MGScanlon: Game Time Comparions, Rankings, Stats +more!

Metal Gear Scanlon is a Giant Bomb video series that follows Drew B. Scanlon's quest to play the core games of the Metal Gear Solid series (1, 2, 3, 4), a plot hatched by none other than Daniel J Ryckert. Drew has zero experience with Metal Gear Solid. Dan says it's his favorite thing, period. You may be on one of the two extremes as well, or you may be somewhere in the middle - either way, MGScanlon has something for you, including 75 hours of Metal Gear Solid games. Below I've included some raw MGS stats for you to compare to yourself / the world and there's also an episode guide with quick links so you can watch the series easily at your leisure. Thanks everyone!

Solid Scanlon Game Time vs World

Rankings & Stats

Episode Guide & Genius Video Tag-lines to Oe You With

Bonus Episodes Quick Links

• MGS Demo Derby (technically not MGScanlon, but integral to the story)
• MGS Just a Bonus
• MGS3 Bonus Episode
• MGS4 Loading
• Peace Walker Movie
• The Phantom Pain Trailers

Episode Stats

Notes

• Edit 1: I added a column for game time vs show time since there is some significant differences, probably explained by the game left running off camera. Shortest time marked*. Other typo edits and clarifications. Thanks!
• Edit 2: moved stuff around, added more data to tables and added a rankings table
• Sorry for errors! Point out and will correct.
• I got all my times from How Long to Beat, including the Fastest Times, because when it comes to speed runs there are too many categories for me to read through and understand and list. Maybe one day. Sorry! I believe HLTB is based on "just playing the game". No glitches, no tools. Just skipping cutscenes and moving fast and memorizing.
• MGS4 loading video is included in the time, for the most scientific results.
• That loading video has 746 comments, by far the most in the series. Which is fair.
• All in all Drew? You're pretty good.
• Totally off topic, but, if you've never played Metal Gear or Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, I just watched those "movies" on youtube and you should too! 2 hours or so all in all.
• I definitely noticed all the new editing tool additions and improvements since my last blog! :)

Thanks to Dan & Drew and What We've Learned

Just a huge thank you to @danryckert and @drewbert for sharing MGS with us. It's my favorite series of all time by quite some margin and the last GB celebration of it was that great Giant Spoiler Snakecast from what is now seven damn years ago (everyone go listen to it now, so fascinating! and pssst, check out GOTY 2008 too!). It was a real blast and I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. Looking back over this last year, it's pretty damn amazing this adventure all began with Dan playing a demo disc with MGS1 and Drew being there looking on. From second 1 Dan can't stop talking about Metal Gear and within the first few minutes he runs through the whole series pretty much. If that isn't the perfect introduction I don't know what is! The plot to have Drew play Metal Gear was hatched quickly and lo what fruit it yielded.

If you're looking to get through MGS (minus Peace Walker, sorry) it looks like you can expect a good 60-80 hour run time. So if you wanna run through it all before The Phantom Pain, you've still got 10-11 days to get 'er done. Just play 6-8 hours a day and you'll be through. Not bad! Kind of funny to think all those wild memories I have from all those crazy scenes boil down to such a "small number", but when you replay the game so many times and then stretch/multiply these numbers over the last ~two decades, well, I guess it adds up.

The Future Awaits!

I hope this format can return one day soon. It's not easy I know, but this setup of having one fan (super fan) and one new player tackle a series or game is really great. I think since the Persona and DP days we're all a little sore for more endurance runs, and MGScanlon delivered well beyond expectations. Now... give. me. more!

:D

3-13 had the best tagline. I honestly felt a little something knowing what was coming.

Holy cow, how long did it take you to put this together @geraltitude ?

Man that's a lot of premium content!

Glorious thread, duder!

Part of what makes Drew's yearlong journey resonate with me is that for both of us it started with that Pizza Hut demo disc. That demo totally grabbed me in 1998 and my brother and I just had to get our hands on this super-immersive thing. That snowy Shadow Moses opening is tinged with a certain pizza smell forever!

This is some solid stuff!

Thanks duder. Very comprehensive list you've put together. If someone had the stomach for it I'd like to see some really granular stats like deaths, rations used ect.

Heads up, you wrote Metal gaer V instead of gear. Also I like your approach to consider GZ a part of MGSV but it might be confusing to some.

