title

Time to dust of the ol' blog!
I posted in the MGS Essentials thread that I was thinking about blogging my playthroughs of MGS1-3 over the next 2 months, so here it is.

As I said in the thread, I'm a relative MGS n00b. Played some of the first one back when it came out. Played MGS Twin Snakes on GC, but got no further than I ever did in MGS1 and played a bit of MGS2 Substance on Xbox1, but never made it off the tanker. Oh, I've also played and beat the original Metal Gear on NES and it's one of my favorite NES games.

Since I'm a little familiar with the series, a few events have been spoiled for me, but really most of the storyline is new to me. Such as, I know to get the "good" ending in MGS you have to not submit to the torture although I don't know what the torture is or the story behind it. I know Meryl survives since I've seen her in the trailer for MGS4. I know about the Raiden "twist" in MGS2 since that was like the biggest gaming news EVAR.

Anyway, on with my thoughts. These will contain spoilers! So don't read if you haven't played MGS and intend to. This is meant for MGS vets who want to read about someone going in fresh.

----------------------------------------
Metal Gear Solid 0 - 4:30 hours
----------------------------------------

Starting out, I played through the 10 VR Training missions to try and get reacquainted with the controls. They're still awkward, but I'm actually happy to have fewer abilities than in the later MGS games, makes it a bit easier to get the hang of. I'm still annoyed that I can't really walk slow. Makes the "noisy" floor section seem dumb.

Started a game on Normal difficulty. Made it through the opening area without getting spotted, w00t! Next area... crap! A surveillance camera. Spotted. Oh, don't step in the giant spotlights either. I knew that, but got careless and it caught my foot. Every other time I've played MGS I got for the upper air vent, this time I'll go for the lower. A stun grenade and chaff grenade later, I'm in.

Found the DARPA cheif without getting spotted. Oh noes! He died. I knew that. You know, graphically, the game holds up decently. The environments fair better than the character models, but it's not terrible. Meryl frees me and I'm off.

Beat Ocelot and the old guy dies after a lot of exposition. This part used to be more riveting, but I've restarted this and Twin Snakes enough for it to be old. Speaking of Twin Snakes, the cutscene that game had here was ridiculous. Snake isn't as cool as the Ninja, no way he shoulda been flipping around like one. I prefer the original PS1 MGS's storytelling.

Smokes are useful after all! Flavor Country reveals laser tripwires. Beat Vulcan Raven's tank. Fairly easy, but died once and I took a couple hits from it just getting close enough to toss grenades. Not sure if that's avoidable or not. Oh noes! They let me win on purpose?!

Got caught sneaking around twice in the nuclear warhead warehouse, oops. Found the Ninja's slaughter aftermath and Otacon. Lolz, Otacon pee'd himself. Holy cripes! The fight with the Ninja was friggin' tough and incredibly annoying. I think I died at least 10 times. Didn't help that I start with half a life bar and only 2 rations (that includes the one you pick up in the room). Figured out to use Chaff grenades, but there aren't enough for the whole fight. At least I finally beat him. Ooo, are those anime scenes from Policenauts? I hope that group finishes the fan-translation soon. Snatcher was awesome and I've always wanted to play Policenauts.

Snuck around trying to find Meryl. On floor B1 I actually noticed one of the guards enter the ladies room, but it didn't dawn on me it was her until I radioed Otacon and he emphasized "a private place only women can go". Not sure why, but I thought it was pretty clever. ^__^

Edit: OMG, I forgot the Pyscho Mantis encounter! I knew about the change the controller port trick and it does work on the PS3. Just hit the PS button and assign the controller to a different port. He told me I was a terrible warrior, but good at avoiding traps and cautious for saving the game so much. There were no other saves on the virtual memory card so I didn't get any of the other fun comments. I ended up beating him with only a sliver of life left. Probably shouldn't have done so badly, but I was careless and got hit a lot.

I remember the wolf peeing on the box bit, so I did that. Not sure I ever made it much farther than this. Oh snap! Meryl got shot in the cootch! At least, that's what it looked like...twice. I think she actually got shot in the legs. The spray of blood made it even funnier. ^__^ Are you serious, I have to go all the way back to the first building and find a damn sniper rifle? I thought Snake echoing that sentiment to Otacon was pretty amusing.

That's as far as I've gotten for now.