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June 9, 2008: wallet threat level yellow
This week Konami releases the latest in its series of incomprehensible sneaking games. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots hits the shelves on Thursday. Although these games have a very enthusiastic following, my experience with them is that they have limited appeal. Yeah, sure, it's cool early on as Solid Snake sneaks around the latest in videogame grass, rain, or cargo ships, using various devices to navigate canned patrol patterns. But beyond that, it takes a lot of dedication to endure developer Hideo Kojima's tortured narrative and meta-narrative and meta-meta-narrative. It's a long way to go for a laugh about how funny it is that a super covert ops soldier can hide under a cardboard box to fool the bad guys.
This time around, Kojima has some new tricks up his sleeve with dynamic battlegrounds, but then there are the rumors of feature film length cutscenes. Can you hold out and wait for the hype to blow over? Otherwise, this week is dangerous for NASCAR fans who need their annual fix from Electronic Arts. Also, be careful of a potential unexpected threat in the event that Majesco's weird Wii shooter, Blast Works, turns out to be a Boom Blox-style sleeper.
By obonicus at 10:13 AM ON 06/09/08
Like it or not, and for better or for worse, Kojima is one of the very few auteurs gaming has. I'm not a huge MGS4 fan but I'm still getting it, because, well, Kojima is crazy and I want to see what he came up with. It is a bit refreshing from all the sterile 'design by committee', focus-group-honed games we get (and the gaming press gobbles up).
And hey, didn't you give gameplay-deficient No More Heroes a pass because of SUDA 51's wackiness?
By Tom Chick at 3:53 PM ON 06/09/08
I don't think you could call my review of No More Heroes "a pass". :) I was pretty harsh to that game, Obonicus. It's actually a good point, though. Does SUDA51's potential political relevance make him more palatable than Kojima's flat-out crazy? It's a subjective choice, but I'll take Killer 7 over any of the Metal Gear Solid stuff I've seen.
That said, I'm with you, Obonicus. I'll be jumping into MGS4 just to see what the hell Kojima is up to this time.
By Justin Fletcher at 11:17 PM ON 06/09/08
Any game that has a voice as distinct as any of those on SUDA51 or Kojima's resumes is worth a look. They might not always be great, but they're usually interesting.
These two are on the short list of contemporary designers who are auteurs in their field (or as close to auteurs as the gaming world gets).
Justin Fletcher:
Any game that has a voice as distinct as any of those on SUDA51 or Kojima's resumes is worth a look. They might not...More »