200°

Metal Gear Solid 5 is unfinished? That's entirely the point

There's a school of thought that Metal Gear Solid 5 is 'unfinished' – based on a cut mission from the Collector's Edition bonus disc and some deleted visual files – that is currently bubbling on message boards and '$60 for an unfinished game LOL' Twitter outbursts. The argument is that MGS5's narrative doesn't resolve properly, which is a) wrong b) right and c) speaks to everything about internet culture. It also shows that while people are playing MGS5, and racing for 100% completion, they're not listening to what Kojima is saying. Or rather, not understanding *why* Kojima doesn't resolve every plot thread – and how the 'unfinished' feel might be deliberate.

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gamesradar.com
coolman2293504d ago

It's not just the cut content. Everything about this game feels unfinished. The story is the blandest in the series, with no real bosses. Skullface feels half baked. Quiet is the most interesting character in the game by lack of anything better. Most of the plot points are lazily explained in tapes in what feels like an afterthought or left unexplained. The entire story is unfulfilling. Even as bad as MGS4 was it at least provided a conclusion. This game just exists.

And the story itself doesn't answer anything of value. This was supposed to be Big Boss's ultimate fall into villainy. And we were gipped even from that. Even if the story was finished I doubt it would be improved much. The very foundation of the story is bad. Don't even get me started on how Psycho Mantis isn't even a character here. He's just here to be a deus ex machina to move the plot forward because there's nothing really pushing it.

PaleMoonDeath3504d ago

Story content is cut, just as things were getting interesting is kind of stopped out of the blue, disapointed? Not really, got my moneys worth 10 times over.. However.

The story wasn't as gut punching as it should have, if there was no deleted content I'd be happy with it, just knowing they cut content gives the "Ending" a bittersweet vibe.

Just wait, Episode 51 and Chapter 3: Peace will happen.

-Foxtrot3504d ago

Nailed it

Lets not forget Big Boss being devolved as a character as he hardly talks or gets involved with the plot to show his fall into "villainy". Instead he just talks on the tapes, most he talks in the actual game is when he's on D-Horse.

Then it goes against Kojimas reasons for getting rid of David Hayter.

So lets get this straight, you want a professional actor for Big Boss so we can get better character development and acting YET he dosen't actually do anything. It then makes it pointless to get rid of Hayter. Blown a shit load of money of Sutherland for him to talk mostly in to cassette tapes. Genius idea /s

So many things are wrong with this game, it's a good game overall and solid but compared to past games and the how solid they are this just feels like a total letdown

Perfect scores and that come from hype, anticipation, Kojimas name and the fact it's MGS on next gen consoles.

Der_Kommandant3504d ago

Richard Doyle should have played Big Boss.

The gameplay is near perfect but i'm so disappointed with the lack of story, cutscenes, boss battles and don't get me started with act 2.

Metal Gear is my favorite franchise of all time and i've played nearly 70 hours into this game but this isn't the sendoff the series deserves.

-Foxtrot3504d ago Show
-Foxtrot3504d ago Show
SlightlyRetarted3504d ago

Nah, i just think you get some kind of sick satisfaction of downplaying games that other like. There is nothing wrong voicing your negative opinions, but it turns to shitposting when you go after pretty much every article of the game.
Like i didn't like Arkham Knight that much, so i commented few times of facts i didn't like then i left those articles alone. Let the people who like it talk between themselves.

"What's the point of using a comment site like to state the obvious "I love this game" or "This looks fantastic" over and over."

You can talk about games without taking them to extremes.

""But no you keep just shitposting over and over to the articles that are about games you don't like"

Oh you mean what EVERYONE does on here. One of the whole points of commenting sites such as this one."

Commenting sites point is to shitpost about games you don't like? Okay buddy...

mEATgrinder3503d ago

Reading this is like reading a childs mess written from the stuff from its nappy

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 3503d ago
coolman2293503d ago

A LOT of reasons.

One of the main reasons the game is bad is because of the really weak story. It was obvious Kojima had this grand vision of trekking across the globe to different locations but all it ended up doing was fragmenting the story. The story itself goes on a retcon spree that basically contradicts literally every other game in the series. Things like Zero and Paramedic being super evil and super sweet and kind Paramedic somehow being the super despicable Dr. Clark who ran cruel experiments on Frank Jaeger. Zero somehow went from a guy who started a top secret black ops group just to keep his promise to Sokolov to a super villain who wanted to rule the world. All without any explanation. Even people like Naomi get retconned all to hell. She goes from being a geneticist to being a super computer hacker and she also invented nanomachines. Those are two completely unrelated fields. Her entire character turns into a weak plot point to move the plot along. Hell what even happened with Mei Ling? She worked for Philanthropy in MGS2 but she barely gets mentioned, then in MGS4 she's the captain of a ship for some reason. There are so many unexplained disconnects the game doesn't bother to explain.

