Metal Gear Solid and the PS1 Era
Today I tried to play Metal Gear Solid for the second time since buying the thing some years ago, and this time with a DualShock 2 and USB converter rather than a keyboard (yeah, it's the PC version). I got a little ways further than I did the first time, and have come to the conclusion that this really isn't my type of game. A few things that struck me:
1 - The story is interesting, I'll give it that (this time around, I watched all the briefing tapes before starting a new game), but there's a ton of cutscenes besides. And I thought Final Fantasy games were bad...
2 - Snake's moveset is really limited. I had trouble zooming in and doing up/down movements while doing so, and the lack of jumping drove me nuts. Which brings me to...
3 - The game has not aged well.
I was kind of surprised how old the game looked, but on further reflection, maybe I shouldn't have been. FFVII's PC version is passable graphically, and FFVIII PC looks even better. However, MGS uses 3D environments in addition to character models, and all of them are skinned. Huge-ass pixels everywhere.
It's kind of odd, but the older 3D games that hold up the best are, in my experience, 64-bit ones (read: N64) and those that make extensive use of flat, pre-rendered images and sprites (FFVII, FFVIII, and several games made specifically for PC). Of course, the static images that MGS uses (in the briefing videos and codec sections) look perfectly fine.
Besides the 3D graphics (and as I pointed out above), there's the controls. MGS is an action game, but the limited moveset doesn't hold up to today's standards. With the old 2D action games, it's more forgivable, mainly because there aren't 3D spaces to work with and thus you have a good idea of what to expect. When I control Snake, I want him to be able to jump and climb in addition to the moves he has to work with now.
So in short, I don't think I'll be playing through the rest. I feel it would test my patience.
Before booting out of Windows, I installed Sam & Max Season One, which I bought not too long ago. You can imagine my annoyance once I learned earlier this week that the game is being ported to Wii, as I'd much rather play it on that platform. Don't know if it'll come with the PC version's extras, though. Oh well :/
Finally, my recent order of game soundtracks (and a certain arrange album) from CDJapan arrived today; possible reviews later.
1 - The story is interesting, I'll give it that (this time around, I watched all the briefing tapes before starting a new game), but there's a ton of cutscenes besides. And I thought Final Fantasy games were bad...
2 - Snake's moveset is really limited. I had trouble zooming in and doing up/down movements while doing so, and the lack of jumping drove me nuts. Which brings me to...
3 - The game has not aged well.
I was kind of surprised how old the game looked, but on further reflection, maybe I shouldn't have been. FFVII's PC version is passable graphically, and FFVIII PC looks even better. However, MGS uses 3D environments in addition to character models, and all of them are skinned. Huge-ass pixels everywhere.
It's kind of odd, but the older 3D games that hold up the best are, in my experience, 64-bit ones (read: N64) and those that make extensive use of flat, pre-rendered images and sprites (FFVII, FFVIII, and several games made specifically for PC). Of course, the static images that MGS uses (in the briefing videos and codec sections) look perfectly fine.
Besides the 3D graphics (and as I pointed out above), there's the controls. MGS is an action game, but the limited moveset doesn't hold up to today's standards. With the old 2D action games, it's more forgivable, mainly because there aren't 3D spaces to work with and thus you have a good idea of what to expect. When I control Snake, I want him to be able to jump and climb in addition to the moves he has to work with now.
So in short, I don't think I'll be playing through the rest. I feel it would test my patience.
Before booting out of Windows, I installed Sam & Max Season One, which I bought not too long ago. You can imagine my annoyance once I learned earlier this week that the game is being ported to Wii, as I'd much rather play it on that platform. Don't know if it'll come with the PC version's extras, though. Oh well :/
Finally, my recent order of game soundtracks (and a certain arrange album) from CDJapan arrived today; possible reviews later.