You need Premium to view this

Subscribe to Giant Bomb Premium to get access to this and more premium shows, live streams, and podcasts.

Get Premium Learn More

Metal Gear Scanlon

Metal Gear Scanlon: 3: Part 06

Drew gets back to basics on the sneaking mission. This episode: what's the best camo to wear while wildly running around throwing grenades?

Drew Scanlon attempts to go on as many sneaking missions as he can find.

Mar. 17 2015

Cast: Drew, Dan

Posted by: Jason

422 Comments

Avatar image for ockman
Ockman

227

Forum Posts

9

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

Yes!

Avatar image for lone_villain
Lone_Villain

36

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK

Avatar image for bigmess
bigmess

459

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

justuhbox

Avatar image for hoodcommando
hoodcommando

175

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By hoodcommando

I'm kind of expecting the worst here. If Drew ends up getting frustrated at "The End" I am going to be really, really sad.

The End is one of the best boss fights in the history of video games, but Drew has never been cut out for these kinds of games, and he has been doing really badly in this game in particular.

Expecting the worst, hoping for the best. Crossing fingers.

Avatar image for shoey920
Shoey920

182

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

kept you waiting, huh?

Avatar image for xanadu
xanadu

2157

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

May the H button be with you.

Avatar image for dreadd
dreadd

46

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

another great episode

Avatar image for pfhor
Pfhor

231

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

I really hope that Drew has a little bit more fun this time around. Those last couple episodes were pretty painful to watch.

Avatar image for big_boss_snake_
Big_Boss_Snake_

48

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

Brother !!!! Its been too long !!!

Avatar image for fobwashed
fobwashed

2818

Forum Posts

388

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 15

User Lists: 16

Edited By fobwashed

Does the game get better or worse from this point?

Avatar image for ajamafalous
ajamafalous

13992

Forum Posts

905

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 9

Edited By ajamafalous

Boy, that is a super lame place to end the episode. There's nothing wrong with putting up a 2-3 hour episode :/

Also, I'll just say that I agree with everyone else in that Dan should stop being afraid of 'spoiling' gameplay mechanics. Drew fumbling around because he doesn't understand the way the mechanics even interact with each other is fun for neither the viewer nor Drew. Obviously don't touch story or boss-fight spoilers, but telling Drew when he's bleeding/lost his suppressor/low on stamina/using the wrong camo or reminding him that he has a tranq gun isn't going to offend anybody, and it'll certainly help relieve Drew's frustrations.

Avatar image for hoodcommando
hoodcommando

175

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By hoodcommando

Oh damn it, they blueballed us. The End is next episode.

Avatar image for ezdude
ezdude

457

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Man. Been waiting for this since the first episode of the first game. Will it END the series? Blwah.

Avatar image for thainatos
thainatos

289

Forum Posts

171

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By thainatos

Hip hip hooray!

Avatar image for gunslingernz
gunslingerNZ

2010

Forum Posts

300

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 5

I'm kind of expecting the worst here. If Drew ends up getting frustrated at "The End" I am going to be really, really sad.

The End is one of the best boss fights in the history of video games, but Drew has never been cut out for these kinds of games, and he has been doing really badly in this game in particular.

Expecting the worst, hoping for the best. Crossing fingers.

I really hope he gets into it, I ended up spending probably way more time than I should have on that boss battle but I really enjoyed it and felt like the game encouraged me to play that way.

Personally I hope Drew gets fully into stealth mode for the fight and that it ends up taking the majority of an episode to complete.

Avatar image for superultra
SuperUltra

76

Forum Posts

371

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Maybe you guys should spend an episode where you teach Drew the basics of how to play the game and how the various game mechanics work.

Avatar image for andrewjplant
AndrewJPlant

276

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

ah shoot. just when I thought I was going to bed at a halfway reasonable hour.

Avatar image for jzzb
Jzzb

5

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I think the main thing Drew is having trouble with is how you don't heal in MGS3 like you do in any of the previous games. You don't heal by eating rations, and the Life Medicine that acts similarily to the rations of previous games is fucking FUCKING rare, and not meant to be relied on to heal. You need to keep your stamina high, and then your health refills over time, there's no quick healing beyond the rare Life Medicine.

