Metal Gear Scanlon: 3: Part 01

But it is his own failing if he doesn't look at the instructions and see what the controls are. The very reason he got into that stand-up jam in the heat of battle is because he didn't know HOW to stand up. This is an preventable problem.

Wait, it's his fault for not knowing every single aspect of control within the first hour of the game?

None of your arguments make sense. It's not his fault in the least the game controls poorly and it is hard to understand.

He doesn't read the manual for any of these games, and they all expect that you've read the manual. The game itself isn't going to tell you even 25% of the controls.

Dan's reaction to Ocelot's "meow" was almost exactly the same as my own. What a GREAT silly moment in MGS history.

I give my sub. Not for honor, but for Drew.

Hold X to switch between laying down and standing, don't tap it. This is especially important when you're trying to get away after being spotted while crouched or prone.

I guess one thing I will comment on as a critique is Dan kinda not giving Drew much of a chance to mostly control the game by his own methods. I am guessing it's mainly because he's excited to be back doing this, but I hope he just gives Drew a little more time to play on his own before leading him around.

@drewbert@danryckert So I'm sure it's probably been said a million times, but I thought it best to consolidate these into a single list incase it hasn't been already. These are just tips, and you can definitely play however you want (don't listen to the people freaking out), but I think these things will help you out in the beginning:

• The Survival Viewer (Start menu) has a map section. The map is super important and helpful, as you don't have the Soliton Radar anymore.
• Your Camo Index is ultra important. You will likely want to change it every few screens, and you should. This game, moreso than most of the other MGS games, will punish you the most for not playing it as a stealth game.
• CQC is useful for getting out of tough situations, but if you're dealing with more than 1 guy you need to consider tranqing who you can and running. (Although in Peace Walker and on they make CQC kind of super strong)
• http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Metal_Gear_Solid_3_Walkthrough/Controls <-- Reading/having a printout of this page may help a bit. Metal Gear doesn't really get it's control situation handled until MGS4 (and further refined in Peace Walker HD/Ground Zeroes). With the amount of time you usually have between episodes, this reference may be useful.
• You can quick stand from any non-standing position by holding X. Likewise, you can quick drop to a crawl from standing by holding X while standing.

Regardless, I love these videos as always, and can't wait to see you continue.

Dan, please teach Drew the basics of CQC. Its very easy to do this, and it will alleviate his fears of approaching enemies.

Its weird watching cutscenes of Snake taking on opponents with CQC, but players themselves dont know how.

This is why MGS3 has the best gameplay. He needs to learn this!

@danryckert very much this

I've never understood why it was a tropical-ass tropical jungle instead of trackless taiga in this game.

@drewbert the directional pad makes you walk in stelth make sure you use this havnt finished watching video but just in case. Im glad were back, best mgs in series

i love the caution music.. so good

Going by what they said on UPF, it seems like he's gonna teach Drew some of the basics in the next episode (which will be on the site early this week, I'm guessing).

Origin of Snake's Bandana (1:44:14), took it from The Boss. Awesome.

This game is a lot more fun if you don't give a shit. They spend so long in the beginning telling you to go stealthy, in the game that is simultaneously the least forgiving and most forgiving about stealth in the series: It is SIGNIFICANTLY easier to just murder everybody than to sneak through unnoticed, and the game only really punishes you for genocide when they sum it up in a pretty lame boss fight.

I hated this game with a passion until I stopped trying to follow its orders. Then it jumped right up to my 2nd favorite after the first one. It's just not a particularly great stealth game. Murder everybody!

About CQC, I hope when Kojima goes to hell his punishment is to keep doing those bizarre five-finger control combinations for eternity. Jesus christ did I ever rage at some of the finger gymnastics in this one. Wild combinations of camera, pressure, frequency and dexterity. He probably thought he was teaching us something about having to learn a skill to use it or whatever but that's all moot when the two things you ever do in CQC under pressure is slamming dudes and slitting their throat. Zero skill required for those things, but how DARE you want to shoot while holding a hostage!

The writing and voice acting still makes me want to set myself on fire though. I-ummm David Hayturrrrr. Ruurrrrrrr... All that ridiculous "tough guy" vocal fry. I had to mute the game sometimes so my girlfriend wouldn't wonder too much about my choices in entertainment.

Favorite bit of trivia: A *ton* of David Bowie references in this game. Women and men alike even look like him.

It didn't sound like Dan used CQC when he played, so I doubt he has much to teach. It sounds like it's new to both of them.

It's a shame how many people didn't touch CQC, but not surprising. They really don't tutorialize it in the game. I think if everyone had played this game with the Subsistence camera and learned CQC from the start (my first MGS3 experience was Subsistence and I refused to move on from the prologue until I was comfortable with the controls/CQC), MGS3 would be even more preferred than it already is.

I just hope Drew doesn't have to re-learn CQC every time he's been away from the game for more than a few days. That's kind of an unwanted artifact of this series' presentation that I hope they figure out a way to iron out eventually. Maybe by having Drew warm up and re-acclimate on an old save off camera before proceeding with the recording.

I agree with you about MGS4. I played that again last month and holy shit. There's not really any stealth in that game. I also it's barely a game. It's interactive, yes. It's a weird... Thing.

