Sneaking in a Post: METAL GEAR SOLID HD COLLECTION

CATCHING UP!
Woot! Did you all see that? I finally returned and posted something up here. Now I need to move forward into my next post! Easy-peasy.

TITLE: Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
Old...New!

I have no clue where I originally picked up Metal Gear Solid 2, but it was the first game in the Metal Gear series I played, and sadly, it's the only one I've completed to this day. Just like the two prior entries here, it's also one of a handful of games I've beaten a dozen times or more. Excessively so too, because just like Star Fox 64, I never actually completed the game! I mean sure, I beat the game and kicked Solidus Snake into the dirt multiple times! But...I never collected all of the dogtags, and because I jumped on the Snake train late, I didn't get any of the bonus items, like Snake's bandana.

I'm sure you've noticed though, this isn't just one game that's been re-released, it's both Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, with Peace Walker thrown into the mix! I had wanted to play Snake Eater a lot in the past, but the opportunity never presented itself until this hd collection came along, then I knew, I knew I had to beat these games again! And...so far I've failed. I decided that since I shredded Sons of Liberty so many times it should be no problem to complete it in hard mode...well that was a mistake.  I've yet to actually beat either game since buying it, and haven't even touched Peace Walker.

Nonetheless, Sons of Liberty was one of those core games for my experience with the PlayStation 2, and the only stealth game I find myself going back to over and over after completing it. There are fantastic interactions between the characters, particularly those interactions that aren't directly a result of the story, such as Otacon commenting on Snake's perverse actions, or the Colonel commenting on Raiden's predicaments. Plus, just like all the previous entries on this list, Snake managed to make it into the Smash Bros. character list!

I suppose I owe yous guys two more for last week, and another five starting this week...ugh falling behind sucks...

Remakes Galore

Change of Subject
I know, I know, I was supposed to drop a series of AI based posts last week, I didn't, I can't really tell you why, I just wasn't feeling it. I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to do, mostly the AI of strategy games and how ridiculous their ability to micromanage is, but I just sort of...lost interest.

Instead, this week, I want to hit a few high spots in my own experiences with gaming and the things that have come of them from the gaming scene as a whole, most notably: video game remakes.

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And there you have it, five games that I think definitely deserved a re-release, got that re-release, and I have yet to beat said re-release. Now for the most part, these are games I have not played at all, the exceptions being: I own the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, have not beat any game on it yet; I emulated both Pokémon SoulSilver and Super Mario 64 DS, but only played them for a brief moment to test the waters, a sort of demo, if you will.

Now, the original idea was that I would list five games that I had beaten in the past, and for the most part this is true: I beat Silver, Gold and Crystal for the Gameboy Color, alongside my aunt and mother I completed all of Super Mario 64, later playing back through a majority of it myself, and of course I've beat Star Fox 64 multiple times. Metal Gear Solid 2 was a huge game for me, probably only the third rated M game I played (next to Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Halo), and one of my favorite games of all time, alongside introducing me to the idea of playing games stealthily, prior to that I always sort of pictured games, particularly games with guns, as something you rush through and just gun people down in. Then there's that last entry, Rare Replay.

Let's be honest, unlike Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, Rare Replay embodies several generations of games and several types of game play, and unfortunately, I was not exposed to most of them, and did not beat those I was exposed to. I can really excuse my way through putting it on a list of games I've completed and anxiously awaited a remake for like I could Metal Gear Solid 2, because I never beat any of those games. To be fair, I completed arcade mode in Killer Instinct Gold...so I guess that's like beating it...right? Please don't go all Fulgore on me.

See, Rare created what is, in my opinion, the two greatest platformers of their generation, Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, and that's just it, I've never really played a platformer after that which really drew me in as much as Banjo and the bird did. That's why, when I heard there was an official console sequel coming out, I couldn't contain myself, and after it released, despite the horribly weird vehicle based gameplay of Nuts'n'Bolts, I still played it all the way through, collected as many upgrades as I could, and never gave up on it. Loved every minute of it. Plus, there's games in there that I really wanna try out like Perfect Dark, Kameo, and Grabbed by the Ghoulies, and I always enjoy classics so the older games on the list I'd definitely like to try my hand at as well.

Anyway, that's a brief update on what to expect from me over the next several days, and I promise at some point we'll touch on AI again, but not this week.



Game cover images courtesy of Wikipedia contributors
Banjo thumbs up courtesy of RetroGamer: the greatest video game intro you'll ever see.