Im interested to see how the dudes react to the number and length of cutscenes. Drew has said before that he is primarily here for the story, and there is certainly plenty of that to go around. They will probably need to increase the length of the average episode.

Can't fucking wait until they see some of the iconic moments in this game. I really want to see Drew's reaction to the return of Shadow Moses as a reminder of how far he's come on this journey, and how fucking cool the final boss fight with Liquid is. Also the super weird shit like those damn television programs in the beginning haha. And I can already envision how much drew's eyes are going to glaze over during the half hour of exposition with Big Boss at the end when you already thought the game was over. Man, this fucking game.

Can't wait so long as Drew shows some enthusiasm this time around. MGS3 he seemed a little over it.

@bushpusherr: Let's not forget how much Drew's eyes will roll if he notices Snake trying to get a look up Naomi's skirt when he "drops" his cigarette

MGS 4 was my first game into this series and even though the story explains who Big Boss was I was still like who the hell is this guy to be so damn special!? Then I played 3 and I understood now. then played 1, then 2. yea I had a weird way of tackling this series.

Still love it!

Shouldn't we have a Peace Walker (Peace Duder) waiting room first before MGS4 *crosses finger in hope*

@rigas: they said they're not playing it on stream.

You know when people come at you with the exaggeration of "Metal Gear Solid is just ten minutes of gameplay for every hour of cutscene" and you're like "get fucked, no it isn't."

Well with 4, it kind of is.

Went straight from playing the last few hours of MGS3 to the first few hours of MGS4. Kojima is good at making players feel what the protagonist is feeling, I find in 2 and 4. War has changed a lot. Crawling over lying people, the items you find no longer being floating boxes and the super long cutscenes were probably more disorienting than the Geckos and sneaking between warring factions, mind. It's weird, I knew this world already from Revengeance, but I have no idea how Snake is going to handle it. The man can't just combo those Geckos.

Is this particular type of sci-fi named something? That is, near-future guerilla warfare with a lot of cyborgs and some robots? I've only read one other thing that fits, the manga Eden: It's an endless world. It's not the same, but I thought there were some similarities. I'm not that deep into sci-fi, so for all I know they're both based on something really famous.

@royce_mccutcheon: It still kinda isn't. The cutscenes can get super long by industry standards but there is decent gameplay in there. I had also remembered it as mostly cutscenes but when I played through again a year or two ago I was surprised how much gameplay there was against what I remembered it being.

That said, yah, it probably has the least amount of honest gaming time out of the entire series.

Drew should definitely find 4 less frustrating to play. Also, shit just goes completely nuts in an amazing way.

Finishing up 3, can't wait til they do 4. I've beaten the other games in the series a dozen times, but MGS4 was a one-and-done deal.

I'm almost temped to just run through it one more time.

God damn how fucking cool is snakes sneaking suit in MGS4? The way it changes the camo automatically is just fantastic.

@redhotchilimist: I don't know if I would call MGS4 and Revegeance the same universe at all. In MGS4 you have mainly nanomachines that take care of the whole futuristic thing in soldiers. And in Revengeance its cyborg stuff. Also you don't necessarily have as much guys running around with swords and slicing people open. If anything, the world of Revegaence is the start of a new era after MGS4.

Just finished MGS4. Last time I played it I only got 3/4 through and I hadn't played MGS3 prior to that.

Now with my playthrough of 3 and having finished the game - far out - Kojima is a maniac who knows how to do nostalgia and fan service. Liquid + Snake fight with all the different music and themed health bars? Just one crazy example

I remember really liking 4 when it came out until Big Boss showed up and went from 0 to 1 to 0 to 1 back to 0. Looking back at it, that game is rough. The gameplay is fine and it looks great, but there's some Twin Snakes level of nonsense in that game. Will be interesting to see how someone who is playing the games in somewhat rapid succession will take it.

There are some really awesome moments in that game, but man I can't go back to it.

@rigas: peace walker was 2010, mgs4 was 2008, why would they go out of order now?

@kasaioni: It doesn't really matter to me if you want to consider it a different era, it is literally the next one after MGS4. What I'm saying is that it was instantly familiar to see geckos in modern city ruins. I was expecting Platinum to have added the crazy holding a blade with his high heels-combo and sword-breakdancing stuff, but when I played through act 2 yesterday I watched what felt like a half hour cutscene of Raiden doing Revengeance stuff. He even spun Geckos tied to his legs. Like yeah, most of the opponents in Revengeance are cyborgs and UMGs and not nanobots and powered suit users, which is an inversion of MGS4 presumably to reflect the different protagonist. Still, those elements are all present in both games. I was pleasantly surprised to see three of the ball robots walking on top of one another, pretending to be a man in a coat and hat during chapter 3. What I figured were Platinum designs were MGS4 designs originally.

I like it, so far. Not a fan of the war zones concept, not a fan of the stupid long cutscenes and I miss having a codec with some content. Laughing Beauty freaked me out and made me really wonder how much octopi there is in the North Sea. But the game itself is very playable and exciting. Anyway, I've got questions about it I'm not waiting for metal gear scanlon to ask. Got up until Raging Raven, so no spoilers beyond that point.

