• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Official Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Thread

Going for Markhor ranking and wondering if anyone can help me out... GameFAQs has already failed.

- Can I still catch a flying squirrel in Graniny Gorki South after The Fear fight? I've been looking for hours and not spotted one.
- Where can I find The End's parrot on Extreme? I've heard on top of the munitions shed, but it's not there.
- Kind of a longshot, but does anyone know where I can catch a King Cobra after the Ocelot fight? That was my last point-of-no-return, and I'm holding off going into the mountains until I find this out.
 

Mr Mike

1 million Canadian dollars
I've just found out about that cool Medicom figure, but are the $300 prices really the only way to get it? Konamistyle says its "out" on Jan 9th - is that a wider release or is it just wrong?
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
I don't know where the original pic is, but EnGarde posted his desktop image in the OT forum with this MGS3 artwork...concept is cool but it looks hideous. Just look at EVA...ugh

untitled9xx.jpg
 

Piecake

Member
EVA looks like a cheap skanky whore in that picture. I guess thats not too big of a departure from her actual character, but she sure looked a whole lot better in mgs3 :lol
 

Dsal

it's going to come out of you and it's going to taste so good
Just finally finished this this week since I had vacation time to just spend on playing games :D. I wisely avoided this thread to avoid the possibility of non-hidden spoilers.

For me I don't know if GOTY is high enough honors for this. Is it too brash to call this GOTG as in Game of the Generation?

Yes, best ending sequence ever in a game. Yes the story has its myriad twists and turns. Yes it's an artistic triumph of design, graphics, and programming.

Yet the thing that just strikes me the most is how much *LOVE* went into making this game. I know that probably sounds kinda lame, but as a game developer I can't really think of a better way to put it.

All the little details, mighty and stupid, all the auteur things most sane directors would leave out for worries of time, budget, QA testing time, etc... all these things were implemented.
The End dying of old age after a game save trick. That weird nightmare game within the game. The different situations where characters react differently to you depending on what items you are wearing like the Raiden mask or the Ape mask.
Can you imagine having to test all these little details? Can you imagine any other dev team that would take on that many risks and then hit it out of the park? For me it's mindboggling.

Maybe that's just what happens when you like, have a huge budget and stuff. I wouldn't know what that's like :D.

I just have so much respect. Respect that a team can take myriad huge risks, pull them off with aplomb, pour on the Love, and create an awe inspiring game experience.

This is coming from a man who took out the MGS2 disc out after beating it and threw it across the room in disgust at the ending. I'll never forget the look on my wife's face when I did that...
 

Dujour

Banned
Dsal said:
This is coming from a man who took out the MGS2 disc out after beating it and threw it across the room in disgust at the ending. I'll never forget the look on my wife's face when I did that...

Jerk!

...

But I understand your pain. Come, share it with me.
 
Dsal said:
Just finally finished this this week since I had vacation time to just spend on playing games :D. I wisely avoided this thread to avoid the possibility of non-hidden spoilers.

For me I don't know if GOTY is high enough honors for this. Is it too brash to call this GOTG as in Game of the Generation?

Yes, best ending sequence ever in a game. Yes the story has its myriad twists and turns. Yes it's an artistic triumph of design, graphics, and programming.

Yet the thing that just strikes me the most is how much *LOVE* went into making this game. I know that probably sounds kinda lame, but as a game developer I can't really think of a better way to put it.

All the little details, mighty and stupid, all the auteur things most sane directors would leave out for worries of time, budget, QA testing time, etc... all these things were implemented.
The End dying of old age after a game save trick. That weird nightmare game within the game. The different situations where characters react differently to you depending on what items you are wearing like the Raiden mask or the Ape mask.
Can you imagine having to test all these little details? Can you imagine any other dev team that would take on that many risks and then hit it out of the park? For me it's mindboggling.

Maybe that's just what happens when you like, have a huge budget and stuff. I wouldn't know what that's like :D.

I just have so much respect. Respect that a team can take myriad huge risks, pull them off with aplomb, pour on the Love, and create an awe inspiring game experience.

