______________ Water From Your Eyes14 ‘Water From Your Eyes is a decisive step in a different direction. A Brooklyn-based duo with Rachel Brown on vocals and Nate Amos handling the instruments, Water From Your Eyes traffic between experimental music of the krautrock period of the late 1960s and early 1970s and today’s feminine pop sensibility reflective of their millennial/Gen Z generation. They come across as methodical students of the Nurse with Wound list, who are also fans of Lana del Ray. I could be challenged on this, but they seem to believe there is a missing link between the two. Their music is about establishing this secret genealogy.’— Christopher J. Lee
______________ Martyna BastaSlowly Forgetting, Barely Remembering ‘Over the last four years the Kraków musician Martyna Basta has released a growing body of work that pushes back against conventional modes of beauty, flipping over the block of marble to see what lies squirming underneath: quivering microtonal dissonance, arrhythmic scraping, breathy sighs and guttural whispers. While Basta has tackled a range of formats—meditative standalone tracks, filmic longform works, audio “postcards” collaging together field recordings from friends and confidants—all of them feel charged by a profound sense of unknowing. Her music exists in a stygian netherzone: It is rarely clear where her sounds come from or where a given piece is going.’ — Philip Sherburne
_________ OvalTouha ‘This latest album from Markus Popp marks yet another intriguing stylistic detour for his endlessly shapeshifting Oval project, as he delves into “an omnipresent and yet oft ill-defined, even maligned area of music and art–the romantic.” The idea for this album first began as a multimedia collaboration with digital artist Robert Seidel intended for the grand opening of Frankfurt’s German Romantic Museum, but the endeavor soon evolved and expanded beyond the original purpose, as the two artists “sought a more expansive definition of ‘romantic,’ extending outward from the museum’s comprehensive survey of the 19th-century epoch in art.”‘— Anthony D’Amico
______________ Linda Smith & Nancy AndrewsA Passing Cloud ‘New collection of decade spanning tracks from DIY icon, Linda Smith, and former housemate & collaborator, Nancy Andrews. Their shared story runs back 40 years to 1983 when the pair lived together in a large house in Baltimore alongside a number of other creatives. What Smith did after this has now passed into semi-legend thanks to Sky Girl and various archival endeavours. Nancy Andrews’ story isn’t really documented in the same way having pursued a career as animator and filmmaker rather than musician.’— World of Echo
_____________ Brandon SeabrookLive at 456 Gallery ‘Brandon Seabrook has made a name for himself in the New York avant-garde music scene as an explosive guitar and banjo performer, relentlessly committed to immediacy and precision. Seabrook honed his terror-inducing riffage skills at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He has since performed extensively in North and South America, Mexico and Europe, as a solo artist, bandleader and collaborator. He has been summoned by the likes of Anthony Braxton, Elliot Sharp and Joey Arias for his unpredictably spiked approach to improvisation and impeccable caterwauling.’— All About Jazz
_____________ Marta Salogni & Tom RelleenTrains ‘In Music For Open Spaces, Marta Salogni and Tomaga’s Tom Relleen explore different geographical spaces through heavily improvised ambient pieces. Created just before Relleen’s death from cancer in 2020, the album was recorded between London, the Joshua Tree desert and the Cornish coast: setting out to express these environments through a palette of tape machines, synthesisers and bass guitar.’— Alastair Shuttleworth
______________ Scotch Rolex & ShackletonDeliver The Soul ‘Any entry point into Shackleton’s catalog feels like the deep end. His work since 2012’s Music For The Quiet Hour/The Drawbar Organ EPs has been heady, heavy and forbidding, often collected on marathon-length albums that feel like the electronic equivalent of ’70s narcotic-jam head-blowers like Hawkwind’s Space Ritual. Shigeru Ishikawa is a different, more accessible kind of weirdo—the kind of guy who might stop to flip an actual pancake in the middle of his Boiler Room set in between screaming into a mic and coaxing unholy sounds out of a Game Boy. But both are artists turned on by extremes, and on their collaborative album Death By Tickling, Shackleton’s stone-faced approach and Ishikawa’s playfulness work beautifully together, without canceling each other out.’— Daniel Bromfield
______________ Wolf EyesCar Wash Two w/ Short Hands ‘Drawing on DIY instruments and graphic scores created during a residence at the New York Public Library, Nate Young and Johnny Olson are keeping the spirit of Fluxus alive and well. Take the opening ‘Car Wash Two w/ Short Hands’, for example. Distorted voices, cassette hiss, and flickers of disintegrating beats fade in and out of existence like an AM receiver shifting between frequencies. To then learn that the track was actually played on a car radio and recorded while going through an auto wash comes as no surprise at all.’— Antonio Poscic
______________ SparksEscalator ‘Sparks are rightfully praised as savvy shapeshifters, but the past decade has been one of relative aesthetic consistency. After a half-century of bounding between rock theatricality, electro-disco austerity, and classical frippery, recent releases like Hippopotamus and A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip have synthesized the Maels’ interests into sleek hybrid models, presenting a vision of pop music that belongs equally to Old Hollywood and outer space. The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte stays the course but exudes even more vitality and verve, striking the ideal Sparksian balance of madcap melody, labyrinthine arrangement, and stinging social satire. What Kimono My House was to their glitter-rock phase and No. 1 in Heaven was to their synth-pop period, The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte is to this late-career era of holistic stability.’— Stuart Berman
____________ Moni JitchellHell of a Yeah ‘Moni Jitchell are a two-piece hardcore band from Glasgow, comprised of vocalist and drummer GrantDonaldson (also of Civil Elegies, Ideal, and ex-Outblinker) and 12-string guitarist and bassist David scott (ex-Thin Privilege, ex-Billy Ray Osiris, ex-In Wrecks). Both minimalistic and feral, their sound touches on the noisecore technicality of Botch, the punk fury of Hirs Collective, and the mangled electronics and stripped-down weirdness of Melt Banana.’