Metal Gear Scanlon: V: Ground Zeroes

Peek is generally used for when your in cover and choosing which shoulder the camera to be on is tantamount to success even when not aiming.

Get Drew to do the review.

These guys are seriously messing with my scheduled plans to finish Pillars of Eternity before TPP comes out - how can I finish other video games if I'm busy watching Dan watch Drew play/watch Metal Gear?

Okay. Just under 2 hours and saying they're only doing one video for Ground Zeroes - so does that mean that main mission is the only canonical part of this game? I'm currently playing it myself (mostly because it was cheap during Steam Summer Sale, and after watching this series I wanted to see if I could deal with the gameplay after originally writing the series off years ago) and enjoying it, but the mission structure being on this one army base was weird (especially when the rewards are cassettes for things that I am to assume is canonical - but maybe it's just a way of telling the audience about it and actually Big Boss never hears most of them).

Anyway... can someone tell me if the other missions in this game are just a way of both using the area more to let the player explore and try out different items/weapons while being spoon-fed those remaining tapes?

I don't know what I'm going to do when there's no more Kojima/MGS insanity to chew on. This makes me sad.

I'd also pay for David Hayter voice-over DLC. Big Boss just is isn't the same.

Damn! Everything about this... amazing!

Should have switched to shooter controls. It plays so much better

Fuck YES!

Oh boy... *sigh*

@jangowuzhere: It's probably because that is the console Drew owns.

My MGS name is Laughing Salamander.

Even in MGS there's a lighthouse.

Yup!

WOW that takedown at 39:00!

GZ def does control better, but I didn't find the sneaking to be any easier (while I do admit, I am total crap at stealth games.) I found enemies to wake up from unconsciousness too quickly, and it felt like everyone just had a much greater spacial awareness than me. Whenever I got spotted, a dozen guards would descend on me from every direction. It seems lucky from my perspective that only two or three people came after Drew near Chico's pen.

edit: ok, one hour in, and I'm seeing he's having some of the problems with perception I did.

Damn, that was quick.

Thunder Anaconda's looking psyched to play some MGS.

@jangowuzhere: Drew's probably gonna play MGS V on Xbone, & your save carries over so..

Yeah, I see how that phrasing could have been confusing. I could have said "Immigrants in America" to clear it up.

Drew didn't even consider not going for the kills at the beginning... even when Dan "If Someone Nukes Me They Are Getting Nuked Back" Ryckert mentioned the tranq gun. You Magnificent Sociopath.

Haha @ "I know. I've played a video game."

I hope they play Metal Gear Rising. Even tho a action game.

Drew Scanlon IS... THUNDER ANACONDA

Only about half way through the Peace Walker video, give me some time!

(jk I'm loving all the content, can't wait to watch it all!)

@dixavd: Yes, the other missions are just other missions, not canon. The main Ground Zeroes mission is canon and is the reason the game exists, to set up Phantom Pain and tide people over until TPP proper. The tapes are all canon, but the missions are "historical recreations" as the game calls it.

NOTABLY worse. I'm gonna wait to see what the overall consensus is on this one before I watch anymore. Dan can't just shut up and let him play the game and has to point out every tiny nuance and not let Drew just take it in himself.

It doesn't last long and it results in something that made me laugh. Drew has indeed played a video game before.

Okay great. Thanks for letting me know. I'll continue with it though and see how many of the tapes I can actually get myself (though going by the fact it took my two sittings to finish the first mission, I might have been right all along that these games aren't for me)

Loved the series, its the reason I went Premium, I sincerely hope this isn't the last of MGScanlon. But I thank you guys for one of the best rides on the site. Its been so fun seeing someone with zero knowledge of the series come in with fresh eyes and react to all the crazy dumb bullshit of these games. I never thought the Persona 4 ER could be matched but I was wrong. Thanks again guys.

@dixavd: This one definitely doesn't punish going loud like the other games did, so if you want you can just play guns a-blazing. I love the stealthy stuff, but it's not for everyone. Just do what feels fun! And don't feel like you need to try for perfect runs unless you want to!

The way you tell if Hayter shows up later in the game or not is to keep an eye on his twitter account and see if the salty tears come out on release day.

