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Snake’s phone doesn’t ring as much as it used to
By Uzi | June 17, 2008
Well if you heard Dorkcast 16 you may have heard that I made it about a 1/3 into MGS4 and was loving it.
Immediately after recording the podcast, I went right back into the game and played all night. Poor Xib being drunk and needy of the mighty Uzi tried to speak to me on Skype now and again and while I usually drop anything to chat with that hunk of a man, MGS4 just wouldn’t let me get away.
One thing I didn’t speak about on the podcast was codec conversations. They’ve always been a massive part of the MGS games and it will be good or bad news for quite a few people to know that they are massively cut down in MGS4.
Very little story is conveyed through the codec and while there was a lot of panic about 90 minute cutscenes (there aren’t any of those by the way), one important point that was missed out was that because more of the story was conveyed via really cinematic and well produced scenes, that there was less sitting and listening about to someone nattering on and on in the codec. This makes the game move by so much quicker and a 20 minute cutscene goes by far quicker than a 10 minute codec conversation.
The downside of this is that a lot of people like myself used to like calling up all the different contacts and hearing all of the stuff. While I really prefer to be told of the main story through lovely gorgeous cutscenes rather than long drawn out codec conversations, it did used to provide a good avenue for side chat either filled with comedy or insane amounts of detail. A good example being Natasha from MGS1 who would tell you quite a bit about your weaponry or Paramedic from MGS3 and her movie views. Rose from MGS2 can bugger off though.
Anyway, as a result the game did feel a lot more fluid but the lack of optional side chat was a little dissapointing, but I guess it kept it all “on topic”. For a bit of fun though, when you’re talking to a lady on the codec, try shaking your sixaxis 
When I finished the game, I let out a little sigh of sadness. The story was so over the top at times and so mad at moments that would conventionally be really serious but even then, it was the realisation that this was the end of MGS as we know it.
There were moments in the game where it really was obvious how much Kojima loves the series with all his heart but is also dying to move on. He’s taken himself less seriously in this one so prepare to take it all with a pinch of salt. The previous “WTF” questions of MGS are answered but in a sometimes odd way in itself.
Anyway, I can’t wait to play it all over again but using different tactics and weapons. Knowing you can skip any unwanted cutscenes and considering how little forced codec chat there is, it’s a game designed for replay (except for stupid reinstalls for every chapter when you replay them).
It’s also really wanting to make me take up smoking. Stupid awesomely cool Snake.
Topics: Blog, PlayStation 3 |