guns blazing

It’s funny seeing everyone’s reactions to base management elements in a game. HGR was like “base management?!?!” (disgust, disdain, dismay). newbie was like “base management??” (eyes shining) and shortly thereafter purchased and started playing MGS5.

MGS5 is the hit game of the summer. HGR kicked things off. After watching him stream the early game, numbers started a repeat playthrough, and Dante and newbie began playing too. Partly solidarity. Partly like watching someone failing to open a plastic bag at the grocery store and you’re like “lemme try” because everyone knows they’re better at opening a plastic bag than the person attempting it.

HGR is not known for his bag finesse. He never got a Russian interpreter and just goes into every mission guns blazing. But it makes for a memorable stream. Then afterwards I watch Dante/newbie playing the same mission and I’m like “you can mark targets? there’s a bio-sonar? they literally have a conversation about where they’re taking the prisoner??” (HGR spent like five years searching for that prisoner. He missed the scene where intel IDs the guy’s face so he was just rescuing random dudes and getting disappointed every time it wasn’t the guy.)

MGS5 is a weird game. The first 90 minutes is an intense cutscene-with-gameplay, basically what you’d expect from MGS. Then the game swerves into an endless stream of plotless side missions. Which is fine if you like the gameplay, but HGR doesn’t. tbh I’m with him on this one. I never have patience for stealth segments in games. (Base management is fun though.) Apparently there were dev issues. Kojima left mid-development and Konami just rolled with what they had. I’m just waiting for the plot twist where this isn’t actually Big Boss at all and also Ocelot double-crosses him because he can.

D-Dog is a boss. When I was a kid, I labeled my younger brother “B-Boy” because I just thought it was a cool codename. Well, same hat.