Wow, this must be incredibly bad UI design if so many people missed the loadouts. I wonder if that's because it's black text on a white background, while everything else is the other way around. I usually read every bit of text on the screen, so I noticed it right away and picked up on the other stuff Miller doesn't tell you like fast travel and overhand grenade throws by reading the loading screen tips. I think not presenting every single game mechanic to the player via a 'hey, listen!'-tutorial is kind of charming but I'm sure with more time and money and less Konami the developers would have put more player guidance into the game (at least the rest of the game seems a lot more approachable than earlier Metal Gears).
Speaking of guidance I can't help but feel disappointed by the way Dan introduced Drew to this game. I don't want to be the guy saying "you're playing it wrong" and it is interesting to watch a completely different approach than assumingly most people had but in the long term I don't think it's entertaining, for me at least, to see the game being played as a 3rd-person-shooter. I know Drew tries to avoid being detected but at the moment he's not trying very hard (riding into an enemy camp on horse instead of crawling on belly) - I think in part because he's assuming he can just shoot his way out of any situation like Dan did (and he must know, having played the game for over 90 hours, right?) and in part because he doesn't want to stretch this playthrough and bore the audience (which in my mind he doesn't have to be afraid of at all). Right now, by triggering the alert state on the first or second enemy encounter Drew is playing the 'Don't die!'-game, while I think the 'Don't get caught!'-game is more rewarding to play and more entertaining to watch. Or rather, what excites me about stealth games are the 'That was close!'-moments when you are almost getting caught and with its Reflex Mode MGSV creates those moments en masse. Never having owned a Playstation this is the first Metal Gear I played myself, which makes watching this sadly a bit dreadful, since I know the game is relatively easy once you grasp the enemies' detection cones - granted, I played Far Cry 3 without enemy tagging and mini map on hard mode but from reading the internet I feel like this isn't the case just for me, look at a recent article on RPS for example. I'm sure Quiet and DD will help Drew a lot in taking control of the battlefield though and he will learn the benefits of interrogating as many people as possible and the satisfaction of clearing a camp without ever drawing a gun. I just wish Drew would overcome his desire to know every single rule of the game beforehand and become more experimental with his playstyle - this game offers a huge palette, why don't you paint us a colorful picture? (ugh, that metaphor makes me want to puke loudly)
But in general I'm sorry to say that for me Dan is the main reason this is somewhat painful to watch. He's a fun guy, but the bad or wrong advice, constantly telling Drew what's clearly displayed on screen and what buttons to press, his fixiation with sexy ladies, tough guys, and awesome explosions... it's just not my cup of tea. I really hope sneak master Brad 'Muffled' Shoemaker can replace Dan occasionally and allow Drew to learn a lesson or two out of Brad's Big Book of Stealth.
Sorry for possibly bad English. I'm German. We have long words. We have long sentences. We have long Bratwurst.
Well said sir. Drew has always seemed to be the type to try things out and experiment more, so it pains me to see him not do any of that here. He has at least three other people in the office who have finished this game, and if he only listens to Dan I think he is going to be very frustrated once guards start wearing body armor, etc.
This could have something to do with the fact that I'm a girl and I typically don't hang out with people who spit on each other for fun, but I had never heard of gleeking until this UPF. I'm also from Pennsylvania, if we're still figuring out whether or not regions are a factor.
It was called Gleeking back in my High School days, in Colorado.
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