Fantastic work though, deserves to be highlighted! @zombiepie

The first table has a typo, Metal Gaer Solid V.

Awesome data compilation you have here.

This is awesome stuff @geraltitude, thanks for posting. 4-12 has a great tag line with my new favorite term 'iconic pee stain'.

amazing job @geraltitude totally expected 1 to be longer. but totally makes sense looking back at it.

Very well done, @geraltitude! It's been a crazy year, no doubt. Here's hoping in the distant future a potential MGScanlon V: The Phantom Playthrough shows up.

Awesome summary man

updated! Most importantly, in going over the end game rank cards to add a new table, I discovered there was an important difference between the MG Scanlon show's running time and what the game clock said. Added a new column to include both. The faster time is marked*.

@galacticpunt: Me too, 100%. It wasn't the Pizza Hut Demo, and it was in Japanese, though I played the English version soon after. Can't remember which magazine I got them from. I remember playing that demo so, so many times over. Like you said at the time the atmosphere was incredible. Even watching Dan and Drew return to Shadow Moses brought back some memories.

@slag: about 3 hours for most of the work! So not bad, then maybe another 3 with poking edits and some additions. PS got your note about filling out character pages. Sounds a fun crusade to start..

@demoskinos: It can't replace a good montage video or a more minute by minute analysis, but you inspired me to at least tabulate the end game rank cards. I feel like Drew getting Elephant twice in a row is some kind of anomaly/sign.

@hassun: Yup, I heisted on GZ in the first place and agree with you in the end, fixed.

@mustachioeugene: @csl316: There are so many great tag lines... Jason is a scary master. And Drew is no slouch either. Personally I love 2-13 "Everything old is new again. Will Drew face his past or La Li Lu Le Lose his mind?"

@arbayer2: @amyggen: @mithhunter55: @baracudadk2: @selfconfessedcynic: thanks so much duders!

Amazing post OP well done love all the stats so well done.

This is an impressive list. You should probably also include the animal ranking Drew got at the end of each game. I bet that would be entertaining.

I'll admit, for as popular as the feature seems to have been (and based on some of the offhand comments made by the GB crew: responsible for selling a lot of premium subscriptions) I never quite made it through all of Metal Gear Scanlon 2 and sorta stopped there. Some of these videos are long and I don't quite have the free time that I used to. I'd rather catch the highlights of Drew fumbling in a hilarious manner/looking stunned by the craziness at play.

Nice! Is only 10 kills in Ground Zeroes really correct? It felt like Drew was killing US Marines left and right in that game.

Woah stats.

Great job.

Wow, this is a great list. Poor Drew never got close to any average :'( Thanks for putting it together!

I don't know if you can truly kill guards in GZ. Every time I do it they wake up 5 minutes later. I assumed I was doing a lethal choke.

Awesome collection of stats

Truly you are doing god's work with that episode list.

I've never seen the Demo Derby where they make the fateful decision. Time to go back to where it all began...

@shindig: The choke is a non-lethal take down and only knocks them out, its also the second shortest duration knockout as far as I know, you have to hit the triangle or Y button to stab them while you are holding them for a lethal take down. A skull prompt with a button next to it should appear while you are holding them. They wont get up from that, however new guards spawn after alerts and when you complete objectives like rescuing Paz or Chico.

@shindig: If you want to kill them, you have to press Y/triangle to use the knife.

I'm probably just an idiot, but how is game time ever longer than show time? Especially for 3, where did those extra 4.5 hours come from?

@slayer: @captain_insano: @chippy180: @gianthamish: @christoffer: thanks!

@arbitrarywater: if you're on a phone it may cut off that column but you should be able to see "Codename" column in the "Rankings" table! And yeah, I don't blame anyone for not making it through that series 100%. Honestly these days I kind of use "watch this video for an hour without distraction" as a sort of personal challenge. Yes, that is sad.

@dragon_puncher: You know.. I haven't gone back to rewatch it yet but you may be right in a way! My numbers are end game rank card numbers, not handcounted. And since Drew died once in GZ and I'm pretty sure the game does not could all kills just kills in your "run" we probably did get a lower than real number in 10. Goes for all games probably. I think some of those numbers are already counted by users. I'll have to see if I can find them...