— Some Great Reward
____________ RP BooLast Night ‘Though he would later begin composing in Ableton, Boo made all of his early work with the minimalist arsenal of an Akai MPC and a Roland R-70 drum machine, and he leaves the songs’ seams visible, which can feel jarring at first. Some loops lope haphazardly, ending with the staccato click of a digital artifact; it often sounds like Boo is triggering samples in real time. He deliberately sets clashing sounds against each other, like the horror-movie drone and “Live and Let Die” vocal sample of opener “Eraser,” and adjusting to the lurching, hyperactive rhythms can take some patience. Though the music sprang from Chicago house, footwork deliberately deconstructs that genre’s quantized, four-on-the-floor grid—the guiding pulse just isn’t there in most cases.’— Dash Lewis
_____________ Colin Andrew SheffieldSilhouette ‘Colin Andrew Sheffield’s “Images” was entirely constructed from heavily edited and manipulated samples from jazz records. These eight electroacoustic mosaics range in style from lush ambient loops to jarring tones like the wails of the damned. Chopped drum solos appear and retreat along with spiraling piano fragments; saxophone and trumpet scraps clash or fall in time with disfigured bass rumblings, etcetera. These song-length explorations are detailed, atmospheric, and surprising. Meticulously composed over the span of a year, this is nuanced and singular music — a true distillation of Sheffield’s interests as both composer and obsessive listener.’— Soundohm
_____________ Lana Del RabiesHallowed is The Earth ‘A name like Lana Del Rabies, which latches parasitically onto the identity of another more famous act, might well be a subconscious device to deflect attention away from the artist. It has certainly worked for me in the past, with Wevie Stonder, Com Truise and a number of other similar spoonerists almost entirely passing me by as I continue to suffer an ongoing sense of humour failure. Behind the Lana Del Rabies facade is the Arizona noise musician Sam An, who constructed her dark aesthetic from a morbid love of Coil, Nine Inch Nails and Pharmakon, as well as from a stint living in Detroit, where she sucked up the electronic signals from the sonic ley lines of the Motor City.’— Jeremy Allen
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p.s. Hey. ** scunnard, Howdy and, again, the pleasure and thanks were/are all mine. ** Misanthrope, Spinning is giving it too much credit. Getting older is what it is, better to get into its bonuses. Understood about your friend’s mom. Sounds awful and sad. ** Dee Kilroy, Hi. I’m always looking for ways to freshen the ways to use narrative and plot and all those fiction building blocks in my work, and video games, or the really good ones, are very adventurous in those realms, and the power sharing between game maker and player is really interesting, how the maker susses that unknown aspect of its usage. So, it was a no brainer to try to learn things from games. Well, you’ve made Atlanta very filled in. I’m going to layer that into my memories of it and keep it in mind if I ever plop down there again. I still think my hometown LA has more virtues than not, not to sugar coat it, of course. But its relative disorganisation and quality of secretiveness is pretty useful. So maybe there? I’ll have a coffee and many for you, thank you, and, it being France-based coffee, it will likely be superior to any cup you could get over there. Perhaps. Have something on me that I can’t get here, like a slice of chocolate cake. ** Steve Erickson, You’ll find it, no doubt. Enjoy the hunting? I guess you have no choice. ** Cody Goodnight, Hi. I’m good. I hope you get to go from okay to good today. I’ve only played ‘Substance’ and ‘Twin Snakes’, but I liked them a lot. What you’ve been doing nothing but is a fine nothing but. I’ve just been film editing, no complaints. But I’m seeing Sparks live tonight, a bit of a treat. You have a great day too, man! ** Right. Today I made one of my gigs featuring some new music I’ve been interested by. Try it or parts of it out, why don’t you? See you tomorrow.
‘Really, it’s a miracle that the Metal Gear franchise exists at all. The original game was made for a system that few people outside Japan owned, and released by a company that had little faith in it. Yet 28 years later, Metal Gear’s huge: a multi-system, multi-media best-seller that is now one of the most important properties in Konami’s line-up. But back in the late 80s, Metal Gear’s pioneering ideas were widely frowned on in the Japanese developer’s offices.
‘Metal Gear designer Hideo Kojima cut an awkward figure when he began working at Konami in 1986. He’d studied economics at university, and had only become interested in videogames when he picked up Super Mario Bros a few months earlier; Super Mario was, he later said, “The game of my destiny.” Unable to program, Kojima was first hired as a planner, but his lack of technical skill often left him ostracised by his colleagues.
‘Kojima’s career was almost over before it started: his first game as planner, Lost Warld (yes, that is the correct spelling) was cancelled when it was found to be too complex to run on its host machine, the MSX. With one strike already against his name, Kojima was handed a new task: make a military combat game.
‘One year before, Konami had scored an arcade hit with the military action game Green Beret (known in some territories as Rush N’ Attack), and Kojima’s superiors probably expected him to make something similar: a game with plenty of pace, guns and explosions. Instead, Kojima came up with an altogether new and untested concept: what if, rather than wade into an overwhelming force head-on, you tried to sneak around it? Kojima’s bosses, it’s safe to say, weren’t especially taken with this idea.
‘”If I were to work on a game based on war,” Kojima later recalled, “I wanted to do something more like The Great Escape, where you actually run away rather than just shoot. When I came up with my game plan, my superiors said, ‘This rookie’s already failed on one project, and now he’s trying to come up with this weird concept where you don’t fight, but you run away.'”
