1am and calling it a night... Or a morning...

Cutting through metroid at speed today! Claire and I have got probably about 60% through the game today with only breaks for food shopping, cups of tea and eating. Had a break for a couple of episodes of futurama and dinner and then settled down to an evening of prime.

I am enjoying the game a lot but it does feel really old school in places. I love exploring and finding stuff but hate having to go from one end of the game world to the other in order to find an item I need. It feels like artificial game lengthening. I feel like it is acceptable for a 2d style metroid game but it feels out of place in a 3d game.

My biggest gripe tho... No autosave. I wouldn't mind having to manually save if the rooms were a sensible distance from the boss fights. I did not like having to trudge across a level from a save room having just failed a boss. Most annoying.


Also... Hints... I can be wondering around for about 10 minutes and then the game will say
"aaah!!! You need to go here!". Why can't I ask for a hint or just be shown the hint at the end of a section? I wouldn't even mind scanning for hints. At least that would be interactive.

Still, it feels metroid, plays like metroid and is great fun. I am enjoying it and I am going to try hard to complete it tomorrow :)

Going to sleep now.

Night all

Time... What a stange companion you are

Hello!
Well it has been a while hasn't it. I have been struggling to play video games from the list recently because I have had so much going on with work, personal life and wedding plans. This weekend I have a friend staying with me. For the purposes of this blog we will call her "Claire". Now this "Claire" person is a huge metroid fan and I have been talking with her about it for many years. So today, I have continued my metroid game and we are committed to seeing it through! She is staying with me till tuesday so I fancy our chances of completing it :)

Will keep updating as we go. Currently 1hour and 50 mins into the story. We got missiles, morph ball and are on our way to a place with high wasp activity...

Hot seating ftw!

Metal Gear Solid 4... Mission complete!

So after a couple of busy weeks, travelling and helping my sister move i finally got a chance to complete MGS4!
it just finished. just now. finally. after.. .a lot of cut scenes.

Now i understood fully before i played the game that there were a lot of cutscenes in the game and i knew some of them were very long. What i didn't realise was the percentage of the game that was cutscenes. I don't think i would have minded if i got to play the game a bit more but i felt like i had to watch a lot of things i would have rather played. In fact, this morning when i picked up the controller, i got to run down one corridor filled with little round.. arm..o..bots... for 5 minutes and then watch a cutscene that lasted... maybe... 45? then i got to have a fight with a guy.. hand to hand... which lasted 10 minutes.. and then... over an hour and a half of credits and cutscenes. so actually... i played the game for 15 minutes and sat waiting for it to finish. Niky walked in on me playing and said "you know, every time i see this game it is a cutscene, i have never actually seen you play it". Kinda sums up my point.

My conclusions are as follows.

1. I wish the game let me play more OR had less cutscenes and more action OR was longer so i could play more.
2. what i did get to play was great fun and i wish it had been longer
3. Act 2 and 4 were awesome. I loved them.
4. Act 1,3 and 5 i didn't enjoy so much. I wish the majority of the game had been more 2 and 4.

In closing. I did enjoy MGS4 and i can see it has great bits but, i have to say "it's not really for me".

Now if i look at my list... my next game is... METROID PRIME!

I will be playing the Wii version as i have the trilogy disk with all 3 Metroid games on. although i do have shadows of the damned and Alice ready to play.. might have a quick go on each of them next week.

3 games done! go me!

ACT3... impressions...also.. SPOILERS!

i spent nearly an hour sneaking around a few streets, assassinating guards and following a guy... and then it all kicked off with a long cutscene... Snake met... big momma... and then ran away on a bike with her... and shot at flying stuff.
cool boss fight followed with flying boss. dealt with that and then... a cut scene... that was about.... an hour long? and then a briefing that was... 35 mins long?.. and counting...
big momma died, ocelot/liquid went crazy, snake looks a bit like Khan from Star Trek 2, I think Raiden finally died but on the plus side, i think Sunny learned to cook eggs good.

also, it looks like we are going to shadow moses island! (actually happy about that! :D )

I wanted to go to bed about an hour ago but the cutscene just wouldn't end!

