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• Metal Gear Solid 2: The Novel?

  I have a bit of a soft spot for Metal Gear Solid 2; while it certainly has its share of embarrassing flaws, I'm probably one of a dozen people who were pleasantly surprised--instead of enraged--by the protagonist switch from Solid Snake to Raiden so early in the game. But even I have to admit that MGS2's story was mostly unintelligible by the end, though some of this may be due to the content cut from the game because of the September 11th terrorist attacks--or perhaps that mysterious shipment of mushrooms which arrived on the steps of Konami's HQ in early 2001. Whatever the case, you have to give Kojima some credit for throwing so many baffling, off-the-wall ideas in what was intended to be the Playstation 2's first big blockbuster. And in case the director's unique storytelling style has still has you confused about what the hell happened in Metal Gear Solid 2 a whole eight years later, then you'll be happy to know that publisher Del Ray has a novelization of the game in the works, penned by Raymond Benson, who apparently wrote a novelization of the first Metal Gear Solid in 2008. Not exactly striking while the iron's hot, eh? Read More... Posted Apr 17 2009, 01:15 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: metal gear solid, books, bob mackey, novelizations, metal gear solid 2

• 10 Years Ago This Week: Silent Hill

  Silent Hill (released February 24th, 1999) did not mark a pivotal moment in the original Playstation’s lifecycle. Technologically speaking, Silent Hill was a solid effort, but nothing unusual for the time. Foregoing the pre-rendered backgrounds that were horror games’ stock-in-trade, Silent Hill’s full-3D environments weren’t as pristinely rendered as Konami’s own, year-old Metal Gear Solid. The CGI cutscenes, another requisite of the era, were competent but by no means up to the Squaresoft gold standard. Its control was wonky, its camera unwieldy, and the voice-acting was stiff even for a Playstation game. Of course, none of that matters. Silent Hill was a pivotal moment in game’s maturation as an affecting, expressive medium. Forget technology; its technical failings made it a stronger work. Forget genre; Silent Hill is not survival horror. It’s just horror. Read More... Posted Feb 23 2009, 07:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, capcom, metal gear solid, silent hill, konami, sony, rule of rose, Playstation, tecmo, fatal frame, team silent, silent hill 2, sunsoft, 10 years ago, akira yamioka, shuji ishikawa, punchline, david lynch, jacob’s ladder, Adrian lyne, siren, clock tower

• Mega64 Calls On the Elite Beat Agents

  The world would be a better place if the Elite Beat Agents could fly at our everyday problems singing and dancing. Flat tire? Beautiful voices can re-inflate that. Broken vase? The Elite Beat Agents can coax those pieces back into place. Failing with your girlfriend in bed? Maybe not. She might run away with Agent Spin (I know I would). Game-related comedy troupe Mega64 has catapulted to nerd fame by videotaping themselves bouncing around in a kuribo, performing stealth operations in a grocery store as Solid Snake, and wandering around PetSmart as a lonely Tetris L-piece looking for a corner to lean on. This time, the group dressed up as the Elite Beat Agents and tried to bring joy to Californians by the ocean. Unfortunately, Californians seem immune to joy. Actually, given the demographic of San Francisco, they've probably just learn how to politely step around crazy people the same way suburban dwellers have learned to step around piles of dog poo. Video after the jump. Read More... Posted Feb 18 2009, 06:46 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo ds, metal gear solid, mega 64, mario, elite beat agents, tetris, video, media, fan stuff, nadia oxford

• True Tales of Thanksgiving Gaming

  Okay, okay; I know I just wrote a 1500-word feature on this subject, but I wouldn't be an unscrupulous freelance writer if I didn't milk an idea until it was crying, chapped, and swollen.  Please see my 9000 posts about Mother 3 for more on this. So now that my credibility has safely been disposed of, it's time to move onto more important topics: namely, Thanksgiving. For nearly all of us, this holiday signifies a wanted or unwanted family reunion; and with this gathering comes sitting around for extended periods of time while stuffed full of food. Obviously, this situation is perfect for the playing of video games. We are fortunate that the industry is kind enough to schedule their most important releases of the year around this period of maximum immobility. Since the purpose of this post is to share our Thanksgiving-related gaming memories (as if you couldn't tell), I'm going to go ahead and start with my own.  Thanksgiving of 2004 marked two memorable events: the recent release of Metal Gear Solid 3, and also one of my brief flirtations with food poisoning--in this case, it was a post-Thanksgiving Taco Bell menu item.  Yes, I was young and stupid. Read More... Posted Nov 26 2008, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: metal gear solid, bob mackey, holiday, thanksgiving, metal gear solid 3, gaming memories