‘In retrospect, it’s a miracle that Kojima was allowed to continue with Metal Gear at all. In fact, a collection of old design documents, dusted off by Kojima, photographed and uploaded to his Twitter feed, give a hint at the behind-the-scenes battle to get Metal Gear made. One document, carrying the early working title Metal Gear (Intruder), has a huge, official-looking red stamp across it: “Rejected”, it reads.
‘Nevertheless, Kojima clearly persevered. What emerged was a game that not only made the best possible use of the MSX2’s limited hardware, but also spawned a whole new genre: the stealth game.
‘Metal Gear introduces Solid Snake, a soldier whose mission is to infitrate an enemy stronghold and destroy the titular weapon: a towering, walking tank capable of firing nuclear missiles.
‘Looking back, it’s fascinating to see how many of the ideas which would become famous in later games – not least the equally seminal Metal Gear Solid – exist here in 8-bit form. Kojima’s now-famous love for cinema is evident even in this early incarnation, with its top-down perspective and tiny grey sprites.
‘Unlike most games of the time, which were decidedly one-note, Metal Gear’s gameplay has real light and shade, shifting effortlessly between stealth and action set-pieces. You enter the stronghold with no weapons of any kind, and Snake is hopelessly vulnerable to attack: if you cross a guard’s line of sight, chances are you’ll be gunned down within seconds. Metal Gear sees you criss-crossing the map in search of rations, key-cards and other items, all the while skilfully evading enemy soldiers and security systems. But gradually, increasingy powerful weapons are thrown into the mix, including a grenade launcher and an exceedingly satisfying Uzi, and the cat-and-mouse moments of occasionally punctuated by the occasional boss battle.
‘The game’s cinematic nature is underlined by its roster of non-player characters – including Gray Fox, who makes his franchise debut here – and abrupt turns of fortune, like the scene where you’re captured and lose everything you’ve collected. These are all trappings we take for granted in action games now, but were strikingly new back in 1987. Kojima’s fouth-wall-destroying sense of mischief makes an early showing here as well: at one point, your commander Big Boss will suddenly tell you to turn off your computer – a plot point that Kojima would later introduce in Metal Gear Solid 2. This all builds to a superb final-act twist, which even 28 years later, is still too good to reveal here.
‘Shortly after Metal Gear launched in Japan, the game began to proliferate elsewhere – though frustratingly, few got to play it as Kojima originally intended. A localised version of the game, translated for the small MSX2 market in Europe, was evidently rushed, with dreadful spelling and a severely cut-down script which left almost half of its radio conversations out altogether.
‘The first version of Metal Gear to hit the US wasn’t even overseen by Kojima. The NES incarnation, released later in 1987, is considerably different from the MSX2 original, with retooled graphics, increased difficulty – and, weirdly, no appearance from Metal Gear itself. It later emerged that Konami’s management had handed off development of the NES version to an entirely different design team, who were given just three months to prepare it for release. Kojima has been openly critical of the NES port and its sequel, Snake’s Revenge, designed to capitalise on that game’s western success.
‘All this meant that, for many years, few gamers – particularly in America – would have played or even heard of Snake’s debut on the MSX2. Fortunately, the franchise’s later success meant that the original Metal Gear was never quite forgotten – a faithful port of the MSX version (with a decent translation this time) appeared as a bonus on Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (and, by extension, the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection disc).
‘But even now, the MSX2 incarnation is seldom discussed as much as Metal Gear Solid, the 1998 PlayStation game which made Hideo Kojima internationally famous, and really brought the stealth genre to the masses. Yet Metal Gear remains a great game, even after all these years; where so many early series entries are interesting purely from a historical point of view – few gamers would want to spend more than a few minutes in the company of the original Street Fighter, for example – Metal Gear is a superb action game in its own right.
‘With the series now known as much for its cinematics as its gameplay, there’s something refreshing about Metal Gear. Made at a time when computers were incapable of dazzling our eyes with Hollywood-style cut-scenes, Kojima’s 1987 debut presents his design ideas in their purest form.’ –– Den of Geek
GameSpot: Congratulations on getting out and starting your new company. It’s been about two months since the new Kojima Productions studio was announced. What kind of progress has been made since the day of the announcement, in terms of hiring and getting off the ground?
Kojima: In theory–and ideally–you put together some staff, you look for facilities, and then you start working on a project, planning and testing, but…I’m doing all of this in parallel. Many people say, “Your games are great but they take a while to come out,” so I’m trying to change that.
How do you decide what to work on first? You have the world in front of you: how do you choose the right project?
Originally, after working for 30 years in one company, I was thinking of taking a one-year hiatus. But if I don’t keep creating, I will definitely get rusty. So I was thinking of making not a blockbuster, but something more edgy, maybe a small movie. That was my original thought process.
However, after talking with several friends and fans, a lot of people told me, “Everyone is expecting a lot from your next project, and it has to be a big one. Something that goes over a game that earned perfect scores; something that goes beyond that. Don’t get derailed.”
So I gathered my thoughts and considered the situation, and I decided that I would work on an edgy project. There are many things that I want to do, but I didn’t have to think too much about which one I wanted to work on; it kind of came naturally, what I’m working on now.
How are you dealing with the pressure that comes with the responsibility of running your own studio?
I have to be honest, for this project I’m working on, there’s are a lot of people, staff members, and fans who have high expectations. I have the feeling that I can’t fail. I can’t disappoint. I can’t go out there and do something too, too extreme, so there’s a little bit of that which I have to deal with.
Especially, because it’s our first game and we’re working with Sony, I want to make sure that it’s a great game for Sony, so there is pressure in that. However, I’m not even thinking of letting any of that to change anything that’s in the game.
