Zero Punctuation: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Mahoshonen

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Jul 28, 2008
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I haven't played MSG5, but I read on another forum that the fast-travel system was handled through the Cardboard Box. And I thought "Hah, that makes Yahtzee's complaint about the helicopter plus his inability to find a use for the box unintentionally hilarious."
 

Frankster

Space Ace
Mar 13, 2009
2,507
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M0rp43vs said:
Don't you worry. I'm sure Konami will put out more sequels.
(...)
Look forward to Yahtzee's review of MGS:panchinko Pain.
Yey! Thanks for giving me hope again in this dark bleak world.

*resume writing script of yahtzee and hideo kojima buddy cop movie*
 

Saika Renegade

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Nov 18, 2009
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I think this might just be the kindest he's ever been to a core Metal Gear game.

That said, ballooning things into orbit will never stop being funny and I've had a great time using the cardboard box for a combination of confusing the more credulous guards and sledding away like the world is my dusty brown Slip'n'Slide.
 

Mike000

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Nov 22, 2007
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Dear Yahtzee:

The cardboard box has 3 purposes:

1) the incredibly lame "stealth" benefit that it was in the earlier games.
2) steal the shipping invoice off of the "cargo loading area" in each base, and you can fast-travel between enemy bases.
3) cardboard box sledding down hills. (yes, really!)
 

elvor0

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Sep 8, 2008
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deadish said:
A fairly positive review from the likes of Yahtzee - mostly nitpicks about the UI.

From the Let's Plays I have watched (as I stuck so bad at action games), story-wise it seems pretty typical of the MGS series. Not sure what everyone above is going on about.

This is probably Kojima's Magnum Opus (and Swan Song) for the MGS series - and unlike with MGS4 he didn't have to spend time tying up all the loose ends (as it was literally the end of the story) resulting in "too many cutscenes" complaints.
I think this goes too far in the other direction though. There's barely any cut scenes or story moments, yes, MGS4 had too long cut-scenes, though was sort of necessary to tie up the story. But at the end of the day, MGS has /always/ been a story/cutscene heavy series and this is so light its at the point of FPS levels of story. I never really got to spend any time with the characters, let alone adjust to Big Boss new voice. The villain has about 4 minutes of screen time. The opening section is the only bit with a heavy cutscenes, after that there must've been....10 minutes of story?

There's even chunks where someone should most certainly say something.
The bit where they find The Boss' AI pod in Hueys lab, and it even says "Hello Jack", yet Snake just kind of glances at it and moves on. Nobody says anything about it.

And Snake must have about 10 "lines" of dialogue outside of the tapes. I know he's usually quiet, but hes almost a silent protagonist here.

I dunno, it kind of feels like they cut out the cutscenes to accommodate for people who aren't/weren't fans before now to the point of doing a disservice to the people who are invested in the story and like the story focus. Though what really peeves me is....there are no boss fights. In a Metal Gear game, that's a major sin.
 

crazya02

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May 25, 2015
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Michael Prymula said:
30 seconds to load a menu? Wow that is bad, probably due to Australia's weak internet access, as I have the 360 version and no menu has ever taken that long to load for me.
Jim Sterling said that load times in online mode were unbearable too.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

Bound to escape
Legacy
Jul 15, 2013
4,953
6
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Yeah, definately play this game offline for a smooth menu transition. The online seems to add nothing but load times so far. Very fun game and the stealth feels brilliantly detailed (aside a humourous AI path-finding glitch or two) with sporadic bouts of insanity in some encounters. The script for some of the charaters though, especially Ocelot and his over-acted voice, is often cringeworthy when it isn't directly teaching me something new. He reminds me of that Boss from the IT crowd with the style of pronunciation. It seems to not synch with Sutherland's serious grimble grumbles (good grimble grumbles, of course). Then there is the glaring masculinity of the entire game where it is all big, strong, gruff men doing all the important shit that needs to be done while the only female that appears, has a rather affectionate and somewhat intrusive camera attatched to her. Everyone either loves or fears her, while she wears pretty much nothing and sporting titties each the size of her head. All i can do is quickly explain to whoever walks in that it isn't what it looks like and the actual game part of this game is light years better than this god-awful first impression... then proceed to hang my head in shame. It would appear Hideo finds female characters intimidating to explore. Like he has never spoken to one without bolting towards the nearest bush (unintenional lol) like a startled deer.
In the un-ironic words of people more annoying than most; it is a bit of a sausage-fest in there, it does nothing to hide this. But it is still the best stealth triple A experience for current gen.
 

Scrythe

Premium Gasoline
Jun 23, 2009
2,367
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I also didn't find a use for the cardboard box, at first. I racked up a ridiculous amount of GMP because I stripped down every weapon to its bones (save for silencers), never researched any new weapons, and reduced the amount of stuff to take with me, because for some odd reason it costs money to deploy with certain weapons already in your hands despite it being absolutely free to fly to the base with that very same stuff. So when I discovered the box actually costs money to use, I told it to fuck off.

It was when I finally broke down and purchased a strategy guide, mostly because half the Africa missions are "find a person in the wilderness" or "tail someone in the most convoluted Hitman-esque path for 1000 meters", I discovered that the game actually has a fast-travel mechanic involving the box.

Unfortunately, they took a cue from Ubisoft and you have to visit the fast travel spots and gather the invoices, because you can just *tell* your men "Hey, I found a thing here" but instead have to gather each receipt individually for them to realize that's how it works, despite the fact that they can call in perfectly-patterned airstrikes and can send you care packages with such pinpoint accuracy you can actually nail a guard in the head with one.

I actually really, really love this game, so most of my criticisms are nitpicks.
 

COMaestro

Vae Victis!
May 24, 2010
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Scrythe said:
Unfortunately, they took a cue from Ubisoft and you have to visit the fast travel spots and gather the invoices, because you can just *tell* your men "Hey, I found a thing here" but instead have to gather each receipt individually for them to realize that's how it works, despite the fact that they can call in perfectly-patterned airstrikes and can send you care packages with such pinpoint accuracy you can actually nail a guard in the head with one.
Speaking of the care packages

That's how I took out Quiet. Two supply drops on her head and she was out. S-rank and all objectives met for the mission :D