• A Decade of Gaming Excellence

  Just like Mackey, seeing that Half-Life is only a dollar on account of it’s ten years of being awesome brought back plenty of wonderful memories of late 90’s gaming. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that 1998 was not a great year, but the best year for the medium in its history. I think this is easy to prove. Below I’ve listed just a handful of 1998’s most well remembered games, and many of them continue to represent the best-in-class of their respective genres. Think about all the changes that have happened in gaming since these came out: high definition came to fruition, the Wii changed the rules, all those idiots you muted on Xbox Live last night were born. And yet, these titles endure: Read More... Posted Nov 20 2008, 01:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: metal gear solid, half-life, starcraft, joe keiser, 1998

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 3

  Donkey Kong Country – Snow Barrel Blast Donkey Kong Country isn’t the most fondly remembered SNES game out there. It was marketed to hell and back in 1994, its pre-rendered characters shoved down millions of gamers’ gullets as a final grasp at technological relevance before the dawn of 3D gaming’s rule. At heart, it’s a simplistic and fun platformer whose visuals have aged poorly. But certain stages in DKC still impress fourteen years later, thanks to a combination of inspired graphical presentation and deft sound arrangement. Snow Barrel Blast is the best DKC has to offer. An ice level that seems simple enough when Donkey and Diddy Kong emerge from an igloo at the start but soars when the sky starts to darken and the level goes from sunny winter landscape to brooding driving snow storm. It’s purely aesthetic, not informing the game’s basic platforming at all. But its beauty makes it the one thing memorable about DKC besides the hype. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:10 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 2

  Lost Planet – The Whole Game Lost Planet, Keiji Inafune’s attempt to make Halo for Japan, is one of this console generation’s most underappreciated games. The shooting is tight, the levels are impeccably designed, the automated-grappling-hook platforming is neat, and the Starship Troopers-bug baddies are some of the cooler looking HD threats out there. Sure, it has some clunky parts, but the good far outweighs the bad. What’s more, the entire game is all about snow and ice. The initial stages, wandering the frozen wastes of E.D.N. III, are still jaw dropping. It isn’t even the swirling snow or the ice-bound cities; it’s the sound, the crunch, of stomping through snow drifts. My teeth grit just thinking about it. The snowy setting is also behind Lost Planet’s health system. Your health is constantly draining because of the cold, so you’re forced to constantly collect the body heat of felled foes. That is cooler than crawling inside a Taun-Taun. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:05 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 1

  Autumn may only be a few weeks old, but, as it is with all seasons, you can feel its successor growing during the increasingly long nights. It’s getting cold and the chill has got us thinking about cool things, here at 61 Frames Per Second. As a result, we’re doing two things. One, we’re quoting Batman and Robin far more than we should. Two, we’re thinking about ice levels. Ice levels, like fire levels, refers to a theme more than a specific element. An ice level is more than ice. It’s freezing water, driving snow, strong wind, and grey skies. It’s gaming that makes you want to wrap up in a giant bearskin rug. Naked. Or not, to each their own. Here, we present to you, the top ten greatest ice levels in gaming history. – John Constantine Chrono Trigger – Death Peak *Spoilers. Big Ones.* The snow-capped peak is not an uncommon locale in role-playing games. You’ve been there before: there’s a giant monster, typically abominable, waiting for you at the summit, and the journey to him is guaranteed to entail solving an ice block puzzle or three. You are also guaranteed to find some convenient Ice Armor or even, if you’re lucky, a Fire Sword. Chrono Trigger’s Death Peak, the lone natural environment in the Lavos-ruined 2300 AD, is different. It is, ostensibly, optional. Like everything else in Trigger’s end game following the silent hero’s death, you can skip the mountain entirely, though ascending it is fundamental in reaching the plot’s true conclusion. Death Peak is the physical embodiment of everything at stake in Trigger’s conflict, a frozen place inhabited by stray creatures, cold, and Lavos’ offspring, growing fat on decay, waiting to leave the dead planet to claim others as their own. Its challenge is both environmental and emblematic: your surviving heroes must push against snow and wind, against nature, to both save the world and also their fallen friend. No boss waits at the pinnacle, just a dreary sky and a chance to use the Chrono Trigger itself. When Crono is resurrected, the wind and snow cease, the sun emerges from the clouds and is eclipsed. If you choose to see it, it is the turning point in the game, the moment hope overcomes despair. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• Whatcha Playing: Weight of the Stone

