Metal Gear/ Metal Gear Solid

And now I'm picturing a shirtless, suspender-wearing Shinji Ikari.

I'm picturing a suspender wearing Mantis.

For the life of me I can't exactly recall all of my first MGS 1 playthrough and what did or did not surprise me.

However, I can swear, no matter what anyone says, that Miller an Liquid do sound different. I mean, there's SOMETHING there. I guess Clarke turns up the accent with Liquid? That would make sense.

Also the DARPA Chief and Gray Fox have the same voice and sound identica so there.

edited 27th Dec '16 1:11:59 PM by Nikkolas

The reason was because the voice actor for Donald Anderson was also the VA for Grey Fox, and for some reason they chose to have him sound exactly like the DARPA Chief during that one "Deepthroat" moment. They fixed that in the Twin Snakes: they have different VA's in that game, and Grey Fox sounds consistently like Grey Fox throughout.

I'm aware of that. The same guy goes on to voice Stillman in MGS 2.

Also the new Gray Fox was played by legend Rob Paulsen who is everyone in everything but I mainly love him as Pinky of Pinky and the Brain.

I gotta be honest, I don't think it's possible to argue that the Twin Snakes voice track isn't superior to the PSX version's, especially since it doesn't have all the random and sometimes racist accents.

Challenge accepted.

Sniper Wolf's death was so much better in the PS version. I mean listen to this and compare it to this. They sapped all of the emotion out of it.

edited 27th Dec '16 7:04:43 PM by Soble

Also Jennifer Hale seemed to decide that accent-less Naomi is a soulless robot who reads everything in a flat, emotionless voice.

Which obviously kinda fucks up everything about her character.

Although, Ms. Hale is awesome and very talented. Maybe it was a direction thing and she probably had no choice.

edited 27th Dec '16 7:10:01 PM by Nikkolas

I will grant Sniper Wolf and Naomi took some hits, but the overall quality of the Twin Snakes dub is better, right?

Like, jesus, I can't get over how fucking racist Meiling's accent was in the PSX version.

Does it cause your stomach ulcer to practically explode, preventing you from telling her to stop being so fucking racist?

@Nikkolas: Well, it does sell the idea that she doesn't give a crap about what happens to Snake until the very end. But yeah, there were points where she was oddly monotone in the remake, whereas her original "British" version had more spunk. Heck, I actually kinda liked both the original Natasha and Naomi because of that; the accents gave them a bit more emotion.

It's because in Mei Ling's case it makes no sense: she's Chinese, but was raised in America, so the accent shouldn't be so thick, or at least barely noticeable.

edited 27th Dec '16 8:46:20 PM by SgtRicko

Not even if she was raised in a Chinatown community?

I suppose - even here on Guam, lots of folks pick up the local accent due to their parents constantly speaking that way at home.

So I started Snake Eater on the 3DS, and it's fantastic. I've been looking for the other games. I found a semi-port update of MGS 1 on Reddit, but I don't know where I can find the others, for buy or download. Does anyone know where I can get them?

That's pretty tricky. Either the modders have given up, or Konami forced them to cancel their release, so all that's left are essentially hacks or emulators. And sadly no, I'm not aware of any decent PC copies of the MGS games aside from MGS 1 (and even then, it kinda sucks and requires some work-arounds).

I recall there being a fix for the PC release of MGS1 Integral to make it run on newer DirectX versions. Haven't tried it out on Windows 10, though, and I remember the stealth camo effect butchering the frame rate.

MGS2 has to be similarly modified, up to requiring a hex editor if things really disagree with your system. Now, figuring out the control scheme and rendering it something that you can actually remember, that's the most confusing part.

Anything past MGS3 never got a PC release, although the PS2 and PSP games can be emulated.

edited 30th Dec '16 5:25:32 AM by Krieger22

So I have watched a few MGS Let's Plays and one constant is people seem to hate Naomi.

Was this because of MGS 4? I'm trying really hard to remember all my time in the Pre-MGS 4 community but it's been nearly ten years and I never talked about her that much. I'd like to think the hatred for her is because of MGS 4 but I can't say.

She spent a good portion of the game being pointlessly cryptic every time Snake asked her a question. Her plan required as much bullet-dodging as Ocelot's did, and she became a vehicle for fanservice like Mei Ling. Her suicide seemed utterly pointless except to make Otacon feel like a terrible human being, and she kept waxing on about destiny and fate.