This is coming from a man who took out the MGS2 disc out after beating it and threw it across the room in disgust at the ending. I'll never forget the look on my wife's face when I did that...

Very well said... except for the last MGS2 part.
 

Dsal

it's going to come out of you and it's going to taste so good
Serafitia said:
Jerk!

...

But I understand your pain. Come, share it with me.

I may be a jerk. But I am a *classy* jerk. Like a half-Filipino Terry Bradshaw.

I don't know what that means either because it's like 4am or something, but here's what I do know about how MGS2 made me a sad sad panda.

MGS2 mostly seemed to me like it was about Kojima yanking the player around just because he could. In many ways, it seemed like was manipulation done for his amusement more than for the player's amusement. "Look how long can I make the player read text! This is great I can't believe I'm getting away with this!" It was non-interactive drudgery, and it certainly wasn't for the players' benefit. Many of the plot twists seemed to have been added just to have yet another twist, rather than to have something in there that was part of a coherent whole. Also, the cheese factor of some scenes really clashed with the more serious previous installment. I guess for MGS2 I was hoping for something more in tune with the first game.

MGS3 on the other hand has its manipulations, but they dovetail together well. More importantly, it's INTERACTIVE and it's fun. I would argue that the whole ending sequence is the game playing with you as much as it is you playing the game. But it's an incredible ride!

The cheese factor is still there,
you know, like crying parrot and dentures flying out and OLD MAN EXPLOSION OMG!
I guess the big difference is that this time it was expected and therefore probably easier to take. A lot of it is presented as an intentional parody of old spy movies of that era, which is cleverly reinforced with Para-Medic's enthusiastic defenses of the foibles of old movies in the game save dialogues.

I keep thinking about this game. I'm just so very very grateful that I got to play it. I don't usually get this way about games, I swear. I am one jaded dude when it comes to games these days, but there's just something about this game.

Also, did anyone really ever truly believe in their heart of hearts that they'd ever get to see a polygonal Lyndon Baines Johnson? We truly live in the future, people.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
okay, just to add to the thread, a brief comment on my personal experience...

DONT GIVE UP - the game (IMO) is nothing special for about 4 hours, then all of a sudden...

BOOM! GOTY contender...

personally , i question the design of the game, but CHRIST, what a turn around.
 

Socreges

Banned
DCharlie said:
okay, just to add to the thread, a brief comment on my personal experience...

DONT GIVE UP - the game (IMO) is nothing special for about 4 hours, then all of a sudden...

BOOM! GOTY contender...

personally , i question the design of the game, but CHRIST, what a turn around.
THIS IS WHAT WE'VE BEEN SAYING

Though the turn around wasn't so sharp for me. Operation Snake Eater, even from the beginning, was always fun.
 

TekunoRobby

Tag of Excellence
LOVED:
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes
Metal Gear Solid 3

Enjoyed:
Metal Gear
Metal Gear 2 (MSX)

HATED:
Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear 2 (NES)

Kojima is certainly becoming much better with every game, I can't wait to see what his "students" do with the franchise in the future. Oh and I fucking loved the story. It was all pretty decent throughout (hell I deeply enjoyed the beginning as well) but the ending explanations are what made the plot gold.

EDIT: Just curious since I haven't heard any rumblings but did anyone find the game a bit too easy? I played it on normal, and though I've died a few times no situation was frustrating or even hard to figure out. I deeply enjoyed the challenge of not being caught but I kinda wish the soldiers were far more vigilant and intelligent. Going to gun for either very hard or hard next time and see how that goes, damn I love the stealth genre.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
"THIS IS WHAT WE'VE BEEN SAYING"

yes, i know
but then i have to ask, how good of a designer/producer is Kojima if he's prepared to let the first initial impressions of a game be lack luster?

Not a very good one in that sense i'd hazard, but that would be harsh given how good the game is now.

I just think it's a bad decission to stack up all the codecs and shitty game play at the front end of the game.
 

Mr Mike

1 million Canadian dollars
Mr Mike said:
I've just found out about that cool Medicom figure, but are the $300 prices really the only way to get it? Konamistyle says its "out" on Jan 9th - is that a wider release or is it just wrong?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?
 
