Phantom Pain at a ridiculously good price on Xbox One

-stealth game

-best gameplay

pick one

MGS V was shit wrapped in shit and had shit filling. It had a thinly veiled story that was barely coherent, unbelievably repetitive, it was slow paced as hell, had forgettable characters who were nothing like the characters of old (looking at you Ocelot), mission "intros" that spoiled who would be in the missions, and was literally incomplete. It's ONLY redeeming quality was the stealth mechanics. They were great. Utterly forgettable poppy cock. The serious should have ended at MGS 4 honestly.

-BigBoi

-Good taste

Pick one

terrible reply

You're one to talk, sucka! :P

@Salt_The_Fries: I just picked up a copy from Walmart for $15. Don't know if you're around a Walmart, or if it's just a regional clearance on the game, but you should check it out if you can.

By that logic they should have just ended it with MGS3.

MGS4 is a train wreck of epic proportions. Decent gameplay for the first 3rd of the game that only falls off a cliff afterwards and an insultingly stupid story that betrays everything the series had built itself up to. It was a terrible send off for such a good series.

I understand that the driving point behind MGS4 was for Kojima to say **** you to the fans and **** me for having to keep making this shit, even going so far as to make Old Snake a personification of himself in the process. And yeah, it's pretty brilliant the way he goes about it, even planting those seeds the moment the game was officially announced. Doesn't make for a fun game though.

At least MGSV packs some awesome gameplay, so much of it that it makes MGS4 seem like a wildly inferior mini-game. And while the story is ultimately forgettable, at least it admirably tries to patch up some of the larger messes made by MGS4. Glad to see Kojima having a change of heart and trying to send the series off with a bit of ambition and respect rather than the last title being the product of depression.

This game was so good. It has some real depth to it that you wouldn't necessarily discover if you don't experiment. I loved it. Not caring for the other Metal Gear games probably helped. Story? It's always been stupid. Here its stupid and funny but doesn't get in the way of excellent gameplay that is above anything that has come before. But you got to have actual imagination and creativity. If you don't love games that require you to make them interesting on your own end you may end up hating it. I think it's an all time great and I'm glad it's cheap so more people can give it a go. It's something special.

"for its time"

1. It's hardly that old
2. And that's a cheap cop out, truly exceptional games stand the test of time.

That games misfires in story telling, level design, and pacing were an issue in 2008, it just got the biggest MGS free pass. Frankly MGSV got a similar free pass for its short comings as well because of how the review event was handled, albeit at least the fanbase bitches about it. Albeit in my opinion for the wrong reasons lol.

Nah fam, narrative wise, MGS4 should have been the last Metal Gear.

MGSV's gameplay is good enough it could have been tied to any fucking IP, as much of a dumpster fire as MGS4's story is (and it fucking is), the few virtues it had were that it mercifully put some finishing touches on MGS. And then Kojima went to go do Kojima things, and then act like Konami was making him do it.

Honestly, I see this complaint way too much, it makes no sense and just pisses me off to no end. What is with people these days? Seeing a character title somehow spoils the entire mission for you? Don't be such a pansy, that's a dumb complaint all around. If you care so much about petty details like that, then just look away from the screen or something. That's usually a stupid idea anyway, because the intro credits serve to help the player.

Has anyone ever considered the idea that maybe those credits are there to help the gameplay flow? If you see the title "SKULLS" Parasite Unit, maybe its an indication to come with a slightly heavier loadout? Same thing when you see listings for walker gears, tanks, or helicopters. The game doesn't hide anything from the player. If you get caught off guard, then that's your screw up. Granted, this doesn't apply for mission 45. That mission is bullshit for several other reasons. However, the intro credits serve as a good warning to not deploy with a crap loadout. They aren't just there to spoil you for no reason at all.

@JangoWuzHere: Well, what's the point of showing you what's coming if you've already picked your loadout? Not that I care, those credits sucked ass to begin with.

I'd rather the series been left hanging than have the finishing touches that MGS4 put on it, especially when most of the shit was tied up in a way that makes little sense even by the absurd standards of MGS.

Sure, I'd probably be bitching to this day about how we need a a sequel to MGS2, but knowing what I know now I'd be ok with that lol.

My beef with dudes point is that he's framing it as if MGSV was such a terrible game while MGS4 was fine, and I say **** that. Both games are crazy flawed, but holy shit MGS4 isn't even in the same ballpark as MGSV as a game.

