My Life While Installing 'MGS4' - MTV Multiplayer

The following describes the install of MGS4, there are no story spoilers but if you fear spoilers regarding to the install do not read on. :)

"On Monday night I installed "Metal Gear Solid 4" on my PlayStation 3. Installation is mandatory. And some people have worried that it's a hassle. So I thought I'd liveblog the process and my life during it. And I did.

I couldn't publish what I chronicled until the game was released, which brings us to now. Read on, if you want to see how it went, how I dealt with the installation. But, do bear in mind a warning: I am spoiling the installation for you…

9:34PM Booting game. Excitement building. Pressing X button

9:35 PM Autosave warning. I clicked X. Loading screen. "Ready to install game … the installation process will take approximately 8 minutes."

9:36 PM Game is installing. Snake is smoking. A health warning is warning me about how to be healthy. This is just like what the Wii does, if the Wii warned about depositing cigarettes in ashtrays.

9:37 PM Trying to not pay attention to the installation anymore but I think one of the health warnings just warned me to only use this game disc with the PS3. At this point, this is the greatest game installation of the year. So it is declared.

9:38 PM Doing something else. Taking shrink wrap off of new "Bourne" game. Interesting that they sent me the PS3 version. Publishers never do that.

9:39 PM More smoking warnings during the installation. Think I just missed a "stealth warning."

9:40 PM I believe at this point in "Devil May Cry' 4"'s mandatory PS3 installation, the game had looped its re-telling of the "DMC" saga twice

9:41 PM Just tried all the buttons on the DualShock 3 to see if the installation was interactive. Sadly, it's not. Still, it's pretty entertaining!

9:42 PM The health warnings are now repeating. So even the incredibly creative folks at Kojima Productions can't keep an installation fresh. That's ok, because merely one minute remains.

9:43 PM This is it. The 8 minute mark. And installation is…just…about… complete! That wasn't bad at all."

[jamilion]

9 minutes only? What was the big fuss i was hearing about so many days ago about install times. Sheesh! And since its MGS its well worth the wait!

[Condoleezza Rice]

It took the author more than 8 mins to write and host the article.

[thesummerofgeorge]

Picking my copy up in 3 hours and I can honestly say not once since the game was announced to this very moment have I been concerned about installing the game... In fact I've been looking forward to it. Can't Fcking wait.

[Ri0tSquad]

The regulars on this site spend more then 20 minutes on here. Lol, if you actually read the article, then read the comments, then decide to post or reply to a comment then your probably spending more then 15 minutes on here.

[ice_prophecy]

people complain about the installation times...

I started the installation, then proceeded to enjoy the manual that came with the game.. by the time I was done reading the major bits of the manual - the installation was done. It didn't even cross my mind that it took long...

OH yea, I did look up a couple of time to enjoy the installation screen with Snake Smoking his ciggie.

Not too shabby actually...

[kevin1122]

if only we all read slowly :)

[Whoooop]

Had a laugh reading that.

[mesh1]

guys what better changing disic which take 40 seconds on cgi heavy games or having a 10min to 20 min install for every game that is released on yur systems ps3 fans fail tbh they twisting these installs into a good thing so tell me what better changing dics for jrps that take 40 seconds or having to install games that take 20 mins aka dmc4

[juuken]

I lol'd. And the installation was such a HUGE fuss among silly anti-Sony people.

[Shadow Flare]

I got my copy of mgs4 yesterday (thank you play.com and postman) and man alive...best game i have played in a long time. The production values are just incredible, you can see why this series has such fame around it. I only just worked out that i was on that game for 9.5 hours yesterday. My eyes are burning but that game is incredible

[Slayer OP]

But ill bet fanboys will whine about that. I can see it now

"HA ha you have to wait 10 minutes to play a game! Play b3hind!"

[Figboy]

"Play b3hind" is too clever for the haters to come up with. you give them too much credit (and brains!). lol

[kewlkat007]

It is not the "time" others complain about its the fact that is has to be "Mandatory" while other platforms are Optional.

I'm sure and everyone's aware because of the PS3's architecture, this will now be the "trend", something many never though about when purchasing the PS3, whether you have the 20, 60, or 80 giger.

Of course it can get annoying if your someone that likes to have others come over and play games and now you have to manage your HDD and the space on it as your game library grows. There are little nuisances regardless if a couple thinks it's OK or not. Many did not foresee this that's all.

