I played and beat MGS4 in the first few days after it came out. Put it away and didn't really think about it until now. I was honestly kind of disappointed by it over all, in hindsight I realize that was just because of my over inflated expectations. Yesterday I put the game in again. I am now about half way in and I have to say, Its gotten better. MGS4 is a masterpiece. I would go as far as to say that its even better than MGS3 which is generally regarded to be the best in the series. This is how I feel anyway. I am sure you all have your own thoughts about it.

I am also even more excited to play the MGS HD Collection. Especially for Peace Walker which I barely played because handhelds are just not my thing.

It holds my table steady so it's a fine piece of work. 
 
 OT: The hour long ending made me bang my head.  That's my take on  mgs story

I think that it would hold up now, but it doesn't hold up to repeat playthroughs with little time in between. I tried playing it through about a month after I first beat it again, but I just couldn't stand sitting through those cutscenes, knowing everything that would happen. Maybe now, 3 years later, I'd be able to stand it. 
 
MGS4 is a great game, regardless. It's flawed, and isn't many people's cup of tea, but it's still a worthwhile experience, and it looks as good as most new releases do now.

Still is one of the greatest games of all time.

@TanoPrime said:

It holds my table steady so it's a fine piece of work. OT: The hour long ending made me bang my head. That's my take on mgs story

If I played a MGS game without an hour long ending, I'd demand a refund.

And on topic, yeah three years later this is a great game... but still not as good as Snake Eater.

@Giantstalker said:

@TanoPrime said:

It holds my table steady so it's a fine piece of work. OT: The hour long ending made me bang my head. That's my take on mgs story

If I played a MGS game without an hour long ending, I'd demand a refund.

And on topic, yeah three years later this is a great game... but still not as good as Snake Eater.

Ok maybe. After all Snake Eater is the only game I ever beat twice in one day.

I think it's pretty cool, and there certainly isn't anything else quite like it.  As far as Metal Gear games go, I rank it as follows.
 
MGS < Snake Eater < MGS4 < MGS2
 
From what I hear Peace Walker will probably top the hierarchy once I've played it.

It holds up just as well as any other MGS game three years out, Snake Eater notwithstanding. 

@Spoonman671 said:

I think it's pretty cool, and there certainly isn't anything else quite like it. As far as Metal Gear games go, I rank it as follows. MGS < Snake Eater < MGS4 < MGS2 From what I hear Peace Walker will probably top the hierarchy once I've played it.

From day one I said Peace Walker would make an amazing console game. But its only OK as a PSP game. Thank god they are putting it out on consoles.

The multiplayer stuff is kind of lame though. I want to play MGS by myself.

I played through it once just under 2 years ago and it has been a game I've been meaning to get round to again. I was a little concerned how the shooting controls would feel after playing games like Uncharted.  
 
I'll be waiting till I get a new TV before I treat myself this one again.  
 
I wonder if there will be some complete MGS collection with 2012 being the 25th anniversary?

I finally got around to finishing it a couple weeks ago and it is still amazing.

I enjoyed the game enough to get the big boss emblem but I think there were far too many cutscenes. Not that long cutscenes aren't a staple of the MGS series, I think each briefing clocked in at an hour and a half each, and those were just the mission briefings. Plus individual Act installs were a pain.  Other than that it was a very fun game with some pretty amazing boss characters. I go through the MGS series about once a year, my personal favourite has always been the first one.

I still cant believe that Vamp is the guy from MAD TV.

Still need to pick this up.

I only played through it once, so I don't really know if my opinion would change any.. But I thought it was thoroughly disappointing at the time.

The story makes almost no sense, it's overly dramatic and felt like they were in a rush to clear up every little plot point that had been raised in any of the previous games, including ones that didn't need to be addressed. It felt rushed, sloppy and was just generally inferior to the rest of the series. My biggest gripe is probably the bosses though.. they have absolutely no story or character development. You know nothing about them until receiving a codec call after you kill them, explaining what happened in their past and how they became what they were. It felt like such a tacked on afterthought.. a good analogy for the actual game, I think.

Chapters 4 and 5 were amazing. The rest was filler nonsense.

Its fucking great.

Still a masterpiece.

Nanomachines.

I felt the same way the first time I beat it. I was like "Hm, really...? That's how it ended? That was kind of meh..." Then I got my own PS3 since I had to play it on my dad's PS3 before, and I loved it. It's still one of those games I'll go back to every now and then. It's amazing. You don't really understand everything the game has to offer until you're on the third go. I think it not only deserves to be, but needs to be played through more than once. If you read anyone's comment on here it says they beat it once and didn't like it, don't listen to them.

I honestly still dont like it that much. Fucking BS ending.

it holds up fucking great, gorgeous cutscenes to this day. In-Game graphics still look solid as well.

Just fine I would imagine. It was outdated gameplay-wise when it came out, so that's not what you go to it for.

Fantastic game.

Before we ended up moving, I started playing again.

Holds up pretty nicely. Got this game at the midnight release and haven't looked back.

Plays like arse and typical overwrought, bullshit melodrama.

So exactly the same as when it came out.

Short Answer: It holds up pretty well.

@Devil240Z: Funny you should ask, I just played it last week for the first time, I wrote about it a little bit in my blog- the controls take awhile to get used to, though. The graphics are still pretty good, though it looks like the cut-scenes play at about 12 fps sometimes. But the story is incredible if you're into Metal Gear and I loved almost every minute of it.

