Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

I've played it and put something like 10 hours into it or more just because. I do think it has incredibly fun gameplay, but as silly as it may seem, the story is a huge part of Metal Gear for me. There isn't much there in terms of the story, and that's what I mean in terms of the scope being like the Tanker section.

And no, the insertion points and everything don't really make Omega base feel like a different place every time for me. There is night and day, those feel kind of different. Same layout, but visually there is enough of a difference. Maybe it has to do with the order I did the missions in, I don't know. But I saw the entire base pretty much in the ground zeroes mission, and I saw the entire base in the mission I chose to do after that. Soldiers have a different routine in each mission and your objective is different, and this adds good variety. The base doesn't feel like a different place, though. I can use the same strategies in every mission in pretty much the same spots to reach my goals. I'll give you that it feels like a different place after going from night and stormy to a clear, sunny day; but I just can't understand the thought that it seems like a different place after that. I think more weather variety might have helped. The Deja Vu mission on the PS4 version has snow (though I can't remember if this is only when you have the MGS1 skins on after completing the mission the first time). Had the ground been snowy as well, there would be added effect of being able to be tracked by your footprints and stuff which would have been nice. Having it be foggy could have made everything feel pretty differently just because your approach would need to be different.

Those are just my thoughts. But we can have differing opinions and I'm glad it was worth the price for you because it sucks buying something and not feeling like it was worth it afterwards.

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Originally Posted by Bolivar

Strange, I felt the different objectives, patrols, and insertion points make Omega feel like a different place each time. But you said it yourself, it really comes down to that I'm getting more than my money's worth and that seems to be the consensus for people who actually played the game.

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Originally Posted by Bolivar

If I asked you to create a $20 Metal Gear game, it would probably look a lot like Ground Zeroes.

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Actually, there is no "consensus" for people who play the game. Check nearly any online discussion on it. Half of the people are saying it's a great game that they got a ton of enjoyment out of, the other half are saying that it's a complete rip-off for even the $20 price (in its cheapest form).

Yeah, I don't think I've seen any discussion for the game anywhere that has any consensus at all. The critics are certainly divided on it. Almost all of them say that what is there is great, but many have a problem with it being just a slice of what you'll get with the full game in the Phantom Pain. And considering the thing was released for 2/3rds the price on the PS4 and XBone originally, there's really no excuse for that. That was a blatant rip off and Konami should be ashamed.

Now at $20, there is more of an argument to be had. Under the right circumstances I don't have a problem with releasing a preview of a full game for money. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue worked for me as an example because even though it wasn't a full fledged GT, it still had about as much content as the typical racing game and was being released at a lower price. I don't see how this MGS is worth $20 though. I'll find out for certain when I eventually play it as my brother in law bought it so I'll get a crack at it eventually, but from everything I've seen and heard about it I wouldn't pay the money for it. At $10 maybe, but I don't see the value as is, especially when the full game will eventually hit with a lot more content, and at an only modestly higher price.

Review aggregate sites have tallied and weighed the scores and the critical reception has indeed been categorized as generally favorable. The game also placed 6th for the top 10 selling games of March. Everyone I know in real life and all the fan podcasts I have listened to all say that the game is worth the price of admission.

Of course the reception looks mixed on video game forums, article comments sections, and other places where you cannot actually verify if the person really did buy the game. It's the internet, after all.

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Originally Posted by Bolivar

Review aggregate sites have tallied and weighed the scores and the critical reception has indeed been categorized as generally favorable. The game also placed 6th for the top 10 selling games of March. Everyone I know in real life and all the fan podcasts I have listened to all say that the game is worth the price of admission.

Of course the reception looks mixed on video game forums, article comments sections, and other places where you cannot actually verify if the person really did buy the game. It's the internet, after all.

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Except when you actually read the reviews of said websites and ignore the score (shocking I know) and see that all of them marked it down for being overpriced. Granted everyone remarks that it is good and I am certainly not denying that cause Kojima does good stuff, but the demos for the earlier entries were all excellent as well and much more reasonably priced. I still feel like letting Konami get away with this (I would love to see Nintendo try this, they would be eaten alive) because it sends a really bad message to the gaming companies that we'll pay anything to get our next "fix".

