What are you playing now?

[SoS]

A week ago or so I started in on Metal Gear: The Phantom Menace. I was having a good time until about 40 minutes into in when I realized I didn't have the faintest idea who I was playing as. See, you play as a character with a shaggy 80s mullet, 5 o'clock shadow, and eyepatch, which I figured makes me Solid Snake, and is all I need to know. But it turns out that you are in fact a completely different character: "Big Boss". Not only that, but apparently I played this same character in at least one of the previous games, and never caught on to the difference. After poring through various wikis for the evening trying to get caught up, I finally admitted to myself that I haven't honestly been able to follow what has been going on in the Metal Gear storyline since the 80s. So, I decided to do what any sane person with no girlfriend or major responsibilities would do, which is to start over at the beginning and replay every damn game, including all the oddball titles that I missed the first time around.

I've already played through the original Metal Gear, and am now halfway through Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (not to be confused with Metal Gear Solid 2). The early games are crude by today's standard, but I'm still very much enjoying them.

You should be ashamed of yourself! How dare you compare Big Boss with Solid Snake! Solid does not wear an eyepatch, and no the Solid Eye does not count as one, plus Big Boss sports a full on beard on top of the 5 o'clock shadow.

If you are going to replay this for story's sake you should play them in this order:

MGS3: Snake Eater > MGS: Peace Walker > MGSV: Ground Zeroes > MGSV: Phantom Pain > Metal Gear > MG2: Solid Snake > Metal Gear Solid > MGS2: Sons of Liberty > MGS4: Guns of the Patriots

There are some other side-games like Portable Ops, which isn't bad...you can just get the cliff notes, and spin-offs that are totally skip-able... yes, I'm looking at you Revengeance!


--SoS

[shmax]

Solid does not wear an eyepatch

Sure, he does, look!


But you're right on all other counts. I have no excuse for now knowing what's going on other than that the games come out 5 years apart, the two main protagonists look very similar, and the chronology jumps around a lot so that ages are hard to keep track of, and somehow Kiefer Sutherland got involved (give it 5 more years, and Troy Baker will get involved).

I considered playing the games in chronological order, but I decided I'd rather be re-introduced to the characters in their canonical order, and experience a gradual gaining in fidelity of the games.

I just finished Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. I now know that Big Boss was Snake's former commander, and is one of those "war-is-all-we-know" trope-types. Up next is Metal Gear Solid, which I think I'm looking forward to most of all.

[shmax]

Finished Metal Gear Solid, and am now about 30% of the way through Metal Gear Solid 2, and 100% of the way through wondering wtf they have me playing as "Raiden" instead of Snake.

[KidTDragon]

I picked up Super Mario Maker on Sunday and I've been tinkering with it when I can. There are some clever stage-makers out there. I definitely recommend it if you're any kind of side-scrolling Mario game fan.

[shmax]

My Metal Gear-a-thon continues: finished Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear: Portable Ops (playing anything more complex than digital paddy-cake on the PSP is NOT a pleasure). Up next is, ah, let's see... Metal Gear Solid IV. Or possibly Assassin's Creed... I'm a bit Snake'ed-out...

[shmax]

Snake-ed my way through Metal Gear Solid IV: Guns of the Patriots, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this!

[shmax]

Finished up with MGSV: The Phantom Pain (got the true ending). Sweet lollies, that may be the most technically perfect video game ever made. Sure was long, though. I don't have the energy to start on Assassin's Creed, now, so I guess I'd better get back to working on shmax.com. Should have some exciting new developments for you folks in a few weeks.

[Spiff-O-Matic]

You should play Destiny with me guys!

[shmax]

You should play Destiny with me guys!

but but there are so many other games to play! Say, I'm glad it came up, because I just finished Mad Max, which is great fun. It's basically this year's Shadow of Mordor, only with more of a leather daddy feel. And let's see, before that was Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and before that was Fallout IV. Not sure what to tackle next, but I see Tomb Raider on the top of the pile...