Avatar image for deactivated-6050ef4074a17
deactivated-6050ef4074a17

3686

Forum Posts

15

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

What would've really helped Drew and people who struggled with the controls in these games would be a straight-up fighting game style training room.

Avatar image for lordlee
lordlee

10

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 8

Dan you actually have to research and help Drew. Nobody cares about the "first time " experience, we just want Drew to see as much as possible.

Avatar image for dijon
Itwastuesday

1269

Forum Posts

38

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

DREW YOU'RE PLAYING ALL WRONG YOU HAVE TO DO IT THIS WAY

No Caption Provided

Avatar image for fistfulofmetal
fistfulofmetal

763

Forum Posts

2

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 29

Edited By fistfulofmetal

It's interesting seeing their idea of the camo index. When I played I never interpreted 75% as being "You have a 1 in 4 chance of getting seen"

@danryckert@drewbert

Because, well, that's not how it works. The way I saw it, and the way I perceived it in action was that there was a general "being seen" radius that Snake gives off and the higher the camo index the tighter the radius is around Snake. It's not something you can SEE, but it becomes easier to tell after you play enough.

Avatar image for time_muffin
Time_Muffin

106

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Time_Muffin

Damn it all... what the game displays as the best camo changes depending on whether you are standing, pressed against a wall, or crawling. Drew needs to go prone AND THEN change camo.

Dan should go back to how he was during the first two episodes. All those people who complained that he was helping Drew too much are idiots! They don't know what's enjoyable to watch and, more importantly, what's fun for Drew.

Avatar image for sankis
Sankis

192

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

"I won't say anything, people get angry!"

Dan, no one gets angry when you point out obvious things! A buddy sitting next to someone pointing out what he missed is different than one who hints at or outright says plot points.

Avatar image for davidh219
davidh219

904

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 1

@danryckert Only a few minutes in, but if you're gonna be giving Drew tips from the viewers (referring to you telling him to crawl, which is good), you really need to remind him that there is a peek function in this game as well. It's just as important as crawling. Instead of crawling halfway down those stairs to shoot a guy and getting spotted, he could've just stayed out of sight and peeked to get an angle, and that concept is applicable in any situation where there is something you can be behind.

I really don't understand why he's not using it ALL. THE. TIME. It's one of the key things that makes these games so fun to play imo, and I hated that MGS4 didn't have it. Same goes for being in tall grass and peeking "up" with R2+L2 to get a view on guys or just generally being able to see clearly what's around when you're in tall grass.

Also maybe remind him that tanq darts are a much safer option than killing dudes, because even if he doesn't get a headshot it won't trigger an alert and the guy will eventually fall asleep. I know you played this game all Rambo, but Drew is obviously not comfortable enough with the controls to pull that off, so please nudge him to play safe and slow and hopefully he'll be less frustrated. This game is obviously getting to him way more than the others, and he just seems genuinely pissed off and disheartened almost every second that he's playing it and it sucks a lot of the fun out of watching these. Disheartened Drew makes me very sad.

Avatar image for mercurialau
mercurialau

20

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

Just tell him Dan. Its not fun to watch Drew try and bruteforce the game and continuously fumble through it. I understand Drew is trying to go through it as quickly as possible. But I'm sure everyone involved would enjoy themselves more if Drew took the time to actually understand the basics of how to play the game.

Avatar image for gregisrad
GregIsRad

191

Forum Posts

328

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

It's amazing to me how despite Drew not playing all methodically and stealthily, he still manages to travel only a few screens in forty minutes.

Avatar image for geflato
geflato

45

Forum Posts

989

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 1

Edited By geflato

Drew if you just use the tranq gun you wouldn't need to waste all your bullets trying to take out one dude.

Avatar image for rainy_david
Rainy_David

26

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Rainy_David

The one suggestion I have is to use the tranq gun more instead of the hand gun when sneaking. There seem to be many times where Drew takes a large number of shots on one enemy trying to get him to go down. If I recall correctly, if he hit them with a tranq gun, he'd eventually go down no matter where you hit him. Things would go much more smoothly if he did that instead of using up the suppressors, and spending so much time on one enemy when others are closing in.