Sony seems like a good fit for you. Is that because they’ve given you total freedom? Is Sony controlling any aspect of what your first project will be?
They are not controlling what I’m doing at all; that was part of the conditions, and Sony was very respectful towards me and what I do. In that regard, it’s been very nice, and very pleasant.
When you think about your success, does it surprise you? Did you imagine that you would get to this point when you started making games?
The first Metal Gear Solid title was surprising because I just made what I wanted to play, and I didn’t expect it to perform that well, and it actually didn’t need to perform that well, so that success was a surprise.
Metal Gear Solid was a surprise, and with Metal Gear Solid 2, there was a need to expand and build a market, so I had to keep that in mind. One thing that I never want to do is to change anything so that a game can to sell more copies.
If you could go back 30 years and give yourself one piece of advice, what would that be?
I guess it would be: “Believe in yourself.” Even now, and with the previous franchises that I worked on, whenever you try to do something really new, it’s hard to people to understand. The closer they are–and especially the people that are really close to you–they are opposed to doing something completely new. When you try to create something that doesn’t exist it’s difficult to communicate and convey that message to staff. There are always people telling me that I have to do things a certain way, but the only way to do what I want is to believe in myself.
Another piece of advice I would give myself…given that I didn’t expect Metal Gear to be so successful: I would tell myself to make something that wouldn’t be successful. It would have made things a lot easier. I don’t mean to brag with what I’m about to say, but I’m always making adjustments and playing the games I make, and I think to myself, “This is too fun, this is going to make other jobs harder. I need to make it a little more boring, because it’s just too good.”
Are you cautious about making another game that could turn into a series?
For this, with Sony, we are working on a project that will be a new IP, of course, and I have no idea if it’s going to be a series or not, but I want to make something that will have a big enough impact to become a series. By impact, I mean from the things that are unique to the game, the characters, and the world. This impact can lead into something outside of games, such as anime, manga, figures; something that is rich enough to expand.
Are you more interested in making a game with a really strong narrative, or really strong gameplay?
Both, because people expect both from me. I want to do something that gives a lot of freedom and interactivity. Like I did in the past, I want to make something that has a very strong, dramatic story. That’s what people want from me and that’s what I want to do. It would be so much easier if I could give priority to one or the other, but people expect both from me. At this point, it would be easier to make a linear game, but that’s not…
It’s risky, because we’re just starting up, so it probably would be better to go with something smaller-scale, maybe linear, but Sony is supporting us to make a big game that’s edgy with a strong story that gives the player a lot of freedom, with new elements, and I don’t know if that’s possible. But we’ll see.
Will your next project be a collaboration with another creator?
At this point, fans are expecting a game that’s mine, with 80-90 percent of my blood in it, so I would like to make collaborations, but that would lower the density of my identity in this game. Collaborations should be for other projects.
People make a lot of assumptions about you; what’s the biggest misconception?
A lot of people say that I spent too much money or take too much time, but that’s a misconception. My last project was late about five or six months, but I’ve always kept my word on timelines and budget. For example, I do take three to four years to make games, but that’s the plan from the start.
I take a lot of time because I create my own teasers, posters, and I work on how to create the box for sales. Japanese creators are famous for being loose with schedules, and I think people put me in that category, but it’s not reality. In my case, I’m a director and a producer, so I have to stay aware of production and the budget.
Lastly, how is your beard working out?
I’m not used to it, so I think about shaving it every day. In becoming an independent and creating my own studio, I wanted to change something about my look. I’ve received a lot of positive comments from people outside Japan about my beard, but inside Japan, beards have a bad image. People think, “You look old, you look tired.” My kids definitely don’t like it.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us today, and congratulations on your upcoming award.
Thank you. I’m really glad I can now have a decent, normal interview. It just feels so good.
_________________ Death Stranding (2019) ‘In the future, a mysterious event known as the Death Stranding has opened a doorway between the living and the dead, leading to grotesque creatures from the afterlife roaming the fallen world marred by a desolate society. As Sam Bridges, your mission is to deliver hope to humanity by connecting the last survivors of a decimated America. Can you reunite the shattered world, one step at a time?’— 505 Games
Trailer
23 Minutes of Death Stranding PC Gameplay
Walkthrough Gameplay Part 1
_________________ Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015) ‘The holy grail of world-building games, it’s argued, is a black box that lets players do as they like with minimal handholding. Pliability with just the right measure of accountability. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, a tactical stealth simulation wrapped in a colossal resource management puzzle inside a love letter to theatrical inscrutability, comes the closest of any game I’ve yet played to realizing that ideal. We know by now that Kojima games mean wrestling with paradox. Thematic gravitas versus silly dialogue. Visual revelation versus graphical compromise. Gameplay versus cutscene. Eroticization versus objectification. Antiwar allegory versus lurid violence. When I asked Kojima what hadn’t changed about gaming over the past several decades, he told me that while the technology had evolved, “the content of the game, what is really the essence of the game, hasn’t moved much beyond Space Invaders.” It’s the same old thing, he said, “that the bad guy comes and without further ado the player has to defeat him. The content hasn’t changed—it’s kind of a void.” Loping across The Phantom Pain‘s hardscrabble Afghani-scapes, lighting on soldiers bantering about communism and capitalism, playing tapes of cohorts waxing philosophic about Salt II, Soviet scorched earth policies and African civil wars, questioning who I’m supposed to be—sporting metaphorical horn and tail, both hero and villain—all I know is that I’m going to miss the defiance, the daring, the controversy, the contradictions. This, given Kojima’s rumored breach with Konami and his own affirmations about leaving the series, is all but surely his last Metal Gear game, so it’s poetically fitting that it turned out to be his best.’— Time
E3 2015 GAME PLAY DEMO | METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN
Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain Walkthrough Part 1 – First 3.5 hours!