"I just think it's a bad decission to stack up all the codecs and shitty game play at the front end of the game."

Yeah that was a bad decision. Like I said before the game actually starts after 3 or 4 hours (Operation Snake Eater)
 

jett

D-Member
DCharlie said:
okay, just to add to the thread, a brief comment on my personal experience...

DONT GIVE UP - the game (IMO) is nothing special for about 4 hours, then all of a sudden...

BOOM! GOTY contender...

personally , i question the design of the game, but CHRIST, what a turn around.

I'm wondering, when exactly did this BOOM occur for you?
 

J2 Cool

Member
I don't see what was bad about the virtuous mission personally unless you have the patience of a toddler. For me, that was all about getting back into MGS mode, and getting used to the gameplay. Sure, the gameplay doesn't seem amazing in that mission, but that's because I still didn't know how to use any techniques at that point. And I was still intrigued by the game, and jungle, and everything. I actually applaud Kojima for not having to throw the players in a warzone right away to keep interest. It was pacing, and not movie pacing, but videogame pacing. Seriously, I'll never forget the shock when the opening credits started to play 4 hours in, Snake Eater blasted, and we got our intro which seemed to be missing. I went out of my mind. You couldn't do this in any other medium or with any other videogame director. For me, he's like the Quentin Tarantino of games. The kind of director you can FEEL his influence throughout everything, in a way just telling you to enjoy it.
 

AssMan

Banned
Playing Twin Snakes is great after beating MGS3 since we got to play as Big Boss and knew what kind of troubles we went through.



BTW. Since MGS3 and Twin Snakes are already out which game looked graphically better? I thought the character models were better in MGS3, but TS did have some amazing shadows and lighting in some areas, i.e., the area you fight Ocelot.
 

montanha

Member
Dsal said:
This is coming from a man who took out the MGS2 disc out after beating it and threw it across the room in disgust at the ending. I'll never forget the look on my wife's face when I did that...

i laughed my ass off at that, man. NICE!
:)
 

Socreges

Banned
DCharlie said:
"THIS IS WHAT WE'VE BEEN SAYING"

yes, i know
but then i have to ask, how good of a designer/producer is Kojima if he's prepared to let the first initial impressions of a game be lack luster?

Not a very good one in that sense i'd hazard, but that would be harsh given how good the game is now.

I just think it's a bad decission to stack up all the codecs and shitty game play at the front end of the game.
Well, first off, I agree that it was a mistake to have such a large cut-scene sequence at the beginning of the game, "prologue" or not. But "lack luster" and "shitty game play".... yeah, you're either cracked, or sensationalizing your criticisms to justify.
 

snapty00

Banned
Okay, I finally caved in and got this game yesterday. I'm at The End right now.

So far, I have to say that I'm not enjoying the game very much. While there's nothing really wrong with it, it's just not all that fun to me. It certainly hasn't hooked me like the first two Metal Gear Solid games did. I can't explain it, but I can't play Snake Eater more than 10 minutes at a time because I start to get drowsy and bored. Taking out guys with the 12-gauge shot gun was pretty satisfying, though. :)

Some things that I haven't liked so far:

-Going into the menus and feeding Snake. Ugh, this is getting outrageously annoying.
-Waiting for Snake to say his one-liner after eating an animal.
-Some of the load times for radio conversations.
-Some of the areas that seem unnecessarily subdivided into smaller areas

I do like the music and the graphics (although I have to say that I really miss the 60 frames per second...it makes a big difference).

Maybe the game will become more compelling soon, but so far, I've just been pretty bored playing it.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
"Well, first off, I agree that it was a mistake to have such a large cut-scene sequence at the beginning of the game, "prologue" or not. But "lack luster" and "shitty game play".... yeah, you're either cracked, or sensationalizing your criticisms to justify."

a bit of both i guess. But i'd stand by lack luster - at the start it certainly didn't blow me away, that's for sure. Shitty game play is over the top though, you're right. I'd tone it down to "uninteresting game play".

I've got admit, i played those first few sections with the sound of loads of friends screaming "OMG! GOTY EASILY!!" and that certainly contributed to nit picking early in the game.
 

