Sons of Liberty Speed-run

OK i admit, 10 hours isn't much of a speed-run, the whole point of me doing this was to get a better grip of the plotline for MGS2 and five years later, it still make no sense as it did then.

Play time : 11' 01" 18
Save : 15 times
Continue : 28 times
Alert mode: 13 times
Persons : 58 killed
Ration : 40 used

I heard kojima manage to tie up most of the loose ends in MGS2 pretty well in MGS4, let's just hope so.

Twin Snakes First Playthrough

Going through my copy of Sons of Librerty, i seems to have stumbled onto my play result for my first run through Twin Snakes

Game Level - Normal
Play time - 18: 38 : 26
Save - 41 times
Continue - 20 times
Alert mode - 43 times
Enemies - 052 killed
Rations - 065 used
Codename - CAPIBARA
CLEAR CODE : Q5N9 JxJM H9Q5 FP3R KVHH L3RQ N78

Despite the controls being mapped differently on the Gamecube, my recent play of Twin Snakes does helped as i attempt to speed-run through Sons of Liberty in anticipation for Guns of the Patriots. Sons of Liberty really isn't one of my favourite Metal Gear titles but i must say it has aged remarkably well. I don't know if agruments were made when Twin Snakes first come out on which game looked better but take it from me, Sons of Liberty win hands down.

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help but to feel that many who purchased Subsistence never even bother to give these retro games a try, given their outdated graphics.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?

Rail or Not?

When Capcom first announced Umbrella Chronicles for the Nintendo Wii, fans couldn't be more happier. After all it's still a long wait till Resident Evil 5 and the last three Resident Evil games on the Nintendo Gamecube had been great. When they later revealed that it's going to be a shooter game, fans were less than excited about the prospects, since previous attempts to transcend into the shooter territory using the RE license had been less than successful. When it was finally revealed that it's going to be an on-rails shooter much like the gun-games in the arcades, fans just went nuts....have Capcom finally lost it?

Well after playing Umbrella Chronicles for a good six hours, I can safely say that this is probably the best iteration of the Resident Evil Gun Survivor series. Having the game running on rails really creates a lot of tension or atmosphere because you have absolute no control over where to go or which way to look. The biggest difference between games and movies is that games are a form of interactive entertainment which the player actually have to take part in the game in order for the story to progress. The problem is, sometimes gamers feel that by taking away certain abilities like camera movement or in this case player movement, the sense of immersion is reduced and the gameplay experience is compromised. The quality of a good game should not be judged on such merits as it's not what makes a good game great. As much as fans love the level of detail in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, it's not what made the game so memorable. In fact, it actually adds little to the actual game experience apart from allowing you to stray away from the main objective, having fun goofing around.

The point I'm trying to make is that games are as much of an art form as movies and that game developers should be treated with the same degree of respect and allowed the creative freedom to make decision to take away certain level of interactivity from the gamers such as this case. When was the last time you think to yourself, this movie would have been better if only the director/screenwriter did this instead of that? Would killer7 had be a better game if it wasn't running on rails? Probably not, maybe as games become more 'beautiful' and 'immersive', we gamers are becoming more 'possessive' and scoff when things are taken away from us? It's time to leave the reins to the people in-charge, have faith and ultimately they will deliver the best experience possible.... yes, we are looking at you too, mr. Suda.