I just picked up that box set last night and started making my way through the first one. I can't bring myself to play any PSOne games (warped textures and muddy graphics don't hold up as well as most sprite-based games did), but this is the one exception. The game's imitation of moody lighting and strong attention to detail (for a 1998 game) is still astounding. I can't believe how well this game has aged in the past decade (!). Bitching about graphics at this point is bitching about the special effects in 2001 or RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: missing the point. While this game more than any of the others suffers from the "8-bit gameplay in a 3D game" issues, Metal Gear Solid has always been about the experience more than anything. The only thing I really miss about the gameplay is the ability to shoot while in first person (something the PC and Gamecube versions had). Still, the plot, acting, and characters had me giddily laughing in Kojima's hyper-Bruckheimerian vision.
I'm not too psyched to play the second one since it's probably the one I played the most, but in terms of level structure, it feels very repetitive. None of the areas feel unique when you arrive at the Big Shell. And sadly, the Snake stuff at the beginning is pretty stale to me since I did every trick I could in countless runthroughs (GTA 3 and MGS 2 were the only games I had for PS2 for a while).
I'm pretty excited to play MGS 3. I only played through it once, but I remember it to be pretty engrossing stuff. I love Gregson-Williams' Bond-esque score and the whole Cold War angle the game takes. The only thing I'm upset by that it isn't the Subsistence version of the game, as I'd love to use the free camera. The 8-bit games would have been a nice bonus, too.
As for all the handheld games, the only one I truly enjoyed was Ghost Babel for Game Boy Color. It was a perfect mix of the original game and Metal Gear Solid. The Acid games were okay as a brief diversion, but I'm not into card-based combat much and a half-assed story in a Metal Gear game doesn't make it a game worth playing. Same goes with Portable Ops. I wanted a new Metal Gear experience on the PSP, but instead I got lame switchable characters, text-based dialogue, and a story I didn't give two shits about (though I only played 2 hours before returning it).
Either way, a PS3 will definitely be in my living room next week. At this point, the Bluray player is an afterthought.
I'm not too psyched to play the second one since it's probably the one I played the most, but in terms of level structure, it feels very repetitive. None of the areas feel unique when you arrive at the Big Shell. And sadly, the Snake stuff at the beginning is pretty stale to me since I did every trick I could in countless runthroughs (GTA 3 and MGS 2 were the only games I had for PS2 for a while).
I'm pretty excited to play MGS 3. I only played through it once, but I remember it to be pretty engrossing stuff. I love Gregson-Williams' Bond-esque score and the whole Cold War angle the game takes. The only thing I'm upset by that it isn't the Subsistence version of the game, as I'd love to use the free camera. The 8-bit games would have been a nice bonus, too.
As for all the handheld games, the only one I truly enjoyed was Ghost Babel for Game Boy Color. It was a perfect mix of the original game and Metal Gear Solid. The Acid games were okay as a brief diversion, but I'm not into card-based combat much and a half-assed story in a Metal Gear game doesn't make it a game worth playing. Same goes with Portable Ops. I wanted a new Metal Gear experience on the PSP, but instead I got lame switchable characters, text-based dialogue, and a story I didn't give two shits about (though I only played 2 hours before returning it).
Either way, a PS3 will definitely be in my living room next week. At this point, the Bluray player is an afterthought.
