And the Metal Gear marathon continues.

Here's a question for people. Is Portable Ops worth playing at all at this point? It's the only one that I haven't beaten yet. I know most of it is non canon but is it a fun game?

NOPE, NOT REALLY. THE MGSCANLON TRAIN KEEPS ROLLING.

@confusedowl: It's not really worth it at this point. It is definitely not a fun game to play, especially because it tries to adapt old-style MGS controls to the PSP; which combines to make some of the most uncomfortable gameplay I've ever experienced.

The story is also very inconsequential. It clears up maybe one or two things, but nothing major at all. You won't really lose anything in ignoring it.

Very interested to see Drew's reactions in this one, and also how many times Dan talks about that monkey.

after tonight the only wait is for september 1st

@kasaioni: Okay that's good to know, thanks for the info. I'll skip it and just keep playing GZ until release then.

It's like worse-playing version of Peace Walker. To get guys in your army you can't just Fulton them, you have to drag them to I think the back of a truck or some other point where they get taken away. And if you thought dragging bodies was fun in MGS2 and 3, it's a blast with only one analog stick. So that's pretty annoying.

Portable Ops is worth reading up on just for curiosity's sake but I wouldn't spend the time on it to play through it or really even watch the cutscenes. You need to play Portable Ops about as much as you need to play Metal Gear 1 and 2. Plus I don't think anything that happened in that game will have anything to do with The Phantom Pain; it is far and away the most inconsequential Metal Gear game.

they might do a thing for the 20th.

Great to see Drew play GZ. I really wish they'd play Metal Gear Rising but Dan's baffling dislike for that game is gonna probably keep them from doing it. Also it's pretty short so it wouldn't take long.

However Drew probably needs a break before MGS5.

@boboblaw: Rising isn't really the same kind of Metal Gear game, and with so little time left before TPP's release, I'd hate to see him forget his time with GZ, acclimatize himself to Rising's completely different gameplay and controls, and then attempt to remember how GZ played. It's a Metal Gear game, but not a Metal Gear Solid game. Also, the story is so far off at the end of the timeline that it has no relevance to TPP at all, and it wouldn't mesh with TPP's tone.

After MGSV, I'd love to see them play it. That game is crazy fun. Just not now.

yes drew needs a break but i hope drew plays mgr at some point maybe jeff can sit in instead of dan and if not jeff then jason.

@mirado: yeah I was thinking pretty much all of that just as a hit send. I think they should definitely play MGR but maybe after Drew and Dan have finished MGS5. Give the series another month or two break then play it.

Its got some awesome characters, some returnees from MGS4 and some neat info on how the world operates after MGS4.

@mirado: "Nanomachines, son!" would be such a perfect way to cap the MGScanlon series, so I also hope they would do it after MGSV.

Does @danryckert read this thread?

Well anyway, two thing Dan got wrong in the 'Trailers' episode, the dude in the military beret is Miller, it's so obviously Miller, this is the second time Dan has failed to recognize Miller, first it was his voice and now it's his appearance, same face, same hair, same aviator sunglasses, same missing arm and leg from the helicopter crash.

Solid Snake never dyed his hair, the mission briefing mentions he cut his hair specifically to not be the same length as Liquid's and that's the only mention of it, the words 'dye' and it's permutations never show up in the entire MGS1 script including codecs. Solid's hair is brown, Liquid's is blonde because it's the dominant gene, (remember Solid was actually the one to get the recessives)

The whole 'hair dye' thing is a myth that continues to persist due to the mission briefing being in monochrome and his hair appearing to be blonde because of it's shininess, this was ret-conned in Twin Snakes when they show the scene in full-color, other examples of this stupid color phenomenon happening are Naomi and Meryl's codecs in MGS1, and Amanda in animated cutscenes in PW.

That being said he was originally supposed to be blonde with long hair just like Liquid (there are screenshots of this), however it was cut before the game went gold, so there are still minor left-overs that hold no relevance and have been retconned.

For all intents and purposes Solid Snake is a natural brunette, unless the decide to retcon it again with MGSV.