Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

[KAI]

>divided into chapters
>dat "ending"
fuck kojima

[Strider77]

what?

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm making a statement.

[Strider77]

I meant directly above.

[Ji-L87]

So, have anyone played the game yet? And if so, what are your feelings so far?

I managed to play a bit last evening/night and while I didn't get super far into the game, just past the opening sequences & missions and just about reached early stages of the real gameplay where I can now fulton smaller items and people back to home base.

It's perhaps a bit too early to make any real impressions but I quite like what I've seen so far.
Maybe the "super hero villains" or whatever I should call them introduced in the beginning doesn't seem as original and interesting as in MGS3 perhaps but the actual gameplay remains as tight as it was in Ground Zero, so I've been enjoying that.

The game also looks good and performance has been rock-solid for me, although aside from the opening there hasn't been that much action.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Especially "excited" for the huge steam download, which is what I'm gonna have to do anyway since all there's on the disc's apparently just a steam client installer.

That shit is ridiculous, and defeats the whole purpose of having a physical copy of the complete game. Then there's idiotic comments like this:

I actually don't care about this, the reason I buy physical copies is to have something to put on my shelf so it doesn't really matter if the disc only contains a Steam installer. Still, it is kind of shitty to not even bother putting anything else on the disc.

People are so spoiled with how easily accessible games are nowadays that they don't seem to realize how crucial physical copies were to game preservation and why they're so important.

[Ji-L87]

People are so spoiled with how easily accessible games are nowadays that they don't seem to realize how crucial physical copies were to game preservation and why they're so important.

Some days I think about what would happen if sometime in the future Steam just ceased to exist as a service. I have no idea what would happen to our libraries, would we still be able to play stuff in "offline mode"? Would our purchases sink with the ship? How many soulless lawyers would repeatedly target those who then would try to make the games work without steam? Like we've seen with some online games where they shut down the servers?

That shit makes me terrified.

Edit: Like, there is no way I can envision a future where the Steam guys says that "Welp! We're shutting down but before we do that, we're releasing your prized collections from the chains of our service because you guys have been great customers".

[Ji-L87]

Doublepost! My last post killed the thread anyway so it's fine!

D-Dog just grew from a puppy to a useable buddy, which is cool, but while on the ground I reeeaaally missed not having the horse around for transportation....
Running or having to "acquire" a vehicle just to go somewhere a bit further away is a bit of a drag but ofc I should've realized that



While the PC versions runs pretty much flawlessly for me, I get horrible HORRIBLE FPS drops in the emblem editor of all places. Pretty much impossible to make anything containing words or code names since the game slows to a slideshow. Others have reported it too, really weird bug/memory leak....

[iconoclast]

I beat this a couple hours ago. (54 hours played, 53% overall completion. I did a bunch of the Side Ops and listened to most of the cassettes.)

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about the game just yet. It's definitely excellent, but it's blatantly unfinished and suffers a bit from unavoidable filler & padding. Once you get around halfway through the game, you'll have to replay some of the missions you've already beaten on a higher difficulty. It ruins the flow of the story and really just doesn't make sense, unless they had to cut a bunch of content and scramble to ship the game. It would have been perfect if every one of the main campaign missions were entirely unique with a higher difficulty version that unlocked afterward. Maybe that was the plan before Kojima got fired.

Worst of all is the ending. It's not bad on its own, but it's just not how the game should end. And it wasn't supposed to end that way; they actually cut the final mission from the game. There's an unfinished version of it on the collector's edition bonus disc, and I think it's essential for anyone who completes the game to go and watch it on youtube or something. It just boggles my mind that they'd cut the ending, of all things.

The core gameplay is pretty much perfect, though. Approaching an enemy base (from any angle), using your binoculars to scout it out, then deciding on how you want to infiltrate it makes you feel like you have the freedom to go after your objective in any way you want. All of the main bases are huge and complex, with multiple hidden paths and items to collect in practically every section. The attention to detail is incredibly impressive (not only for the level design, but for pretty much every aspect of the game). They totally nailed the "free infiltration" concept, and it blows the previous games out of the water imo.