TTP

Have a fun! Enjoy!
J2 Cool said:
I don't see what was bad about the virtuous mission personally unless you have the patience of a toddler. For me, that was all about getting back into MGS mode, and getting used to the gameplay. Sure, the gameplay doesn't seem amazing in that mission, but that's because I still didn't know how to use any techniques at that point. And I was still intrigued by the game, and jungle, and everything. I actually applaud Kojima for not having to throw the players in a warzone right away to keep interest. It was pacing, and not movie pacing, but videogame pacing. Seriously, I'll never forget the shock when the opening credits started to play 4 hours in, Snake Eater blasted, and we got our intro which seemed to be missing. I went out of my mind. You couldn't do this in any other medium or with any other videogame director. For me, he's like the Quentin Tarantino of games. The kind of director you can FEEL his influence throughout everything, in a way just telling you to enjoy it.

Thumbs up dude. You stole my words one by one. Even the Tarantino part. When I hear comments like those of DCharlie (which I respect of course) I feel sad.
 
Holy crap... this game is very quickly becoming my GOTY. I bought it on Wednesday, and haven't been able to stop playing it.

I played MGS1 and 2, and TTS. I loved 1 and TTS, but like most, 2 put a really really sour taste in my mouth. It was actually all you guys on this board talking about how awesome it was that convinced me to get it.

Again, I knew nothing about MGS3 aside from it took place in a jungle, in the 60's and probably was about Big Boss. I played through the Virtuous Mission in about 2 and a half hours, getting back into the groove of things really admiring all the little additions; then BOOM the cutscene with
the nuke
and the beginning intro, in all its Bond-ish glory. My mouth dropped. THAT was the OPENING to the whole game? It really seemed like that segment in Bond movies before the main credits role up. I was sold at that moment.

From then, it's been gameplay bliss; the bosses; my word, the bosses.
The End was AWESOME
as was
The Sorrow
.

I'm completely impressed. From the music, graphics, gameplay, even the story is a hell of a lot better than MGS2; simply awesome, awesome game.
 

FightyF

Banned
Well, I'm just into an hour into it...and right now I'm at the point where
I met EVA (I forgot the name) when I was supposed to meet Adam)
.

I love the cutscenes, story, and characters (the bosses from what I've seen look cool), but I'm not impressed by the gameplay. I feel like I don't have full control over the character within this environment. Also, the pacing is very very slow as I'm looking around the area...sneaking up a bit, scanning around the area, walking a bit more...it's tedious, not fun. I'd rather this be an FPS game instead.

I'm also playing HL2 at the moment...where the gameplay is a lot more fast paced, and you have full control over the combat. Maybe I'm subconciously comparing the two rather than appreciating each.
 

snapty00

Banned
Fight for Freeform said:
Also, the pacing is very very slow as I'm looking around the area...sneaking up a bit, scanning around the area, walking a bit more...it's tedious, not fun. I'd rather this be an FPS game instead.
I agree 110%. There have been a bunch of times where I wish I could just switch permanently to first-person mode and be done with it.
 

Socreges

Banned
DCharlie said:
"Well, first off, I agree that it was a mistake to have such a large cut-scene sequence at the beginning of the game, "prologue" or not. But "lack luster" and "shitty game play".... yeah, you're either cracked, or sensationalizing your criticisms to justify."

a bit of both i guess. But i'd stand by lack luster - at the start it certainly didn't blow me away, that's for sure. Shitty game play is over the top though, you're right. I'd tone it down to "uninteresting game play".

