Metal Solid Gear Series (spoilers)

I've previously played Twin Snakes back when it was first released. That was my first experience, and then I was persuaded by people here to replay the first game followed by the sequels.

* I realize I didn't mention Portable Ops. I don't plan to get one. *

In terms of ranking the games of the series, I think that

MGS3 > MGS1 = Twin Snakes > MGS 2 > MGS 4

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MSG1
The graphics really turned me off to the game initially. The controls weren't that great, but I managed to complete it. It isn't really that different-from/inferior-to Twin Snakes to be honest.

MGS2

I didn't really have a problem with being Raiden (probably because I knew about it before hand) , but I feel like they rushed the game or something. I mean there just wasn't really that many boss fights in the game at all.
(Olga, Fat man , Hind , Vamp , Ray , Solidus )
Now that I think about it, there were quite a few bosses, but they were either way too short of a battle or way too easy.

The last part of the game when in Arsenal Gear seemed like a completely different game in a bad way. It became completely action, which I don't think fits the series at all.

The story was interesting when it was just about the Patriots running things and when it was the Solid Snake Simulator, because you could clearly see how it fits perfectly. I think it starts to fail when the AIs explain it as the other thing. ( Unless I understood this wrong, Shadow Moses Incident was a set-up by the Patriots, which makes the motivation of certain characters very... inconsistant)

I was half expecting that after the initial game is over, I get to play as Snake when he is in Shell 2, kinda like Resident Evil 2. How awesome would this have been?

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MGS3
At first, I really dislike the new radar/camo system. As the game progressed, it grew on me. (read: As I got better at playing the game)

The presentation and the cutscenes of the game didn't seem that intrusive. Though, realistically, Snake really should have let EVA kill Ocelot during that one scene.


I think I knew I loved this game when I started climbing the long ladder while the theme song played. There's just this magical james-bondy feeling that I'm sure was entirely intentional.

This is easily the best MGS game.

The ideology behind the game was also good. Friends becoming enemies just because of the change in geopolitics, soldiers are just tools of the government, etc.

At this point in the series, Kojima seemed to have taken the 'realism' out completely in terms of bosses. Voljin has magical lightning power, Ocelot has impossible ricochet abilities, Cobras all seem to explode when they die, bees out of mouth, etc etc.
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MGS4

I'm not sure why Kojima thinks the riding/shooting sequences were good. We had two in this game and it just seems lazy to me... I'm positive that it takes less game-play-level design to create rails than to make full levels. They're just too easy. The inclusion has made Act 3 in Europe completely brainless. (consists of waiting for the resistance member to walk into the hq, the bike ride, and then the boss.)

The pacing wasn't really that effective. The bosses weren't memorable, especially since they're all insane soldiers whose main gimmick is that they're insane.
Drebin talking about the BBs after they died. Each of the Beasts essentially had the same story and it wasn't compelling at all.



The worst part of the 4 are the cutscenes that took place all the time. I know, this is a game, so why am I judging it based on the story/cutscenes? Well, since the time spent not-playing was greater than the time playing, I think this has a huge factor in the game.

Do we need to see all the American soldiers prepare to ambush Liquid? Individual shots of them all setting up? What about the pointless scenes. Unlike the other games where the WTF moments were good...

Meryl and Johnny at the end fighting dozens if not hundreds of the "best of the best" PMCs who still has the nanomachines making them all super veterans. They lose to Meryl (who was already injured) and Johnny ( who is a fucking newbie spaz) . What the fuck, Kojima?

One armed Raiden stopping Outer Heaven from crushing Snake? What the fuck?

What about armless Raiden gaining magical thunder power? Oh. That's just nanomachines.

The nanomachine concept is a huge disappointment. Bosses in MGS1 was mostly realistc in terms of their abilities. None of them were too far-fetched. (Psycho Mantis is believable-ish because the military did do some research in that kind of field.) MGS2 took this realism and shat on it. Vamp had magic healing powers/Walking on water powers / Changing density at will / Hovering powers. Fortune had magic bullet dodging abilities (right before she died). Not even nanomachines can retcon that unless she had an experimental nanomachine prototype. Fatman was fat?

MGS3 introduced the Cobras. The Pain can control bees. The Fear is super agile, strong, and can disjoint his double-joint at will. The Fury can control spirits of fire when dead. The End is gets his energy from the sun like a fucking plant. Voljin controls like ten thousand volts of electricity. All of this exist before nanomachines.

The motivation of characters are really strange. If Vamp wanted to die, why doesn't he chop his own head off? If Ocelot wanted The Patriots destroyed, why doesn't he just ask the characters for help? What about Naomi? Why did she go back to Liquid at all?
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Patriots being the gang from MGS3: This was completely retarded. I just can't see how the characters could turn evil like that. Major Zero seemed like a good guy. He didn't really seem to know The Boss that well, so why would he devote the rest of his life to her memory? I understand how Big Boss would feel compelled, but Zero was just listening to the whole thing remotely.

And I thought that Ocelot found the Philosopher's Legacy and game it to the American Philosophers. How did Zero manage to get it? Also, would Zero really trust the double-crossing spy EVA enough to allow her to be in The Patriots? None of the characters seemed that close to each other.
It isn't too big of a stretch for Zero to include all of them (minus EVA) in The Patriots, but did they really not have any other founding members? Honestly?

