{"id":2512,"date":"2013-03-11T18:30:40","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T18:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=2512"},"modified":"2013-03-12T15:39:19","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T15:39:19","slug":"my-top-100-10-metal-gear-solid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=2512","title":{"rendered":"My Top 100: #10 – Metal Gear Solid"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1998<\/a>

1998 – Konami (PlayStation, PlayStation Network)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Wow, 90 posts already?\u00a0 Where did the time go?<\/p>\n

I was somewhat split on which game to\u00a0actually feature on the countdown.\u00a0\u00a0The original version of Metal Gear Solid<\/em> blew my mind in so many ways,\u00a0and it became one of my favourite games before I even reached the title screen.\u00a0 On the other hand, 2004’s\u00a0MGS<\/em> remake for GameCube, The Twin Snakes<\/em>, made a\u00a0some big changes that perfected\u00a0the game even\u00a0further.<\/p>\n

Without that PlayStation version, however, I would have never even considered playing Sons of Liberty<\/em>, The Twin Snakes<\/em> or anything else in the Metal Gear<\/em> series.\u00a0 That’s why I had to go with that one!<\/p>\n

Where do I begin, though?<\/p>\n

The game starts with a lengthy cinematic, and though we didn’t know it at the time, it was only a taste of things to come for future games in the series.\u00a0 I couldn’t help but be impressed at how it felt like a big-budget Hollywood movie.\u00a0 The graphics might not have aged all that well, but at the time, those first few minutes\u00a0explaining Snake’s insertion into Shadow Moses\u00a0were really\u00a0quite impressive.<\/p>\n

That first little area of the game, where the credits are given time to finish while you learn\u00a0basic controls, was all I needed to experience to know that this would be a game to remember.\u00a0 I knew\u00a0the idea was to sneak around and stay out of sight, but that moment I stepped in a puddle and alerted a guard to my presence, I almost peed my pants.<\/p>\n

“Aaaahhhh he’s comin’, the radar shows red, he’s mad, gotta hide!”<\/p>\n

I failed spectacularly\u00a0at hiding, and\u00a0died about 30 seconds after I started controlling Snake.\u00a0 Instead of letting it get me down, I soldiered on.\u00a0\u00a0How\u00a0Solid\u00a0Snake\u00a0had to think, I\u00a0thought the same way.\u00a0\u00a0I had never really been\u00a0immersed into a video game like that before, keeping track of everything I was doing, misleading guards with\u00a0footprints in the snow, making noises for diversions, using force only when absolutely necessary,\u00a0or using chaff grenades to disable security cameras.\u00a0\u00a0Those sorts of things\u00a0might all be par for the course now, but that was\u00a0pretty damn cool 15 years ago.<\/p>\n

Any minor complaints I would have had with MGS<\/em> were addressed in The Twin Snakes<\/em>.\u00a0 Where the original’s gunfighting could sometimes feel a bit strange (not knowing what you were shooting at could be a pain in the arse), the remake\u00a0changed a few of the camera angles throughout the game to help\u00a0give you\u00a0a better idea of what lied ahead.<\/p>\n

It also added MGS2<\/em>‘s first person view, which could be used at the press of a button to help you aim a little better.\u00a0 That alleviated some headaches\u00a0that came\u00a0whenever the game used a top-down perspective in a big room with lots of enemies, half of which were somewhere\u00a0off the screen and still shooting at you.<\/p>\n

All in all,\u00a0both games\u00a0were so\u00a0fun, fresh\u00a0and hilariously over-the-top that I couldn’t help but include it among my favourites.<\/p>\n

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