I feel like the game would have been a total masterpiece if they had more time to flesh everything out. As it is, it's just excellent.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I expect a major enhancement to appear next year.

[cave hermit]

I got this game the other day, and so far it is absolutely amazing.

I still don't quite understand how checkpoints work though. like during a side-op, I accidentally killed the POW I was there to save, so I restarted from a checkpoint. When I did, I suddenly had 2 new members on my support team, which maxed out its capacity and triggered a base construction tutorial on my idroid. I couldn't leave the idroid menu since I somehow didn't notice the option I was meant to select, so I just assumed the game had glitched and restarted from the checkpoint. When I restarted again, not only did my support team still have its new members, I had suddenly gained a bunch of new R&D unlocks. I'm not really sure what happened...

Also apparently there is a true ending in the game, but it requires you to complete all other story missions (including the hard difficulty versions of old missions), certain side-ops that involve important characters, and upgrade mother base to a certain point: http://www.shacknews.com/article/91134/ ... mission-46

[iconoclast]

I think that when you capture a soldier, there's a waiting period before he finally joins your crew. So those were probably some guys you had in the brig or whatever. I'm not sure though, I didn't pay a ton of attention to that stuff. I just captured anyone I saw with a high grade or specialist skill and let the game handle the rest.

Also apparently there is a true ending in the game, but it requires you to complete all other story missions (including the hard difficulty versions of old missions), certain side-ops that involve important characters, and upgrade mother base to a certain point: http://www.shacknews.com/article/91134/ ... mission-46

Yeah, I did this. Those requirements aren't right, though. I still haven't played a few of the repeat missions, and I think it unlocked before I completed the final important Side Op (not sure about that tho). The mission that got cut was supposed to come after this, I guess. It wraps up a major loose end that they leave unanswered in the game.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Are the mouse & keyboard controls any good?

[Strider77]

I enjoy engaging the enemy to "Take On Me"....

[cave hermit]

So I did a second POW rescue side op to recruit the allegedly "highly skilled" prisoner for my base. The prisoner I rescued ended up having D rankings for all stats. Wasn't a complete loss though, since one of the guards I captured had B ranking in R&D and Med bay.

Yeah, I did this

So would you say that the true ending is at least an acceptable ending for the game, or does the game still feel unfinished without the cut material?

[iconoclast]

I liked the end scene for what it was. I can already see some people saying that it ruins the game or something though lol. I just think it's unsatisfying as an actual ending because they leave something major completely unresolved. That's where the cut content fits in.

[evil_ash_xero]

The game is impressive. But just about every KP game is.

But this one kind of goes above and beyond, with a lot of it's freedom. (someone should have an eagle crying here)

I do have problems with it though. I would have preferred more variety in missions. They are quite similar. To an extent.
Sometimes I'll have to chase down vehicles and blow them up. But a lot of the time it's extraction missions. That's really not that big of a deal, as it plays so well.
But it is an issue. I'm not gonna make excuses for it, as some fans will. "Every game is repetitive, to a degree". Yeah, but they hide it better. Usually set pieces and boss fights solve this problem. Or just being shorter games. Can you imagine if Do DonPachi went on for 30 hours?!
The Side-Ops makes this more of an issue. But you kind of have to do the Side-Ops to make cash, so you can get better weapons. So, you're kind stuck there.
It's kind of the anti-MGS IV. But so was Peace Walker. This one is just more fleshed out.

But I will sit down to play this game, and I mean...the day will pass. So, it's doing something right.

There's definitely some things they could have done differently, that would have made this a better game. But hindsight's 20/20, I guess.

I haven't finished it yet. Just got to Africa.

I'm still thinking Bloodborne is going to be my game of the year, despite it's flaws (too short, not enough variety in builds).

Strong games though. I'm happy to see two Japanese games get so much hype this year. They're having problems, as we all know.

[Strider77]

Over 48 hours and counting..... on mission 22 I think.

[Necronopticous]

I'm so sick of clearing out enemy outposts, you guys.

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm so sick of clearing out enemy outposts, you guys.

The side ops kind of run it into the ground.
You can just run around the checkpoints or whatever, though.