Yeah, in terms of narrative, MGSV need not exist, no reason for it. No reason for PO or PW for that matter, Kojima was basically writing his own fan fiction with these games.

You can switch your loadout when you touch down on the ground. It's not like your forced to exit out of the mission again.

@JangoWuzHere: Right. Might as well equip nothing then.

Sure, if you want to be extra cautious.

The credits are just hints at what to come. If your main loadout is flexible, then you likely won't need to make any changes on the ground for most missions. Most people want to play with the tools that they enjoy the most. However, if you're dropping into a skulls mission with all nonlethal equipment, then you'd probably be best calling in a different set of weapons.

1. Its 8 years old, it was released at the beginning of last generation. Which probably in all actuality did it a favor since the PS3 didn't really have a vast collection of games at that point.
2. I can't really argue with that because I like games people would say did not stand the test of time.

I'm not saying it is the best MGS but I honestly enjoyed the game regardless of it being MGS or not. I mean its pretty obvious MGS3 had far superior storytelling but that's besides the point.

The storytelling is mediocre in mgs4 and then it becomes truly awful at the end where Kojima starts spewing out plot points that were never foreshadowed to begin with at the end of the goddamn game. For me MGSV didn't get a free pass for being MGS but for being an open world game.. If you truly want to get away with developing a game these days you just need to implement an open world game with a crafting system or something close to a crafting system with some bartering. Albeit it was polished it still jumped the open world triple a gaming bandwagon.

I found MGSV fun but really try-hard and I think the immersion at the beginning where you spend an hour crawling through a hospital ruined the game for me. The game reminded me of a polished early access game that's missing a detailed base system and a whole freaking act. You can call the hospital level art and storytelling but I saw it as 2 hours of the game being wasted. The opening would be better received if they threw you into the action instead of having you play a crippled war veteran for 2 hours.

I played the first mission today and it's everything I hate about gaming. Endless cutscenes and limited gameplay.

Now be happy in knowing that the rest of the game is the exact opposite lol.

Yes, it is a terrible first mission, but after that you're thrown right into pure gameplay. You'll go for hours at a time without ever losing player control.

Without getting too specific about it, you will eventually have to suffer some shit like that again, but you have at least a good 50 hours of game ahead of you before that happens.

That's too bad it's on Xbox and not PC. I've been waiting since it's release for it's price to go down. It's still $54.99 CAD on Steam and that's too rich for my poor blood.

lol.

I get that the prologue sucks, I'm with you on that 100%, but that's some wild exaggeration.

On a regular first time play, not knowing exactly what to do, it clocks in around 50 minutes, not even a hour. And I'm pretty sure there are peeps out there that have beaten it in something like 15-20 minutes.

What could you have been possibly doing for 2 hours?

@JangoWuzHere: Sorry for the late reply on this.

Why does my complaint me a pansy? Why can't I like to be surprised? Also, why do I need to see Kojimas name every time I start a mission? Is that really a necessity? I should't have to look away from the screen to not see the same credits with slight variation every time I go to do something pertaining to the story. I saw the credits as Kojima mushroom tatting Konamis forehead. Not as a help to the player. He could just do that at the loadout screen with recommendations to help in your mission. I cannot comment on mission 45. The game was soo droll that I moved on from it.

@ConanTheStoner: Some of that is true. especially about the game play. MGS 4 has vastly inferior gameplay. 100% correct. For all of it's faults MGS 4 did close the story at that point. Ending at 3 would be a bad move with it being a prequel. It's the best in the series to me, but only gave some insight on the Boss and how the stories from MGS 1 and 2 were connected to the Patriots and the clones and why the world was in a perpetual war economy. Without MGS 4 would have made less sense. MGS 5 really exists out of the MGS time line and belongs in the Metal Gear time line. It is another prequel to the MGS time line. So MGS 5 being the closer makes no sense.

In all seriousness though man, you really have no idea lol.

It'd be like saying:

- Super Mario Galaxy 2

- Great gameplay

Pick one.

Just to be clear I'm not saying that MGSV is as tight as SMG2 as a total package, but gameplay wise, yes it's absolutely on that level.

I'm not gonna try to convince you to pick up MGSV on my word, but you should probably check out the prologue Ground Zeroes sometime. I think you'd be shocked lol.