Should have listened to the cassette tapes before starting the mission. They give backstory as to what is actually happening in the mission.

what the hell they changed to xbox booo

I've played Ground Zeroes pretty much all month long to alleviate the hype, and the concept of a game that plays just like this but is also a hundred times bigger is fucking CRAZY.

This is the slowest month ever.

Holy Jeez, it works!

That truck sneak... I take everything back, Ground Zeroes is awesome.

people still think they're going to do a playthrough of TPP on the site?

Yeah I really can't stand Dan constantly telling drew every little thing every game. I really really hope Drew plays MGS5 on his own time.

Giantbomb is the greatest website everrrr.

Dan and Drew -watching this series is the most fun I have had on Giant Bomb! Great job!

Yeah. In the last mission I did, I got far enough in where I didn't want to restart, I just continued on when someone saw me. While this then meant I went from the "oh got seen, need t reload to do the stealth right" to "oh just shoot them but I'm overwhelmed and... dead" eventually I figured out how much Snake can take. It meant I could play the rest of the mission with a way of responding to an alert phase before quickly hiding again when they happen. Doing that, while having the cassettes playing was the most fun I've had with it. As someone who usually just stops whatever I'm doing when playing audiotapes in things like Bioshock Inifinite (for fear of scripting breaking) it's sort of a revelation to have them in a scenario where you do have the long gameplay moments where you can be doing something useful while appreciating them.

All the cut scenes are one takes btw. Its amazing. And Kojima staged and shot it all.

Man it was great to see Drew having fun with the most modern controlling MGS game :)

I enjoyed playing this as a teaser for 5, but I dunno if I agree with Dan about liking the darker tone. Even rewatching it a 2nd time now the Paz stuff at the end was too much for me. If there's one consistent critique i'd level at Kojima its that the dude doesn't really do subtlety. I hope the story of MGS5 is great with whatever tone it takes, but I fear it'll be super heavy handed with any "child soldier" stuff Dan mentioned....

Anyways, great series guys, hope it continues in some fashion! Even if it isn't with Dan and Drew I think theres some merit to the "one person plays a game/series they completely missed with a superfan watching/guiding" format. I can imagine Drew making Dan play some hardcore flight sim or something would flip the script pretty well! ;)

That is some GOAT Scanlon I just witnessed.

@dixavd: Yes, all the audio tape/codec stuff in Metal Gear is great since it's actually interesting, and listening while stealthing around makes it even better. The reason I enjoy Metal Gear is that if you can't do the stealth, you can still do almost everything with no consequence if you're skilled at the shooting. It's what allowed me to get into the series, and now I'm pretty good at the stealth portion. My first time through GZ I managed a no alert no kill run in 58 minutes, mainly because I know what Metal Gear wants me to do and now the controls allow for a better experience. I'm sure I'd still get caught constantly in 1 or 2.

@banned0bon: "I've played a video game, Dan," or whatever Drew said, complete with the look he gave him - half irritated, half amused - was just absolutely perfect.

You haven't really kept us waiting, Snake. We've been seeing a lot of you lately.

It's great that Drew has become a fully baptized Metal Gear nerd.

Nice play through, guys.

I'm perfectly fine having Drew play The Phantom Pain at his own leisure, and having this be the end of Metal Gear Scanlon. Drew's had a hard life, he needs time to rest (and enjoy MGSV at his own pace).

This was an awesome feature. Thanks guys.

Man, I was so scared Drew was going to get spotted during his getaway. He knew it was a sneaking mission!

Haha, that thumbnail is used in like every Giant Bomb Ground Zeroes video. I can only hope that it's a Drew/Jason in-joke.

"Find some cover and stick to it!"
Solid Scanlon takes Miller's instructions quite literally, laying down on top of some sand bags. @1:04:43

@quid_pro_bono: Ha. I just checked what my completion time is for that mission. It was 181mins with 4 alerts, 21 kills, and 4 retries, but I did save 6 prisoners. Turns out, since the negative point reduction from time is limited to -9999 and the point gain from the prisoners is so high (21000 for 6) I still managed to get 4401 points and a D rank. Of the side stuff I've done, I've managed to get a B rank and do a mission with no kills (though 1 alert) so I'm improving.

It's fun seeing Drew play a bit like the first time I played GZ. By tranqing guards from half a mile away.

Drew is a beast with the pistol headshots.