  Videogames are rich with memorable moments. Born of both play and story, there are those images, those brief passages of achievement, that are emblazoned in your memory: the first time you clear 100,000 points in Tetris, the dogs bursting through the window in Resident Evil, the booming march that begins to play after the baby metroid’s sacrifice during Super Metroid’s climactic battle with Mother Brain. We are tied to these events thanks not only to those games’ mechanical and artistic design but because of our agency in them. We facilitate these conclusions and, since the game is well-made, we feel them. Another classic: Solid Snake’s first fight with the cyborg ninja, Grey Fox. Like so much of the Metal Gear Solid series, this sequence is ludicrous: simplistic to play, overdramatic, over-everything. But when Grey Fox begins screaming, “Make me feel!” and your controller begins to shake in time with his uncontrollable gesticulations, the scene becomes something else. In 1998, rumble technology was still relatively new in home gaming, so having this drama reflected in the physical world made that much more of an impression. Every time Snake was kicked in the gut or when you landed a hit amidst this half-man’s yowling was tangible. I feel a lot like Grey Fox when I play videogames these days, particularly action fare. I want an action game to make me feel. Not necessarily a profound emotional reaction – though that’s always a plus – so much as a physical one. Read More... Posted Sep 29 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, metroid, star wars, resident evil, metal gear solid, sega, lucasarts, tetris, yakuza, die hard arcade

• Where Are All Of Videoland's Nice Jewish Boys?

  Sundown tonight marks the start of 5769 according to the Jewish lunar calender (endorsed by werewolves everywhere). Become an honourary Jew and take the day off work to eat apples and honey. Everyone around me is doing it. Hell, any day is a good day to eff off and eat apples and honey. And by "apples and honey" I mean "wine" and by "eat" I mean "drink." In August 2005, I got to attend Otakon in Baltimore and schmoose with Rabbi Wolfwood. Rabbi Wolfwood is a widely popular cosplayer who dresses as Wolfwood, the travelling priest from the Trigun anime--but he makes a few necessary alterations to his costume, of course. Good Jewish boys don't carry Cross Punishers; they carry Star Of David...Punishers. The Rebbe and I talked briefly about a missing presence in games: Jewish characters. Though they tend to appear in big-name games developed in the West (Bioshock had its delightfully batshit Sander Cohen), Japan's roster of Jewish characters hovers somewhere around -0.1%. Read More... Posted Sep 29 2008, 03:08 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: bioshock, metal gear solid, religion, nadia oxford, culture, fiddler on the roof, religion and games

• The End Has No End

  I recently played through Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction and, while I had a long list of problems with the game, the conclusion cinema was certainly a troublesome concern. More than anything else, the massively disappointing finale made me realize how intensely narrative-driven the game was, even more than the New York Times' claim that the game was an interactive Pixar movie (which, for the record, it totally is not). Ever since games first became produced on discs rather than cartridges the focus on cinema-centric storytelling has been undeniable, most notably with early Playstation games like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid. Read More... Posted Aug 07 2008, 01:30 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: metal gear solid, nes, Playstation, final fantasy vii, cinematics, endings, ratchet &amp, clank

• A Letter to the Industry: How to Destroy the Female Gender Barricade

  Girl gamers, how to attract more women to games, making games for girls, various takes on these topics have been popping up a lot lately. This is a subject quite close to my own heart and I have compiled a few suggestions for game developers to consider when making their next title (assuming said game is aimed at an audience broader than “randy male youth”). These are not suggestions for how to make a game just for girls but rather, how not to drive us away... Read More... Posted Jun 26 2008, 11:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: metroid, beyond good and evil, metal gear solid, final fantasy, amber ahlborn, samus aran, feminist, girl gaming, klonoa

• The 61FPS Review: Metal Gear Solid 4 Part 2

  As I mentioned in the first part of this review, Guns of the Patriots is the Metal Gear that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that, for the series and game type, passive viewing is every bit as much a part of the play experience as actual player control. It’s misleading, though, to think that Metal Gear Solid 4’s greatest achievement is its presentation. Since its debut on the MSX in 1986, the actual game under Metal Gear’s graphics and story has been about using a limited, often suffocating interface to explore multiple solutions to a problem. A classic scenario: Solid Snake enters a room filled with obstacles (packing crates, trees, stationary vehicles) and a handful of hostile artificial intelligences (soldiers, security cameras, dogs) moving along set paths. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater The goal is to guide Snake passed hostile elements without alerting them to his presence. The environment and tools acquired in its boundaries (anything from firearms to camouflage) create options; you could crawl under cars to avoid detection or tranquilize a soldier to distract the others as you move on. Snake is difficult to manage though; move too fast and you risk accidentally walking into an enemy’s line of sight, fire a gun and you risk being heard. You could make the argument that the finicky and imprecise control of Snake is immersive, simulating the stress and precision of actual stealth, but the truth is that it superficially increases difficulty, masking the rudimentary artificial intelligence’s faults. In Guns of the Patriots, not only has the environment and multiple-solution approach been expanded upon in both scope and realism, but the control has been streamlined to a point where agency is truly in the player’s hands, no longer at the mercy of a stilted interface. Read More... Posted Jun 24 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, metal gear solid, hideo kojima, 61fps review, metal gear, mgs4