[cave hermit]

At some point I stopped bothering with the guard posts, and started going right through them on D horse while leaned to the side away from the guards. They do get suspicious, but by the time they decide to go check I'm already past the post.


While doing a mission last night the game actually crashed (this was the PS4 version), and even though I could restart and continue without losing much progress, I still lost my no retry bonus for the rank score D:

[iconoclast]

I usually just go around the outposts or drive straight through them. I'll only stop if there's something that I want to grab (resource containers, A+ soldiers, blueprints, a vehicle, etc). The way that stuff is set up reminds me of Far Cry 2, except the enemies in that game have eagle vision and will chase you until the end of the world.

I've been doing a lot of the Side Ops. The loop of flying in, marking the five available missions, and going around to complete them is pretty enjoyable. The nice thing about the Side Ops is that you're not graded, so you can put the game's massive arsenal to use and play it like a TPS. There are some fun weapons at the higher levels.

[evil_ash_xero]

Yeah, there's really no reason to stop at all the outposts. Almost all of them have a little road on one side or the other, that you can take. And if you're using D Horse, you can hang to the side, and get by.

That would really slow you down.

[DestroyTheCore]

Yeah outposts are totally optional and don't really get in your way. I also agree with Iconoclast about the absence of grading in side ops because they are a nice way to do missions any way you want and it is a fun opportunity to use your full arsenal.

[Necronopticous]

Yeah so the problem is that the missions are typically just clearing out enemy outposts also.

[Obiwanshinobi]

So you get repetitive objectives instead of cutscenes and dialogues?

[Strider77]

No we just get complaints either way.

[Necronopticous]

I was a little late to the party getting a decent smartphone. I had a company-issued/company-paid Blackberry until around the end of 2011 and couldn't justify paying a phone bill just to have a cooler phone. When the iPhone 4S came out I coerced the CTO into swapping out my Blackberry in favor of it and got my first opportunity to play some modern mobile games. One of the hot games at the time was Tiny Tower, which was the one that really hooked me. I played it for months and eventually built every floor that was available in the game at the time, including perfectly staffing each one of them with 9-proficiency dream jobbers and thematically dressing them for their role. Here is my favorite highlight from January of 2012. I played a lot of Tiny Tower; probably too much. I didn't really have anything left to do in Tiny Tower when I made the decision to delete it from my phone and never play it again. I never thought I would be required to do so in order to progress in a Metal Gear game.

[Zaarock]

Got into this expecting more like Peace Walker and it certainly delivers in that. Fox engine looks amazing. The gameplay mechanics can be really fun once you get used to them and there's a ton of small tricks you can do. Though like PW once you get geared up it's easy to cheese through most missions by sitting in plain sight with a non-lethal sniper and abusing the AI stopping in place because of seeing something, etc.

Too bad the game content wise seems a bit unfinished. I agree with iconoclast on this, the game could have been superb if it had been fleshed out. The loose end they left is ridiculous especially since the casette tapes further emphasize it. There are also few boss fights and barely any extra content after beating the game. Even the bonus monster hunter bosses were good in Peace Walker, and PW campaign had a ton of bosses and other content to begin with. Apparently there are barely any unlocks for high completion rate in TPP either which is weird.

I've been playing the PC version and haven't ran into any technical problems. Online is a bit of a mess since there are tons of cheat engine users around with unlimited resources, HP and other exploits. I managed to get some pretty high placements in the FOB mission leaderboard etc but it's really just a grind and dealing with cheaters is a pain. Also the advantage defenders have over invaders is pretty ridiculous because they can respawn every 30 seconds and just them seeing you triggers an alert.

Might just drop the multiplayer until MGO comes out. I still recommend checking the FOB system out. Infiltrating a high level base owned by another player is generally harder than any other infiltration in the game and there's some variation to it as people can have different types of weapons and guard layouts.

[Ji-L87]

I've noticed one small but annoying bug that happens for me in the PC version.

It's the map screen, indicators and icons (marked enemies, helicopter landing zones etc) all get cut off at the top and bottom earlier than the image of the map does and once I noticed it, it was really jarring.
Like an invisible clipping mask that's smaller than the map they're overlaid on...

Anyone else seeing this?