Avatar image for soundman5000
soundman5000

9

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

that was 100% the right call on this one. can not wait tell the next episode

Avatar image for 2mello
2Mello

73

Forum Posts

7

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I really wanted to see Drew enjoying this game, as I think it is one of the best, but these last few episodes have been stress-filled and painful to watch. I would have much more fun watching these if Dan would disclose more advice and help Drew out before the stress can accumulate! Good things to not mention are boss fight tips and story bits--gameplay elements should be addressed openly.

Avatar image for hoodcommando
hoodcommando

175

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By hoodcommando

I understand how frustrating this is for Dan. He has to constantly keep a balance between not just outright telling Drew how to play at all times or try to force him to play one way, but Drew is so forgetful he also has to constantly remind him and reteach him stuff.

Poor Dan :( The truth is he just can't win.

Avatar image for gunslingernz
gunslingerNZ

2010

Forum Posts

300

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 5

Edited By gunslingerNZ

@time_muffin said:

Damn it all... what the game displays as the best camo changes depending on whether you are standing, pressed against a wall, or crawling. Drew needs to go prone AND THEN change camo.

Dan should go back to how he was during the first two episodes. All those people who complained that he was helping Drew too much are idiots! They don't know what's enjoyable to watch and, more importantly, what's fun for Drew.

Yeah I'm all for the hands off approach but camo is looking like becoming a serious problem. @danryckert Just tell Drew to approach the camo in a natural manner, when you're inside a building a woodland camo isn't going to do the job.

The complaints early on are really just about Dan actually directing the action on screen. Tips about mechanics are necessary and useful but he shouldn't tell drew how to approach an encounter.

Avatar image for anim8td_fan
anim8td_fan

127

Forum Posts

30

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By anim8td_fan

I wish I knew what Dan wants to show Drew for the fight with The End because there's so many things you can do during that boss fight. This is the boss fight that I'm most interested in because I want to see how Drew handles it with how easily frustrated he's been getting with this game.

Avatar image for dberg
Dberg

1025

Forum Posts

14

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@sankis said:

"I won't say anything, people get angry!"

Dan, no one gets angry when you point out obvious things! A buddy sitting next to someone pointing out what he missed is different than one who hints at or outright says plot points.

The problem with the first two episodes was that every single combat encounter was overridden by things Dan wanted to try out in combat. And the EVA/Tatyana character spoiler was a bummer.

Dan helping is fine. Dan not helping is also fine. I enjoy the episodes now that Drew is in the driver's seat, regardless of them being stuck or not, and regardless of Drew being sneaky or not. It's all weird and fun to watch. Lab F was frustrating, but frustrating in the same way you want to be frustrated by a good TV show every now and then. I don't mind.

Avatar image for gregalor
Gregalor

1227

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@marokai said:

What would've really helped Drew and people who struggled with the controls in these games would be a straight-up fighting game style training room.

I always did think that it was strange that all the games had VR Training tutorials except for this one. I know that VR doesn't fit the time period, but they could have put you in a CIA training room or something.

Avatar image for serrata
Serrata

43

Forum Posts

2

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Don't continue from the fake death pill! That's not how you revive! You use the revive pill which can never be unequipped from the item menu because its in Snake's tooth. You have under the words SNAKE IS DEAD transform completely into TIME PARADOX. It's an extremely large window to wait for a clearing and revive safely.

I might be alone on this but Dan, it is 100% ok to tell Drew more than you're telling him. This game is designed for replays and talking to friends or on the internet and you're acting like he'll get the full experience if he does it blind, in one shot, and without anything but the bare minimum of help. Just don't go blasting story spoilers and you could tell him anything about the weapons or tactics. That's just how I feel personally.

Avatar image for gregalor
Gregalor

1227

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Gregalor

@lordlee said:

Dan you actually have to research and help Drew. Nobody cares about the "first time " experience, we just want Drew to see as much as possible.

