A "Peace" offering for my last post

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Peace Walker just recently came out and critics are loving it. The timeline is before the events of the "Snake Eater" and after the psp series "Portable Ops". The storyline is supposed to depict Big Boss (AKA Naked Snake) and his events in the Costa Rica 1974. As I have yet to play it yet I'm not sure on all the details but I wil gather what I can:
A mysterious military force equipped with the latest weapons, called Peace Sentinels, has established a presence in Costa Rica in late 1974. The Costa Rican government cannot do anything about them because the country's constitution bans the creation of an armed forces. The nation has secretly tapped Naked Snake and his Militaires Sans Frontières (Soldiers without Borders; Outer Heaven's predecessor) mercenary group to turn back the threat, which could endanger the balance of power between the East and West.

The continuation of the series....

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

The game itself was originally announced as a exclusive for the Xbox 360 but it has come to my attention that not only is it for the PS3 as well, but also for Windows computers. Konami is know for his teasing of future installments and overall cleverness. Not much is known about the game yet but we do know that the events in the game are either during or after the events Metal Gear Solid 4. The game is also using a new engine built from the ground up to maximize performance across all platforms.We do know that Raiden will be the protagonist and he's looking to have some fun :) The is said to have more of an involvement in action packed...ness and overall gore.

Weaponry throughout the Games - Miscellaneous

These weapons bring a little spice to the gameplay and you see things that not alot of Shooter style games offer....HUMOR!! The reactions you grab from not only enemy AI but to online players are hilarious and priceless.....enjoy!!

Weaponry throughout the Games - Explosives

Pictures wouldnt really be able to do justice to just how many of these explosives there are. You have heard of these before there nothign new if you've played a couple of other Shooter style games. The list is embedded after the jump

Weaponry throughout the Games - Other Firearms

For everything else when you just need to spray and pray, these are the weapons for hat situation......enjoy

Weaponry throughout the Games - Rifles

Easily the most fun customizable guns of the game. Very fun and VERY entertaining. Some of the guns use special ammunition which spice up the gameplay a lot!

Weaponry throughout the Games - Submachine Guns

I would stick to using the submachine guns because you can control the rate of fire and theirs less kick back when controlling the burst speed. favorite is the P90, check it out after the jump!

Weaponry throughout the Games - Special handguns

Very interesting and peculiar weapons....

Weaponry throughoutt the Games - High Caliber Handguns

These are the most powerful handguns in the game, they sure do pack a  punch but you WILL be noticed and fire will be returned upon you. So make sure you can take them all out quickly....these aren't the most accurate to fire.

Weaponry through the Games - .45 Handguns

These weapons are the more powerful handguns that packa  punch when firing. In the beginning of the game you would focus more on these till you got rifles or the heavier handguns

Weaponry throughout the Games - Light Handguns w/pictures

There are a total 70 weapons in the game, many of which have custom parts which can be purchased from Drebin 893 or found in certain levels. "Drebin" is a person who will take the ID tag lockings off of the guns you pick up and you can sell back any extras that you encounter on the battlefield. For the first time you unlock a gun it costs something but after that you get more money in return. So you end up making a profit for buying ammo and other assortments throught the game.
 This is the widest assortment of weapons usable in any of the Metal Gear games. Most of these do however appear in many of the series installments.

More Controversy...

SO you wont find this anywhere on the net but......apparently when Metal Gear Solid 4 came out, the American Media stations for a brief 15 min of fame talked about the storyline of MGS4. Since most of the game involved control and political corruption and genetics and deciept and plenty of other controversial topics they went crazy and thought that Konami (Kojima produtions mainly) was attacking the goverment. They believed that although set in a fictious universe the fact tha polictics played such a major role in the everyday lives of the people and how the wars and military were regulated for business purpoes and profit the media took defense and started to barrage the game with critisicm for his heresy against america. Mind you this didnt last long as news stations tend to denounce games as being lower then any other media on the market and so proceeded to "kick the dog" as it were to show that they understand that games are big with the ever growing youth and decided to (in my opinion) see if they cant attack it a little more and make it so that the gaming industry stay at the bottom, never to rise up above porn! (bad joke, referencing the fact that they look down upon things that they deem unfit for civilian consumption)

Controversy

Shortly before the release of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops , someone on the internet discovered a song by Classical Russian composer Georgy Vasilevich Sviridov, named The Winter Road. The Metal Gear community was in an up-roar at how similar the song was to the MGS Theme, and requested the song be shown to Hideo Kojima. Eventually, a YouTube video emerged of a group of people showing the song to Hideo, with Hideo giving a very surprised reaction.



