Board 8 > Playing MGS3 for the first time in about 10 years (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Perhaps it's unfair to include the Shagohod as a single entry there, but I'm not sure how it would ideally be split either. I don't believe The Sorrow really counts as a boss fight, it's just a cool sequence.

So in the summer I completede the first two games for the first time in 10 years, then I got too busy to continue, but here we are again, playing the best one.

This is one of my absolute favorite games and playing it agian has so far only confirmed this to me. It holds up perfectly to me, I have no issues whatsoever with the controls, where I did have a few almost neglectable things with the first two. I'm enjoying basically every aspect as much as the first time, if not more.

It's my first time playing it on PS3, meaning first time with trophies. I looked at them and it's a very doable platinum, but I just want to enjoy the game, so collecting all animals and finding all the frogs will be in another run if I do it, that'll be a bit too tedious otherwise.

I picked MGS2 to get the Raiden cameo. Really like the setting and the new ways to hide here. I also enjoy being able to kill every enemy if necessary. It's not a big deal in the first game, but you might have to wait forever sometimes in the second one. Poor Naked Snake gets beaten up a lot in this one.

I love the simple reason for Ocelot to use a revolver for the rest of his life.

The Croc Cap is still hillarious.

Is there a way to cheese every boss in this game or just most of them? I couldn't remember with Ocelot. Guy could show off a little less with his guns, that's for sure.

I think there's a way to prevent The Pain from being able to damage you with his hornets, but I don't recall and wanted to the fight anyways.

Snake walking around in the scientist camo was fun, but I got busted by the actual scientists, they clearly know themselves better than the guards do!

I know that you can poison The Fear, but I only remembered after the fight.

Then I actually managed to snipe The End on the pier in my first attempt with a trophy popping for it and then also the trophy popping for beating him. I instantly regret my decision because I recall the fight against him to be fantastic and then turned my PS3 off...

More to come. I'll be finished in a day or two!

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best boss fight is The Sorrow

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also you can distract Ocelot by shooting off his hat or shooting down hornet nests

and you avoid The Pain's hornets by diving into the water

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LeonhartFour posted...

best boss fight is The Sorrow

See I specifically wrote boss fight there. IIRC you don't do any fighting and his HP is even at 0 for the whole walk >_>

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LeonhartFour posted...

and you avoid The Pain's hornets by diving into the water

Oh this I did, but I remembered it as I'd some camouflage can make you immune, maybe I'm mistaken. I'll look these things up after completing.

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are you playing the hd collection or ps2 one?

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ctesjbuvf posted...

See I specifically wrote boss fight there. IIRC you don't do any fighting and his HP is even at 0 for the whole walk >_>

it's a fight to get to the end and it's not like you had 11 options and had to drop one...!

you can get them to ignore you by wearing The Pain's camo, so you can only do it on a NG+ run

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DoubleOSnake posted...

are you playing the hd collection or ps2 one?

HD collection. It's the only copy I currently own (my brother kept our PS2 when I moved out).

LeonhartFour posted...

it's a fight to get to the end and it's not like you had 11 options and had to drop one...!

Is it really more of a fight than set pieces of Ocelot's men that you can't ignore though

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https://youtu.be/tGQvNuApWAA

Still my favorite game trailer.

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ctesjbuvf posted...

Is it really more of a fight than set pieces of Ocelot's men that you can't ignore though

sometimes fighting means you don't fight

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SwiftyDC posted...

.

stupid question, where did you watch this trailer back in 2004? i guess internet was getting better at around that time

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Gametrailers

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Yeah I saw it on Gamespot or something

What a game

Voted for The Boss btw. It's very close with The End - both are exceptional - but I chose Boss partly because I think the first time you play these things matters. 14-year-old me got very bored of The End and just time-skipped the PS2 a week. No patience. I kind of had to "learn" the excellence of that boss fight over the next couple of dozen playthroughs, whereas The Boss' was readily apparent
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Gotta go with the Boss, but I really like the whole sequence with Volgin too.

The rest of the guys just don't got the same story presence, even if they are fun fights.

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The Volgin fight is fairly underrated
Great music, anyway
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Yeah, that sequence is pretty incredible and tough to include in this poll, because no set piece is the best, but it's such an incredible run from when you first fight Volgin and then escape shooting down guards, later the Shagohod over several instances with one of them having you on foot again and Volgin on top of the Shagohod. Looking forward to it!

I was hit by an arrow fighting The Fear that before killing him the next instant. It would appear that the arrow is now stuck with me, I don't think there's a way to remove it. Perhaps it disappears come the torture sequence. It's weird, but appears to be only a visual thing.