@e30bmw: Beats me honestly! I may go back and recount one day but the easiest explanation is just that the game was running for a while off camera. Maybe during 3 they really left it running.

Well done, this was great :)

Oh, I forgot that MGS gives you a playtime at the end. Figured you had added it up yourself, because I'm an idiot haha.

Wow this is really cool and a great way to summarize the series.

Good job on the thread man. This series was great for me. I was ready to play through at least 3 and 4 before 5 this year and instead watched Drew play it all, which was really rewarding and fun. I love the series and am dying to play V. It was cool to see Drew come to appreciate the series and really he doesn't seem to like the gameplay much. It was very entertaining to see it all again and revist my thoughts about the series, which stayed the same actually if not reinforced, which was a little surprising.

I agree with others that said they like the "Endurance Run" format still alive on the site so hope it continues. I think Dan seems to like the format a lot and have no aversion to it so I hope he keeps doing that content on the site.

I actually think Dan watching on a Persona would be hilarious but it would piss off lots of fans.

Woah, this is great!

Man, that body count in MGS 4. Holy shit. Also interesting that he has the least amount of alerts in MGS 1 but the most overall continues. That Ninja Fight really took it to him. That has to be his most died to part in the entire series run I'd figure.

This is awesome. The whole series was awesome. I'm officially a Metal Gear Solid fan and look forward to the Phantom Pain (having played Ground Zeroes as my first one ever).

I wasn't around for the Endurance Run stuff and even though I plan to one day go back this has become to me what those Persona episodes were for so many of you. Drew's dogged determinism and Dan's infectious love and enthusiasm for the series have made the show for me over the last year, thank you so much guys.

just started rewatching mgs1 episodes and i totally forgot that episode 1 had the square 'H' button incident xD

"Drew B. Scanlon" "Yes, I be Scanlon". Still my favourite moment of the series!

Nice job this must have been quite an effort to compile it all!

Surprised that it was posted 2 days ago and I never saw it.

Awesome work @geraltitude , and I do agree with you, this format of playing a series with someone that knows a lot with someone who doesn't is really great, but I guess the opportunities for that are kind of rare, specially since the duders review and play most of the games out there.

Relistening to the MGS4 spoilercast. First voice you hear is Ryan's.

Man I miss him.

Relieved to see I beat his Ground Zeroes time by 40 minutes.

I'm really confused how the game run time is longer than the show run time. Did he play of bunch of the game off screen or something? And if that's the case, how do you know how long?

This post is fantastic, hope to see it get a spotlight.

Awesome job, really interesting!

It's been explained, I think. You leave the game running whilst setting a stream up for audio levels and such.

@flameboy84: Well said! Determinism / Enthusiasm would be the absolute best subtitle for a MGScanlon box set. Spot on as hell!

@artisanbreads: Hey thanks very much, and hah! Dan & Persona would be a treat. But for who? That is the question. I'm much the same way with MGS/MGScanlon as you it sounds. Honestly I was a bit worried that maybe watching someone else play it would reveal a lot of faults/problems but in the end I think I came away liking it even more. I'd like to blog about this in the future soon but I feel MGScanlon reveals some interesting things about playing a series "historically" like Drew did. MGScanlon came out of nowhere I feel. Hazard a guess as to the next "endurance run"?

@demoskinos: according to this gentlemen's fine work, it is indeed the Cyborg Ninja, with 10 continues. Unfortunately I don't think this guy continued his project.

@dixavd: Great to hear! Welcome to the club brother. Or should I say... BROOOTHER!

@baracudadk2: @betaband: haha yep! I rewatched Episodes 1-3 while buidling this and holy cow. The whole series is great but man oh man the first one is just chock full of hilarity.

@dudeglove: hah, just noticed the Austin 3:16 connection. Collusion?

@tiger_buttercup: Me too. I listen to old bombcasts periodically, and that one probably 3-4 times being such a big mgs4 fan. As soon as you hear his voice his energy is so familiar and so exciting. Those bombcasts have such a great vibe. Like a pack of wild horses trying to jump the gun but Ryan is this laughing/cackling steady hand on the reins.

@vsharres: Yeah that does seem to be a problem for more current stuff especially. Plus with Dan being a huge fan and Drew being willing it just seems like a lucky strike and MGS has a massive series, so of course a huge % of the user base is interested too. I bet for old, one-off games there are a host of them but that's not really the same thing I suppose. More like a Bombastica with a guest, basically.