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – E3 2013 vs Gamescom 2014 – Graphics Comparison
______________ Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (2014) ‘The story sequences in Ground Zeroes captivate with impressive cinematography, properly showcasing the exploits of the brutal yet heroic Big Boss; a battlefield prodigy who long ago disavowed his allegiance to the US Government and established his own military for hire. Metal Gear has always been recognized for having impressive cutscenes, but they’re usually hindered by inconsistent animation and over-the-top voice acting. Thankfully, the opposite is true in Ground Zeroes. Characters move and speak with a natural grace, and even though it’s jarring to hear the recognizable Kiefer Sutherland voice Big Boss in place of fan-favorite David Hayter, his delivery is far more realistic and believable. No matter the platform you play it on, you’re treated to impressive lighting and masterfully crafted character and environment models that, along with the renewed cast, elevate Ground Zeroes’ cutscenes above and beyond those from the past. They may not stick around for long, but they certainly leave a lasting impression. This dichotomy between stealth- and action-oriented gameplay lends itself to fear, tension, and excitement. One moment you can hear a pin drop, and the next, you’re bolting across a chaotic military base with bullets whizzing by your head and desperation clouding your focus. If this were a more linear experience, perhaps the allure of this contrast would wear thin, but there are so many ways to tackle individual missions, be it the path you take or the weaponry you choose, that there’s almost never a shortage of new tactics to explore. When your only playground is a military base, it’s easy to find new ways to entertain yourself in Ground Zeroes.’— Gamespot
Trailer
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes THE MOVIE – Full Story
Ending
______________ Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (2010) ‘Gameplay wise, the ‘Metal Gear Solid’ games are not the best option for the impatient. The objectives are based around stealth as it is the main focus of the gameplay, and even though you can head in like gangbusters and shoot everyone down, MGS frowns on that approach. What that basically means, is that you will be doing a lot of hide-and-seeking as you watch your sonar screen to progress. However, this formula isn’t airtight, and Peace Walker is more glitchy and restrictive compared to something like MGS4: Guns of the Patriots. Even with warnings like “careful snake, this is a stealth mission” I still gunned down everyone that moved running to the next fading load screen without penalty. Playing against the grain can host some interesting results, and highlight the occasional bug. Turning into Rambo won’t get you very far, but you might just be able to pass some levels you didn’t think where possible without turning into a chameleon. Of course Boss Battles are different, and aside from them Peace Walker encourages you to keep your actions on the down low. Snake has several gadgets available at his disposal to trick and take advantage of your adversaries. Believe it or not, this includes an “adult” magazine. Playing the way Kojima wants you will earn you more experience points and benefit your game in the long run. Got the Creepy Crawlers I’m not sure why I found Peace Walker to be so buggy, but I kept having unpredictable experiences during all hoopla. In once instance I was actually playing the game properly, sneaking around and using my stun baton when a guard spotted me crouched down in a corner not moving. He then yelled for help saying “he was being shot at” when I didn’t even move from my crouched position, or have a gun equipped in my hand. This is a little alarming when the game is made up of 50% cut-scenes and 50% in-game action. buggy? broken? or unpredictable? MGS: Peace Walker might be more frustrating then intended. Keep in mind, these “occasional” bugs don’t ruin the game and are more forehead crunching then anything.’— Extreme Gamer
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – The Movie [HD] Full Story
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – Gameplay Walkthrough Part 15
Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker – Easter Egg Part 3
_______________ Metal Gear Solid 2: Digital Graphic Novel (2008) ‘Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima has taken to Twitter to add some insight into why he decided to include two graphic novels by artist Ashley Wood in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Legacy Collection. The first two Metal Gear Solid have “got different control feeling” compared to modern games, says Kojima through a translator. The graphic novels are meant as more of a “watch MGS” mode for those raised on modern control schemes. With more remakes and longer series lately, it’s not uncommon to see developers help players get players caught up on a universe one way or another. Including a graphic novel for backstory is an interesting way to make up for gameplay differences over a series’ lifetime.’— IGN
the entirety
_______________ Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008) ‘Metal Gear Solid has always been a love it or hate it proposition. Millions love it for its involved, conspiratorial plotting, its arch sense of humour, its demanding stealth gameplay, its sprawling cinematic ambition, its preposterous stylishness and pretensions toward artistic weight. Millions hate it for exactly the same reasons. Then there are those – this reviewer included – for whom Metal Gear Solid is a love it and hate it proposition. Flawed, intractable, unspeakably tedious at times, and yet blessed with incredible production values, imaginative design, and a brilliant, brave willingness to think and do the unexpected and impossible. At times they’re barely videogames at all, but they’re capable of moments of pure videogame genius, joy and shock that few other series can match. So how do you review a new Metal Gear Solid? Do you assess it on its own terms, ones that its legion of fans will understand? Do you play the sceptic, and take Hideo Kojima and his team to task for their stubborn refusal to catch up with what the rest of the world expects of a videogame? Or do you walk the path of compromise, down the middle? Well, if there’s one thing Metal Gear Solid 4 isn’t, it’s compromising. Kojima has barred no holds in an extraordinary, kitchen-sink finale to the Solid Snake story. Plausibility is stretched to extremes as every character you can think of (and several you never would) makes a cameo appearance in this melancholy epic. Features that would be a tent-pole selling-point for other games are frittered away as Easter eggs and one-shot surprises. Such is the luxurious length and mind-numbing detail of the cut-scenes and codec conversations that you could put the pad down for almost half the game’s ample length. (One character actually asks you to do so at one point, resulting in a typically self-aware and genuinely hilarious joke.).’— EuroGamer
Trailer