The bosses are the weakest in the series (barring MGS5 because that game barely has boss fights). In a series with Foxhound and the Cobra unit what we get is the B&B Unit. They're all bland with no character whatsoever. They barely have personality, and even with what little they have their beauty forms only have a few minutes of screentime. Their backstories are spoonfed to you by Drebin for no explainable reason, and all of them are copy/pastes of each other. They make for boring characters. Even if we got their backstories from them as they died it would have been better.

The whole story is so bitter. You can feel how much Kojima didn't want to do this game. It's weird cause I feel like Kojima is a creator who's work quality heavily depends on his mood at the moment. When he's feeling good about MGS he produces excellent games. When he's mad about having do to more Metal Gear his games suffer immensely and you can just feel Kojima giving people middle fingers. This happens with every other game. MGS2, 4, and 5 all seem to have this issue. Things like Meryl not being in MGS2 with Snake's catty comments about tomboys. No explanation about what happened to her or what happened between Snake and Meryl (did you like Meryl and her relationship with Snake? Too bad!). Snake is now super old and a complete jerk. He acts so bitter to everyone (even to Meryl, the person who inspired him to live for more than himself). It was like Kojima hated Snake and just wanted to kill him. Which isn't too far from the truth cause the original ending of MGS4 was going to be Snake and Otacon killed via firing squad. So many characters get pissed on in MGS4. EVA comes in for like 20 minutes just to drop an exposition bomb and then dies. Naomi dies because she suddenly has cancer. Otacon and Naomi hook up for some reason and Hal gets to watch Naomi have a prolonged and painful death. Oh and the game tries to act like Vamp is a sympathetic character that we're supposed to care about because Naomi said so. Yeah, no. Not after what he did to Emma.

There's a LOT to talk about with MGS4.

coolman2293503d ago

Oh yeah. The game also lingers on pseudo philosophical rambling for no reason. Characters go on and on and on about nothing relevant (one of the things that led to the bloated cutscenes). EVA goes on a monologue about light and shadow, Ocelot just monologues practically every time he's onscreen. And none of it really matters. When Volgin went on a tirade about the Philosophers it was relevant to the plot. When The Boss explains her scar and the concept of how the times change who your enemies and allies are, that was relevant to the plot, as well as the main them of the game. MGS4 was a whole lot of purple prose that would have been better left on the cutting board.

And what I feel was the biggest flub in the game was the weak use of nanomachines as the end all for all things. Nanomachines were used to explain EVERYTHING. From the B&B Unit, to mind control, to the Guns of the Patriots, to Vamp's supposed immortality, to pretty much everything. It was lazy. It's like the game got allergic to the supernatural except for that cheap cameo of Psycho Mantis where he acts really OOC (come on he turned a new leaf as he died, even saying that helping someone felt good). Overall the game feels like there was minimal effort put into the writing, which is disappointing with the game that ends not only Solid Snake's storyline but also the story overall.

PaleMoonDeath3504d ago

It isn't resolved because main story content is cut, it isn't a theory it's logic.

Come on now, use your head!

ufo8mycat3504d ago

- repetitive side missions
- Africa and then the first mission back in Afghanistan, the only great main missions in the game.
- missions prior to Africa and also part 2 are a snorefest
- revisiting the SAME locations over and over again to do missions
- an open world that is bland and nothing to do outside of the outposts

With the above clear flaws in a game, yet reviews of 9or 9.5/10 show that reviewers are clueless and are scoring it high simply due to hype or $$$ from Konami.

Don't get me wrong, the actual stealth is great, but the gameplay is ruined by the above flaws

GrimmQuiorra3504d ago

The review scores are what get to me the most. I understand that a 10/10 score does not imply that the game is "perfect", but it basically means that the most important parts of the game are damn near flawless.

The gameplay is good. I'll give it that. The story? The characters? ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT. Not even close.

Every time I hear someone talking about this game like it's absolute perfection I have to keep telling myself "People have different opinions. People have different opinions" So I won't lose it.

As someone who LOVED MGS 2 & 3, MGS 5 is a massive disappointment.

Sorry for the rant.

Scatpants3504d ago

I was more disappointed about MGS2 than this game. The whole thing was set on an oil platform and half the game you play as some super lame fruity looking character. If you want to talk about letdowns MGS2 took the crown.

