Rainy Days & Mondays

No matter what era of music you grew up on the classic Carpenters never go out of style. From being prominently featured in the movie Tommy Boy to Nicolas Cage making part of his Johnny Blaze character, the Carpenters are distinctly hip for such soft melody music. Well maybe we should leave Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider out because badass biker with a spirit of vengeance and the Carpenters just don't mix plus Cage isn't exactly hip anymore these days.

Sing is not the first song that come to my mind when I think of the Carpenters in fact i don't even remember the song was featured in Sesame Street despite coming to know of the Carpenters from my dad's records as a kid. Now thanks to Hideo Kojima I can't think the recent Peace Walker without thinking of the Carpenters' song, Sing. It was the only source of comfort during the horrific torture sequence and also strangely became the boss' theme music in Peace Walker. Somehow it fits with the theme of Peace Walker and the game's message of peace. This is probably the second time I remember a pop culture song being featured in a Metal Gear and both instances happened to be part of the Big Boss saga. The last time was during the ending credits of Snake Eater and a popular britpop band's song was used. I can't exactly remember the band or the name of the song but I did remember thinking to myself that Kojima-san got great taste in music.

October Rain

October has always been a big month for me when it comes to games where i usually reward myself with a big purchase and by the definition of big, i don't just mean a new game. It's a trend i started about three years ago with the japanese version of Dante May Cry 3 which i bought at a local game store. Seeing that it was a local game store, you can probably guess it wasn't by any means cheap but i really wanted that cool handphone strap that came with it. Since Play-asia never discounted the japanese version anyways before it was eventually replaced with the special edition, i don't think it was that bad of a purchase.

Next was the PAL version of Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence, the standard edition for the PAL market comes with all three discs included while the US version only had two disc as the standard edition. While i won't mind the standard two-disc US version at that time, it too became scarce when i was about to purchase it so i have to settle for the PAL three-disc version. Most recently was the konamistyle edition of Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles, probably my biggest purchase so far. i thought about it for some time and even hesitated a while primarily because it wasn't cheap but since it happens to be close to October, i thought what the hell.


This year, the only release in the month of October which i'm interested in is Suda51's Flower, sun and rain but sadly, no US release date has been announced yet. The only other option is the PAL version scheduled for release this October, however shipping it from HMV is not going to be cheap, what with the postage rates they charge.

Bundled Excitement

My anticipation for the 80GB Metal Gear bundle has reached a fever pitch now, i don't know if it's the console i'm excited about or the game, perhaps a bit of both but i'm unable to concentrate on any other game now. Okami and my Nintendo Wii has been sitting cold for a bit now and i wonder if i will even get around to finishing Okami before it gets here next week.

It would be just nice if that were the case but i would need to dedicate some serious long hours into it right now. I still have Portable Ops and Snake Eater to re-run through but fortunately there is a demo theater included in Subsistence to access the cutscenes. Which will it be, Okami or Snake Eater?

Cover story

Never judge a book by it's cover...unfortunately, when it comes to games where every bit of minor detail are scrutinised by zealous fans most of the time, even the box art is not spared. I admit i'm often swayed by how attractive the cover looks before deciding on which version to get as demonstrated by Biohazard 4 on the PS2. Metal Gear Solid series has had some of the best box art largely contributed by the artistic strengths of series designer yoji shinkawa.

However as technological advancements allow for more realistic graphics, having an artistic cover may not always attracted attention from casual buyers especially those who are unfamiliar with the series. It's no secret i'm not a fan of the recent Metal Gear covers starting with Snake Eater, i once contemplated of getting the Japanese version which featured Boss and Naked Snake instead of the CGI snake on the US cover. The latest Metal Gear 4 chapter is by far the worst, and now with the prospect of me getting the normal US 80GB bundle looks i'm going to be stuck with CGI old snake after all.

I really wasn't considering the Limited Edition Guns of the Patriots, far too often have i missed the limited edition release of games for this generation and it look like this trend was going to continue for some time, well at least till Resident Evil 5. I mean i already missed out on the limited edition of Devil May Cry 4, what's more if i missed out on Metal Gear Solid 4 right? Finally it dawned on me, if i didn't like the cover of the US version which i'm going to be stuck with, why don't i just get the limited edition which featured an artwork cover?

Reflections

Someone on the local forum made an interesting remark upon trying out the new Metal Gear Solid Essential Collection bundle, presumably after not having played them for a while or probably not at all as i were to guess. While Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3 still looked great, he nearly "puked" while he saw the original Metal Gear Solid for the PSOne. Unfortunately, this is the grim reality that technology advances in the video game industry has spoilt us all and most new comers are unable to tolerate older games with graphics that hasn't aged well.

Gametrailers, in light of the upcoming release of MGS4 has just started their Metal Gear retrospective which is a great introduction and reflection of the series, something both new comers and long time fans will enjoy. The first part released, covers the events of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 as well as the non-canon Snake's Revenge. kojima took great efforts to include these games in the recent Subsistence collection as they probably meant a lot to him and his career. i can't help but to feel that many who purchased Subsistence never even bother to give these retro games a try, given their outdated graphics. However, the great thing about video games is that watching them is usually just as exciting as playing but video games are meant to be played. kojima himself even stressed this point in the foot note of the third disc of Subsistence, featuring the movie-cut of Snake Eater's storyline.

For me, Metal Gear 1 and 2 were the highlight of the Subsistence package and though i have yet to try out the free-camera in the actual Snake Eater mission i have completed both Metal Gear 1 & 2. I'm just wondering how many others did the same?