Their stats definitely improve over time, at least when they're in the combat section of Mother Base. Though I don't recall if it's an automatic thing or if you had to send them out on missions to have their stats increase.

Oh snap I forgot about the whole sending guys out on missions part. I LOVED THAT SHIT! I wonder how it will be visualized in TPP.

@atomicoldman: @larrydavis:I think it's unwise to blame poorly worded messages on Peter Brown perceived lack of brightness. In case of uncertainty it is better to stick with the facts you know for sure. Peter was right to ask push for official clarification on the subject.

@demoskinos: Tsk tsk tsk. Don't twist my words you dirty boy. I'm sure that if it were up to you all female characters would be voluptuous (nearly) naked nubile girls looking for a good time. Using an avatar which looks like it was cropped from pornographic fanart does little to convince me otherwise. :V

Never said he was wrong to, but there was enough information out there already that clarified what form microtransactions would be taking in regards to F.O.B.

edit: so it doesn't come off as such, I'm in no way excusing the presence of microtrasnactions either. I know Konami has a real thing for mobile now, but injecting that into a full priced game feels gross no matter what form it takes. My only concern is over how well it's balanced.

@atomicoldman: Yeah as long as you don't need it, they didn't balance the game in such a way where it becomes tedious without it and they don't push it on you at every opportunity I don't mind it.

@hassun: What I will say is that some weapons and items in Peace Walker were very difficult to obtain, and there were no microtransactions in that game. I think TPP will follow suit, so when I look back at Peace Walker, I don't know if blaming any grindy stuff in TPP on microtransactions is necessarily fair. Especially considering the "grind" that people always cite as being needed to get the true ending in Peace Walker. It may be equally as fair to blame any grind and balance issues in TPP on the idea that its gameplay structure is based on Peace Walker, which had some grinding and balance problems.

However, Jim Sterling recently uploaded a video on the topic, and I think he does a good job at critiquing the situation. That is, microtransactions in AAA games are never good, and saying "they don't affect me" is a bad argument.

But then again, I do see some value in Konami (Kojima's?) earlier defense that microtransactions are there for people who have less time on their hands. Especially when considering that the structure of Metal Gear games up till now has been very linear and short. I can just see some fair-weather Metal Gear fan coming to this game and thinking that its scale is way too big for a standard Metal Gear game. But then again, implementing microtransactions is not necesarily the best way to tackle that problem.

@hassun: ;D <3

@kasaioni: It's true that the fact that they are there is bad enough. It doesn't really matter if the game would have been equally grindy with or without microtransactions. The fact that they are there changes the situation.

I do think this is a valid point though:

I would've welcome any chance to speed up Peace Walker.

MGS4: Waaaaaaah too many cutscenes! More gameplay!
MGS5: Waaaaaah too little cutscenes! Too much gameplay!

Jesus christ people...

Except not everyone wants the same thing from a Metal Gear game, as this week's threads on the subject have made pretty clear. On one hand there are people like me, who are actually interested in Phantom Pain now that I heard it doesn't have ten hours of cutscenes in it. On the other, there are people who have grown to love that about these games, so of course they are going to be disappointed by a change.

Still, damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Holy shit 10s everywhere.

Honestly, 8.5s would have been enough to feel fine about my first pre-order, but this is nuts.

I'm MGSing on myself right over here.

The stuff about story is still incredibly undecided. Sure, you have IGN, which calls the story sparse and that not all that much happens, but then you have GT, which states that "first and foremost, Phantom Pain isn’t especially friendly to those new to the series. Unless you’re sufficiently caught up on Metal Gear lore, expect many of the finer details, and maybe even some of the bigger ones, to sound like complete gibberish. Phantom Pain is most valuable to those already invested in Kojima’s craziness." Guess we'll find out for ourselves soon enough.

IGN's perspective might also be based off what is typical for a Metal Gear game, while GT might be looking at it more broadly.