Whether is MGS or any others game, I don't think it's the Installation Minutes. As well as having to install, even downloaded demos when there were downloaded to the HDD already, bu that's another topic. That's all Sony and being Noob in the OS department IMO.

[Figboy]

that the reason installs are optional on OTHER platforms is because other platforms, and i mean, the Xbox 360, DON'T HAVE hard drives as standard across all units, so developers CAN'T make an install mandatory?

believe me, if the Xbox 360 had HDDs in every model, there would be mandatory installs.

i would have GLADLY sacrificed room on my 360's HDD to make Mass Effect:

1) Not have such ridiculously long load times (on elevators).
2) Not have to pause and load while i'm just walking down a BARE CORRIDOR.
3) Not have as much texture pop in.
4) Not have such an atrocious framerate, even when not much is going on at one time (the game paused to less than 1 frame per second while my fiance was trying to drive around a barren planet in the MAKO. she couldn't even access the pause menu so she could save her game and reload. we waited for FIVE MINUTES for the game's framerate to stabilize, but it never did. she ended up having to restart the game, losing her unsaved progress).

i have a 60gig HDD. i have quite a few games installed on my PS3, from Oblivion, to Unreal Tournament 3, to Heavenly Sword, and Metal Gear Solid 4. i still have about 15gigs free, and i have a bunch of trailers, music, and other videos that can easily be deleted, or moved to the external HDD if i ever need more space.

installs are only an issue if

A) your console doesn't have a hard drive.

and

B) you just don't have a hard drive big enough.

my 360 has a 20gig HDD. after formatting, i have about 11-13 gigs free. i don't have ANY music or videos on my 360, because i just don't have the room for them, and all that wacky gaming media and content available from LIVE, which i'm reluctant to purchase anyway, because god forbid my HDD dies on me, or i want to get a bigger HDD, Microsoft won't just let me redownload the content again, and instead will charge me all over again.

while i was installing MGS4, i walked across the street to the gaming store and traded in a few games and movies. by the time i was done, the install was done, end of story. no fuss, no muss.

[qwert]

Wow 8 min...that's a lot! in 8 min I finish Farts of War in my sh!ty xbox360...what a well spent time this instalation is comparing to the most crapiest 8 minutes of my life playing Farts of War!XBOTS, WE WANT CRAP GAMES!

[Syronicus]

Don't bother me. Booting a game up for the first time and having to wait a few minutes to play is no biggie. Heck, it takes me a few minutes to get some chips/cheese & peppers and a beer so I welcome the install times. lol

[edhe]

.. to see that the running fun of installs on the ps3 is just not for consoles. It's to make up for the slow running of the BD drive.

Optional installs are fine by me, but it'd still rather throw a disc in and go. there's a great joy to just.. doing that with a new game.

I don't want regress back to pc installs, ta muchly.

Still - 8 minutes is far better than the 20 for DMC, imagine they did a Halo2 for Windows effort and installed whilst you played? IMAGINE..

[Ashta]

Apparently you haven't done your homework on the whole "BD drive is sloooow" myth. You see, when most people see the term "2x BD drive" they automatically think "OMG thats like a 2x DVD drive! thats terribly slow!!" except the only thing that these people realize is that a 2x BD drive is not the same as a 2x DVD drive. The PS3 can read and load DVD9 discs just as fast as the 360 can and if developers actually released PS3 games on DVD9 if they weren't going to use the extra space on the Blu-Ray disc then it would most likely be -faster- than the 360 in load times.

However, this is the point where most of the 360 fanboys who like to bash on the Ps3 get it completely wrong. The Blu-ray has far more capacity than the DVD9 so you have to look at them as if they were water wells and you were looking down in to them with a flashlight.

If the well was shallow (DVD9) it wouldn't take you long to see the bottom, now would it? However, if the well was very deep (blu-ray) then you would have to look down a bit farther and longer to find the bottom of the well. See what I mean?

Some developers have gotten around the empty space problem of the BD discs by making their data redundant which allows the BD drive to find data faster to accomplish its task instead of looking in to a vastly empty well for what it needs to do.

If developers would actually USE the BD's capabilities and extra storage to fill those damn discs full of data and goodies and extra content there wouldn't really be a problem. In fact, if most developers would take advantage of it so that they can pump as much as they can in to a gaming disc project then I doubt that people would be fussing over 2-3 seconds more load time.

