During 8 long years between 1994-2002 I only played PC games, and thus missed out on a lot of important console-oriented series. One of the biggest missing pieces in my gaming education has been Konami's Metal Gear Solid, but in 2012 I finally started exploring the byzantine world of Hideo Kojima by finishing MGS1-2 for the first time that year (I remember being thoroughly impressed by MGS1 but less enthusiastic about the sequel). In late 2014 I continued with MGS3 but stopped halfway and only resumed and finished the playthrough earlier this summer (watching Metal Gear Scanlon helped me regain enough focus and motivation to power through the last few bosses). After that I swiftly moved on to MGS4 and yesterday I also finished Peace Walker, which means that it was now time to move on to the latest release in the series, Ground Zeroes (and yes, I have pre-ordered the PC version of MGS5).

The gameplay of MGS1-3 frustrated me a lot and the otherwise innovative Peace Walker included some awfully punishing boss fights. But even when the poorly explained mechanics, clunky controls and unnecessarily impenetrable storylines conspired to deplete my patience once and for all, I was always able to appreciate how Kojima's breadth of interests and obsessive attention to detail were reflected in the games. The politics of nuclear proliferation, Cold War deterrance theory, the history of American and Japanese genre films, experimental military hardware from the 1960s onwards and even postmodern reflections on the illusion of personal identity are just some of the topics you find yourself immersed in while playing through the MGS series. For all his obvious flaws when it comes to constructing plots that make even a little bit sense, Kojima's vision of video games as an entertainment medium within which to discuss all sorts of issues not directly related to killing bad guys and finding power-ups is certainly a laudable one.

And quite apart from its place in the sprawling MGS multiverse, Kojima Productions's swansong The Phantom Pain looks like it could be one of the most ambitious and exciting open world games yet (and that's no mean feat in a year that's already given us CD Projekt RED's highly impressive The Witcher 3). The fully modernized third-person controls and versatile Fox Engine introduced in Ground Zeroes combined with the in-depth base building of Peace Walker is more than enough to have me impatiently awaiting MGS5's September release...

So wait, you finished Peace Walker? I.e you got the true ending with Paz and ZEKE? That's impressive considering most people lack the patience to get past the first boss.

@kasaioni: Well, without access to a walkthrough I wouldn't have known how to get to the true ending in the first place, but I did beat all the bosses including ZEKE. Peace Walker turned out to be much more work than I had anticipated (took me around 30 hours); presumably because of the Monster Hunter-esque multiplayer-focused structure of the game.

I don't get what people are talking about with Peace Walker, I understand that the bosses suck (they really do!) and that the gameplay is decent at best, but getting the "true" ending was a cakewalk for me, even without using a walkthrough. You pretty much only have to figure out where Zadornov is hiding after the last time he escapes...

Oh, and god yes to your last sentence - the expanded gameplay of Ground Zeroes mixed with the base building and development of Peace Walker makes me salivate with pleasure.

Gross, dude

I can't count the number of times I played The Twin Snakes, MGS2, MGS3 and 4, but I found each game after 3 more disappointing and I'm pretty displeased with The Phantom Pain. I hate what they've done to Big Boss and I hate that they've replaced the procure on site survival lasting several days (MGS3) or a whole night (MGS1) with missions, base building and recruiting. The pacing in Peace Walker was terrible because of that. I played all the previous games in a matter of days, but Peace Walker took me two or three weeks. I don't know if I will ever play The Phantom Pain.

Oh well... I think MGS3 was a good ending for the series, so I'll leave it at that. I'm happy Kojima is finally done with the series.

@egge: That's true. I must have used a guide the first time I had to get to the true ending as well. Luckily I really liked playing the game any ways, so I had no problems doing a bunch more extra ops. But I think the structure of the game turns a lot of people off from the get go. But I like that MGS is more than just a linear gameplay experience now with Peace Walker and MGSV.

Yeah, you make it sound so simple! I love how at that part Miller says to Snake "you know what to do" when clearly I don't. >_>

Good to hear you didn't use a walkthrough at least. That makes two of us. But not using a walkthrough means not everyone finds Zadornov.

Fair enough, I guess I stumbled into it pretty fast. I will admit that having to completely guess where to find Zadornov (especially when he is hiding in an area that was previously inaccessible) is pretty dumb, and I will agree that it should probably not have been that way.