Great first episode. I loved this game back when and I can't wait for Drew to sink his teeth into it.

YES!

I'm still in a dream Snake Eater!

@smokepants:

I am still completely gobsmacked by the notion that anybody would be upset about him being replaced by Kiefer Sutherland. Metal Gear fans should be doing backflips with joy.

And it came within a hair's breadth of being Giant Bomb's 2008 Game of the Year instead of Grand Theft Auto IV.

I remember that year; just sitting beside a dejected Fallout 3 and patting it on the back consolingly.

I don't mind Kiefer Sutherland doing Snake's voice [Though I still suspect a Kojima-brand twist with that.] but I also really like David Hayter's voice. It's an over-the-top voice for an over-the-top character in an over-the-top world. I thought it was perfect.

It still kills me when Dan says "Metal Gear 2" when he's referring to "Metal Gear Solid 2".

It always bugs me when Metal Gear fans ignore the MSX games. They did some really impressive things for their time, especially MG2.

@gregalor said:

"Metal Gear Solid 2" is six syllables, and "MGS2" is only four. Calling it "Metal Gear 2" every time (also four syllables) just seems lazy. And Dan knows better.

I wonder if some percentage of fans made it all the way from MGS1 to MGS4 without really being aware of the two MSX games existing. I assume that most people use some kind of wiki to look up what the fuck happened in MGS2, and in that process maybe read up on the MSX games, but I guess it's possible some people never run across any info about the first two games.

OK, so I think this is kind of the area of Russia they were pretending this game is set in somewhere:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperate_rainforests_of_the_Russian_Far_East

I think all of the Russian names of places mentioned in the game are fictional, just like Shadow Moses and Fox Archipelago from MGS1 aren't real places off the Alaskan coast. Nonetheless, even though the summers would be mild, there would still be cold snowy winters, meaning the game should probably have way more coniferous trees in it and way fewer exotic jungle frogs and crocodiles and whatever.

I think it says a lot that Peace Walker is set in and around Costa Rica, and its environments are basically indistinguishable from the environments in Snake Eater. Snake Eater really seems like it wants to be set in Central America or South America, much like Metal Gear 1 on the MSX really should've been set there, even though Outer Heaven is instead in South Africa or something.

It feels like a zillion 80s video games are set in generic jungles assigned to random countries, just because I guess a lot of people associated warfare with places like Vietnam, or the contras in Nicaragua. I don't know what MGS3's excuses is.

I agree. Hayter fits the tone of the game and its ridiculous expositions. It's the voice I'm used to hear and want to keep hearing from Snake. I think the change is sad, but I'm not losing my shit over it. Sutherland is a cool guy and I'm sure he'll grow on us.

@bisonhero: When I played the series for the first time, I did it in chronological order. So I went from MGS3 to Metal Gear and then Metal Gear 2. Playing those games first makes the gameplay in MGS1 seem much more sensible.

Jason fucking with the camera filters, size and position all the time is kinda funny ^^ (although a bit distracting)

I don't think I have seen as much text dedicate to anything on Giant Bomb. Look, don't get me wrong I love MGS, have played them all and doing so again on Vita. I love Dan's enthusiasm and Drew is so open about his experience, it makes for great viewing but the fans my gosh you are crazy crazy people. Love it.

@cornbredx: seriously, the game doesn't teach you CQC. the boss even says "snake, try to remember the basics of cqc" and then the game proceed without explaining itself.

I played it rambo my first time too, but after a couple of years I replayed the game after having watched a couple of video tutorials about cqc and the stealth mechanics.

the game became much more enjoyable and tactically satisfying. it becomes a completely different and superior game, it's definitely my favourite in the series.

Can anyone else see Drew getting really pissed with Dan constantly telling him to do things? Backseat gaming is never fun to watch.

I like Dan but he's got so much energy and enthusiasm I can see it being super grating.

I don't know about "really pissed," but I think Drew has some serious "You're wasting my time with THIS?" moments every time Dan tries to get him to ice some dudes who are already knocked out, but he won't actually say it.

I just couldn't get into this Metal Gear game.

MGS4 had the best gameplay in the series, IMO. It had the subsistence camera, and I wasn't punished for playing it the way I wanted to. The first will always be my favorite in the series though.

WOW! This totally flew under my radar!

...but then again, MGS3 - radar... ugh. Sorry. Seriously though. Awesome.

I'm sure Jason would've been thrilled if they'd killed Ocelot as it triggers an AMAZINGLY named trophy called:

"Problem Solved, Series Over."

Also! Fun trivia: "Kuwabara kuwabara" loosely translates to "Heaven forbid the lightning strike us." Why a Russian Colonel has a Japanese saying as his catchphrase, who knows, but it's still pretty metal.

Really though, that (bond) theme is fucking awesome.

40 minutes in and I'm like "meh". But then I decided to give it another shot. Turns out, that if you keep going, Metal Gear starts happening. So much Metal Gear starts happening.

Kept you naked, huh?

Virtuous Mission Accomplished. Great Bond intro.

Such a good game!

Cigar smoking right before a HALO jump. Not a good idea lol.

Oh my god, why wont he use the radar??? Its driving me crazy!

Metal Gear Scanlon 3 - Part 02