Board 8 > The review situation for the MGS Collection has me pretty conflicted

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.metacritic.com/game/metal-gear-solid-master-collection-vol-1/

The aggregate means nothing to me personally, but this seemed oddly low, so I figured that something must be wrong with he collection, right? Some technical failure, some bugs or something. So I dig into the reviews.

....And the only thing of note I can find is that the collection could have and should have been more? They seem to mostly all agree that the actual games themselves are still classics, run well (outside of Switch, which we knew and expected), and don't have any new issues. But for some of these, you're seeing scores like a 5 or a 6 because they wanted there to be more in here.

So my question is....should we be reviewing games based on what we want them to be, rather than want they are? If a 5 out of 10 reviews says the games are excellent and this is the best way to play them, that just seems like there's something broken in the system here.

Obviously this isn't the same across the bored, some of these reviewers even gave it a perfect score, but that kind of reinforces my confusion as to whether this is a justifiable take.

I feel like straight ports always get panned in reviews for being "lazy"

but in MGS's case, a straight port is just fine because it was getting increasingly difficult to even be able to play them unless you had old consoles

Honestly I'm over here celebrating that modern Konami managed to do a straight port (with some nice bells and whistles in the graphic novels etc) while somehow not only avoiding fucking anything up but even addressing some bugs and imperfections that the previous HD versions had! Will definitely be picking these up a bit down the line, will be great to have them easily accessible without any emulation fiddling required.

No 60fps is mindboggling

I guess the only thing I would have liked here is 60 FPS MGS1, but it's a PS1 game so I'm not losing sleep over it.

There seems to be a lot of complaining in some of these about the lack of save states and rewind, and it's like.....these features would absolutey ruin the experience of Metal Gear for me. This isn't Ghost and Goblins. I just don't understand how you can get super upset about that? I'm not saying I would have been upset if they were here, I would have just ignored it, but being really mad about its just seems beyond me.

RikkuAlmighty posted...

No 60fps is mindboggling

That's the Switch version, MGS2 and 3 are 60 on all other consoles. MGS1 is 30 but as far as I'm aware there is no 60 FPS release of MGS1.

Given that the price of the collection is 60$, it makes some sense to compare it to the value you get from other games that have released recently.

I don't know why you need save states or rewind for MGS when death isn't that punitive

LiquidOshawott posted...

Given that the price of the collection is 60$, it makes some sense to compare it to the value you get from other games that have released recently.

you get three of the greatest games ever made for 60 bucks

sounds like a good deal to me...!

LiquidOshawott posted...

Given that the price of the collection is 60$, it makes some sense to compare it to the value you get from other games that have released recently.

This has always been a wierd way to take it for me. Like, yeah, I get it, but Sonic Superstars and Baldurs Gate 3 are $10 apart. I don't think this dollar value application really works across the board.

LeonhartFour posted...

you get three of the greatest games ever made for 60 bucks

sounds like a good deal to me...!

I am pretty sure I saw this trio at a Walmart for 30 like 15 years ago

>_>

LiquidOshawott posted...

I am pretty sure I saw this trio at a Walmart for 30 like 15 years ago

>_>

yesterday's prices are not today's prices

supply and demand etc

Criticizing it for having multiple versions of MGS1 but no Twin Snakes is legit imo.

Also save states are useful if you want to quit the game during a long cutscene.

Legit question since I don't know the answer, doesn't the Silicon Knights situation make that pretty difficult?

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Legit question since I don't know the answer, doesn't the Silicon Knights situation make that pretty difficult?

I think it's more likely Nintendo has the rights to Twin Snakes than Silicon Knights.

I'd have been down for a Twin Snakes port

maybe in the next collection with MGS4

I meant more whether Silicone Knights games could be rereleased at all, but that would make sense too.

LeonhartFour posted...

I'd have been down for a Twin Snakes port

maybe in the next collection with MGS4

I am not ready to see what MGS4 is like on Switch.

...Oh who am I kidding, I can't wait to see it.

No Twin Snakes no buy

UshiromiyaEva posted...

They seem to mostly all agree that the actual games themselves are still classics, run well (outside of Switch, which we knew and expected)

Why is this expected? Like, they're PS2 games. Is it just because companies are so often lazy as shit when it comes to Switch ports?

In this case Konami actually put out an announcement ahead of time.

People keep saying 3 games when it's 7 games

I will not stand for this disrespect towards metal gear 2

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I am not ready to see what MGS4 is like on Switch.

...Oh who am I kidding, I can't wait to see it.

The Switch is more quite a bit more powerful than the PS3 and should absolutely be able to run MGS4 substantially better. Not that I'd expect Konami to do the work (since they didn't with MGS2/3 here).