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Big Boss Run)
Metal Gear Solid 4 – The Movie [HD] Full Story
_______________ Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (2005) ‘Just why is Solid Snake called Solid Snake? Contrary to popular belief, series creator Hideo Kojima has said that the name didn’t actually come about from Escape from New York star Snake Plissken. Kojima wrote on Twitter to explain the code name Snake in the original Metal Gear. “The reason I used Snake as code name in MG was Snake was the most appropriate symbol of living thing that hides his presence and sneaks without any noise. The reason I didn’t make any specific snake like cobra, anaconda, viper was because the protagonist is the player,” Kojima explained. And what about Solid? “The reason I use Solid was to give opposite impression of soft image,” he said. Moving on to the other Snake characters in the series, Kojima first explained the thinking behind Solid Snake’s cloned brother Liquid Snake in 1998’s iconic Metal Gear Solid, created from the DNA of Big Boss–known in prequel title Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as Naked Snake. “Like of all endings of any series are, the appearance of strongest enemy was a must in MGS. It’s Snake who can surpass the Snake. Thus I brought about ‘clone’. Solid vs Liquid. That is MGS.” Kojima also went on to explain the naming behind Solidus Snake in 2001’s Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. “As to develop sequel, the 3rd snake was needed,” he said. “Since both Solid & Liquid express state, means same true state. Naturally the next would be gas, but gas snake is like gas human, not handsome name. So I borrowed from physics terms of “solidus/liquidus”. Solidus is not state but implies the boundary of liquid and solid.”‘— Game Spot
_______________ Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004) ‘Snake is in for another richly cinematic, occasionally convoluted, and ultimately satisfying adventure in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the latest installment in Konami designer Hideo Kojima’s long-running stealth action series. Much like its predecessors, Metal Gear Solid 3 begs to be talked about, if nothing else. After all, during the course of the game, you’ll experience a story dense with detail and intrigue, one that’s often presented using some of the most dramatically staged video game cutscenes to date. You’ll also spend about half your time with the game just watching (or listening to) the story unfold, and for every sequence that’s extremely exciting and thought-provoking, there’s a part that seems needlessly drawn out. Meanwhile, the gameplay itself–despite an all-new setting in a Soviet jungle during the 1960s–really hasn’t changed much since the last installment, and it’s aged noticeably during these past few years. Consequently, the mechanics of Metal Gear Solid 3 can be just as confounding as the storyline–but also just as rewarding, especially once you reach some of the game’s memorable, dramatic confrontations. In short, this is a great game that embodies both the impressive style and the one-of-a-kind spirit of its predecessors.’— Game Spot
Metal Gear Solid 3 – Operation: “Snake Eater” (All Cutscenes with Captions)
_____________ Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (2004) ‘Remake of the acclaimed PlayStation stealth-action action title Metal Gear Solid, developed under supervision of creator Hideo Kojima and legendary Nintendo game designer Shigeru Minamoto.’— Emuparadise
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (Gamecube) Full Playthrough
___________ Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (2002) ‘The creator Hideo Kojima’s original design document for the game was completed in January 1999; it was later made publicly available several years later and then translated into English in 2006. It mentioned that the game was originally going to be called Metal Gear Solid III to symbolize Manhattan’s three tallest skyscrapers at the time and that Raiden was designed as “a character in which women can more easily empathize.” The document outlines new game mechanics and features, such as bodies that need to be hidden, enemies being able to detect shadows, lights in an area that can be destroyed to affect enemy vision, realistic enemy AI that relies on squad tactics rather than working individually, and multi-level environments that add an element of “vertical tension” to the stealth gameplay. It also outlines themes, such as passing on memories, environmental issues, and particularly social themes regarding the “digitization of the military,” digital simulations, the “digitization of operational planning,” the “digitization of everyday life,” and the “effects of digitization on personality.” The document stated that the “aim of the story” involves “a series of betrayals and sudden reversals, to the point where the player is unable to tell fact from fiction” (departing from the “very clear and understandable story” of its predecessor), that “every character lies to (betrays) someone once,” blurring the line between “what is real, and what is fantasy,” and “ironies aimed at the digital society and gaming culture.” The game’s production budget was $10 million. Kojima states that when he “heard about the hardware for the PlayStation 2,” he “wanted to try something new. Up to that point, all cutscenes had focused more on details like facial expressions, but I wanted to pay more attention to the surroundings, to see how much I could change them in real time.”‘— Wiki
Trailer
PC Longplay Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (part 1)
_____________ Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) ‘Almost anyone who owns an original PlayStation knows the name Metal Gear Solid. Heralded as one of the best games ever released for the system, it was indeed an amazing experience, albeit a short one. As much as this game was hyped, it was also equally criticized by gamers and reviewers alike for its 3-5 hour average gameplay length. And while it was true you could blaze through this title in a single sitting, people who did missed out on much. The entire concept of Metal Gear Solid is more of a cinematic experience or interactive motion picture if you will. You become the hero of your own action movie and no one can argue that a 3-5 hour action movie is a pretty good deal. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty has been one of the most anticipated titles in the history of the PS2. People were talking about it while we waiting in line to get our systems; it video preview drew amazing crowds at the 2000 E3 show, and the combo-packaged demo made Zone of Enders one of the best selling (and least played) titles in PS2 history. Sons of Liberty builds upon its predecessor in both scope and length, but in the end it succumbs to its own grandiose vision and bogs the player down in seemingly endless movies, sacrificing gameplay for the narrative. I’m told by our Japanese cultural attache that the Japanese gaming public enjoy this style of game, but for the trigger happy domestic gamer, you will find yourself tapping your foot impatiently as com-link conversations and movies drone on and on.’— Game Chronicles
Trailer