Her character in 4 makes little sense to me.

edited 1st Jan '17 7:53:11 PM by Soble

She had far more significance than Mei Ling, for one. Now that's a character that could've been removed from the plot without any impact whatsoever. Plus, remember that Naomi's the one who doomed Snake to die at some random point in time via Foxdie; in a sense, her death was a sort of Karmic retribution for her previous selfish actions and erratic behavior.

I also do agree with you that she shouldn't have died. Personally, I think it would've fit MGS 4's theme along with Snake's plight far better if she committed herself to repenting via working for Otacon's Philanthropy group, or at least figuring out how to help treat all the PTSD-riddled veterans at the end of the game.

So was Huey being a huge jerk something Kojima pulled out of his ass for MGSV?

I wonder if it was supposed to be more parallel stuff. Like, Snake is a better person than Big Boss and now Hal is better than his dad too.

Also looking it up, at least MGSV seemed to let the Patriots be sapient AI's again. MGS 4 felt like, in its attempt to de-mystify everything, it tried to make them out to be mere computers with a bug.

edited 1st Jan '17 6:29:20 PM by Nikkolas

Huey was basically paraplegic Otacon in Peace Walker.

... I still kinda want a Tactical Espionage Operations game set in an alternate timeline where Hal and Dave set up Philanthropy in a PMC-like way. Have a game with all those systems but then leads aren't sociopaths.

Not from modern Konami, though, obviously.

Hal is better than Huey as unlike his father, he does have standards when it comes to science. Huey was also something egotistical, jerk who thought he was above the madness that occurred in MGSV.

Edit: I am not so sure about that as Philanthropy is an NGO and I don't really see Snake 'recruiting' soldiers like Big Boss does. They could try it and even make a spinoff series ala Acid or Metal Gear: Ghost Babel.

edited 1st Jan '17 6:35:52 PM by GAP

So I've been thinking about it ever since I started replaying Batman Arkham Asylum for nostalgia, and can't help but notice that Rocksteady was clearly influenced by the first Metal Gear Solid game.

- Both games are set in a Closed Circle around Shadow Moses/Arkham Asylum.

- Both games are set in a single ridiculously long night.

- Both games features their settings being taken over from within by terrorists/criminals led by Liquid Snake/Joker.

- Both games leave Snake/Batman to be the only effective resistance to the terrorists/criminals in the settings.

- Both games require Snake/Batman to rescue hostages held by the terrorists/criminals.

- Both games have flamboyant and over-the-top bosses and fights to go along with them.

- Both games use Mission Control characters (e.g Campbell/Oracle) to provide exposition and instructions.

- Both games' protagonists have deep gravelly voices and obsessively talk to themselves.

- Both games feature a mustached Reasonable Authority Figure in Gordon/Campbell

- Both games require Snake/Batman to procure weapons and equipment on site.

- Both games feature the settings possessing some sort of doomsday weapon (e.g nukes and chemicals).

- Both games have a similar grey and blue color palette for metallic interiors.

edited 2nd Jan '17 7:48:19 AM by FluffyMcChicken

It's certainly possible that Rocksteady was influenced by the original Metal Gear Solid. Perhaps even likely, given that it's a very influential game. However, some of your points are coincidences or matters of simple aesthetics (Batman's voice being gravelly is a hallmark of Kevin Conroy's from long before MGS was even made, and if Campbell even has a moustache, Commissioner Gordon has had one for decades longer).

As for the less superficial points, such as the idea of one man sneaking around and taking down bad guys over the course of one night, having to make do with what he can find in the area, that actually proves that they both take inspiration from another, much larger part of the pop cultural consciousness: Die Hard.

That can be applied to so, so many other action movie and videogame plots too, it's a pretty standard trope setting after all.

For example, you can apply the same logic to the Mansion outside of Raccoon City from the first Resident Evil game.

• Special forces team with only a handful of competent members capable of saving the day? Check.
• Re-uses and re-treads the same environment? Check.
• Takes place at night? Check.
• Environment happens to contain a secret installation housing a new type of weapon? Check.
• Final bossfight(s) involves the use or defeating of said weapon? Check.
• Conspiracies and backstabbing involved? Check.