Comments Off on “War On Our Shores” secret Rising site teases story, mentions the Tea Party?
There’s a new Metal Gear Rising: Revengeanceteaser site up now, called “War On Our Shores”. It features the voice of a character named Senator Armstrong, who seems bent on incriminating himself over the phone to somebody who wrote a speech for him.
I’ll admit it: everything about this game is guilty pleasure to me, and the writing in this is no different. The speech does a good job nodding to the story of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and provides some decent social commentary as well. I wonder whether the “Tea Party” mentioned in the trailer is actually supposed to refer to the current-day libertarian movement? If so, I have to give them big credit. Maybe Platinum Games can churn out an enjoyable plot in two months after all?
There’s also this trailer, named “Eye”, which was uploaded May 4th. It’s got more hints, including backwards-audio which I’m too lazy to decode. The subject is clearly a little boy, and at the end we see the words “Subject Name / Raiden” and “2/3”, indicating that this is a flashback, and that we will have another of these videos. Something else I noticed is that according to the login data on the screen, the username is “jtripper@216.55.248.24”. Look up that IP address and it brings you to Valley City, Ohio and a guy who I’m positive has no clue about Metal Gear. According to the “whois” data it was registered in 1997 by Infonexion Corp.. Hmm, something tells me this isn’t an ARG on par with Portal 2, and I should have stuck with my first instinct, which was to not bother looking deeper.
Comments Off on First draft of MGS2 Review script complete
It’s just the first draft, but I’m quite proud of it. With a few changes it would be good enough to publish as an article here, but I’ve also got the video to go with it, so now it’s just a matter of editing the script, recording myself, collecting more video, and editing it all together. I plan to do artwork to use in the video, so there’s that, too.
My Point of No Revengeance article was well-timed, I guess. I forgot that Geoff Keighley was going to be releasing a video expose on the development of Rising, but now it’s available, as you you can see for yourself:
Aside from padding the video with 10 minutes worth of pretentious scenic shots, the video itself reveals little that I didn’t deduce before — at least not concerning the turnaround of the Rising project itself. The video makes it seem super-duper serious, if not emotional, through its choice of editing and shot selection. Almost like somebody died and they’re trying to get to the bottom of the mystery. But the actual content of the interviews is really straightforward and basic. I figured all that out without needing to fly to Japan.
What’s worse is that the video never digs down to the true reasons behind the choices made. Kojima gives some flimsy excuse about choosing Platinum Games because they’re Japanese, and understand what a katana is; and we’re just supposed to accept that at face value? This is one of the most ridiculous answers I’ve ever heard from Kojima, but I’m not surprised he kept his cards to his chest. It’s the interviewers job to go deeper into the motivations of the people they interview, but we don’t get any satisfaction here. Keighley wouldn’t want to get on the bad side of the people who grant him exclusive access. He’s a guest. It would be rude to ask harsh questions.
I’d like to hear about the other reasons for Platinum Games being chosen. How about choosing a Japanese developer because it makes the communication process easier? That’s pretty logical. Or what about the fact that Platinum Games is an small independent company, not major competition like Capcom, who make the Devil May Cry series? Konami can’t ask Capcom for help. Platinum Games doesn’t have many hits under their belt, and still doesn’t have much recognition in the world, so for them this is probably an honor. But most major developers would be insulted at having some failed concept project dumped on their lap and a deadline to go along with it, so it makes sense to pick one which is young enough appreciate the opportunity.
But do we get any hint of the truth from this “truth behind” documentary? No we don’t. This is a promotional video: a 25 minute commercial dressed up as serious, even artistic journalism. Better than a traditional press release, right?
Just from watching the interviews, we see that Platinum Games wants to half-ass the project in order to meet the deadlines, but Kojima Productions is protecting their own reputation too much to accept this. This makes the high-flung “Let’s make Japan the best in the world again!” rhetoric an obviously empty gesture. This is still an awkward, confusing partnership, and the project still has time to fail — if Platinum Games fails to meet the “impossible” demands of their producers, Kojima Productions. That, or it will be delayed repeatedly and be released as a compromised piece of shit.
Yes! The new idea I hinted at before was an EPIC FULL VIDEO REVIEW of the HD Collection (or at least MGS2 & 3) written and narrated by YOURS TRULY. Let the above teaser video whet your appetite for the yet-to-actually-begin-production masterpiece that I will unleash! Now, for some answers to your possible questions: Continue reading →
[Note: I felt like these videos didn’t stay at the top of this site for long enough, so I’m making it sticky for now. Newer stuff is below it.]
It’s a three-part video, which for some reason uses a Veoh in the second part, but just make sure you watch it and enjoy. It’s by a Bulgarian dude or something, but I couldn’t stop laughing as I watched it. As far as I’m concerned there could be another 50 minutes of this.
Watch it full-screen to get a real sense of what it’s like.
This is easily the most beautiful fighting game I’ve ever seen, with character art by the one and only Alex Ahad, and with lead designer Mike Z, famous tournament fighter turned designer-programmer. This is a dream team, and the progress they’ve made is mouthwatering to say the least.
The game will be released this year over the PSN Store [edit: and XBLA], which means its going to be affordable, and I insist that you check it out. This game is built on love, passion, talent and style, and I believe every game should strive to reach this quality. High-definition sprites that are hand created, with thousands upon thousands of frames of animation; dynamic lighting systems on top of that; actual good character designs with charming stories, unlike shitty BlazBlue/Guilty Gear. This is how games should be made, and it definitely needs to see support.
The game has tag-mechanics, but as you can see from the video above it also features 1v1, 1v2, and 1v3, with the strengths being distributed accordingly to keep it balanced. I can’t wait for this to come out and I sincerely hope it gets bathed in money, because I want more!