I've got admit, i played those first few sections with the sound of loads of friends screaming "OMG! GOTY EASILY!!" and that certainly contributed to nit picking early in the game.
Heh, fair enough. And that has to be another compliment to MGS3 that you were able to eventually indulge them. ;)

snapty00 said:
So far, I have to say that I'm not enjoying the game very much. While there's nothing really wrong with it, it's just not all that fun to me. It certainly hasn't hooked me like the first two Metal Gear Solid games did. I can't explain it
I bet I can! During the PSX generation, you had no incentive to dislike the game. In approaching the game, you took it as it is and immersed yourself in. Now, however, you've aligned with the Xbox and PS2 games, as the opposition, are met with stronger scrutiny. Finer details that don't faze the large majority of gamers are significant shortcomings in your mind. Likewise, whereas were it an Xbox game there would be particular points that you would "love", but in it being a PS2 game, they are merely "liked". Now, it's always possible that you could take the "leap", as I see it, and embrace the game as positively as anyone else. However, that would require an additional comment in each praising post, such as: "FINALLY a great PS2 game this year!" or "I only regret that once I finish MGS3, there won't be another PS2 game to play for months. :\"

Understand that this is applicable to pretty much everyone (myself at times, I'm sure) and not just you. I just used you as my platform.

Of course, we'll never admit it, though. :)
 

snapty00

Banned
Socreges said:
Heh, fair enough. And that has to be another compliment to MGS3 that you were able to eventually indulge them. ;)


I bet I can! During the PSX generation, you had no incentive to dislike the game. In approaching the game, you took it as it is and immersed yourself in. Now, however, you've aligned with the Xbox and PS2 games, as the opposition, are met with stronger scrutiny. Finer details that don't faze the large majority of gamers are significant shortcomings in your mind. Likewise, whereas were it an Xbox game there would be particular points that you would "love", but in it being a PS2 game, they are merely "liked". Now, it's always possible that you could take the "leap", as I see it, and embrace the game as positively as anyone else. However, that would require an additional comment in each praising post, such as: "FINALLY a great PS2 game this year!" or "I only regret that once I finish MGS3, there won't be another PS2 game to play for months. :\"

Understand that this is applicable to pretty much everyone (myself at times, I'm sure) and not just you. I just used you as my platform.

Of course, we'll never admit it, though. :)
What the...?
 

Piecake

Member
Fight for Freeform said:
Well, I'm just into an hour into it...and right now I'm at the point where
I met EVA (I forgot the name) when I was supposed to meet Adam)
.

I love the cutscenes, story, and characters (the bosses from what I've seen look cool), but I'm not impressed by the gameplay. I feel like I don't have full control over the character within this environment. Also, the pacing is very very slow as I'm looking around the area...sneaking up a bit, scanning around the area, walking a bit more...it's tedious, not fun. I'd rather this be an FPS game instead.

I'm also playing HL2 at the moment...where the gameplay is a lot more fast paced, and you have full control over the combat. Maybe I'm subconciously comparing the two rather than appreciating each.

If you desperatly want to speed up the pace of the game just go all out CQC. On normal it is possible to skip the whole stealth aspect all together and just go quickly from guy to guy using the knock out unconcious move of CQC(Directional stick forward while holding O).

I remember clearing out a whole room of guards on normal(like 20) just with that move. It does speed up the game quite a bit, because you arent spending time scanning the area every few seconds. I personally only did this a few times to mix up the gameplay a bit, but you could do this exclusively if you really wanted to.

On another note, im not a junior member anymore, Huzzah!!
 

hobart

Member
Gonaria said:
If you desperatly want to speed up the pace of the game just go all out CQC. On normal it is possible to skip the whole stealth aspect all together and just go quickly from guy to guy using the knock out unconcious move of CQC(Directional stick forward while holding O).

I remember clearing out a whole room of guards on normal(like 20) just with that move. It does speed up the game quite a bit, because you arent spending time scanning the area every few seconds. I personally only did this a few times to mix up the gameplay a bit, but you could do this exclusively if you really wanted to.

On another note, im not a junior member anymore, Huzzah!!

Or when your stamina gets so high all you need to do is roll through an area of 20 guards...

...I don't recommend this... because you are missing the entire gameplay element of the game... but at the Normal difficulty level... it is entirely possible to go through the entire game like this.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
Lol, on my 2nd playthrought when im disguised as raikov in the east wing, i went to have some fun and terrorized the scientists who somehow all fear raikov (hmmm..), and dont ask me why i did that but, i discovered that when you go in first person view, aim at his ballz and punch them, they fall unconcious in one shot :lol

i punched them all in the ballz, doesnt work on guards though :(

Would be a fun alternate way to beat a boss i must say.. maybe in MGS4.
 