I fought The End and it really is an incredible battle, potentially really long too. IIRC there are just guards here if you've killed him, which is fun in the sense that it exists, but it's also a darn shame to miss out on.

There's really quite no series like Metal Gear Solid that can make an endless ladder climb cool by simply adding some background music.

I find the RPG-7 and immediately want to kill the Helicopter, which first of all of course makes the whole area aware that I'm here, though there are plenty of great hiding spots, but also just spawns another helicopter almost right away.

I love how you can clearly tell it's not Solid Snake you're playing as from expressions and lines alone (I mean, you obviously know it's not him, but their looks and abilities are really their shared traits). It's clear that at this point, he's still a good and caring person, of course this game has an easier time delivering on the expressions than the first game had.

The Fury is another good fight. I ultimately prefer FOXHOUND to the Cobra Unit, at least in terms of characters but probably also in terms of fights overall, though this game might have the best fights, but the Cobra Unit is still leagues better than Dead Cell.

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Yeah, if you don't remove arrows quickly enough, they stay on you, like the skin closed around them or something.

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I was surprised by how much I enjoyed MGS3, it was not the type of game I liked to play. And it was my first MGS game.

A shame I never finished it.

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It's never too late for that!

Leonhart4 posted...

Yeah, if you don't remove arrows quickly enough, they stay on you, like the skin closed around them or something.

Are there other things that work like this? Thinking about it, is The Fear the only case of your injuries being visible besides Snake's poses?


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Yeah, I think that might be the only outwardly visible wound you can get.

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Yeah honestly Naked Snake in 3 is a more likeable character than Solid in 1 or 2, because of his humour

I wasn't sure if it was better writing or a conscious decision, but I think I read somewhere that it was deliberate
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He's just a better character. Snake in 4 was about the same as 1 and 2.

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I'm sure its deliberate. I also ultimately prefer Big Boss to Solid Snake, but it's a close call and I love both.

It's being in a setting more similar to the first games, as much as I love the jungle. It's a cool area to sneak around in too. The torture scene is incredible and the real start of Snake's downfall.

I saw a number The Sorrow showed me using first person view, but didn't instantly recall what its exact purpose of it was. Then once trapped I called it and it turns out it's a secondary escape way as the door just unlocked and I take out the guard with my fork not completely realizing what just happened. I'm certain I used the fake death pill and revival path in the past, which is cooler but I always love these alternatives.

The Sorrow is an epic sequence for sure. It's shorter the less people you've killed right? It appears I've been impatient this time around because I feel like there's a lot here.

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Naked Snake was meant to be more emotional and naive. Solid Snake is hardened and cynical, so yeah, they're portrayed differently.

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ctesjbuvf posted...

but the Cobra Unit is still leagues better than Dead Cell.

Nah but I accept people's taste not being as avant garde

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Dead Cell has three bottom ten series characters

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Characters to me are tools for the story. You can't be just a character sheet to win me over!

But also fat guy on skates cmon

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The Volgin fight is good and the whole escape is incredible. It's probably because I played it more than a decade ago, but it still looks incredible to me even though its a PS2 game. I enjoy how now linear the path is. I mean, from a gaming perspective its linear, you just shoot and survive, but it really adds to the scene that's they're driving around the same place for a while figuring out the best way to go. If there's anything to add to this it's perhaps that the bridge scene is slightly anticlimactic, perhaps that's less so on higher difficulties? The Shagohod approaches really slowly.

Next up the final stretch!

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Late game ps2 holds up better than the early HD era imo

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pjbasis posted...

Late game ps2 holds up better than the early HD era imo

Truth. Early PS3 era is some hardcore jank.

MGS3 remains IMO the best game ever made, there's just so much obscure gamey shit you can pull off to make it endlessly replayable on top of having a hugely enjoyable story, excellent pacing, the best boss fights in the series (Revengeance excepted), etc etc.

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Yeah, alright the ending almost moved me to years and I knew exactly what would happen.

I do like the actual fight against The Boss though the timer stresses me out because she's really well hidden when you're in the flowers. I do think the best actual fight is against The End though, so I guess the poll speaks the truth! The whole truth comes on the table and its handled so incredibly well. His descend into a villain was not set in stone when The Boss died because he had not yet realized everything. He's still in a good mood until EVA leaves and tells him the truth over a recording. You can see how everything is affecting Snake from here on out. He doesn't even have a single line left. Gaining the title as Big Boss appears to mean nothing to him because he knows exactly that it's not as great as the prestige indicates, best highlighted when he walks right past his otherwise fantastic codec crew who you've had wonderful interactions with up until that point, although I suppose you can almost completely ignore them, at least in the Snake Eater mission. The moment he saluted was when I almost went to tears.