StanLee3504d ago

What get's me is that many of the same publications that gave the game universal praise are now leveling criticism at the game. Reviews set the bar of expectation very high and this has left most disappointed by the game they got. It's not the first time and it won't be the last a game with incredible hype, with extreme polish, from a lauded developer, gets undeserved high praise.

Scatpants3504d ago

I liked Batman and the Witcher more than this game, but I still really MGS5 I don't really care about the story issues, the gameplay is fun, just a little too repetitive. I'd give it around an 8/10

dolphin223504d ago (Edited 3504d ago )

My criticisms of the game -- please do not read in case i spoil anything etc if you have not played, sorry in advance i have had a few ales.

The open world is a complete pain in the arse to navigate and
feels empty. Gta games you can literally go anywhere on the map, you see a mountain, you can whizz right up it on a mountain bike or on foot, in MGSV you see a small rock or a pavement, you have to circumvent the bloody thing like Christopher Columbus and pull up the map and go all the way around.

You go to Africa, a place crammed with the most incredible and diverse wildlife in the world. Crumbs i wonder what scary animals we will come up against. Perhaps a croc, a lion, a giraffe, a rhino, a hippo, Aha instead we get some alsation dogs, a mouse, a donkey and a zebra hybrid. The safari Konami animal pack will be available from October for 19.99 including a hamster, ferret and gerbil.

There are no indiginous people in any of the locations to bring the game world to life and repetitive mission structure becomes a chore.

I do not wish to ruffle any feathers and upset anyone but i have played all of Kojima's games and the gameplay is absolutely superb, but the game feels fractured and you can tell that the behind the scenes problems led to an unfinished product.

Here is my most contoversial comment, in my opinion the story is a contrived load of hoary old bullsh!t.

However with my criticisms, i would still score the game a very strong 9.

Name Last Name3503d ago

- What's that? You want to complete every side op on the map in one go?
- Yes. Can I have Pequod carry me from one spot to another on the map?
-LOL sorry bruh get your ass inside a cardboard box to be mailed.

Greysturm3504d ago

Jajaja, MGS2 all over again. Shallow complainers vs overinterpreters.On topic the article makes an interesting point. There are no loose ends we know how everything ends. I sure would like to see how the kingdom of the flies unfolded though.

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70°

CoPilot: Gaming Chat is an amazing revelation - A true gamer friend at your side

CG writes: In this video, we take Microsoft's Copilot for a spin and talk about gaming and AI influences, and the implications of that. We talked about a possible Metal Gear Solid V remaster, Deus Ex remaster, Hitman Blood-Money mission, and more. Imagine trying to talk gaming with non-gaming friends in real-life and after 5 seconds, they switch off and possibly yawn. Well, CoPilot isn't like that, instead it's like talking to a like-minded gaming fan who is totally on your level. The public version of CoPilot released in Feb 2023 and already it's become almost indistinguishable from a real person.

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cramgaming.com
210°

Metal Gear Solid 5, Nearly After A Decade, Is Still A Timeless Classic

The Metal Gear series, led by Kojima, pioneered the stealth genre, creating a masterclass in storytelling and gameplay.

SimpleSlave324d ago (Edited 324d ago )

No. But MGS5: Ground Zeroes might actually be one of the greatest Game Demo ever, if not the best.

xHeavYx324d ago

I know a lot of people didn't, but I actually liked that story twist at the end. The game was fun and all, but I wouldn't call it a timeless classic.

Cacabunga323d ago

Metal Gear legend stopped with number 4.
MGS5 needed a year or 2 more of development to be maybe among the classics.. it was clearly rushed, especially at the end. The story teaches us absolutely nothing new.

just_looken323d ago

A demo is free that was a $40 cry for help as later we would know konami did not want to fun hideo and his team anymore that is why we got the unfinished phantom pain.

-Foxtrot324d ago (Edited 324d ago )

Meh

Great stealth gameplay but the game was just average.

Bland open world that felt lifeless, the story felt shoehorned in, unfinished story etc. The whole thing was just average to me compared to the other main titled games.

I would have rather preferred it if they kept Ground Zeroes for the main game as the opening and the rest of the game turns into a Metal Gear 1 & 2 remake to bring things full circle.

just_looken323d ago

If you dig around they had old behind trhe scenes of phantom pain vids and books wrote around the time.

Before funding was puled the main idea was to keep peace walker coop it was in the games early builds and that end game were your building your base that was suppose to be metal gear one.

You as the fake big boss was going to make your own metal gear one map aka your base (outer heaven) then me as sold snake use the mode that is in the game invade/defeat the base even fight your current version of metal gear that was in the game but not finished.