Metal Gear Solid 2 – The Movie [HD] Full Story
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty Glitches
_____________ Metal Gear Solid VR Missions (1999) ‘Metal Gear Solid: the revolutionary game that invented its own genre. A game that redefined the way we imagine games and how we play them. As has been well documented, Metal Gear Solid is a game that focuses mainly on stealth. Stealth, as displayed by Solid Snake, is the greatest weapon you will have in the game. Haphazard gunfire and sloppy tactics will get you killed in this game. Period. If you want to make it out of this snowy hellhole in one piece, you’d better learn when to act and when to stay still, and you’d better learn quick. What, then, is the point of Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions? Unlike the Japanese version (which released under the name MGS: Integral), the domestic version is not just a slightly updated version of the original game. The Japanese version only added the tuxedo from the original American release, along with a useless first-person perspective that was more trouble than it was worth. For the US version, MGS: VR Missions is essentially an extra disc, which, among other things, adds 300 additional VR missions for the stealthy gamers out there to occupy themselves with. That’s right. At the risk of sounding like a used-car salesman, a staggering 300 VR missions awaits to test all of you who thought you were all that the first time around.’— Game Spot
Trailer
[TAS] Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions “100%” in 2:10:12.43
______________ Metal Gear Solid: Integral (1999) ‘Metal Gear Solid: Integral is an expanded version of the original Metal Gear Solid first released for the PlayStation in the NTSC-J region in 1999 and later released for Windows in other regions in 2000. It includes most of the changes and additions that were made in the NTSC-U/C version of the original Metal Gear Solid (e.g. adjustable difficulty settings, English voice acting, and Solid Snake’s hidden tuxedo outfit), as well as new features and changes of its own, including a third disc consisting almost entirely of VR training missions dubbed the “VR Disc.”‘— Metal Gear Wikia
PC Longplay [077] Metal Gear Solid Integral – Story Mode (Part 1)
Metal Gear Solid Integral – First Person View Mode Demo
Metal Gear Solid Integral – Mei Ling Talked About Memories
_______________ Metal Gear Solid (1998) ‘The development for Metal Gear Solid began in mid-1995 with the intention of creating the “best PlayStation game ever”. Developers aimed for accuracy and realism while making the game enjoyable and tense. In the early stages of development, the Huntington Beach SWAT team educated the creators with a demonstration of vehicles, weapons and explosives. Weapons expert Motosada Mori was also tapped as technical adviser in the research, which included visits to Fort Irwin and firing sessions at Stembridge Gun Rentals. Kojima stated that “if the player isn’t tricked into believing that the world is real, then there’s no point in making the game”. To fulfill this, adjustments were made to every detail, such as individually designed desks. Hideo Kojima created the characters of Metal Gear Solid. Modifications and mechanics were made by conceptual artist Yoji Shinkawa. According to Shinkawa, Solid Snake’s physique in this particular installment was based on Jean-Claude Van Damme, while his facial appearance was based on Christopher Walken. The characters were completed by polygonal artists using brush drawings and clay models by Shinkawa. Kojima wanted greater interaction with objects and the environment, such as allowing the player to hide bodies in a storage compartment. Additionally, he wanted “a full orchestra right next to the player”; a system which made modifications such as tempo and texture to the currently playing track, instead of switching to another pre-recorded track. Although these features could not be achieved, they were implemented in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Metal Gear Solid was shown to the public at E3 1997 as a short video. It was later playable for the first time at the Tokyo Game Show in 1998 and officially released the same year in Japan with an extensive promotional campaign. Television and magazine advertisements, in-store samples, and demo give-aways contributed to a total of $8 million in promotional costs. An estimated 12 million demos for the game were distributed during 1998.’ — Wiki
Trailer
Metal Gear Solid – Extreme (in 1 hour 31 minutes!)
Metal Gear Solid 1-Easter Eggs and Secrets
_______________ Policenauts (1994) ‘For the longest time, Policenauts was considered Hideo Kojima’s lost masterpiece. Although initially released in 1994 for the Japanese PC-9821 home computer, it was eventually ported to the 3DO, PlayStation and Saturn over the next few years. None of these were ever released outside of Japan. It wasn’t until 2009 that a group of determined fan translators at Policenauts.net hacked the PlayStation version and released an English language patch, to elation of thousands of fans around the world. Why all the hype? At the time of its release, Policenauts was advertised as “The Next Generation of Snatcher“. While Snatcher was released in English for the Sega CD, it gained a cult audience in America and Europe, although the sales were beyond dismal, mostly due to it being released at the tail end of the system’s life span. It wasn’t until 1998 that Kojima’s name entered the video gaming world with the release of Metal Gear Solid, which not only revived interest in the old 8-bit series, but renewed interest in Kojima’s other works. The price of Snatcher in the aftermarket shot up, and gamers everywhere wondered, just what the heck was that Policenauts thing?’— Hardcore Gaming 101
Policenauts intro (English)
Policenauts (PlayStation) English Full Playthrough