Hi ho... hi ho... we're off to shadow Mo!(ses island...)

something clicked!

Last night something cool happened. The game let me play it without a cut scene or long conversation for about an hour and it was really good fun. I feel like a broke a barrier and found "the game". I also watched an OTT cut scene where Raiden slices up a bunch of lady-legged-cow-noise mechs and then fights "Vamp". It was so over the top i laughed but in a "shoot-em up"/"Wanted" type of way.

There was some good combat, a nice vehicle turret section, a cool octo-boss lady level with a nice mechanic and all in all, i found "ACT 2" in south america really good fun!

Going to start Act 3 tonight. maybe even get to 4! :O

In closing, its getting better.

G

MGS4.. thoughts and concerns

I am playing Metal Gear Solid 4. According to my save file i am...5 hours in... but actually, its longer... but i will come back to that.

more and more recently i feel like i am "missing" something in a few videogames. A good friend of mine Chuck has told me time and time again how awesome No More Heroes is. I know several others like Catherine and Oli who share the same opinion. I played it. But... Just didn't get it. I did not have fun playing the game and struggled to see how others could find enjoyment in it. I have been feeling the same about MGS4. Which incidentally, the previously mentioned friends also enjoyed.

they have all had attempts at convincing or at least explaining it to me. I have heard things like "its more about the atmosphere" and "it wraps up the story completely" or "its a bit artsy" but i cannot shake the fact that it feels like a bad design and not fun. This kinda makes me feel like a classical musician hearing rock and roll and saying "this isn't real music". I don't want to dismiss it so i am struggling to find the "wow" factor in this game and understand it myself.

What follows are some thoughts i jotted down (hopefully no spoilers) as i played MGS4.

"war has changed".. it has? oh ok... so what i am i meant to be doing?...

WAR HAS CHANGED.. yes... so... uhm.. where do i go?

"Snake.. .this is a sneaking mission!"... really? SNEAKING? i am a combat veteran with years of experience and you are explaining to me that this is a "Sneaking mission".. not stealth... not espionage.. not even covert. No. Sneaking mission... :/ translation? In Joke? who knows.

Why does snake always repeat the last word each person says as a question? is he forgetful or crazy?
SNAKE - "Crazy?!"
Yes snake! its when people lose their grip on reality...

there is a girl cooking eggs. What?...
22 minutes later and i dont know what i am doing still
And now... i am meeting a monkey... wearing pants... and a guy.... called.... drebin.... and.... all.... of ..... the cutscenes... have................. really...
...long... pauses....... between each word..........- CUE SNAKE - "Each word?!"

OH I SEEE!!!! i am using LAST GENERATION NANOMACHINES!!! *slaps forehead* OF COURSE!... no.... wait... i still have no idea what is going on.

the guy with diarrhea... is in a special forces group.. and is a ten year combat vet!...rookie... with the safety on... :/

I meet Meryl! the colonels daughter! and she is leading...The UN's RAT TEAM! - *everyone poses*...
I am sure all military units strike a hero pose when they announce themselves

An elite unit of crazy ass beast robots are dispatched to kill the immediate threat of.... 6 guys and a bulldozer... :/  really?...(reeeeeeleeeeeeeeeeee?)

that was the end of my first play session. I had enough. it got too crazy. So i thought i would pick it up another day.

that day was yesterday. and it was not a good experience.

I learned as i tried to load my game that it needs you to SAVE MANUALLY!
thats right.
the only save i had... was JUST after the intro. :(
this DID however teach me something amusing. When skipping ALL the cutscenes and running through the levels without due care and attention, i covered about 3 hours of the game in 15 mins.

Having caught up to where i was i SAVED. then i thought, hey, lets get on with it!
I played for 10 more minutes before... the game told me it was installing and to wait a few minutes.
Mid game installs. really? REALLY MGS4?!?


In short, this is a struggle. I am not enjoying it. but will complete it out of spite.

Feel free to explain to me why its a great game as i really want to like it. It just hates me.

:(

..and it was just about to start when...

hmmm... guess i will wait till later then. :/