Ashura and Adilegian go on about Metal Gear Online and other weird things relating to the epic series. Want to link to this blog? Use http://metalgear.hardcoregamer.com!
WARNING: There are going to be some spoilers. So quit reading now if you haven’t finished up Metal Gear Solid 4 yet. This also includes a link to a video that most MGS4 players will want to download and watch due to the nature of it. Also, I’m in no way 100% an expert on this stuff. Just a guy who reads and watches too much stuff, and may be wrong. :)
So lately I’ve been talking about animation in HD, such as the Transformers the Movie clip I posted just recently on my journal. I think a heavily overlooked portion of animation is within video games. Now, I’m not speaking about the pre-rendered cutscenes that are the rage at Square; With an infinite amount of rendering time, almost anyone with enough effort can polish CG to look as shiny as the latest Final Fantasy. This is impressive in its own way sometimes, but not the same.
What I’m talking about is achievements in game, in engine. Especially on consoles. Stuff that is run, rendered, and animated in real time, that can be looked at from angle to angle. What can you push out of a system with limits? For instance, there is an impressive PSP demo that runs all on the hardware called Suicide Barbie. It uses a lot of tricks, and sure a lot of it is low poly, but for such a low powered handheld system it’s impressive. Or such as BioShock; The fluid animation (as in water) in that game is phenomical (yeah!), and that’s all in-engine, on the fly. You can scrutinize it from any angle.
(More after the cut, including a link to the Raiden vs. Vamp cutscene in 720p HD!)
Section: Metal Gear | Keywords: Cutscenes, Konami, Metal Gear, Metal Gear Solid 4, Screenshots, Videos | LEAVE A COMMENT
About a year ago I noticed I had maybe 6 or 7 old IDE HDs laying around, and to be honest I wasn’t sure what was on them. I didn’t want to have to go through mounting them into a computer (and I’ve moved onto sata, anyway), so I was looking for an alternative to easily go through them or convert them to USB.
After some hard googling for a decent USB enclosure, I came up with... this:
A really really nice metal USB HD enclosure to be sure, the words on the side struck me as kind of funny. If you can’t read what the side says, here you go:
METAL GEAR BOX SUBSTANCE 2.
Someone’s obviously a fan. I would have written off the name as a funny coincidence if it was just ’Metal Gear Box,’ but the ’Substance 2’ is just too much.
As an aside, it also comes in black, red, and a bunch of other colors. It’s actually really well made and nice ’n durable, too. I’m amazed Konami hasn’t seen it before, though. There’s an older version (linked in the gallery below) which isn’t quite as nice, according to Visublog’s Persona:
"I have the first version of this, METAL GEAR BOX no subtitle. It’s pretty cheap in that the only way you can keep the top panel down is by these annoying clips that always fall off if you attach them wrong, and I’ve already lost two of them. It also wasn’t very cheap when I bought it at the time - I was mostly convinced to get it for novelty.
I regret it so. ;_;"
The box is made by a company called Eumax who has, as far as I can tell, went out of business... or at least went into hiding. Bjorn3D has a really hardcore review of the box here.
What follows is a bunch of art of the box and its different versions from around the net. I didn’t get that badass box with mine, though, aww..
[ BLOG OUT || Brady Hartel and James Clinton Howell || 20 August 2008 ]
Section: Metal Gear | Keywords: | LEAVE A COMMENT
On the Japanese Wikipedia, there are (or were) talks that Metal Gear Solid (then Metal Gear 3) was initially intended for the 3DO and not the PS1. With that hardware, it’s interesting to imagine exactly how the game would’ve looked. We’re guessing 2D instead of 3D, but then, Kojima’s team has always been able to pull
out insanity on hardware which isn’t supposed to do the things they make it do.
In the end, a rumour is a rumour is a rumour. However, cut to the Policenauts Pilot Disk. The Policenauts Pilot Disk (aka Policenauts Private Collection) is an extras disk - much like The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2 - which included a boatload of content about Hideo Kojima’s Policenauts.
For those not familiar, Policenauts is a cinematic action adventure centering on a detective who travels to a space colony to investigate his ex-wife’s murder. It mixes classic point and click adventure with shooting segments reminiscent of Mr. Kojima’s previous game Snatcher. It’s actually the first game that Meryl appeared in, along with Jonathan and Ed from MGS4. If you’ve never checked it out, well, we can’t blame you. It’s Japanese only, but it’s cool enough that you should take a look at it anyway, even if you have to muddle your way through with a FAQ.
Now, here’s the interesting bit; When you go into the virtual glossery, search for ’FOXHOUND,’ and click on the picture, these images come up:
The art looks to be very Shinkawa-ish (click to zoom!), and you can obviously see Snake and Meryl in the first image, as well as what looks to be a Foxhound group in the second. That could be Meryl (third from the left), Master Miller (next to Meryl), Decoy Octopus (second from the left) ... and even two Snakes (center, and second from the right), hmm.
While this obviously doesn’t prove any rumours, it’s an interesting find nonetheless. Many thanks to Johnny Undaunted over at the Lost Levels forums for mentioning the existence of these pictures and sparking our interest to dig deeper!
[ BLOG OUT || Brady Hartel and James Clinton Howell || 27 June 2008 ]
Section: Metal Gear | Keywords: Artwork, Metal Gear | LEAVE A COMMENT
As with our last blog, this entry contains spoilers for MGS4.
While MGS4 is very much a fan’s game, many of its easter eggs are so embedded in MGS lore that even diehard series fans overlook them. One easter egg in South America can be easily found, but figuring it out is another story all together.
