The Shattered Star

As expected, here's our other GOTY candidate
Should any of you needed convincing, I'll keep this list of reviews updated:

Gamespot - 10/10
IGN - 10/10
God is a Geek - 10/10
NGB - 10/10
MGI - 10/10
PlayStation Lifestyle - 10/10
Brash Games - 10/10
Games™ 10/10
AusGamers - 10/10
Respawn Ninja - 100%
Digital Spy - 5/5
Official Xbox Magazine - 5/5
Examiner - 5/5
The Guardian - 5/5
The Telegraph - 5/5
The Daily Dot - 5/5
CCC - 5/5
Attack of the Fanboy - 5/5
SFGate - 4/4
Hooked Gamers - 9.9/10
GameCrate - 9.75/10
EGM - 9.5/10
PSU - 9.5/10
ArcadeSushi - 9.5/10
PSX Extreme - 9.4/10
GameTrailers - 9.3/10
Worthplaying - 9.3/10
GameInformer - 9.25/10
Lazygamer - 9.2/10
Hardcore Gamer - 4.5/5
USgamer - 4.5/5
Game Rant - 4.5/5
Jimquisition - 9/10
Destructoid - 9/10
Metro - 9/10
Press Start - 9/10
Game Revolution - 9/10
TrustedReviews - 9/10
Softpedia - 9/10
Polygon - 9/10
CGM - 8.5/10
X-One Magazine - 8/10




Hope the rest of you will be picking this up. 8 days to go!

Kojima's last trailer for MGS: Going to miss this series

Hope you've been enjoying it mate! Really not my thing, but glad it seems to be good given how much you've been looking forward to it

Anubis wrote:Really not my thing

Don't think I've ever really discussed this with ya, but what is it exactly that's not your thing? Could you elaborate?
Just seems strange as you liked Deus Ex, right? Alpha Protocol too? I'd say classic Splinter Cell (like Chaos Theory) as well but I don't know if you've played that. They all share similarities though, plus I know you like mecha anime. What is it about Metal Gear that disinterests you mate? I really do believe you'd be a fan of the series if you gave it a try. Always surprised me that you'd never played any of them!

Only 34% into V but what I've played has been fantastic. It's going to be really hard choosing a GOTY this year lol

Drive-by post?

Well anyway.. For what it's worth, MGSV is a must play, but it shouldn't be a persons first experience of the series.
Finished the main story now and my gut reaction after the last few missions was "GOTY!", however, after sitting on it for a day or two I'd still put The Witcher 3 ahead of it.
V had some amazing moments don't get me wrong, but it wasn't perfect. The story was great I thought and manages to fill-in many blanks in the series. Just less great in the way that the story was actually delivered. Wasn't so keen on the episodic format of it, too much of the story is delivered through audio tapes rather than cutscenes (think BioShock but more so), side ops could have been far more interesting, Quiet Big Boss (which didn't actually bother me once I'd finished it..) and then the cut content. It's a huge game as it is but episode 51 for example should have been in there. Crazy that it's not. #<censored> for that.

On the other hand, the gameplay (and enemy AI) was incredible and by far the best in the series. The way that it ends too. wow. One of the best ever? Gameplay wise, it was a nice note to bow out on considering MGS defined the genre in the first place.
Still, Witcher 3 on the other hand I really had trouble finding any faults with & twas as close to perfection as you can probably get, imo. I can't say the same about V, sadly. V is still a must play as I say but there are better Metal Gear games (gameplay aside). If you've only ever played 1 game in the series (or none at all), play MGS1-3 first.

Shame to hear that it didn't quite meet your hopes mate, but I guess overhyped games tend not to since the bar is always set so high.

Really glad you enjoyed it though

Aye. In some ways it did and then some (meet my hopes) but in others... fell quite short. A shame considering this is the last Metal Gear game we're going to get (well, from Kojima at least). On the other hand, TW3, even with all the hype, managed to exceed all my expectations. I'm putting the blame on Konami though. I think Kojima's vision for it was probably much grander given some of the things he's said in the past, and stuff like episode 51 being cut/unfinished. A shame but even with all things said, it's easily one of the best games this year still lol. MGS1-3 though.. still some of the best games of all time.