Wow... I just finished it; went to my friend's place for the New Year's festivities around 10:30, but kept thinking about finishing this damn game. I "politely" excused myself at around 12:15 or so, and got home and played straight until just now.

This is one of the greatest video game experiences, EVER. The characters, story, music, gameplay, everything came together on this one.

On a somewhat related note, does anyone have a link to a summary of all the major plot points of MGS2? I played it a while ago, and after some time, got so pissed off with the story that I just kinda blocked out most of what happened, and most of the explanation about the Patriots.
 

hobart

Member
*Deep Breath*

*Deep Breath*

This...

*Pause*

...is The End.


Haha. I've been wanting to do that for awhile now. (FYI: I found The End to be pretty easy... actually... but really enjoyable none-the-less)
 

fart

Savant
finished it this morning. gameplay is pretty great (although a little too easy on normal) but plot is super-dumb. mgs2 was a far superior piece of litera-churro
 

Daigoro

Member
Buggy Loop said:
Lol, on my 2nd playthrought when im disguised as raikov in the east wing, i went to have some fun and terrorized the scientists who somehow all fear raikov (hmmm..), and dont ask me why i did that but, i discovered that when you go in first person view, aim at his ballz and punch them, they fall unconcious in one shot :lol

i punched them all in the ballz, doesnt work on guards though :(

Would be a fun alternate way to beat a boss i must say.. maybe in MGS4.


:lol that is awesome!


just my 2 cents: i personally disagree with the folks who say that the game is just OK untill the last 2 hrs, or 4-6 hrs in (whichever).

i enjoyed it from the start. it does start a bit slow (with all of the chat after the initial long cut scenes), but thats really part of the whole Metal Gear thing. i wanted to take it slow and ease my way into the game.

some of the cut scenes do get over long and boring and i did tend to fade out at points. but you can allways skip them if you really hate them. the story aspect is allways secondary to me when im playing a game. a game will never tell a story a well as a good book or movie. they havent come anywhere close yet.

the game does get more intense and interesting after each stage, but why force yourself to play through 4-6 hrs of uninteresting gameplay and cut scenes just to get to the good stuff? if i was bored at the start, i wouldnt bother pushing on.

obviously, we all play in our own way. i was just impressed all the way through, and didnt need to force myself through a few hours of boredom to get to the good stuff.

i could see people being dissapointed if they expect the game to get 10x better towards the end. i found the game just as exciting during the first boss fight as i did during the last one.

others opinions will vary. :)
 

Kiriku

SWEDISH PERFECTION
evil solrac v3.0 said:
who the hell said the fury was easy!?!?!? gaaah, son of a biiiiiiitch!!!

On my first try, I just kept using the radar and blasted him with my shotgun as he came walking by. And I killed him with like 1 mm of life left (actually, I think I died but the cutscene took control before the game realized it).
On my second try, I stood at the very end of the big room (right in front of the door) and sniped him. He only hit me like 2-3 times, and he never even managed to move close to me either...he did walk past right in front of me a couple of times though.
 
I had trouble beating The Fury the first time or two, but then I started
throwing grenades at him and running away
and he went down REALLY fast... I got the hint for using them from someone on the radio, Sigint I think.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
Almost killed all the frogs now, only 3 remaining, praying to god that i didnt miss one >_<
Btw, sneaking suit > * So cool, black version of the boss' suit. Looking forward to getting her special suit by beating her with my mosin rifle, i've beaten all boss that way to get their special items, except volgin's 2nd fight when he's on top of the tank, im not sure if he gives anything but it was just way too long to snipe him with the mosin while he's moving on the tank, the reload on the mosin is quite long, one missed shot and you've lost your target.

Stealth camo, almost there, those goddamn frogs better be all dead *crosses fingers*
 
I used the mosin to tranq
Volgin on top of the Shagohod
but I dont think I got anything (well, atleast that I could tell.

Did you get the End's camo for holding him up? I read you had to do it three times, but i got it after holding up only once.
 
Top Bottom