I side with you Dan! I'm just not interested in MGS 4 at all...I gave it multiple chances, and it just doesn't make me want to play it.

Nothing against the game, its just not my cup of tea. Thats all.

MGS4 didn't grab me as well, i gave it a few hours and just was bored.

On the 1Up Yours podcast they recently had some individuals on the show who worked on MGS4, and I found it was interesting and enlightening to hear them discuss the game. Clearly there was a great amount of thought and effort put into the game, and listening to them talk almost made me want to try it out. However, there are a couple things that push me away.

The first is that the developers were talking about how you might have to play the game through 2 or 3 times in order to notice all the nuances that are present in it. One of the 1Up regular podcast members hit the nail on the head when he said that as he gets older, his style of gaming is changing drastically from how it used to be, especially in the fact that he doesn't have extended or marathon gaming sessions any more, since he doesn't have that kind of time. I felt that I could relate- although I still play games a lot, I don't want to be forced into a game that's going to take me 20+ hours to finish, just to find that I need to play through it two more times.

The other thing that pushes me away is that many of the 1Up regular podcast members stated that they have a lot of difficulty playing the game, until they realized- and this was reiterated by the developers- that they were "playing the game wrong." Personally, I like to play games how I want to play them. It annoys me when developers introduce game mechanics that can be used, but aren't meant to be used, or can't be used effectively.

Finally, there were a few comments that the game runs "hot and cold," meaning that when you're actually playing it, there is constant, intense action, which is then broken up by lengthy cutscenes. Don't get me wrong- I enjoy cutscenes, but the comments about their pacing and frequency make it seem as if the game is somewhat disjointed.

I'm sure that fans of the Metal Gear Solid series will have a great time playing the last installment to the series, but as someone who has never played any of them (gaming mortal sin? maybe), I'm not too interested to start now.

There's another thing that was mentioned on that 1Up Yours show that I forgot to bring up in our show, it might be minor, but it still annoyed the hell out of me.

The producer mentioned how when they were writing the script they wanted to find a way to introduce the first "fuck" into a Metal Gear game. They made it seem like it was a big deal that they put a lot of thought into. Personally, who gives a crap? That doesn't seem like something that should be a concern to the writers of the game.

@Kevin- I remember that too. It seems like such a childish thing to do, really. If they had to put that much effort into introducing profanity in the storyline, should it really be there at all?

How hard is it to put a curse into your dialogue? I mean Transformers The movie (the good one) did it 25+ years ago.

What the Frak?

See? Easy.

I think Ryan was a bit off comparing it to a Comic. The games pace and storytelling is more like typical anime. It’s just the way the Japanese tell most stories. Like Dan, I didn’t mind the story much. What I did mind is that control is taken from you for long stretches of time. It’s not so bad at the beginning of the game but is get crazy in the last 2 Act. You get 30 mins story, 45 mins of game play and then 1 hour plus more of story. That is just silly. Metal Gear Solid 1 had a nice balance of cut scene and gameplay that the rest of the series lack. With MGS 4 being the worst offender. Also I hated Act 3, It was badly done and worst of all boring.