they look pretty sweet to me. but then what will MGS5 look like lol?.

Anyway hope this might help some people out with all the crying and wining of this game. 360 has gears of war 2 and ps3 has mgs4. anyway im of to grab a beer out of the fridge and watch that 90 min trailer everyones on about lol.

@creepypete,

Er, you can skip them. And anyway, long cutscenes are a traditional and essential part of the MGS experience.

360 fanboy much?

Nicely put Revolution!!!

I think that this is probably one of the reasons there hasn't been all of the marketing hype around MGS4 as there was round GTAIV - cos you end up with these idiots who have NO IDEA what MGS is all about then bitch and moan about the cut scenes etc! Stop bitching, trade it in and go play Wii Sports or something, cos these Big Boys games are obviously a step too far for you!!!

what the hell? Lol...Ok...here it goes..I'm only going to say it once..and only ONCE..

Nothing, and I mean...NOTHING!!! compares to the metal gear solid series... this game is unique in every way, you complain about the cutscenes.... you are all just...weird... this game is movie slash game, this game has revolutionised the gaming industry, the Metal Gear Solid Series has the BEST STORY, BEST MUSICAL SCORE, BEST CHARACTERS, BEST CINEMATICS, AND BEST GAMEPLAY you could ever ask for...no game can be compared to the metal gear series.

This game is the only game to have taught people about humanity, living your life, and appreciating it as humans, the noble tasks of a soldier... it has the most thrilling best story ever... the most educational philosophies are learnt in this game..

those who have not played the whole series, and say GTA or HALO is more known, you have some serious mental issues.

Nothing, and I mean nothing can beat this game.. there is nothing worrying about it... you people don't have great sense of knowledge, or are to kiddish to play this extraordinary unique beautiful artistic game..


I have seriously, never ever played a series like the metal gear solid series before, The best game EVER!!!!!


I'm hocked by this review, its stupid, and the person who has done it hasn't a sense of what this game is about..or what the series is about..this game is 10 TIMES ..INFACT MILLION BILLION TIMES BETTER THAN HALO OR GTA./..this game is just..godly..