This is quite possibly my favorite moment in any video game, though there are a few others that rival it, some of which are very hard to compare, in any case, it's really darn good.

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ctesjbuvf posted...

The moment he saluted was when I almost went to tears.

You could have pressed R1

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I actually did! I knew that one, though according to the trophies I did miss at least one instance where you can press R1 without it being told to you.


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I decided to go for the platinum trophy and collect everything in the game as well as doing a no kill run before moving on to the fourth game.

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Learning that there's a single Kerotan in every area is a huge help for this. Not 0, not 2, just the 1. I will consult a guide before any point of no return to make sure I miss nothing, but otherwise trying to find them on my own.

F*** the one in the dirty lake.

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I have finished the game again this time unlocking everything. I believe this is the only Metal Gear Solid of the four I have played that has no requirements regarding the difficulty you play in regards to obtaining everything, but perhaps the first doesn't either.

The Kerotan you have to shoot in the chase sequence with the Shagohod are a pain, even if you know where they are. In particular one of them had to be sniped while moving in a very short timeframe. The directional mic is almost necessary equipment here to make sure you've hit the ones far away.

The tsuchinoko snake is also a pain, because you have to catch it in a specific area using mousetraps (I don't know if another way is possible). You then have to keep it alive until the end of the game to get a specific uniform. You lose everything in the tortune scene and doesn't get any food back when you get your equipment, so the tsuchinoko will have spawned somewhere in the area you came from when you get your equipment which is extremely easy to miss as well.

I was not aware before that there were three different snakes in the flowers where you fight The Boss named Snake Solid, Snake Liquid and Snake Solidus. Of course they all taste outstandingly.

This game has insane replay value (as all Metal Gear games have) I almost want to make another run immediately, but it's time to move on to the fourth game.

Now, when I played 4 last time also more than 10 years ago, it was not s***, it was the s***. It was huge and I believe my initial opinion of MGS3 > MGS4 > MGS1 > MGS2 was a popular one. All four were loved and it seemed MGS2 was usually at the bottom of lists, being the most controversial one. This has seemed to change since then. One thing is that MGS2 has aged extremely well, perhaps by being more relevant than ever, perhaps also because people have forgotten that the promotion tricked us regarding main character. Another thing is that it seems MGS4 are a lot less liked now than it was at the initial release so... why exactly?

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MGS4 is amazing in the moment. The highs are so good that you're willing to overlook the lows.

But when you've had time to calm down and let the lows really sink in, it does negatively impact your opinion of it retroactively.

I do need to replay the series at some point. It's probably been a decade since I've played MGS4.

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Yeah mgs4 is something I need to revisit. I never got any trophies for it!

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Alright guys, joint playthrough

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I'd still want to replay the others first!

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Well, get going!

Anyway, just looked at the trophies and we're back to really darn difficult like 2 was. It's highly unlikely that I'll bother.

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4 is really fun to replay, especially doing no kill no alert. But it does not nearly have the depth of 3, and the story is kinda disastrous. Still a good addition to the series imo, especially since it enabled MGR.

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All of them have great replay value though! What part of the story in particular do you find disastrous? I'm curious about this.

I'm a bit torn between starting it now where I can play a little bit each day and starting in the end of the month, where I'll have weeks off with basically nothing else to do because we're in complete lockdown. Like, do I wanna play little by little or blast through it.

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Ive been meaning to play MGS4 for a while, especially now that my PS3 is set up right next to my work computer at home.

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Yes, let's all play MSG4.

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ctesjbuvf posted...

What part of the story in particular do you find disastrous? I'm curious about this.

The pacing pretty much. The sneaking in chapter 3 totally kills the momentum, and then all the cutscenes start getting really long. You have to skip them on a replay otherwise you're spending literally 3/4ths of your time watching cutscenes. It's not like 2 and 3 where you have a bunch of cool little scenes that you enjoy rewatching over and over and memorizing. I can't imagine doing that with the 1.5 hours ending sequence, even though there's great stuff in there.

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I unironically love Act 3

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Act 3 has a fantastic aesthetic and vibe but it's also pretty indicative of some major structural issues MGS4 has. It's still ridiculously fun on replays but yeah you have to skip cutscenes for the comparatively little game that's in there to really have a chance to shine.

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I like Act 3 a lot

I enjoy the sneaking and visually it's one of my favourite levels
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Xiahou Shake posted...

yeah you have to skip cutscenes

whoa no

the cutscenes are the best part of Act 3

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