Without nationalism, war loses its mask. Without patriots, war loses its most reliable tools. If we accept that Metal Gear is “anti-war”, do we accept that it’s also anti-patriotism?
Category Archives: Metal Gear Solid 5
Adrian De Wiart & William Fairburn
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If you’ve never heard of Sir Adrian De Wiart or Captain William Fairburn, I don’t blame you. They’re not particularly famous figures, but I suspect they might be two significant inspirations for Big Boss and Skull Face.
TGS and the craziness (MGSV + Silent Hills)
It doesn’t really get any better than this. Kojima has given us lots of new information and video, including the African jungle location, an AI buddy system, a pet wolf, and the return of the most iconic outfit in the Metal Gear series. It’s glorious.
We learned that Quiet has ridiculous abilities, including the ability to turn invisible, move at supersonic speeds, and perhaps phase out of existence altogether judging by the way she simply shed those handcuffs back at Mother Base. Whatever her powers, the most shocking revelation of all was that depending on how you play, you might not meet her at all! What kind of game is The Phantom Pain going to be, if the main female character is optional content?
Nothing could surpass the introduction of a new character, however, in the form of “D.D.” — an adopted wolf-dog who eventually grows into a badass companion for war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0bLPJ3e6Qc
The gameplay itself is what fascinated me, however. Big Boss can equip different prosthetic arms, which allow him to electroshock enemies, smash the ground for wide-radius sonar tracking of creatures, and the ability to climb cracks in walls. He rides into the jungle on a helicopter, and apparently can jump out whenever he wants, which is dangerously close to my fantasy of being able to parachute down to locations as Big Boss freely.
The buddy system is designed to give players a strong incentive to maintain relationships with his comrades (in order to unlock better powers), find new characters to befriend, and basically not become a brooding lone psychopath in the middle of nowhere. The fact that these are optional means that players will have to be vigilant, and get even more attached to characters whose fates are extremely unknown (ie. they don’t appear in future titles!)
Silent Hills
We also got a new Silent Hills concept video, which is disturbing. Apparently its what Kojima and Del Toro discussed for the direction of the game, and it was made by just a small handful of artists at Konami using the Fox Engine. There’s been a lot of positive reaction to it, but I’ve also noticed some complaints that it’s not very moody or eerie, but more of a parade of insanity. It’s kind of interesting how big of a difference there is between a playable experience like P.T. and simply watching a video of something scary. When you’re playing, turning a corner is a terrifying risk. You almost don’t want to proceed, because you don’t know if you can handle what’s there. It’s stressful. A video like this simply can’t deliver that gruesome tension, where you control the pace.
It’s good to see that they are running with the series’ themes of sexualized horror, mingled with childlike innocence, and dark filth.
“Why I’m a Kiefer and Not a Hayter” by Paolo Padayhag
Is Metal Gear Solid V secretly Hideo Kojima’s attempt to break away from the Metal Gear series? With so many major changes to the formula, Paolo Padayhag believes it might be the case.
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Threedogg follows up on Skull Face and the Outer Heaven skull logo
Kojima: “I think about ways that I can use the game systems to reinforce my story”
This morning The Guardian has posted an interview with Kojima, in which he discusses the themes of MGSV in some new ways. Some of it is cool, and some of it makes me disappointed.
“I develop the design and construction of the environments and I set the theme and topic from the game and work to ensure that it fits with the game systems. That all has to come from me as the vision holder.”
I didn’t realize Kojima was designing levels still. Actually, I thought he specifically said that they allowed the artists to create things according to realistic photographs and maps, and then adjusted it and designed things accordingly.
“I love movies but if I was to create a film I’d use different methods,” he says. “I make games. That’s what I do. So I think about ways that I can use the game systems to reinforce my story, or do things that simply aren’t possible in other media.”
So the story isn’t designed to serve the game systems, but the other way around. This is important if you want to analyze the gameplay or the story, because they should reinforce each other, right? (Ahem…)
“The player is able to flesh out the detail and background of the game by discovering and listening to cassette tapes,” he says. “It’s a different way to develop story but one that is arguably, more impactful: the player puts it all together in their mind.”
Damn it. I don’t like collecting cassette tapes, Kojima. It’s one of the worst aspects of Ground Zeroes, even though I love what Peace Walker did with its Briefing tapes. You shouldn’t have to collect the story in bits and pieces. Let me guess, you’ll find a snippet of a private conversation between Dr. Emmerich and Dr. Strangelove before the Ground Zeroes mission sitting in a pile of horse shit in a back alley in Afghanistan? And the other tape will be miles away during a different mission, in the back pocket of a POW. What’s the point? Is this how we’re going to end up with 400+ hours of “gameplay” and a massive online hunt for data?
Honestly, it’s clever of Kojima to force us to discover the story, since games like Dark Souls have proven that people actually try to understand things when you don’t spoon feed it to them (and thus become “preachy”). But cassette tapes still feels like an uncreative and sloppy way of handling it.
I suggest you read the full interview.
LA-LI-LU-LE-LOL #27
Forget the Prologue. It’s all about the trailers!
I’ve been thinking more about the celebrity praise page for the E3 2014 MGSV trailer, and it’s becoming funnier and funnier to me.
I just finished writing about how disappointing and fumbled the storytelling of Ground Zeroes itself was. It’s strange how none of these great celebrities are discussing how good of a job he did with that, considering it’s THE ACTUAL PROLOGUE OF THE GAME.
Why would Konami seek out reactions of celebrities on a mere trailer, when the prologue is already available for the world? Did they even ask them about Ground Zeroes, or do they already know that no intelligent person would praise it as a masterpiece or a work of art? Call me crazy, but I think the prologue should be considered a better test of Kojima’s storytelling ability than a carefully edited trailer with a licensed song. I mean, isn’t that what a prologue is for?
The trailer praise page serves as a reminder of how lame Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is. It already injected cash into Kojima Productions and served as a beta test for the Fox Engine, so now nobody needs to be reminded of its supposedly crucial role and its groundbreaking mature themes, artistic depth, or genius creative vision. That honor belongs to a damn trailer.