Eventually in an issue of the videogaming magazine "EGM" it was revealed via an interview with Norihiko Hibino that the theme was indeed changed due to the fact that "Konami had legal problems with Russian composers who said [they] stole their music".


The motif was removed from the MGS3 theme on the 20th Anniversary Music Collection (the song switches to "The World Needs Only One Big Boss!" from MGS2, at the point the melody originally began).

As aforementioned, the original Portable Ops theme featured the motif. The song was, however, still used in the game though without the motif, therefore consisting entirely of original music, and appeared on the Portable Ops soundtrack as Show Time.

Code extracted from Super Smash Bros. Brawl showed that this theme was originally supposed to be among the "My Music" tracks, but was later removed, possibly as a result of the controversy. The theme was also not included in Metal Gear Solid 4, although Harry Gregson-Williams' new motif (originally used in MGS3) was remixed by him as an independent song, carrying the title Metal Gear Saga.

To Boldly think where no man has thought before!

The man is simply astounding but his work ethic is even more amazing. The mentality this man has for his games, for the storytelling, the passion that goes into his work; he's so dedicated. He was very stressed working on Metal Gear Solid 4 because of the new platform he was working on, all new technology and the art team and the coding team were going back and forth and telling each other they couldn't do something. The whole process was very frustrating. Listen to what the interview between 1Up and Hideo Kojima says:

1up Conversation with The Mastermind!

A quick 47 sketch GIF of a fight between Cyborg Ninja and Snake

Deviant Art

More Flash but this time intelligent!

Continuing with the Flash them I got going on here is the "Decline of Video Games". A group of players that made a flash video depicting the way video games have been going. They make fun of such game series as:
Metal Gear
Devil May Cry
Alien Hominoid
Zelda
Mario Party
Final Fantasy
Grand Theft Auto
Tomb Raider
Mario

Decline of Video Games

The second involves bringing the heads of the main contributors of Video Games out and fight with the three main characters (Dim, JT, and Dan). The three heads are Square Enix, Capcom, and Konami, they bust out all their fancy moves like Magic and the ATB system for Square playing off of their FF series. Capcom plays with the T-Virus from Resident Evil. And Konami likes to reference Metal Gear.
It gets funnier and funnier as time progresses with their wacky humor and crazy antics.

Decline of Video Games 2
Decline of Video Gaming 3

Metal Gear Flash (!)

There have been many flash videos out there depicting the crazy antics of the Metal Gear Series however, a man by the name "Egoraptor" has made the best of them all illustrating the biggest quip's of the series.
Each one goes into some detail of the problem or funny instance or crazy plot device used throughout the first Metal Gear Solid Game. Even if you havent played the game or just dont understand the crazy story this one will entertain you, and maybe even entice you to play the game.

Metal Gear Awesome
Metal Gear Awsome 2

A more western View on Snake

So even though Solid Snake is most definitely a Caucasian, one individual tried to make him even more western and this was his result. Heres what he has to say.

"Often times I wonder what the Metal Gear series would be if there were a less Japanese style to the character's faces. This digital painting was the result of experimenting with such an idea. Said one critic, "Wow, it looks NOTHING like him." See? It's a compliment."

There is a downloadable database that you can download specifically for the PS3 system that helps to alleviate the confusion about the series storyline. Its not to big, under a couple hundred megabytes and gives you a timeline, character connections, a database and more......the information has yet made its way onto the web probably because of the vast amount of data that needs to be sorted through and can get quite lengthy in detail. So I guess that just means your gonna have to get a PS3 huh Joe?

