Onslaught

Posted by Steve on March 19, 2004: New comic here. Surprisingly enough, this arc is almost done already. More on that next week though.

So, I played through Twin Snakes this week. It's really good and a bit of a letdown all at once. It obviously looks great, and all the cut scenes have been redone and are excellent. The gameplay elements from MGS2 have been added, such as stuffing guards in lockers (they don't just vanish anymore) and hanging from ledges.

So that's the good stuff. The only thing I think could have been improved is the controls. I'm sorry, but the sneak up/choke out thing works much better in Splinter Cell. Even after all these years, 9 times out of 10 I still end up doing that goddamn throw move instead of the choke. But anyway, my problem isn't so much with what's in the game, it's with what's not in the game.

For starters, all the dialogue has been re-recorded. At first that's not a big deal, since it's still done by the same people, but I personally think some of it (the Ninja's stuff in particular) was better the first time. None of it is terrible or anything, it's just not as good as the originals is all.

Second of all, and a little more serious of an offense in my book, the VR Training has been removed. Now I know it's already been done in other MGS games, but still, VR Training was in the original Metal Gear Solid, so I don't see why it shouldn't be in the remake. First of all, it was fun as hell in the original. Second of all, it got you in great shape for the actual game. If you made it through all the many forms of the VR stuff, it made the actual game a breeze. And since you are working with a new controller/layout (it's not hard to pick up, don't worry) I can't imagine why they wouldn't have included it.

And finally, a sort of minor yet major gripe, is that there's really nothing new as far as extra stuff goes. I mean they added dog tags to collect, but by all accounts they don't seem to unlock anything. Now I know you don't buy games for the unlockables, and the game alone certainly warrants a purchase on it's own, but when you're dealing with what's still basically a 5 year old game, you'd think they'd add something. All the original unlockable stuff is still there, and I guess they added a "cinema viewer" type thing where you can view the cut scenes together in a movie of sorts. Although I would have been happy with just a "ninja highlight reel", since the Ninja's scenes are easily the coolest in the game, even better than they already were in the original. Still, once I finished the game, I couldn't help but feel a little let down that there was nothing else to do but play again. But at the end of the day, it's still a sweet remake of MGS, and anyone who's a fan of the original or (*gasp*) never played the original, should definitely pick it up.

Sorry if you weren't really interested in a review of Twin Snakes, but that's all I could think of, so it was either this or another "I've got nothing to say this week" post. See you next week.

Posted by Bob on March 19, 2004: Hey guys. If you're interested, you can see a guest comic that Amanda and I did for good ol' Fenris over at Pepperwood. This marks the second guest comic from Amanda and myself, the first being for Fenris too, but for Aikida. I'd make that a link, but I'm far far too lazy to bother looking for the particular comic in question. But if you go over to Aikida and search, you'll find it. It's there. Really.

Okay. How about a news story that makes you wonder if you should laugh or cry? Ask and ye shall recieve. I'm leaning toward laugh, cause I'm sadistic like that. I think it's pretty damn funny, and that the Darwin Awards site needs another induction--soon.

How about some more news? Well, dammit, I'll play. Hooray for mass genocide of animals! Doesn't really surprise me, and I'm sure it won't surprise you, but there it is. I'd like to come up with a better selling line for that link besides "there it is," but I've got nothing. I've just finished a thirteen hour work day, and I don't feel like selling it. So, there it is.

I'm up for some comic memorabilia. Anyone out there want to donate to the site and buy me the Right Hand of Doom? I assure you it will be used for making the site better, not some silly thing I use to chase cats and children around the neighborhood while yelling "I'M HELLBOY! I'M HELLBOY!" with. No siree, that would just be silly. Mmm hmm. I'll even send you some original Think Tank art! I've got plenty of it! Or, if you donate to the site by buying me...err...Steve and I..yeah...the life size Captain America shield, I'll come to your house to personally deliver the art for ya! Among other things! So yeah, feel free!

Well, that's really all I've got in me this week. I thought I had more to talk about when I started typing this out, but apparently, I was wrong. Ah well. Anyway, back in a week.

Posted by Steve on March 19, 2004: I almost forgot, special congrats to Gabe over at Penny Arcade. Seems he's going to have a little MiniGabe.

I hope their server can handle all the traffic we just sent them.