Also I'd expect the Switch 2 to be out by the time volume 2 comes, but who knows.

no console is powerful enough to match the Cell processor

I have the originals and I have the collection on 360

so I don't feel like I'm missing much skipping this one

Trophy support is what I'm looking for. But I won't be paying 60. It'll be on sale for 15.99 within a year or 2

I think Twin Snakes was always an unrealistic expectation between the rights issues and needing the Nintendo stuff scrubbed out of it. Everybody hated Twin Snakes anyway, I don't know who these people are who are coming out of the woodwork all outraged about it. And MGS1 was never going to run at 60 FPS as long as it has framerate dependencies.

I admit I haven't picked it up yet so I don't have firsthand impressions, but the negativity towards this compilation baffles me. It's exactly the type of collection I want more of: great games presented accurately and performing well, full of options and bonus features for enthusiasts and adding a bunch of content that wasn't present in any previous release.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the negative perception of Konami is docking reviews scores

Doesn't even have to be purposeful - could be a subconscious thing

Yeah there are loads and loads of amazing running Switch ports. Alien Isolation looks and runs better than the PS4 version! This is entirely down to the resources Konami put into it. Really MGS2 was 60fps on the PS2, this isnt a Switch issue.

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1716802098032001534

Is there an advantage to buying this over buying the Legacy Collection on PS3, other than this just being on modern hardware?

more games included

trophy lists for MG1+2 and MGS1

more bonus features

You can add fake save date to your MGS1 Game to manipulate what Psycho Mantis says you've played at will.

Worth $60 alone.

Punnyz posted...

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1716802098032001534

Putting the default case at the top is wild

Serves me right for being excited, apparently the PC versions have some real problems. Games are capped internally at 720p, which is even worse than the 1080p they said it would be locked at. Literally no reason to limit resolution in this way unless you're just too lazy to do options at all, which appears to be the case here.

On top of that apparently MGS3's frame limiter can just completely break, putting the game into fast-forward and going faster the stronger your PC is. Supposedly patches are on the way to fix this stuff but honestly this is in a pretty embarrassing state right now.

PC Inferior Race

Yeah konami keeping with the disappointments

https://twitter.com/LordEmmerichF91/status/1716786719272370602?s=19

Eva/Ocelot model swap let's gooooooo.

Sounds like the community has already uncapped the resolution, so there's that! Definitely would still like to see it addressed in a patch quickly though, because it sure is embarrassing to see an official release capped at 720p in 2023 when emulators have been doing 4k for ages now.

If MGS1 was sold separately, I might be interested in picking that up, but I already have MGS2 & 3 HD and it doesn't look like these collections add anything much of value to either game.

MGS4 would be exciting, but looking at the amount of effort put into these ports and knowing how notoriously difficult MGS4 is to port, I'm not going to get my hopes up.

JackMan posted...

MGS4 would be exciting, but looking at the amount of effort put into these ports and knowing how notoriously difficult MGS4 is to port, I'm not going to get my hopes up.

For what it's worth, the narrative about MGS4 being un-portable seems to largely be a misconception. The game's associate producer has said that it was never a contractual exclusive and that they developed a proof of concept 360 version that ran perfectly; it was the limitations of DVD storage that caused them to drop it. It's widely speculated that Volume 2 of these new collections will include a port of 4.

Source: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ps3-exclusive-metal-gear-solid-4-was-once-running-beautifully-on-xbox-360/

JackMan posted...

If MGS1 was sold separately, I might be interested in picking that up

It is.

I mean, I'm just basing it on how difficult it's been to emulate it. Even now, it's very trial and error getting it to work.

No, I mean with this collection you can buy all the games separately. You can get just MGS1 or just MGS2 or just MGS3.

MacArrowny posted...

It is.

Is it? I can't see any version other than the collection one.

EDIT: Oh, so you can, Xbox originally said 'not available separately', but then there's another one that is. I'll slap it on the wishlist then, pick it up when I feel it.

Natalie posted...

For what it's worth, the narrative about MGS4 being un-portable seems to largely be a misconception. The game's associate producer has said that it was never a contractual exclusive and that they developed a proof of concept 360 version that ran perfectly; it was the limitations of DVD storage that caused them to drop it. It's widely speculated that Volume 2 of these new collections will include a port of 4.

Source: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ps3-exclusive-metal-gear-solid-4-was-once-running-beautifully-on-xbox-360/

I remember an old meme of the 360 port of MGS4 being a ten disc set

These games have been datamined already and the findings support previously dug up assets from the official website indicating that Vol 2 will indeed have MGS4 as well as Peace Walker, so that's cool!

Does this new collection allow pausing cutscenes in 2&3? Recently replayed them on PS3 and was annoyed they couldn't be paused.

https://www.ign.com/articles/konami-confirms-metal-gear-solid-master-collection-vol-1-issues-to-be-addressed-post-launch

Seems like a bunch of stuff will be fixed eventually, so you're probably better off waiting.

Does this collection include the stand-alone game that was only VR missions?

That'll be my difference-maker in whether or not I purchase it when it's on sale.