Some more information of which even I cant process

Title says it all. The storyline is so confusing and long winded I have had to look at a couple of different databases to analyze the origin of the story and its proceedings. However I'm giving you a link to another database and letting you check it out at your own leisure. Enjoy my friends:

http://www.ugo.com/games/metal-gear-history

The first Metal Gear Solid released on the Playstation Console

The Story
The peace foretold by Metal Gear 2 never came to pass, and by 2010, nuclear deployment was again in full swing. A United States military installation on Alaska's Shadow Moses Island, while playing host to a series of tests involving a new secret weapon, was hijacked by a group of terrorists. Interestingly, the group was led by renegade agents of Fox Hound, Solid Snake's old unit. Important government and corporate officials were on hand to observe the tests, and they were taken hostage. The terrorists' demands were simple, if a bit puzzling: They wanted the remains of Big Boss within 24 hours, or a nuclear warhead would be launched. Former Fox Hound commander Roy Campbell calls on Solid Snake to infiltrate the base, rescue the hostages, and disable the terrorists' nuclear capability.

Snake was shocked to find out that the leader of the insurgence is Liquid Snake, an agent with the same codename as him and almost identical physical features. Joining Liquid was a group of Fox Hound's top agents, such as gunslinging torture specialist Revolver Ocelot and perceptive powerhouse Psycho Mantis. Vulcan Raven, Sniper Wolf, and Decoy Octopus rounded out the crew. Liquid Snake also commanded a legion of genome soldiers, troops whose genes had been conditioned to increase their physical attributes. In light of this capability to manipulate genes, the terrorists' demand for the remains of Big Boss, the "legendary soldier," became understandable.

Snake successfully breached the base's security and found the hostages, and from them he learned that the tests being conducted on the island were for a new model of Metal Gear, called Rex. Snake's mission then became one of search and destroy. En route to Metal Gear, he encountered a number of interesting figures, including Meryl Silverburgh, niece of Roy Campbell and inexperienced soldier, and Hal Emmerich, aka Otacon, the lead scientist on the Metal Gear Rex project. Snake and the terrorists were also stalked by a mysterious cyborg ninja who was later revealed to be the previously deceased Grey Fox.

After defeating all of the Fox Hound agents (except Revolver Ocelot, who escaped), Snake destroyed Rex. Liquid Snake then confronted him and revealed a terrible secret about their lineage. Both of them were genetic experiments, born of the "Les Enfants Terribles" (the terrible children) project in a laboratory and crafted by scientists from the genetic material of Big Boss, known as the perfect soldier. Despite his emotions to the contrary, Solid Snake exists solely to fight. After a narrow escape and the apparent death of Liquid, Snake and Meryl rode off once again into the sunset.

After the credits roll, we hear a brief transmission from the sole Fox Hound escapee Revolver Ocelot to, of all people, the president of the United States. It appears that Ocelot was a double agent the whole time, and even more shockingly, that Solidus, the president, was a third product of Les Enfants Terribles. What this portends for Solid Snake's future remains to be seen, but you can bet that it's not good.

Source: Gamespot History of Metal Gear

Overview of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
System: MSX2 (released 1990)

The Story
By 1999, the world's nuclear superpowers had improved their diplomatic relations with each other, and they agreed to dismantle their nuclear weapons. In this environment of coming peace, a small Middle Eastern nation called Zanzibar created a new military regime and began raiding the larger nations' nuclear disposal sites. At the same time, the world was experiencing an energy crisis due to a rapidly diminishing supply of oil. To combat this threat, Dr. Kio Marv invented a microorganism called OILIX that could refine crude oil. Naturally, he was kidnapped by Zanzibar.

The militaristic Zanzibar had established itself as controller of the world's energy and nuclear weapons, and only the best secret agent would be able to infiltrate the country and rescue Dr. Marv.