So funny all the people hating on MGS5 when clearly it was a far superior game than MGS4 ever was, rather MGS4 was truly a revoltingly horrible title with some of the worst writing, horribly long and poorly executed cutscenes, and almost no gameplay to speak of. Yet, almost nobody dared talk shit about MGS4, ever. Quite the opposite, people would go after you for talking shit about MGS4 quite easily. But nobody calls people out on their MGS5 hating bullshit, I'm baffled. And people complain about MGS5 for what? Having too much gameplay? For having too solid of gameplay mechanics? Not enough cutscenes?

@lamprey263:

Yeah, it's wild man.

On the one hand, you have gamers who simply dislike actual video games.

On the other hand, MGS4 is Sony exclusive and the "savior" of the PS3.

Of course MGSV comes loaded with its own issues, but to shit on it while praising MGS4 is beyond absurd.

Funny thing is, a lot of people who shit on MGSV frame it like "well it's awesome until about 50 hours in."... well that's still 40 more hours of better gameplay than what MGS4 gave you right? lol.

MGS4 had nearly 9 hours of bad cutscenes. Roughly six hours of actual gameplay, ten if you're stretching it out.

I couldn't even beat it, the constant repeated missions and bland barren world were starting to make my brain hurt.

.... the optional repeated missions don't even happen until the post game.

Jesus lol.

@ConanTheStoner: "Roughly six hours of actual gameplay, ten if you're stretching it out."

Of that 9-10hrs, how much of that was meaningful gameplay?

Because I think your being too nice/generous.

MGS4's Act 3 is an example of my notion that MGS4 was 70% cutscene/story, 30% gameplay.

Yeah, I just didn't feel like breaking it down in excruciating detail, but you're right.

There are plenty of segments outside of the cutscenes that still aren't really that interactive. Like you mentioned, Act 3. It throws the core stealth/action play out the window. You can ditch the costume and force it to be more traditional, but it's not really built well around that. Act 4 has a lot of sneaking, but it's up against Scarrabs mostly, which is ultimately unsatisfying (and completely breakable if you use chaff grenades). Then you have a lot of action set pieces, very few of which are actually done well. Most of the boss fights are garbage, Raging Raven being the worst, a simple bullet sponge shoot out on a stage that doesn't even make sense for that kind of fight. Act 5 has one relatively tense sneaking section at the start, but it's over in a heartbeat.

Realistically the better gameplay moments take place in the first two acts. In total you probably get about 3-4 hours tops of legit MGS gameplay.

You had to do them to progress in the main story if I recall.

I don't think you can finish that in 15-20 minutes unless you're just skipping the cutscenes. I did exaggerate but no doubt you're going to be spending an hour playing the prologue if you don't skip the cutscenes with the horseback riding from fireman, I think I would've tried as I got tired of crawling through a hospital. The game suffers from you doing repetitive red dead redemption style missions with mgs loadouts while rescuing some translator or executive who doesn't play a role later in the game. The best missions are the ones where you find something main plot relevant like the skulls.

You have to do rescue/destroy missions in order to reach plot relevant ones, so yes the game can definitely be repetitive. I found some of those missions fun, its just you realize many of those required missions to transition on to the next plot point don't have impact on the plot.

Also you can go non-lethal against Skulls, I've done it on a level where you fulton the truck and equipping quiet with her non lethal weapons can also help you with that. But as implied its much more difficult than using a rocket launcher and lethal weapons to kill them.

I see it form this angle: Giving money to konami=bad. Pass.

@ConanTheStoner: I played some of it with PS+ a few months back. Saved some prisoner and there was this boy with a headphones jack in his chest. wtf? Sorry home fries, hated it. :D

Still going at it 325 hours later, 89% complete, three achievements left. The FOB stuff they have added over time is well worth the play. Its my favorite game of all time. I plan on playing for a while, I would like to develop all the equipment.

The first mission probably has more story than the rest of the game combined. It will get to the point where you start missing the 30 minute cutscenes of past MGS games. The gameplay is as good as it gets for a stealth game but they really did forget the story in this one.

What is "murica"?

Pose that question over at the off topic forum, we could have a lively debate about the meaning of that particular colloquialism.

Edit: Hold on a durn tootin' minute! There is no way an Xbox murican lovin' patriotic murican like yerself doesn't actually, actually know what Murica is? What is this hog wash? Make Murica great again!