Last time I played MGS2, when the HD collection first came out, it was still a fantastic game. I'm just about to finish MGS1, so we'll see if I still hold that opinion on MGS2 soon.
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Last time I played MGS2, when the HD collection first came out, it was still a fantastic game. I'm just about to finish MGS1, so we'll see if I still hold that opinion on MGS2 soon.
Man, MGS2 was awesome. It was such great timing for me. I played MGS for the first time JUST before MGS2 came out for Xbox (I didn't have a PS2 at the time). Of course that first run-through of MGS basically sucked up my entire weekend; I'm not sure if I've ever played a game that fast... ever, either before OR after.
While we're on the subject, in retrospect, how do you guys feel about MGS4? I'm going to assume we'll all agree MGS3 was/has always been pretty awesome.
Underlying themes, not graphics and gameplay. He's talking about stuff like this. Bioshock had the marketing and stripped-down nature of story to make itself easily understood by everyone, as thematically and story-wise Spec Ops: The Line does everything Bioshock did but better yet remains largely ignored because it lacked those two things (although its visual design is also likely a factor). But MGS2 tackled videogame design, arbitrary "choices," the linear smoke and mirrors of videogame stories, expectations of characters and ideas, self-parody, reality vs. fantasy, etc. and still managed to integrate itself into a series where it is surrounded on both sides by entries that are played almost entirely straight.
Following the release of Bioshock 1 & Infinite came a lot of gaming press being very self-masturbatory about the pounded-in-your-face idea that it would present as a twist, whereas MGS2 was largely followed by bitching about the Raiden bait-and-switch and Ocelot's arm. Kojima managed to simultaneously troll the entire gaming world, show how superficial people were acting about games, and covered more than any intentionally "deep" game that has come out since. It is still very heavy-handed with many of its points, but in the world of videogame writing it's surprisingly good below its surface and unsurpassed in its genre for marketing vs. delivery.
If nothing else, I give a nod to Kojima on that last point for committing so much to the idea that he replaced instances of Raiden with Snake's model in the pre-release videos just to make sure no one would see it coming. The last time I can think of a major company really trying to go far in keeping secrets was the not-really-successful hiding of VR in Assassin's Creed.
On topic, but also off topic; I
Played Batrider (sick) and Bishi Bashi something something (ridiculous) at an ARCADE that Pacrappa took me and Rebecca to. It also had, like, 15 pinball tables.
I miss arcades.
Has anyone played Cart Life? Wow, I'm in love with it. It does so so much right.
http://www.richardhofmeier.com/cartlife/ You can play 2 of the 3 characters for free.
Heretic II (PC): Using the community 1.07 patch and _inmm.dll (fixes that CD BGM repeat problem you get with Win 7 and this game). Surely different from the first (now a TPS instead of an FPS) but still great. The staff is actually worth a damn- while not exactly Ninja Gaiden, you get some cool moves like the pole vault- good for longer jumps, and also for cracking jaws. Strong attacks can be done while running with it. The fireball weapon has unlimited use, but loses some power if there's no offensive mana. Taking off an enemy's arm can cause him to flee if it's the one he uses to wield a weapon.
Right now I've been repeatedly owned by the Celestial Watcher boss on Armageddon (diff #3, hardest). Getting him to 25% life is easy, but then he'll start using his SDM.
H2 deserved more attention when it first came out. Coming out too close to HL1 probably hurt its reception. To get the game to work on Win7, load the Tutorial first. Starting a new game or loading a save without that will cause a crash.
Double Dragon II (arcade): Tried it on the actual cabinet. When the mission 2 boss comes out along with a few other enemies... yes, it slows to a crawl. MAME is accurate, but can thankfully be overclocked.
Ys: Memories of Celceta: Probably about 8-10 hrs.from finishing. Going for 100%.
Finished up MGS1, it holds up better than I would have expected. On to MGS2.
Played the tanker chapter in one sitting, accidentally killed one bastard so there goes my no kill game. Played a little of the plant chapter as well. This game is still great.