Also, see my post above it from last week mate

Every single one of those publications demonstrated their ineptitude, not to mention the fact that they're just willing to play a bit of the game in order to write a hasty review and make money. Not a single one of those publications played the game to the end when writing the review.

The game is an unfinished mess.

The only good thing about it were its gameplay mechanics, which admittedly will fool you into thinking your time is well spent. It's not.

Everything else was either mediocre, or outright trash.

I'm wondering how differently some people will feel about this when they've calmed down a bit and let it sit tbh. After playing it myself, no way do those 10/10s represent the entire package, but reading some peoples comments and the amount of hatred some folk have been spewing, you'd think V was one of the worst games ever made or something which is just not true, imo. The game has many faults and as a MGS fan of some 15+ years, I'm really disappointed with parts of it too and actually quite sad knowing what it could have been like.. I just think some people are getting a bit too caught up and focusing on the games negatives is all and don't think it's quite as bad as some people are making it out to be. Each to their own though. It's not the GOTY I was hoping/expecting it to be but I imagine it'll still make my top 10 for the year

The problem is that it can't really be judged as a complete game. Like what a review is supposed to do.

It's unfinished. Regardless of what the game assets show, third chapter or not, it doesn't matter.

The story is lopsided because there's a third of the game missing. The entire premise it was sold on in the trailers does not exist. Because that part was supposed to take place in the last third of the game, which is nowhere to be found.

The game thus makes no sense as a narrative experience. That's not even touching the problems that the game has with the content that actually is there. The undeveloped characters, the repetitive side-ops, the stale, stagnant, and static "open world", the mission structure (with its insane credits spoiling the story) that forces you to finish the mission in a shit way by obscuring the objectives, so you would replay it later, the empty motherbase with 3 working doors, the timewasting motherbase building minigame designed to force you to buy resources with real money, etc.

The only real thing the game has going for it is its well tuned and polished gameplay, that they had three years to work on, because they obviously didn't work on anything else.

And it's been "sitting" for two weeks now. It just gets worser and worser in everyone's mind as time goes on.

177 pages of near unanimous dislike for it from those who finished it, and this is x2, with the first one being 300-400 pages long.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1111262

The game, as a game, is a timewasting shitshow, that nobody who cares about narrative should ever play.

Metal Gear Solid games were always narrative experiences first, and gameplay experiences second, even when the narrative was batshit insane, which was a lot of the time. As a game that has no context, MGSV is quite okay. As an MGS game, it is TERRIBLE.

BlackDove wrote:And it's been "sitting" for two weeks now. It just gets worser and worser in everyone's mind as time goes on.

I'm finding this too, sad to say. I felt more positively about it before but as the days go by and the more I reflect on what I've just just played, the worse my opinion of it becomes & further down my top 10 list it goes. What makes it worse is there's no chance of us ever getting any story DLC/expansions for it either which would have helped redeem it :/

You're right though, as a MGS game and viewing (what is there of) the full package, it's not good. I hope anyone who chose to play V as their first entry in the series doesn't get put off from trying the others. I know 4 was more "love it or hate it" but whilst I actually really liked it myself, it was still my least favourite of the series until V. (Not including Peace Walker as I haven't physically played that, only watched).

Still say MGS1-3 are equally some of the greatest games of all time though & a must play for anyone who hasn't played all 3. Phenomenal.
GAF - Rank the Metal Gear games

I have played MGS 1, 2, and 3 countless times. Big Boss in one. Big Boss in two. Foxhound in three, and only because there was no Big Boss.

I was the top player of MGS2 by input code rankings. MGS2 is top 5 game of all time in conjunction with MGS1, considering it was a comment on it.

I will never play MGSV more than the one time I have played it.

Here's a cool anecdote: by the final missions, I stopped caring, and simply started using "continue/checkpoint" or just let alarms be raised so that I could get through the missions quicker. Upon one such mission, the game gave me the Foxhound moniker and the S rank. It was then I came to realize that the ranking system is just utter shit. You can just do whatever, make as many mistakes, and half ass it all the way, and the game will still award you the best rank.

I was honestly insulted more by that, than if the game had given me a shit ranking such playing deserved. It completely invalidated the care and hard work I was putting in the previous missions to play it stealthily and diligently.

After MGS3, Tomokazu Fukushima was no longer writing the games.

And it shows.