August: Violence [Fukubukuro 2010]

It all started with Metal Gear Solid. Hideo Kojima is a pacifist. How do I know this having never spoken to him? It’s the only logical explanation behind Metal Gear Solid. Big whoop, I mean, the games themselves are about as overtly in support of pacifism and nuclear non-proliferation, but I’m not talking about the overt, obvious messages. Anyone can put hours and hours of cutscenes in a video game (although few can get away with it like he can), but Kojima is special because he emphasizes the holiest of modes of expression for a game designer: mechanics. ...

January 9, 2011 · 5 min · el33tcapitan

Dara O'Briain Does Metal Gear Solid Comedy [ER/GO]

The first bit of Metal Gear Solid standup I’ve ever seen by Dara O’Briain

November 22, 2010 · 1 min · el33tcapitan

Super Ichiban Travel Blog Part II: Journey to the East [II]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“A reenactment of me starting to write this entry in emacs”] [/caption] I begin this entry sitting at the gate for my ANA flight…1 (No joke, my flight number is NH0001), listening to Japanese ska to get into the mood as I await my 1220 flight out of America. As per usual, I got here a good three hours before my flight even was ready to think about starting to take off thanks to something I like to call hyper-punctuality, but I’m sure most would call insanity. In fact, I was so early this morning when I arrived at 0900 that ANA hadn’t even opened up their check-in terminal (don’t worry, I’m sure to repeat this detail later) ...

September 3, 2009 · 12 min · el33tcapitan

Game Overview: ABDN Reviews MGS4

Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen. (SPOILER NOTE: Tim’s review, my review, and some of this post have MGS spoilers. Read at your own risk) I’ve taken a few excerpts from Tim Rogers’ brilliant review of Metal Gear Solid 4 and I’m going to talk about them a bit. He totally threw us for a loop, revealing the game that is NOT ABDN’s best game of all-time, but revealing a game he firmly believes not to be. Let’s get started: ...

August 29, 2008 · 10 min · el33tcapitan

Sony: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Review

It’s time for the moment many of you have been waiting for: my review of Hideo Kojima’s epic masterpiece: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. SPOILER ALERT: This review may contain story spoilers. Read at your own risk! Operating mostly on the basis of a promised beautiful, cinematic, amazing future of games, the PS3 launched back in November of 2006 with many of its purchasers anxiously awaiting the arrival of one specific game: Metal Gear Solid 4. Arriving quite some time later, is this the game to finally make the PS3 a worthwhile purchase? Let’s have a look. ...

July 24, 2008 · 7 min · el33tcapitan

Embedded Reporter: Play!

Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter. Went and saw “Play! A Video Game Symphony” at the end of the last week and I have to say it was pretty cool. Some of the music didn’t do much for me :cough: Super Shinobi :cough:, but a lot of the stuff, even games I didn’t care about, was pretty awesome. There was one disappointment with the end of the Metal Gear Solid piece. I’ve seen these other symphony programs do better and not leave out the last, heroic guitar part at the end. Granted, it’s only about ten seconds of music, but it’s an awesome ten seconds. Check out the legit MGS version that I was hoping for: ...

July 21, 2008 · 1 min · el33tcapitan

Game Overview: Pre-Current Gen PC All-Star Runner-Up

Yeah, I know I told you that this would be posted last weekend, but things got a little hectic with my travel plans, so I decided to hold off until the day before the big finale for this one. I know you’re all on the edge of your seats waiting for the announcement, so let’s get right to it. The final game of this category comes from a dying genre whose brief golden age drove the development of narrative, graphics, and voice acting. Here are some more clues: ...

June 26, 2008 · 5 min · el33tcapitan

Embedded Reporter: Metal Gear Retrospective

Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter. You may or may not realize that Metal Gear Solid 4 is a mere month away, but Gametrailers has and they’ve started one of their amazing Retrospective series last week about Metal Gear. Episodes one and two are up, so check them out below already!

May 19, 2008 · 1 min · el33tcapitan

Game Overview Special Tuesday Edition: Obsessive 100%

If any of you clicked over to Leigh’s post at Sexy Videogameland about obsessively completing games, then you already know where I’m about to go with this post. If you didn’t, here’s yet another link. Call it a personality disorder, but I have an obsessive need to unlock the full 100% potential for video games that I enjoy. I know what you’re thinking, if he’s gotta include the “enjoy” caveat, it’s not really obsessive then, is it? Let me tell you, that caveat did not come easily. It took years of mental conditioning to be able to realize “Hey, I want to play too many other games to go at this pace on such a crummy game…” Once I did finally realize that forcing myself to 100% complete a game that, honestly, wasn’t worth it, I’m was able to log off of Gamefaqs and get onto another game that will eat up my time. You see, since I’m a university student, I do have more time to play than 9-5ers, but I don’t have as much time as when I was in high school because of classes, exams, homework, and trying to maintain a social life (kids, stay away from World of Warcraft). ...

April 22, 2008 · 6 min · el33tcapitan

Sony: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

SPOILER ALERT: This review may cover plot points that will spoil MGS2. The Story Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty picks up several years after the first MGS. Snake is still retired from FOXHOUND, but he is a part of the anti-Metal Gear proliferation group Philanthropy with Otacon. Snake and Otacon actively collect intel and information on Metal Gears and release them throughout the world to keep the global balance of power even and it’s rumored that they even destroy some Metal Gear models outright. This is where you come in, as Snake in the “Tanker Chapter.” It’s also where the shit hits the fan. Snake’s mission is disrupted by the arrival of Ocelot Revolver, one of the bosses from MGS and a former member of FOXHOUND, only his hand has been re-attached…or has it? He periodically lapses into another voice and mental state where he sounds and acts like Liquid Snake, Solid Snake’s “brother” (they are both clones of Big Boss). As you might be able to guess, the routine mission becomes anything but. Ocelot steals the Metal Gear RAY, destroys the tanker, and sinks Solid Snake to the bottom of the ocean. ...

April 19, 2008 · 8 min · el33tcapitan