@shindig: I was a little embarrassed by Drew's first GZ run. He did so, so much better than me. Just went back to it this week and gonna try to 1-up him.

@hatking: @shindig: @e30bmw: so Shindig definitely has the gist of it! Here's my exact science just so y'all are clear. The "Rank Card" at the end of each game gives us the completion time on a silver platter. The show time has to be added up manually, so if there is an error, it would be there. Added it up three times now but if I got it wrong let me know! When the game is longer than the show, that difference is explained by the system left running off camera (couldn't find it but 80% sure Dan/Drew calls this out at some point). When the show is longer, that difference is explained by Dan and Drew talking with the game off or a death that was never recorded. For example, if Drew saved, then died and turned the game off, that game time is not tracked, but will affect the show time.

@elite49: @fer-vas: @humanity: @bollard: @jalcottgriffin: @cirdain: thanks so much duders!

@geraltitude: I really like Persona but it would be fun for me seeing Dan poke at it. Actually I think Dan would end up really liking a lot of it though in the same way Drew grew to like MGS. I actually do think Drew and MGS wasn't so dissimilar. I think he clashes with a lot of the hardcore MGS fans because he just straight up doesn't like the game play and also didn't try all that much to adapt to it, which is cool with me but it lead to interesting comment sections for people who can't watch someone fight through MGS. I'm thinking about the last podcast when it think, to paraphrase, Drew said 4 was the first one where the parts he wasn't watching were not trying to get through.

I agree with you on what it showed about the Metal Gear Scanlon series and how it made me feel. I think the biggest thing it did for me was not change my opinion of any of the games but nicely frame the whole series to contrast each game and take them in as a whole. In particular I don't really like 2 but did find it interesting. Watching Drew play through it, I feel the exact same but do really like what it did as part of the series. I think it helps as a whole being able to go right into 3 after the short break they took helped. 2 was so shaped for me by disappointment, but historically it just becomes really interesting and I can accept the flaws I see in it because it's just a game in history. I don't have hype or expectations invested in it anymore.

I can't predict a new ER, but as I said more or less in my post I expect Dan to be in it. I would like something out of Dan's wheelhouse this time. Persona is a good example of something I'd like to see and Dan can like a JRPG.

I appreciated 2 more now as it's the chapter when Kojima was more explicitly wanting out and it came through in his art. As for Dan's RPG odyssey ... why not Pokemon?

@geraltitude: Okay, that makes waaay more sense now. Thanks for clearing it up. Also, I didn't say it before, but good work.

@artisanbreads: Yeah really I would be surprised if the next ER didn't come from Dan but I do feel we are due for some Brad-centric content aren't we? Dan and Brad isn't a common combo but maybe that could be something great! I love Persona and I like to hope Dan would come around to it. He says he likes anime now, right? It's not even out yet but maybe a Persona 5 run with Dan is something we could see in the future.

For Drew and MGS and how he plays it: definitely agree on "interesting comments". While I never approve of mean or judgey comments, it is interesting, conceptually, what it means to "adapt" to a game versus "playing against it". Drew never even read the manuals as far as I could tell and it always reminded me about Game Preparation. There are some games (like the originally xcom) where you literally could not get through a menu without reading the manual. But in MGS things are grayer. You can play without knowing what you're doing, but the effect on the experience is significant. Food for thought: is there a base level of preparation a player should have before playing games? How realistic/appropriate is it to expect to be able to "pick up and play a game"? I think those answers are different for every game (think about a Flight Sim!). History plays a big role here too in understanding the game. Back in 99, when MGS was mind boggling, I bet it was far more common for players to "test" the AI to understand it. It was also far more common to read game manuals then too.

For me MGS4 was the one I wasn't sure about seeing again. I loved it at the time but it's the darkhorse in the series for me in that I've never replayed it. I appreciate it more now and was surprised "how much" game is in there to be honest, but also surprised how much I enjoyed the story again. MGS as a whole is just so weird but also so polished. It's hard to know in the context of the times if they are just weird in the way video games are generally weird and if they are just polished for the time. Looking at it now the whole series just feels far more unique to me. There's nothing like MGS, there is only MGS.