A ton of people make the mistake in thinking Peace Walker came between 3 and 4. I think it's either them just remembering there was a PSP Metal Gear that came out between 3 and 4, or because it's bundled with 2 and 3 in the HD Collection.

The worst metal gear.

@redhotchilimist: Well I think Platinum did say that they were keeping in mine that one scene with Raiden in act 2 specifically when making the game, iirc.

@TechnoSyndrome said:

yeah portable ops seems like the forgotten one of the series. i'm not sure if it's rightfully so because i've never had a psp or vita, but i always just lumped peace walker in with it myself as "things i'll probably never play, but happened, and are probably somewhat important".

I cannot fucking wait for this. 4 is by far my favorite game in the series and the amount of crazy, weird, and awesome shit that happens in that game is just absurd. I wonder how playing them so close together (meh, close enough) will affect Drew. Will he appreciate it more since the series is still relatively fresh in his memory or will a lot of the nods and winks and wrapups of previous games be met with more indifference since the whole nostalgia angle doesn't exist for him? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Portable Ops is by far the least important of the series. Kojima didn't direct it, so he doesn't really consider it canon or important. And, compared to Peace Walker, it's lackluster at best.

It's going to be one heck of a ride.

Kojima's exact stance is that parts of the story are canon and parts aren't, though he's never elaborated on what exactly did or didn't happen. All of the relevant story beats in Portable Ops that lead into 4 happen in the ending cutscene and post credits stinger, I'm guessing everything before that isn't canon.

This...is a bad name for this feature

@drmantistabogganmd: better alternative welcomed

Found this awesome megacut of all the story scenes in MGS4 for anyone wanting to sit for 7 HOURS.....

Spoilers of course...

Also, how about Guns of the Ryckert instead :3

@captain_insano: MET4L GE4R SC4NLON 4: Electric Drewaloo

My god you are right! My brain must have had the date of Portable Ops (2006) in my brain! This makes me feel better now. Thanks for the reminder Techno.

Metal Gear Scanlon 4: Guns of the Ryckert ?

hmm this is not an easy title to rename with Drew or Dan :/. Cmon duder community, brainstorm here!

I was thinking "Dan is the Patriots" A evil twist that the man helping and aiding Drew during his arduous journey the past 3 games is actually part of the organization and has used his knowledge to control information from Drew. Like when he "improperly told him about the death pill" in mgs3. You think he really screwed up!? Open your eyes you fools!

And then Dan and Drew pull up their sleeves and start fighting in that stream room with all the mgs themes in the background. After a few minutes they stop and Dan brings in Jason, the man pulling the strings of Dan the whole time! Kojima shit all over!!

I just hope Drew doesn't try to overthink this game based on past Metal Gear games and his paranoia that the game is trying to screw him - this is one of the only games in the series that basically just boils down to - just shoot people, even the bosses - Screaming Mantis is the only boss that is slightly different (that and having to jab Vamp)

I'm playing through 4 now, and I love it. The mechanical improvements are great and the story is thoroughly batshit so far. It is taking me forever though. My vacation ended, work's been hectic and then there was the game jam eating up a week. I've got almost this entire coming weekend free though, so marathon! Gotta finish it up before Drew starts. Oh, and then get me a premium membership so I can actually watch.

Sounds like "military sci-fi" or some subset thereof. It's a pretty broad genre though and covers anything from what you described up to far-flung future navy-esque giant spaceship battles.

I'd love to see Portable Ops next... maybe even ghost babel because it's so damn good.

Metal Gear Scanlon 4: Guns of the Ryckerts. Make it happen.

It's been changed - guarantee now others will come on about the title and want it to be different. Still - the (some) people have spoken!

this is awful! you are all morons being controlled by the nanos man!

call it Metal Gear Scanlon: the Quatro!

@captain_insano: 'Lons of the Patriots!

My work for the La-li-lu-le-lo is done.

My evil plan is working

i hope they play mgr.

I was thinking about this game today and then suddenly remembered all of Act 2, which I had previously forgot existed. Great stealth there now that it's coming back to me.

I feel like Acts 1 and 2 are the only real "game" part of this game. Don't get me wrong, going back to Shadow Moses is fucking cool, but the majority of 'playing' a new stealth or action game felt like it happened early

Does anyone know if Drew and Dan are aware of the full install added to MGS4 in 2012, that is one big "Snake Smoking" screen instead of the smaller ones between chapters? Should they do the full install ahead of time for convenience or should Drew experience MGS4 as it released with Smoking Screens between every chapter? Also should they get all the free Camo/iPod/weapon DLC that was made available?

Even bigger question is Dan aware of the secret Chapter 0 Cutscene or will they just jump straight to "New Game"?

I put another 5-6 hours into 4 today and fuck this game is nuts. I mean, Metal Gear is always kind of nuts, but this one is just all over the place insane. I beat Laughing Octopus and uhh, her post-octopus constantly laughing like a fucking maniac and dodging your bullets form and WTF? This series has gotten so weird.

@bushpusherr: The final boss fight is cool as shit and, if MGS 1/2 are anything to go by, Drew will probably hate it.

Just depends on how his mindset is going into it and how he goes during it.

Surely there'll be less grenade spamming in this game.