Also, it seemed strange that they keep calling Dr. Clark Para-medic. It got to the point where it became an annoying name-drop.

* Apparently some of the issues I have with 4 is nullified by Portable Ops.
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Now, I don't want to seem like a complete hayter of the game. I do love the Rex vs Ray battle, Snake-crawling-towards GW scene, and the final fight. I also really liked the Drebin character, though I detest the monkey.

Wall-E

I laughed and I cried. This is a genuinely good movie. I'm not quite sure how Pixar was able to cohesively put together a film which essentially has silent protagonists.

I thought that the whole film premise is kind of similar to Idiocracy, except with a lot more optimism and better technology.

The only negative thing about the movie was that the theatre was warm and I think I'm now physically sick.

Lots of people + some people being sick + warm + not supremely well ventilated = sickness.

I'd probably give this film 8.5/10, which is pretty awesome.

The Class

The instructor had difficulties setting up the projector, and since all the notes are done using the computer, there was nothing he could do.

Concentration. Why is it so hard to concentrate? It has already been twenty minutes, and the class was getting really noticeably restless. I find my eyes slowly shutting. It was all involuntary, I swear. I nodded off slightly . This is not working. I promised myself that I wouldn't.

I was struggling to stay awake and if I didn't do something, I wouldn't be able to. My coat had to go. Temperature can really affect consciousness. I took it off while still in the seat, careful not to disturb my fellow occupants. It wasn't enough though. The area was too warm.

I elected to move my whole person around to a less populated seating area. That seems to work. I waved to my new neighbours and they waved back.

Alas, the projector decided to work. The instructor haphazardly put up a couple of slides with minimal content and then stopped. He comes to the conclusion that since so many people have left already and since this is really such an important concept, he might as well just continue the lecture next time. He performed his signature salute, which was derived partially from gangster gestures and partially from the famous queen hand-wave.

So... all the efforts were wasted. I didn't need to stay for this at all. It was one of those days where it was the only class. Essentially, three hours was wasted.

I looked around. The feeling was everywhere.

Metal Solid Gear 2

Finally finished Metal Solid Gear 2. I've got a few comments.

1) Cutscenes are hella long. I think of the 14 hours I played, probably 2-3 hours were cutscenes or codec scenes.


2) Story is really convoluted. I can't really explain without spoiling.


3) Certain things don't make sense. Psychic powers? Ability to come back from the dead? Arm controlling man? Secret Society that's been dead?

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I expect to finish the third one by the end of Thursday.

Dude tries to rob convience store with a palm tree

I got this link from digg.com, which didn't really had any useful information posted.

http://www.doubleviking.com/videos/page0.html/dude-tries-to-rob-convenience-store-with-a-palm-tree-9624.html

When people see a video like this, they immediate go 'Wow, that's just retarded. Typical stupidity of desperate people'

I see a video like this and I have to question the source of the video. Is it even authentic, or is it a comedy sketch that's gone horribly wrong?

There's just no context, and I wish that modern media/bloggers would try and do more research before presenting information.

Blu-ray movies finally arrived

To be honest, I'm not really that excited.

Quitting WoW for a week.

starting right now (or ~6:30)

I don't feel like explaining.

I'm just putting this out there so people can bitch at me if I fail.

I don't like C-61 one bit. Bad news for Canadians.

In case you don't know, this is the Canadian version of the American DMCA which outlines what is acceptable or not regarding copyright and new(er) technology.

Now, I'm obviously no expert on Law, but I can point to several resources

Arstechica has an article which basically states what is wrong with the bill.

Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, is generally on top of all things Canadian and privacy/digital rights orientated. He has interesting commentary and I recommend you continue to read his blog.

This authentically matters, and you can help change this.
It is pretty much given that in order for people to actually go and write their elected officials, they must be really, really, passionate about the topic. Now, for every person who writes, there must be a hundred more who feel the same but don't.

That's right! By writing, you're going by proxy the hundreds who won't.

I'm asking you to be one of the few who actually write a sincere letter to your politician about what you think of this. (Did you know that letters to the Government are postage-free?)

What would the world be like if...

I would strangely like to see this happen:
1) All electronic data is erased. Let's say that a huge EMP wave destroys all hard-disks and solid-state drives / CDs, Cassette tapes, dvds, etc.
2) All the ink in printed books/magazines/whatever fade all at once. (Printed money is safe, everything else is screwed)

Essentially, this would be a world where there are no legal documents or any reference to the little things nobody cares about.
No music, movies, poems, books to  allude to.
Everything would be new once again. (I'm not destroying the mechanism to create new art, new music, etc.)
Would people reinstate useless bylaws or whatever like jaywalking?
How would people react given that whatever caused this is entirely plausible in a scientific way as to avoid a total breakdown of society into religious crap?

I'd pay to see this world.
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Arman without Internet

I feel bad for the guy, but oh well.

I've been having my very own french tutor in preparation for my upcoming trip. She's not a very good tutor though, being a game and all, but she has reminded me of some french-ish stuff. That's wonderful.

I haven't been doing much lately, and it feels like a waste. But hey, life is pretty much a waste, right? Right?

PS: I am FINALLY done with the renovation. I know I've been saying this for a while, but I swear that last thursday was the final time I'll see the wretched house.

Leaving July 19

coming back August 9th.

Just over three weeks.



I've been experimenting with audacity and song manipulation, and It is really hard to dissect a song into various components (drums, vocals, piano, etc).