So your idea was on the table bit got canned.

CrimsonWing69324d ago (Edited 324d ago )

Like hell it is. That was the first time I became aware of being sold an unfinished game and was blown away about blind fanboys saying it was some perfect game.

Yea, the first few chapters were great until they do that thing halfway and make you replay all the missions again. Then little things like capturing animals but only seeing a JPEG unlike 3 where everything was modeled out. Areas were massive, desolate, and boring to look at.

Game was a massive let down for me and the potential was so high for it. Honestly, this was one of the most disappointing games I ever played. What’s worse is it starts off brilliant. You literally play through until you get to the point where you could tell they just stopped developing and then quickly used glue and construction paper to “finish” it and then sold it. Quite frankly, that’s insulting to consumers and fans.

Inverno324d ago

People have selective memory. This game had huge drama attached to it, what Konami did to Kojima and this game was horrible. Now they praise Konami cause they revived Silent Hill, even though SH looks half arsed too.

CrimsonWing69324d ago

I dunno if they’re getting much praise after the Silent Hill 2 debacle. Makes me scared sh*tless for the MGS 3 Remake…

Michiel1989323d ago

I don't wanna defend konami, but Kojima had 7 years to make the game, it's not that weird for a publisher to expect a game to be finished in that amount of time.

Also no one is praising konami from what I've seen, they're just excited that a Silent Hill game is releasing

CrimsonWing69322d ago (Edited 322d ago )

@Michiel1989

You’re absolutely correct. Look, the dude is a visionary and has brought us some incredible games, but he constantly would go over budget and could never stick to a deadline. I don’t know if people remember the MGS 4 trailers but it became a joke when you’d see a release date and then they crossed it out in the next trailer to give another.

What a lot of people don’t know is there’s a certain amount of money given for development and marketing. When you go over the budget and add additional marketing over the deadline it isn’t cheap. MGS GZ and V were laughable to me for the amount of time he had to develop them and he spent even more time on the engine that wasn’t anything revolutionary to me. I mean, GZ was nothing more than a demo and they released that art like $40 I think, probably to further help fund V. He then spent money for Kiefer Sutherland who did nothing for the character, which I think Kojima just wanted because he’s a fan.

Konami just had enough and said this is the deadline and you’re done after this. It’s business, but fans took it personal. I mean look at this Overdose game he’s been doing.,, like when is that ever coming out?

Michiel1989322d ago

I kind of forgot about overdose but yeah exactly my thoughts. He has made some of the best games out there and definitely deserves time to create his new masterpiece, but it's not a bottomless well.

This is pure speculation but I imagine he got around 4 years to make the game excluding pre-production. If after those 4 years the game is nowhere near being done, the relationship will be strained between them one way or another.

about the konami being praised thing, if let's say blizzard announces world of warcraft 2 today I'll be excited as hell for the game, but that doesn't mean my opinion of blizzard changes only a tiny bit cause they're still trash.

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Yui_Suzumiya322d ago

Yeah, it was the only MGS I didn't play and this is coming from someone who got back into gaming after skipping a generation due to MGS4 back in 2008. It just seems to be the complete opposite of the MGS I always knew and loved (1-4).

JEECE324d ago

Yes and no. In many ways in was a great game; there's a very strong argument that it has the best gameplay of any MGS game, and that it is one of the more interesting open world "playgrounds" we have gotten, in terms of how the world operates. But as an MGS narrative, it is pretty far down the list, for many reasons.

Storm23323d ago

I don't think there is any argument. The gameplay was incredible. But yeah...disappointed in the rest. Could have been incredible but...well...we all know what happened...

JEECE322d ago

I don't think there is much of one either but apparently some people found the world very boring compared to the more linear structures of other entries so I didn't make a definitive statement in order to acknowledge the outliers.

DarXyde323d ago

The thing about Metal Gear Solid is that the narrative is what determines which is your favorite because the gameplay had ALWAYS improved with every mainline entry. It's amazing.

If it was gameplay, we'd all say The Phantom Pain, but the story is what truly sets them apart.

For me, that's Snake Eater, which is also my favorite game of all time.

JEECE322d ago

That's my favorite too, particularly if we are talking about the subsistence version with camera control.

Fishy Fingers324d ago

For me, best gameplay, worst, everything else.

Storm23323d ago

Yeah...gameplay was so damn good.

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80°

15 Video Games With Realistic Injury Mechanics

Whether it's showcasing damage realistically or simulating fractures and conditions, these games are worth checking out.

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gamingbolt.com