woolcovered

Well, between starting my second contract, securing a new place to live and sinking most of my spare time into the subject of this entry, I've neglected to post about the new Metal Gear Solid game.

I initially read some negative press on it, but it seems as though the title's fared very well critically.

Personally, I thought it was one of the best gaming experiences I've ever gone through and enough of a reason to buy a PS3 (some would say it's one of the only reasons, but that's another story). Anyway, I couldn't put it down, and was essentially a recluse for the 21 hours it took to play through the game's five acts.

That said, I did have some things I wasn't entirely fond of. The thing is, there may be solutions to these so maybe someone can fill me in.

The install process. Each 'Act' takes between 3-8 minutes to install before you can start playing. This I really didn't mind - when you're playing it for hours on end, it can be good to be reminded of when you should consider taking a break. What annoyed me is that I didn't seem to be given the option to keep the five acts installed simultaneously. When a roommate started playing through the game, if we were to go back and forth we would have to start each of our sessions with an install. I realize all five could take up a lot of space, but with an 80 GB drive it could probably be spared, so it would at least be nice to be given the option one way or the other.

Only one online account? When Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence came out, my roommate and I each had an account, and then we had a third guest account we started up for when people wanted to give the game a whirl. This was ideal, as with skill-based matchmaking a guest probably wouldn't want to log into the account of an owner. But when I signed up for a Konami ID and a Metal Gear Sold 4 'Game ID', I found out I was only provided one freebie of each with the game, and I'd have to purchase a second character if I wanted one. I'm uncertain if you can actually sign up for another Konami ID for free and then go from there with an additional character, but either way this seems a little silly from a 'pick up and play' perspective.

No theatre mode. Pretty much anyone who comes across MGS4 will say it plays like an interactive movie - yet beyond mission briefings there doesn't seem to be a way to just play all the movie clips, even after beating the game. This would be useful both for players who want to go back and reexamine how the excessively complex plot points all fit together, and for folks who want to show off certain scenes for friends without loading up the game at various points and going through the aforementioned install process each time to play through a few minutes of gameplay to reach where a desired cutscene starts.

On that last note, if you're about to play through the game, I'd suggest keeping a lot of saves if you want to go back and see something once you've beat the game!