This. I wish Dan would stop acting like this is some weird social experiment.

Avatar image for milkman
Milkman

19372

Forum Posts

-1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 3

Dan needs to just help Drew at this point. Don't tell him exactly what you want him to do but at least give him some suggestions. This completely hands off approach is painful for Drew, Dan and the viewer.

Avatar image for gregalor
Gregalor

1227

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

It's amazing to me how despite Drew not playing all methodically and stealthily, he still manages to travel only a few screens in forty minutes.

It's almost as if run-and-gun actually takes longer in these games, like swimming against a strong current!

Avatar image for dan_citi
Dan_CiTi

5598

Forum Posts

308

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Man does not tranq-ing dudes hurt Drew. He blew so much ammo on guys that would have just been asleep and out of the way.

Avatar image for exk4
ExK4

119

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I feel like they could have told Drew about the one week thing. It's not really a super spoiler.

Avatar image for sankis
Sankis

192

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By Sankis

@milkman said:

Dan needs to just help Drew at this point. Don't tell him exactly what you want him to do but at least give him some suggestions. This completely hands off approach is painful for Drew, Dan and the viewer.

This 100%. Stuff like explaining how guns work, how camo works, how food works, how reinforcements work, how silencers work.

Plus drew somehow got into a "kill everything" mode which is actually taking longer. He could simply shoot a guy ANYWHERE with an MK22 and wait a few seconds for him to pass out instead of body shotting guy after guy. I mean he can play how he wants but he doesn't really know how 90% of the game works, or forgets, and it's making everything take 10x as long as it should.

Drew 100% doesn't seem to get camo, either. It changes depending on every situation. Crawling, sitting, standing, darkness, light, water, land. It's not an area specific thing.

Edit: This is a site where one of the most popular pieces of content was a 150 episode long endurance run. Feel free to take your time drew, no one is going to care!

Avatar image for gregalor
Gregalor

1227

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Gregalor

@dan_citi said:

Man does not tranq-ing dudes hurt Drew. He blew so much ammo on guys that would have just been asleep and out of the way.

The trouble is that Drew is paranoid that sleeping guards will wake up on him. They stay knocked out for a lot longer than I think he's imagining.

Avatar image for arbayer2
arbayer2

235

Forum Posts

2914

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 18

User Lists: 3

Edited By arbayer2

To be honest, there's so many ways to play this that it's impossible to adapt "the ideal" gameplay style, especially on-camera and within a time schedule. I'd suggest, @danryckert and @drewbert, that within reason in the schedule you've got set up you just approach it naturally like the two of you would while off-camera. I'm not aware of the time constraints in your schedule but it almost seems to me like Drew's trying to rush it for production's sake, which absolutely runs the risk of hampering the learning process. That's my assumption though, I could be wrong. I also understand the difficulties of trying to learn a game like this with days or weeks between play sessions. Hopefully filming the next episode back-to-back like this will help in terms of pacing?

If need be, you can adapt a more Rambo-ish or more stealth-based playing style later on in a different playthrough if that's a concern, the ideal goal is that Drew enjoys the game from a naïve perspective without the kind of context that allows him to ignore certain details in the game. That said, I don't know if you're going to do, or are even able to do a repeat playthrough, but I'm assuming that as a possible edge case.

No matter what happens though, Drew, always remember: you're Solid Scanlon.

Avatar image for bluecaboose
bluecaboose

10

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

For what it's worth, Drew is mostly right about styptic. It's generally a clotting agent. My grandfather had a styptic pen that he used to close up cuts if he nicked himself shaving.

Avatar image for pillclinton
PillClinton

3604

Forum Posts

210

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Drew can play however he wants and whatever, and it's true there's no "right" or "wrong" way to play, but I think it's unfortunate he's not getting the most he can out of the game. And I think it's clear he's not by continually getting spotted immediately, having to run-and-gun kill everyone, then getting so fed up he just wants to make a beeline for the next area. He's missing all the nuance of the gameplay. I think that's where this notion that he's playing "wrong" comes from. It's that he's just missing out on so much of what this game has to offer.