______________ Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990) ‘Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake has received near universal critical acclaim by retro game reviewers. According to Paul Soth of GameSpy, the game surpassed its predecessor Metal Gear in every way. In addition to praising the gameplay, he also praised the game’s “gripping, well written storyline” for its “rich characterization” and its “same quality of storytelling that made MGS so compelling.” He concluded that players will not be disappointed by “the great gameplay and story,” and that it remains “one of the best 8 bit games ever made.” Game Informer was more critical of the game, however, giving it a 7 out of 10. They wrote that in order to reach the most pivotal moments in the game’s story, “you must endure some of the most ridiculous situations Solid Snake has ever seen,” and that “the game’s focus on constant backtracking and keycard acquisition makes it too repetitive.” They concluded that “only diehard fans will find the experience rewarding” and that the best way to play the game is through the bonus disc of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.’— Wiki
Intro
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (MSX/Xbox 360) Full Playthrough
Big Boss’s Final Battle
______________ Super Deform Snatcher (1990) ‘SD Snatcher was released exclusively in Japan in 1990. In the early 1990s, the game was translated into English by a Dutch group of fan translators called Oasis. Although the quality of this translation arguably was not so good, it enabled many people outside Japan to play this game as well. In 2011, a re-translation project was started known as Project Melancholia. The release of this new English translation was expected to be around early 2012. On 2 January 2014 the project was released. This translation is not distributed freely though – the group requires monetary compensation for their patch.’— Wiki
MSX – SD Snatcher (1990) – Intro
Super Deformed Snatcher | MSX2 | Episode 16
_____________ Snatcher (1988) ‘Snatcher is so much a product of its time that it hurts. An adventure game released in Japan in the late 1980’s, it’s played from a static first-person perspective and relies heavily on searching environments for clues and speaking with/interrogating characters in the game (in other words, scrolling through menus), the only action coming in the form of intermittent “shooting gallery” sequences (Japanese game fans will recognise it as, in many ways, a “visual novel”, a genre still popular in the country today). One reason Snatcher burns on in many people’s hearts is its writing. Kojima is well-known for his love of telling a story, and nowhere does this work to better effect than in Snatcher. Unlike Metal Gear, which is at times simple (owing to it being an action game) and others bloated (owing to the fact it’s been around for decades), Snatcher’s adventure game setting means Kojima was able to weave his various influences together into a strong, coherent storyline that boasted surprisingly strong writing, both in terms of framing the story and in your dialogue with the game’s characters. Of course, it helped the game also looked gorgeous, especially in its later updates (originally released in 1988 on Japanese computers, it would later be ported and seriously upgraded for the PC Engine, Sega CD, Saturn and PlayStation). It wasn’t just the graphics being updated between versions, either; later versions added improved intro sequences and voice acting, while the Sega CD edition (the only one ever released in the West) even had support for Konami’s light gun peripheral to make the shooting sequences easier.’— Kotaku
Snatcher (Sega CD) Full Playthrough
Snatcher Censorship – Censored Gaming Ft. Avalanche Reviews
_____________ Metal Gear (1987) ‘Known as the first “stealth action” game, Metal Gear tells the tale of “Solid Snake”, a rookie operative of the U.S. special forces unit FOXHOUND, as he infiltrates a fortified military compound (known as Outer Heaven) to destroy a mysterious superweapon known as Metal Gear.’— Emuparadise
Metal Gear (1987) MSX – Complete Walkthrough
Metal Gear 1987 Ending
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p.s. Hey. ** scunnard, My pleasure, my honor, J. ** Kettering, Hi. ** Bill, I just started Thomas’s novel, and it’s very wonderful, of course. With ‘3:54 AM’, it was all shot for the sequence. It was part of a PBS series called ‘United States of Poetry’, directed by Mark Pellington. I’m surprised the series has never been made available online or DVD. It had a lot of big names in it, poets but also poet-y people like Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. ** Jonathan, Hey, hey, hey! You’ll always be distinguished around here and to me, sir. Paris is good, just getting too summery, and I hope Dublin, assuming you’re still there, is giving you its best goods. Come visit Paris! xo, me. ** Nick., Hi. Uh, me either, and I’m doing fine, you? Course corrections do seem to sneak up on one. No, I didn’t eat rice noodle yet! I can’t remember why. I only know about three jokes, and they’re all very old and familiar, I think. He probably already knows “‘What were Kurt Cobain’s last words?’ ‘Hole’s gonna be big'”. I’ll watch that clip later, but, coincidentally, one of other few jokes I know is “‘How do you wake up Lady Gaga?’ ‘Poke her face.'” I look forward to experiencing your passing feelings. ** Darbz 🐼🍦, I’ve been really craving soft serve ice cream the last few days, what a coincidence. So sorry about the interview. Experience is so overrated. Yeah, I lived in NYC for about 4 1/2 years in two chunks. It’s pretty big and too complicated to summarise easily. You should go, for sure. Yes, it’s expensive, but every cool place is. LA is more expensive than Paris now, it’s so weird. I’ve read ‘Skin’, yeah, and I liked it. I know the song ‘I Never Promised You a Rose Garden’, which is kind of a guilty pleasure song, but not the book. Which came first? I just saw your email. Great thank you! I can’t wait to read the chapter. I hope your Monday doesn’t live up to Monday’s bad reputation. ** Dee Kilroy, Thanks for talking to Darbz. ** Steve Erickson, The book fair was very crowded and very hot (as in temperature), but kind of fun. High concentration on Mogutin/LaBruce-style queer stuff, which isn’t really my thing. But, yeah, glad I went. I know Lopushansky by name, but I’m not sure I know the work. I’ll find out. Thanks. The song sounds pretty exciting. I believe Jared’s book is only published in the UK, but if someone reading this knows better and can correct me, please do. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Never heard of ‘Saint Maud’. Huh. Okay, it seems like something my go-to illegal streaming site would have in stock. ** Misanthrope, I did include the murderer restaurant? Shows you what I know. So sorry about your friend’s mom. Life’s ending sucks so bad. Hugs. ** Right. Someone recently asked me if I would restore and expand the blog’s very old and broken down post about video game auteur Hideo Kojima, and obviously I have today. Check in with it please. See you tomorrow.
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