Qt3 Games Podcast: Metal Geared

Posted by on February 27, 2013 in Game Podcasts

thought_you_were_dead

This week we discuss Metal Gear Rising: Revengance and all things Metal Gear. Since we’re not really qualified in that department, we’ve called in a professional. Metal Gear fan and Engient founder Ian Slutz, whose “hands hold many controllers”, joins us.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

  • Mr_Propellerhead

    Is that a Plissken, I see before me?

  • luke

    You guys can start practicing Starcraft 2 right now. The slick AI skirmish automatch mode that Jason was talking about was patched into the base game a few weeks ago, for free. At this point, almost all Heat of the Swarm upgrades are available in Wings of Liberty (select all army units button/hotkey!!) except the new units and campaign.

    Did I mention how great the new skrimish AI is? 10 difficulty levels, with the option to tell AI opponents and teammates to use certain build orders, and in HotS you get to issue orders to AI teammates during a match. Look:

    http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/8724162/StarCraft_II_Wings_of_Liberty_Patch_204-2_19_2013

  • tomchick

    Wait, what? A “select all” button? Surely you jest.

  • luke

    It’s as if Blizzard changed their mind about how fiddly their e-sports RTS should be. And wait until you enable the option to “Always Show Worker Status”. You’ll see.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sören-Höglund/799188495 Sören Höglund

    Outcast did the things where successful missions hurt your enemy as well; destroying food supplies would make the soldiers you were fighting weaker, sabotaging weapon production would make their weapons do less damage. I loved that.

    *sigh* I was eying the HD collection for the 360 the other day, and I think this podcast pushed me over the edge.

  • TSt

    Call me Snake.

  • Ian Slutz

    I don’t think I got that far in Outcast. I found it confusing game, but I still have a soft spot for it.

  • Jmacgregor5

    I got about a third of the way in but discussions about Metal Gear just leave me frustrated. It always feels like the fans of it are dismissing absolutely terrible design decisions and writing because of lots of variety in the game or that the story’s so eccentric and there’s hours and hours of cute little extras to find. It feels similar to the whole ‘oh just power through the first x seasons, it gets better’ thing fans of certain tv shows say.

    I know this frustration is a bit irrational and I will try and finish the podcast and I’m sure Ian is a lovely man but I just want to slap him, not much, just a little.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sören-Höglund/799188495 Sören Höglund

    Outcast definitely throws you into the deep end of the pool and expects you to swim. I can’t imagine many developers these days would make up an alien language and expect people to learn it.

    Great game though. Like Giants or Sacrifice, it was one of those artifacts of the late nineties/early 2000:s where you’d get genuine oddities with AAA presentation.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Forrest-Prather/1091426726 Forrest Prather

    Call me Iroqouis.

  • Mercanis

    I enjoyed the podcast, but I do have a recommendation for the introductory sponsor segment: the background music of that segment is too loud. I recommend decreasing its volume.

  • anon

    I really wish they’d let Armature Studio do another MGS HD collection for the Vita, they did a great job with the first one. PW+PO, there you go. If they wanted to go crazy, include Ac!ds, updated or not, because you can’t get them digitally atm.

  • http://twitter.com/SESSpackman SamSpackman

    Great to listen to an old school Qt3 games podcast where you’re just talking about a single game and its minutiae for ages.

  • Barac Wiley

    Not done with the podcast yet, but a few things:

    Tom, it’s adorable that you think someone who doesn’t know what a videocassette is would know what an audiocassette is.

    Ian may well bring this up, but it’s a shame to write the MGS franchise off after MGS2 because MGS 3 is hands down the best of the series – rich, dynamic gameplay with tons of bespoke interactions and cool little details; memorable, crazy boss fights; a story that knows perfectly well it’s utter nonsense and isn’t afraid of laughing at itself (especially if you get the rerelease, which bundles a bunch of “blooper” videos that are frigging hilarious); stealth that’s not 100% reliant on breaking line of sight, etc. Unfortunately MGS4 is a turgid mess and although Peace Walker has its moments, both it and Portable Ops are severely compromised by the PSP’s control and hardware limitations.

    Finally, the absolute best Metal Gear -anything- is Metal Gear Ac!d 2. I wish more action games would be re-envisioned as lunatic turn-based CCG strategy games.