New Fox Hound commander Roy Campbell thus called upon Solid Snake, now in retirement, to take the job. Again acting entirely on his own, Snake penetrated Zanzibar's defenses and made it into the heart of the militant country. It would seem that Big Boss's betrayal in Outer Heaven was not the end of Fox Hound treachery, however, as Snake discovered that Grey Fox, the first special agent sent into Outer Heaven four years before, was leader of Zanzibar's mercenary force. Snake defeated Grey Fox in battle and went on to pursue Dr. Marv. Snake retrieved the OILIX microorganism, ensuring the world a new source of energy, but in the process he again encountered none other than Big Boss, who had survived the destruction of Outer Heaven and gone on to found Zanzibar's empire. Big Boss was, of course, accompanied by a new Metal Gear. Snake again defeated both Metal Gear and Big Boss and then fled Zanzibar in the midst of its destruction.

After Solid Snake's series of harrowing battles, he again retired, this time to the Alaskan wilderness. But the evil intentions of those who hunger for power would ensure that Snake's retirement was short-lived....


Source: Gamespot History of Metal Gear

Quick Overview of the first metal gear

Metal Gear
Systems: MSX (released 1987), NES (released 1988)

The Story
The year was 1995. At that time, nuclear disarmament was only a pipe dream, and fears of nuclear attack ran rampant. Deep in South Africa, a mercenary group controlled a stronghold called Outer Heaven. According to leaked information, this group had access to a new kind of weapon that would change the scale of warfare irreversibly. The elite special forces team Fox Hound was called upon to gather further intelligence related to this supposed weapon of mass destruction. To this end they sent their best agent, Grey Fox, to go under cover, infiltrate Outer Heaven, and report back with new information. Grey Fox's report consisted of exactly two words: "Metal Gear." Then contact was broken.

Deeply disturbed by the loss of communication with Grey Fox and the apparent urgency of his brief message, Fox Hound sent another agent, Solid Snake, into Outer Heaven to find Grey Fox and discover the secret of the mysterious Metal Gear. Snake found his way inside the fortress, enlisting the aid of various prisoners to continue his search for Grey Fox and Metal Gear. Eventually Snake located Fox and learned that Metal Gear was, in actuality, a walking, nuclear-capable tank. The implications of this new weapon were staggering; Metal Gear's mobility and its ability to launch a nuclear warhead from any position made it an imposing factor in the global tension between nuclear superpowers. Solid Snake went on to rescue the scientist behind Metal Gear's development and from him learned Metal Gear's weak point.

Finally, Snake discovered Metal Gear itself, on the 100th basement floor of Outer Heaven, and using his knowledge of the behemoth, he destroyed it. After Metal Gear's destruction, Snake received a shock: The leader of the Outer Heaven mercenaries, and the man behind Metal Gear, was none other than Fox Hound's leader, Big Boss! Big Boss had been pulling the strings behind Snake's mission in Outer Heaven all along. Stunned by this betrayal, Snake went on to engage Big Boss in battle, emerging victorious. With Metal Gear destroyed and the traitor vanquished, Solid Snake flew off into the sunset.


Source: Gamespot History of Metal Gear

Art & Games

So you need a good time waster or procrastinating tool?
Well not only am I making it releveant to Metal Gear but its also a easy to understand competitive puzzler game. Its Flash based so its fast and easy. You can be logged in as a guest and just select a picture from the (very) intuitive menu and your thrown in and figuring out which pieces go where. Your in a box (like the one above) Supposed to be a stealth mission I suppose? You can plant a bomb down to stun an enemy for a penalty of 10 seconds. Its pretty much due or die. Try it out and get the High Score!