After you’ve defeated Laughing Octopus and are tracking Naomi, you’ll cross a bridge over a river. If you head straight forward after stepping onto land, you’ll run down a slope that leads to a dead end. The area has one guard in it, about half a dozen guinea pigs, and a strange monolithic sign where the path opens to a clearing.
Here’s the top half:
And here’s the bottom:
This is maddening.
Everything here looks like it should be a puzzle. Two different patterns unfold on the left and right side of the vertical column of Japanese characters. A large asterisk marked as though it were a clock appears to offer a solution key. And two dimmed panel lights – one red and the other green – beckon.
Things tantalize even more when you consider that the katakana down the center of the sign reads METAL GEAR SOLID FOUR.
Anyone having any ideas what the devil this thing is? How to operate it?
Anything? We’re completely stumped.
[ BLOG OUT || James Clinton Howell and Brady Hartel || 23 June 2008 ]
Section: Metal Gear | Keywords: Easter Eggs, Metal Gear, Metal Gear Solid 4 | LEAVE A COMMENT
This blog entry contains spoilers for Metal Gear Solid 4.
Enter at your own risk.
Section: Metal Gear | Keywords: Metal Gear | LEAVE A COMMENT
We’re launching this blog today to mark the release of Metal Gear Solid 4. For those people who clicked on the front page and are reading our blog for the first time, welcome! We hope you’ll stick around and hang out with us for a while.
We’re figuring no one has read any of this stuff yet, since we’ve only been linking this blog to our friends for the past couple weeks as we developed it.
That said, you might want to read our mission statement here, so you know a little bit about what our intention for this blog is, and the kind of stuff we’re going to cover in it.
HGM #32 is also out, and it’s chock full of Metal Gear Goodness. (MGG? Mmmn, MGG.) It’s on newstands now, or you can grab the free PDF here and check out our in depth coverage. Some of the stuff in the magazine we will be expanding on here, especially the MGO strategies, so look out for that soon.
If you want to come back (we hope you do), our URL is actually pretty simple:
http://metalgear.hardcoregamer.com
That’s all you have to remember! If you want to talk about our blog, leave feedback in the forums or a comment here!
[ BLOG OUT || Brady Hartel and James Clinton Howell || 12 June 2008 ]
Section: Metal Gear | Keywords: Metal Gear | LEAVE A COMMENT
During the MGO beta, one thing we noticed while playing is that hardly anyone used the box. The box was a highly tactical tool in the original MGO, and even though boxing uphill isn’t faster anymore, it’s still useful in new MGO as well.
Below is the first MGO Bootcamp video, Your Buddy, the Box.
Please let us know what you think! Leave a comment by clicking here and scrolling down!
By the way, the music is by The Coconut Monkeyrocket. It’s called "Shopping for Explosions" and is available here with a lot of other cool stuff.
[ BLOG OUT || Brady Hartel and James Clinton Howell || 10 June 2008 ]
Section: Metal Gear | Keywords: Metal Gear, Metal Gear Online, MGO Boot Camp, PS3 | LEAVE A COMMENT
One of the aesthetic drawbacks to the original MGO was the copy-paste recycling of Snake’s death animations from the offline game. The MGO Beta showed that this has been corrected, though some of the possible death animations are a little... extravagant.
Note to Kojima Productions: do not change this ever.
[ BLOG OUT || Brady Hartel and James Clinton Howell || 8 June 2008 ]
Section: Metal Gear | Keywords: Metal Gear, Metal Gear Online, PS3 | LEAVE A COMMENT
Leading up to the relaase of Metal Gear Online, we will be posting some strategies and little known tricks to help you get your game up to scratch. We are calling this MGO Boot Camp, but this is honestly stuff that can help both new recruits and the seasoned players alike. While some of these things might seem like small points, small doesn’t necessarily mean trivial or useless. Even using knowledge that seems least relevant can help you in a pinch, and in turn, improve your game.
Before we open MGO Boot Camp, we want to talk a bit about our philosophy. First off, we don’t claim to be upper-crust players in MGO. Quite the contrary. Top players often don’t share their knowledge, making most little more than stat boosters and headshot queens. We don’t believe in withholding information for the sole purpose of leveling an unfair advantage over other people — especially newbies — and we most certainly don’t care about getting the top rank.
We are, however, concerned with strategy, tactics, working as a team, communication, and using what tools you’re given to the best of their ability.
Yes, that even includes auto-aim. More on this in a later post.
There are no ’trade secrets’ in MGO, and if we learn something important enough, we’ll share it. With luck, we’ll help to increase the challenge and quality of the game and its players. The more trained and experienced the players of MGO are, the better.
[ BLOG OUT || Brady Hartel and James Clinton Howell || 6 June 2008 ]
Section: Metal Gear | Keywords: Metal Gear, Metal Gear Online, MGO Boot Camp, PS3 | LEAVE A COMMENT
During the last few weeks, Kojima Productions let five little objects loose on the web: commercials for the PMCs that Old Snake encounters in MGS4. At once esoteric and evocative, they offer a glimpse into MGS4’s new world order wherein military contractors advertise during prime-time.
The plain weirdness of the idea is tempered by the fact that we might see recruitment commercials from all military branches run during the evening hours, but that’s as far the tempering goes. Those federally funded TV spots at least offer skills training and a possible military career. The PMC adverts sell warpower on the same screen that Johnson & Johnson uses to sell Listerine. It’s as though Blackwater USA and CACI International, Inc tried to get our business through direct appeal instead of – say – lobbying our government.
Section: Metal Gear | Keywords: Metal Gear, PS3 | LEAVE A COMMENT