[edhe]

Actually i do know this.

2x BD is still less than 12x DVD

BD:
Read mechanism 405 nm laser:
1× at 36 Mbit/s
DVD:
Read mechanism 650 nm laser, 10.5 Mbit/s (1×)

I'll let you use your ability to think to work out that i was completely right and you're attacking me despite me being totally correct and true. It's not a misconception that the BD in ps3 is slower than the DVD in the 360, it's absolutely true. In fact it's almost half as slow. Hence in the installs.

Education time over \o/

[PLiPhaze]

Thats all very well but the problem is that 12x DVD is not constant, it is peak & varies between the inner & outer edge of the disc (outer being fastest), where blu-ray's is constant throughout.

[edhe]

Good, fine, bring it on - let's see it but let's see it faster than DVD eh?

4x drives are required before it's viable, preferably 5x.

Doesn't change the fact that the ps3 is 72mb stream is still a bit short on the money forcing the installs.

[Sir_Ken_Kutaragi]

...all day, i'd STILL Install this MASTERPIECE!!! ;-P

I'm Honoured;) to install this on my SEXY;) PS3!!!;)

Anymore nitpicking??? ;-D

[Peow]

My first midnight launch, got home around 12:30. During the 8 minutes I made a sandwich and cooled me down some monster. I can't believe how amazing this game is. The amount of things going on. The beginning was so EPIC!!!! THE GAME IS SO EPIC!!!! But I was amazed at all the commotion in the beginning.

However, installing in between acts is kinda annoying. The "It's after 4:00 AM! You need a break. Now would be a good time to get up and stretch." ANd all that kept me going.

The Cutscenes are long, but great. Installing the MGO update now. Oh, and it's complete!

[dale1]

8 mins iv,e waited four years so not that bad for mgs4

[gsquad]

I would rather have to wait a 8 mins to play MGS4, than to have to worry that my system is going to get RRoD soon. O.... too late it just happened while playing NG2. NO SERIOUSLY it just happened to me yesterday. 5/5/2006 - 6/11/2008 I am so pissed!!!!! I guess it had a good run for a launch system. Sorry I just had to vent, please don't take this the wrong way.

[madmike]

can you please tell me how good the mgs4 movie is

[spandexxking]

its very good, keep wishing

[Blackcanary]

2 mins tell MGS4 finished installing Rock on MGS4 Fans/ Gamers

MGS4 this is living.

[sumfood4u]

Try Final Fantasy XI on PS2 or PS3! U can load it & go Shopping, than come back an your 1/2 way there!

[yanikins111]

honestly, i think the install needs to take longer. I got about 3 pages into the manual, and its quite substantial as far as manuals go... oh well ill have to pick it up as i go along.

P.S. THIS SHYT IS WICKID :D:D:D:D:D:D:D

I freakin love you Kojima.

Its all it was meant to be

Gaming. Is. Perfect.

[Coke-a-Cola]

I am about 7 hours into the game ..........and let me tell you .
It is BLOODY STUNNING ..............

For One who is Crazy for Graphics ( thats Me ) ......this game blows the rest clean out of the water .......I Mean SKY HIGH.

[Figboy]

Snake says something like:

"You've been waiting a long time, huh?"

or

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

it's either three things:

1) A nod to a line in Snake Eater, where Snake says to Sokolov "Sorry to keep you waiting."

2) A nod to the fact that it's been nearly 8 years since we've played as the "real" Snake (MGS3 starred Big Boss. the last time we played as Snake was in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, back in 2001)l

or

3) The fact that there was just an 8 minute install to sit through.

i agree with the author that this install is probably the best of any game released so far, and it's just Snake smoking a cigarette. lol. the graphics detail in his character model is AMAZING.

[iamtehpwn]

The most random, weird introduction to a video game ever?
I mean, I was completely going "WTF"

Luckily, it's pretty short, and it jumps right into the heat of the game. =]

[Figboy]

i did.

but i found it oddly intriguing, and knowing Kojima, it has to do with the overall message of the game (much like the various mind-f*cks they did with MGS2 and it's theme of "controlling digital information").

[xboxlj]

I honestly dont understand what the fuss is about. I don't mind taking a few minutes to wait for a game to install. As long as is decreases load times and improves graphics, whats the big deal? Now I do get annoyed by having to install demos, but that a different story.