Week of 6/8/2008

Empire

My mini-vacation was just that: mini. However, while it was short, it did the trick. I got the hell out of town for a couple days, spent some alone time with the family, and got to be outside for a while.

Here are a couple shots of Ethan from our weekend...





It sucked to have to come back home and go to work, but life goes on.

Metal Gear Solid 4...wow. The difference in production values from one game to the next is amazing. And after only playing MGS4 for a couple hours now, it's already difficult to go back to playing other games. For example, after a my session of MGS4 yesterday, I popped Blast Works into my Wii and played around with it a bit. Now while Blast Works is certainly a great game and a load of fun, I felt as though I had just gone from Steven Spielberg to Public Access and the transition was jarring.

But Metal Gear has always been known for its incredible presentation, so it's only natural that the supposed last game in the series has just raised the bar for everyone and set the level for this generation. Fortunately, they've also fixed a lot of problems I've had with past games. In the case of gameplay, running-and-gunning (should you need to) is now much more fluid and manageable than it ever was before. Snake no longer bolts forward in an unnatural way, and it's easier than ever to pick off a bad guy when the going gets tough.

Honestly, though, Metal Gear has never been about the gameplay for me, and I understand that this is an odd thing to say about a game. In general, I play these games with a guide or an FAQ handy and place the difficulty on one of the easier settings. Because when it comes down to it, I just want to experience the story, the characters, and the environments. Sure, I'll sneak around, take out some bosses, and take part in the cool little bits that are littered throughout the games. But the Metal Gear universe is so fascinating to me and Kojima has created such an intricate - if convoluted - story that my main goal is to see where it leads me.

Now while I'm heaping well-deserved praise on the game, it still does have its problems. The button configuration still takes a heavy learning curve. Metal Gear is the antithesis to everything Nintendo is trying to achieve with the Wii Remote. If you've never played a Metal Gear game before, it may take you a few moments to figure out just how to shoot somebody, which I guess in a stealth-based game is alright, but still.

I think the following review sums up my feelings on the game pretty well, though I would stress that the presentation far exceeds anything we've ever seen previously in a video game.



In the end, it's one hell of a game; certainly the best I've played this year so far. In my opinion, it's the first absolute must-own, AAA, blockbuster PS3 title. Don't get me wrong, I love that machine and am constantly amazed at what it's capable of. But Metal Gear Solid 4 is leaps and bounds ahead of anything else in the PS3's library.

John