We used to have these things called cheat codes.

Now the cheat code is your credit card number.

Those statements aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

I'm just going to give the most Kojima-y explanation to all the conflicting information in regards to the story that I can: half of the press actually just played Peace Walker re-rendered in the FOX-engine but didn't know because nobody played fucking Peace Walker.

I liked Peace Walker ;-;

I'm actually a little confused about my own feelings on this. I was always one who felt that Kojima needed an editor (and perhaps someone to help him with his writing). But now that the game apparently doesn't have two hour cutscenes and 20 minute codec conversations about complete nonsense, I'm actually kind of bummed. Dammit Kojima, stop playing with my emotions!

What an amazing series that man has created, flaws and all.

Or you could just download mods.

Heads up to people looking through the Neogaf review thread someone may have just spoiled something big. He tried to be vague but the implication is pretty fucking crystal clear.

So Vince Ingenito clarified in IGN's Podcast Beyond that by having a sparse story he means in comparison to other Metal Gears, specifically if you were coming from MGS4 into V. The whole discussion is spoiler free and about his experience with the game and his review. You can watch it here.

@bceagles128: On a PC maybe. Some of us prefer consoles though.

I'm not even one of the complainers but the way I see it every metal gear solid game up til now has been RIPE with story and this one breaks that mold. So people who were never on board with the amount of story in previous games really never actually liked a metal gear game and the people who do like the amount of story are getting shit on in this release. That said I like the peace walker mold of repeatable missions and base management which is really what this game is about and is for the people who want more of that.

@atomicoldman: EVERY game has s sparse story compared to MGS4.

itslikeplayingamovie

Glad to see the game won't be a complete let down.

This is my first pre-order since "25 to life" and uh yeah after that let down I never pre-ordered again, even for Kojima.
Since it was the last hurrah and I had some extra coin in my back pocket I went ahead and got it.

I won't be reading any reviews AFTER I get the game and I for sure don't want any guides or anything stopping me from figuring everything out myself. This is the last new Kojima- MGS I will ever get in my life-gonna make it last.

Sad about hearing no more long cut scenes. Those were my favorite part. The cut scene in "guns of the patriots" in which ocelot shoots everything up with his fingers is the best scene in a video game I have ever seen. I cry.

Nothing beats sitting back with my recreational habit and enjoying a mind twisting Kojima cut scene

@devil240z: I think it's too early to really say if people who liked the amount of story in previous MGS games are getting "shit on" or not. The guy who did the IGN review specifically stated in a later video that he was envisioning people going from MGS4 to MGSV, and just about ANY game is going to feel sparse when put up against that monster.

The vibe that I am getting makes me feel that it has a similar amount of story to any non-MGS4 entry in the series, but this time the game has hours upon hours of gameplay over those earlier titles. It just isn't packed as dense as it was in the past, taking more time to unfold and with a structure that's built around you piecing together the real truth as you fill in more and more gaps in the narrative with tapes. Kojima made multiple statements to that effect; he wanted to encourage exploration in both the world and in the way the story is told to you.

Now, I can see not liking the way it is presented (even though I prefer tapes to codecs by a huge margin), but I'm going to reserve judgment on the amount of it present until I get my hands on it.

I love the series but wow could it be way more concise with its story and delivery of the story. And maybe they could figure out a way to not have much of the plot be something a person tells you directly through an info dump of straight exposition. Even if you're a fan I think this is plain to see.

I also have to imagine the story is very similar overall to what is typical for the series but the game is just a lot longer so it's more spread out across it.

@mirado: The main difference between TPP and a "non-MGS4 entry" is that TPP has a sort of non linear structure since you can repeat missions and free roam to collect resources and such where as MGS1-3 were entirely linear meaning you could only do so much between story chunks. So even if its similar in amount of story its stretched out in a way that makes it appear less(hopefully anyway or else it actually is less)

And I'm not saying its a fact that they are getting shit on I'm saying its how they are reacting based on what is known at this point.