Like any of the other main MGS games, I enjoy it about as much as I did the first time I played it. And that means that it's just ok(except for 3 which is amazing). I love the story and characters, but the gameplay is silly. Good thing I play this series for the cut scenes.

Still one of the best games I've ever played.

Of all of the Japanese games this generation to attempt westernizing their controls - it's still the best.  I think people forget how huge the leap is gameplay-wise from the PS2 games.
Konami ID and between act installs are still bad systems thought up by bad people.  Act 3 is still a drag after you've gone through it once or twice.  
Overall It's lows are still low and it's highs are still ridiculous.

It still holds up and the graphics and still quite good.

@Pibo47 said:

I honestly still dont like it that much. Fucking BS ending.

What was wrong with it? My only issue was: I'm not sure how spoiler tags work.

@Pibo47 said:

I honestly still dont like it that much. Fucking BS ending.

What was wrong with it? My only issue was: I'm not sure how spoiler tags work.

@Giantstalker said:

@TanoPrime said:

It holds my table steady so it's a fine piece of work. OT: The hour long ending made me bang my head. That's my take on mgs story

If I played a MGS game without an hour long ending, I'd demand a refund.

And on topic, yeah three years later this is a great game... but still not as good as Snake Eater.

Ok maybe. After all Snake Eater is the only game I ever beat twice in one day.

still a really long movie, still really silly.

All this talk of it has made me put the game back in my console. Also, don't get too hyped for Peace Walker guys, it's good but it's nothing revolutionary for the series.

Because it modernized so much, and conformed with new game expectations it was a much better game. That's why it holds up today and will still hold up until the next innovation in shooters or the industry takes a deeper interest in another genre.

@Pibo47: I can't really disagree with you there.

Still great. It was easily one of the best games I've gotten. I drove around with my brother to see if any stores around us were doing a midnight release. To our luck our best buy was, which never does that kind of stuff. I got home and played it until 4 in the morning. Then I woke up the next day and played it from 11 in the morning until around 8. I ended up finishing it the next day in the morning. It was such a great experience, both the game, and everything else. It still blows my mind though that they actually put in cutscenes that long, but I can't say I was disappointed because I thought it made the game a whole different kind of gaming experience.

I have come to the conclusion that the fact that Kojima is basically HDifying his entire catalogue that he must be bankrolling his next game. Or that his newly acquired VP status has caused him to be less willing to gamble with Konami money.

I predict MGS4 Re-release pretty soon. Trophies yo!

I always get the urge to go back and watch the hour and a half long cutscene. All the cutscenes really, but an hour and a half man.

@RsistncE said:

Still is one of the greatest games of all time.

Agreed.

The game will always be a masterpiece along with the other MGS and MG titles.

@Devil240Z said:

I played and beat MGS4 in the first few days after it came out. Put it away and didn't really think about it until now. I was honestly kind of disappointed by it over all, in hindsight I realize that was just because of my over inflated expectations. Yesterday I put the game in again. I am now about half way in and I have to say, Its gotten better. MGS4 is a masterpiece. I would go as far as to say that its even better than MGS3 which is generally regarded to be the best in the series. This is how I feel anyway. I am sure you all have your own thoughts about it.

I am also even more excited to play the MGS HD Collection. Especially for Peace Walker which I barely played because handhelds are just not my thing.

I just finished this game for the first time today.

warning boring background story:

It's weird, three years ago this was the title that was going to make me buy a PS3, but that's not how things happened. I didn't buy a PS3 until last year, and by then was too intimidated to pick up the game. I didn't want to be let down by it, or deal with projected frustrations like minding Old Snake's health while sneaking.... It was the Peace Walker HD re-release that got me hungry for MGS again. I'm definitely playing that on my PS3, so I thought I might as well finally dive into MGS4.

ok, the actual comments on the game in 2011:

I gotta say, the presentation and pace was incredible and innovate. It goes toe to toe with some of the best narrative driven games released this year (Portal 2, LA Noire). Now the actual content of that narrative... I've got plenty of praises and complaints; but the presentation was so killer. I've never found myself so compelled to play a MGS game before. I was up to 3AM with it last night because there was just no way I was going to turn away from Act 4 once it began.

As for the game part of the game... I don't know what to think. Obviously it was dated. Maybe for the time too, but after Arkham Asylum and the latest Deus Ex, controlling Snake felt more like controlling Octodad. I found sneaking to be nearly impossible, and played the entire game as if it were Uncharted (save for enough moments to count on one hand).

Overall, NOT a better game than MGS3. 3 is the greatest game of last generation, and the overall tone and plot was the best of the series. If I were to make a 2011 top ten and for some reason include MGS4, it would fall to its sneaking successors (Deus Ex, and most likely Arkham City); and it certianly won't out run-n-gun Uncharted 3. So I guess it hasn't aged well. But damn, it made me love the MGS universe again, and the MGS4 narrative delivered one hell of an experience. I can't say I had a bad time.

@Devil240Z: This game was great from the beging, your crazy.

Its always a masterpiece.

Snake, snake, SNAAAAAKE!!!!

I still do an annual run through the campaign and shoot some guys online.

By far my favorite game ever. (The whole series that is)

I'm playing this now for the first time, loved MGS did play much of two or three

Just finished it up today, it's one of the best games I've ever played.