Aren't you happy I came back? Attachment 53066

Which mission was your favorite, Bolivar? I quite liked the eliminate the enemy threat mission (I think that's the one where you have the two targets). I liked trying to extract both the targets instead of kill them, which was actually pretty difficult.

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Aren't you happy I came back? Attachment 53066

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Always!

My favorite mission... I haven't played De ja vu yet so it's still in the running. Maybe the "eliminate the AA batteries" because of how challenging it is for the base to be on full alert the whole time. Plus you get to decide how to go about it - shooting red tanks with a silencer, finding an RPG or planting C4 and detonate them all at the same time? I also like how the APC comes out at the end, reminded me a lot of Peace Walker.

I didn't know you could extract those guys... that's crazy.

Any idea on who Skull Face is? In one of the tapes he tells Chico "me and your Boss go way back." I suppose he could still be a new character.

I kind of imagine he's a new character, but it's kind of hard to tell because of that line you mentioned. It's hard to think of who he could be from any of the Big Boss games as I don't remember seeing anyone get caught in a fire or anything (though I haven't played Portable Ops). Volgin is the only one I can think of. There are other things that kind of make me think otherwise. There's the tape where Skull Face describes how he came to look the way he did if I remember right. I need to listen to that one again just because I was distracted and missed some of it. I would imagine he had some connection to FOX with the whole XOF thing.

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Originally Posted by Bolivar

Review aggregate sites have tallied and weighed the scores and the critical reception has indeed been categorized as generally favorable. The game also placed 6th for the top 10 selling games of March. Everyone I know in real life and all the fan podcasts I have listened to all say that the game is worth the price of admission.

Of course the reception looks mixed on video game forums, article comments sections, and other places where you cannot actually verify if the person really did buy the game. It's the internet, after all.

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Sure, dismiss anyone who disagrees as "not having played it". That's a successful approach. In most of the discussions I've seen, the people complaining go into detail about the game far more than those praising it, as they actually sum up the story and missions when pointing out that it wasn't worth the money, while most praising it just tend to say "it was great, what's wrong with you". I could just as easily argue that a lot of people praising it are simply rabid Kojima fanboys who would pay anything for any of his work. It would be just as large of a fallacy.

Also, sales =/= quality. Hell, Aliens Colonial Marines sold well, reaching number 1 in the UK, and number 6 in the US. Yet very few argue that it is a good game.

I believe we've moved on Sky ;)

Do you have any theories on Skull Face, Bolivar?

He's most likely new. There doesn't seem to be anyone who can qualify from previous games to be him, though I do find the Raikov theory to be quite amusing and something Kojima would do. Gene is another interesting possibility but it doesn't fit with his final words to Big Boss and I'm still waiting for Kojima to finally confirm that Portable OPS isn't canon anymore. One of the other interesting theories is that it may be Sokolov since he used the codename Ghost before but again it's not likely.

I'm pretty sure he'll turn out to be someone new and we'll find out about how Snkae and Zero screwed him over before in some event taking place before the Virtuous Mission.

i think it's volgin

but i'm not buying this thing

and i'm pretty much not even going to play it for free due to, from what i've read on the internet, is a scene with (SPOILER)a bomb up someone's vagina??

hopin phantom pain will be an atonement
but we should've been done with this at mgs4 let's all be honest

That is heavily implied in one of the audio tapes, though it isn't outright said. Honestly, the other stuff in that tape you can find in the game is more disturbing than what's in your spoiler.

I'm pretty positive Skull Face will be a new character, but it is fun to speculate anyways. I can agree that the Raikov theory is pretty amusing.

By the way, is Portable Ops any good? I've always meant to play it once I realized it was actually a part of the story.

It is pretty good actually. Maybe not the best MGS but it pioneered a lot of elements that Peace Walker improved on like building a stronghold from enemy recruits which dictate what gear you get. The story is pretty good but you can tell Kojima didn't work on it and it does feature a few retcons that bother me, the boss fights are also a bit underwhelming but I felt that away about Peace Walker as well. Overall, I found it to be a pretty fun game minus the hiccups.

I actually prefer recovering enemy soldiers in this game over Peace Walker because it created new challenges, you had to personally drag the bodies back to the truck that brought you there so it was always amusing trying to drag an enemy guard away without getting spotted. Even more fun was that enemy guards (as long as they were the right type of uniform) could actually wander through stages unmolested as long as they didn't physcially touch other guards or get spotted doing something fishy.