Link

Concept Art

So I figured I should give you a visual of what it is these famous characters look like. I stumbled upon a plethora of concept art from various times within the franchise. I can only give a link because the images wouldnt show up in blogspot when I sourced them. Sorries!



http://www.creativeuncut.com/artmgsb.html

Start of Production: The Beginning

Games take roughly two years to produce and get underwraps before they go gold (I.e. ready to be mass produced for sale) So lets look at the events that may have inspired Hideo Kojima during the initial production of the first of the metal gear saga. I'm choosing to focus on events that may have led to Hideo's thinking of storytelling and such. Remember the setting of the game was in 1995, it was released in 1987. (Maybe Hideo got some of his idea's from the book 1984? Interesting thought)

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

So the newest iteration of the Metal GEar Franchise will be oming out on PSP sometimes in the summer. It is set in Veitnam time period with Big Boss doing his usual running around and trying to save the world from nuclear holocaust by a bipedal tank that can shoot multplie Nuclear Warheads.
And to demonstrate some techniques used in the game are these nifty japenese commercials depicting cutsey drawn characters.

Some background info on MGS

From Wikipedia: "Metal Gear (メタルギア, Metaru Gia^?) is a critically acclaimed series of stealth games created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. In the series, the player takes control of a Special Forces Operative (Solid Snake in most games) repeatedly facing off against the latest incarnation of the eponymous superweapon "Metal Gear"; a bipedal walking tank with nuclear launching capabilities. The series is famous for pioneering the stealth game genre, for its lengthy cinematic cut scenes, intricate storylines and its exploration of the nature of politics, warfare, environmentalism, censorship, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, loyalty, reality, subjective vs. universal truths and other philosophical themes.^[1] The series has accumulated great success, selling over 26.5 million copies."

The First Metal Gear was released in 1987 set in the year 1995. During the time of production there was alot of talk about Nuklear weapons and the cold war. Also there were experiments going on with genetics, espionage of forign countries and development of newer and better weapons. In this case of Metal Gear, the work on a bipedal tank that can launch Nuklear missles from any mobile point. I have not played the first one as of yet but I plan on reading the novel released a couple years back.

"The original Metal Gear, which was released in 1987 during the Cold War, dealt with the manipulation of soldiers by politicians of the East and West, countered by the concept of "Outer Heaven", a country without politics. Its sequel Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, which was released in 1990 at the end of the Cold War, expanded on this with themes regarding political intrigue, battlefield ethics, military history, and the negative effects of warfare."

Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy from Hive Division on Vimeo.

A movie that had no budget and was fan-made all in the name of Hideo Kojima. The man behind the series. its an hour or so long and if you watch it has the premise of how a Metal Gear Solid game plays out. It is quite intense and done with alot of accuarcy towards the character. Voice acting is spot on as well. Watch it and understand the what I mean.

Metal Gear Solid Sneakers (!)

SOURCE

So Peace Walker is becoming pretty famous and being heralded as the next installment of the franchise (as opposed to Metal Gear Raiden). This one is for the PSP and I guess that SONY has decided to do the right thing and give it some publicity after all! There are releasing a bundle later this year (June) for the all time price of $199

Apparently there are some extra goodies that are coming along with it like a voucher for an unknown movie that Konami may or may not be releasing in the near future. Some exciting times come Summer! Click the Source to read on.
SOURCE

Metal Gear Movie - HALTED

So as everyone knows, hollywood has been dancing around the whole subject of doing a movie for the famous "Metal Gear Solid" Franchise. However turns out that the movie has in fact been put on hold. Some are worrying that the creation of this movie would only hurt the franchise seeing as a movie is usually nitpicked for every little detail that may or may not be what originally happened (many movies that have been made from books are being treated like this). Although Sony Pictures is wiling to fork over 40 mill - 80 mill as a budget for the film although Konami Studios believes this amount would not be enough to accurately portrazy Solid Snakes Adeventures.

SOURCE

So, Im doing research on Metal Gear Solid and the series and what do you know? One of the villain's is already trying to take over the world!! Or at least create some havoc. The PSN has gone down Today (March 1st) and some people link it to Liquid Ocelot, Snake's big baddy in many of the Metal Gear Solid installments.
LINK to take over the world!!!

I'll be updating the blog to give a background on the plotline of "Metal Gear Solid" but for anyone who knows the series they understand that.....its not well understood. Too long a history and very convoluted. But its too fun to not try to understand.

Till Next Time
 Omni