@devil240z: Yeah, that's what I'm hoping, and frankly what I'm looking forward to; with the old titles, once you knew the story really well and just wanted to play through them for old times sake, it reveals a startling lack of...game. You can crack through MGS4 awfully fast if you've already seen the cutscenes, so giving more to do while (hopefully) retaining a similar amount of story will feel perfect.

Hell, just having a MGS game that doesn't control like ass will feel wonderful. GZ was such a leap even over 4 that it blows my mind whenever I play it. (Of course, I'm a PC guy first and foremost, so any shooter that lets me use a mouse >>> anything that forces me to use a controller.)

This was maybe the biggest revelation for me watching the Metal Gear Scanlon series. Like just seeing how little actual straight up stealthing and dealing with normal guards gameplay there is at points in the games. Metal Gear Solid 1 especially after a certain point is just going from boss to boss more or less.

@artisanbreads: It really is proof that you can't make that kind of game anymore. MGS4 was the logical conclusion of that formula, massive cut-scenes filled with insane revelations which lasted for (what felt like) hours. You can't top the way that game was made; if Kojima wanted to make MGSV in the same vein as MGS4, it'd be a huge letdown. What would he do, just direct a movie and press it to disks? That game is the perfect expression of what those earlier Metal Gear games wanted to be (anime action movies with a message), and nothing can improve upon it.

So he HAD to take it in a different direction, and I'm really glad he did, in the same way that I'm really glad we got a MGS4. I don't think one way is undeniably better than the other (I'm positive MGSV will be a better game to play, but MGS4 may be a better game to experience) as everyone has their own personal preferences, but I think even those people would be disappointed in "MGS4++" or whatever the attempt to enhance the traditional Metal Gear formula would result in.

It needed to do something else, and Peace Walker was the perfect thing to build on; that expression of Metal Gear was always going to be held back by the platform it was on and the fact that it was their first time making a "different" Metal Gear formula. Removing the limitations (seamless open world maps, rendering your Mother Base for you to explore, far better controls, crank the graphical fidelity to 11, jack up the AI, adversarial multiplayer) and taking what they learned from their first outing and refining it was the best path to making something really great, and the reviews seem to agree.

@mirado: Very good post. I do think a MGS4 plus version of V with new wrinkles could have been a really good game and not a let down for me, but I do agree that this is better.

The gameplay looks like a realization of what MGS always wanted to be in a lot of ways too so I'm excited. Like in the old games you got a ton of tools but I never saw the point in using them. I have already got more use out of a very limited set of gadgets and weapons in Ground Zeroes and I'm excited for all TPP has to offer.

I'm expecting to be really satisfied from a story perspective too, just expect the story to be more drip fed. I love the series but I welcome change.

@artisanbreads: Yeah, exactly! The old games gave you so many ways to get through them, but the vast majority of people (myself included) really never bothered. I bet that on our first playthrough, we'll have radical different ways of approaching missions. Hell, I'd venture that most people will be able to sit down and have a meaningful variation in the way things play out, just because so many of the tools seem so viable.

All of the major changes seem so positive and I cannot stand this six day wait to find out just how good it is.

My PS4 copy arrived earlier today. Really enjoying it so far, and I've barely scratched the surface of all that there is to this game. Judging by the reviews and how much fun I'm having, I can easily see this being in my top 5 games of the year.

@sunbrozak said:

Wait, whaaaaaat? Did you get it from a mom and pop store?

@marokai: For better or for worse, it's difficult for me to imagine a scenario where this game doesn't get rave reviews regardless of it's quality or content.

That sounds like a completely ridiculous thing to say.

Got my copy today as well. But I'm going to Amsterdam for the weekend so I had about 20 mins to play it. Excited to properly play it next week.

The UK site SimplyGames is shipping them out early. When I caught word I changed my order to them and it arrived the next day.