• The 61FPS Review: Metal Gear Solid 4 Part 1

  I’ve spent the last ten years of my life resisting Metal Gear Solid. I didn’t play the series’ opening chapter until April of 1999 and, even then, I only played because it was gifted to me by an exceptionally generous friend. At sixteen, I considered myself a staunch traditionalist. I wanted my games two-dimensional and my gameplay familiar so Metal Gear Solid didn’t appeal to me (I'd be lying, though, if I said its monumental popularity wasn't at the heart of my dismissing it.) It took playing MGS to realize Hideo Kojima, more an eccentric than a trendsetter at that point, had captured the gaming zeitgeist in two discs of content. Basic play in MGS was little more than a polished version of the original Metal Gear’s, but its presentation and narrative ambitions were a new face for gaming, every bit as redefining as Mario’s first hop-around Princess Toadstool’s 3D castle. MGS’ in-engine acted-cutscene, dramatic-instance formula remains the template for storytelling in videogames to this day. Read More... Posted Jun 16 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, metal gear solid, hideo kojima, 61fps review

• Games Cost Money: Sony Cans The Getaway and Eight Days

  While the salad days of the Playstation 2 are at an end for Sony, things have been looking up for the entrenched corporate monster in 2008. Little Big Planet continues to wow, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue had a healthy release in April for a game that’s little more than a demo, and the buzz surrounding Metal Gear Solid 4’s impending release is loud enough to even drown out some of that Grand Theft Auto fervor that’s been going on. The stigma surrounding the Playstation 3 – that it’s an expensive, ugly machine without many games to play on it – is slowly starting to fade, and it has everything to do with some truly exciting exclusive software. So it’s disheartening to hear that two games being developed by Sony’s own London Studio have been cancelled. Eight Days, a Michael Bay-tinged action game that fused car chases with shootouts in the American southwest, and The Getaway, a sequel to London Studio’s successful PS2 Brit-crime drama series, have both been given the axe “due to the redistribution of resources and budget.” While I’m the first to exclaim my love for the big-budget blockbuster games coming out on the 360, PS3, and PC these days, the truth is that, for at least the short-term future, they may not be an economically feasible pursuit for most developers. Read More... Posted Jun 05 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, little big planet, next-gen, xbox 360, metal gear solid, sony, gran turismo, Playstation, halo, the getaway, eight days

• Metal Gear Solid: Hideo Kojima’s Inability to Show Instead of Tell

  As Metal Gear Sold 4’s June 12th release date looms, more and more information about Solid Snake’s purported final adventure has begun to leak into the press. British gaming mag CVG reported late last week that MGS4 features a cutscene that lasts a full ninety-minutes. While the article doesn’t mention where said cutscene appears in the game – it may be smack in the middle or after the conclusion of play for all we know - it still means that a player will watch MGS4 for an hour and a half instead of playing it. Director and designer Hideo Kojima, in his Metal Gear Solid series especially, is notorious for using long non-interactive cutscenes and filling them with verbose, convoluted narrative. This over-reliance on the narrative language of film turns a number of players away from the games completely. Just two months ago, I replayed through MGS1 through 3 and both of my roommates could barely stand to be in the room while I played because, more often than not, the screen was filled with stiff talking heads. Games are meant to be played, not viewed, and that maxim makes Kojima a difficult creator to engage. Read More... Posted May 27 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, metal gear solid, hideo kojima, joystiq, cvg

• Bringing Sexy Back: Yoji Shinkawa

  When it comes to Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima’s always the first name that springs to mind. Yeah he’s the creator, the designer, the director, the writer of all that dialogue, not to mention that the entire team behind the games is named after the man. But another name springs to my mind as I quiver with anticipation of Metal Gear Solid 4’s release: Yoji Shinkawa. Shinkawa’s expressive illustrations have been the face of the MGS series from the beginning and are, if I do say so, sexy as hell. The vaguely defined faces of his figures, the broad-stroke heavy lines of his characters, the almost melancholic tone of his largely monochromatic illustrations. Shinkawa gets us hot and no mistake. What do you say, FPSers? Read More... Posted May 14 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, metal gear solid, hideo kojima, bringing sexy back, yoji shinkawa