I have a terrible cough inhibiting me from sleep, so I checked my computerland on the way to take some NyQuil. It was fate I woke up, because oh, man,
all they have to do is show Big Boss and I get excited.
You know, I've been covering games a while now, and have even just recently lamented how, now that games are work, I just don't get as personally psyched about things or
immersed in 'em the way that I used to. I worry sometimes that I feel more like an objective business writer than a real heartfelt gamer these days, and there's not much that can change that.
Except Big Boss. Even more than Snake, I love Big Boss. Commence fit.*
Kotaku is the one
who took this screencap. Thank you, Kotaku.
PS:
I will give massive swaths of joy and affection to whoever can make me a banner of the Big Boss image from this site with "Sexy Videogameland" in white digital lettering where the numbers ought to be. Yeah, that's a dare. [thank you a. whitney for rapidly fulfilling, and special thanks also to
@kidkoexist on Twitter and to Bongo in comments for the sharp runners-up, I had no idea you guys were so flippin' fast!]
*please don't make it be some raiden v big boss fighting game or something not like metal gear
31 comments:
I had a big wallpaper size I was using as a desktop already. I'm a bit lazy right now so let me know if you want different placement or font: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/Bongo8789/SexyVideogameland.jpg
Here is where I got the original: http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg304/Take_Opal/bigbuss.png
Might help if I post the banner version instead of the in-between: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/Bongo8789/SexyVideogameland-1.jpg
I swear I'm not drunk.
Maybe a little.
You're allowed. Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows I'd be in no place to judge drunkenness! :)
I feel sort of the same way sometimes. I've actually been *gasp* falling out of love with games lately. Not that I don't want to hang around with them, and not that we still don't have good times together (we've been going to Little Mac boxing matches lately and traveling through Space with Commander Shepard), but I'm not really spending a whole lot of time with them, and honestly, it's not been bothering me, and I don't really feel like going back a right now. Maybe I just need space.
... and thus ends a fairly terrible metaphor.
... yay for Big Boss!
Big Boss for President!
While I want to see Kojima get his wish and not do more MGS, I'm stoked to see that it's a Metal Gear game and that Solid Snake won't be the protagonist (it's implied that Raiden being the protagonist would also be a poor, poor choice)
Here's what I'm hoping for: A Godfather 2-esque story, one that follows Big Boss in the years following MGS3 and Portable Ops, while another juxtaposes it, following the story of Raiden in the events after MGS4. Both tell their own narrative, but thematically the stories tell a similar story, just like Michael Corleone and his dad. How awesome would that be?
I was actually counting on Raiden being the next protagonist -- and I've really, really come around to him since MGS4, when he was very well fleshed-out and I found him, erm, quite the contender :)
However, I am still holding back a bit of my flipped out-ness. It seems suspiciously soon for Metal Gear Solid 5, don't you think? I don't want to lose my head over some new tactical game for the PSP (which I'd still buy, mind you, but you know what I mean).
drtyepic -- that WOULD be awesome, and very much in the meta-vein that Kojima usually pursues (film influence and all)!!! I hope you're right.
My hopes are dashed for this, but ever since MGS3 I thought it would be awesome to have a WWII Prequel with The Boss (The Joy) as the protagonist. Every time Snake ran into her she breaks some bones and dismantles his weapon, what could be cooler than playing as her?
@ Ken
I've always wanted tyhe same thing, except I think she's become too much of a legend for us to ever get to actually play as her.
Some things are better left in our imagination...aka Anakins story, lol
I'm still highly defensive about this being announced so soon, but I honestly won't mind seeing Raiden again. Especially if it's the 80's child/teenage war in Liberia (I know how unlikely that is though). I've never held that cheap hostility towards the character, even from my initial playthrough of MGS2.
They left themselves plenty of room to play around with Big Boss as well, so I won't be too upset if they decide to go the route of fleshing out that backstory. The good thing is that I don't have to worry about Solid Snake's tale being touched now. The obvious interactions and missions he (Big Boss) had with Gray Fox are no doubt a breeding ground for more lovely tales.
I'd also be intrigued to see if the game could really communicate how his interpretation of The Boss' sacrifice skewed so far off into its own tangent. They showed the spark with Snake Eater, that's what made it such an amazing game.
I'm still a bit scared, but I can poke the tiny little bubble of curiosity plopping around in my psyche right now.
~sLs~
Big Boss ftw. MGS3 ftw. New Metal Gear starring Big Boss and post-MGS4 ftw.
Erm, that was supposed to say "post-MGS4 Raiden".
Glad to see I'm not the only person that prefers Big Boss over Snake. <3
I just wanted to say that I share your enthusiasm for sunset rubdown, and videogames. In fact, I discovered you by typing "to say the war is over is to say you are a widow" into google. Thought I'd share it with you. Funny story. Keep up the good work!
Anonymous <3333
Is this what you wanted? I lose patience with trying to parse out the lyrics after this, but here's at least part of 'em:
Sorry that I’m late; I went blind
I got confetti in my eyes
I was held up at yesterday’s parties
I was needed on the congo line
But my dear – oh, my dear
I’d like to fight the good fight for another couple of years
‘Cause to say the war is over is to say you are a widow
-- You’re not a widow yet
You’re not a widow yet
You’re not a widow yet
You’re not a widow yet
So this one’s for the critics and their disappointed mothers
For the cupid and the hunter shooting arrows at each other
When no such thing as saint, ain’t no such thing as a sinner
There’s a swan among the pigeons of Barcelona’s floor
There’s a Samson with Delilahs lining up outside the door
If you are sharpening your scissors I am sharpening my scissors
And I am sharpening my sword
So you can take me to the Dragon’s Lair/Dragonslayer
Or you can take me to Rapunzel’s windowsill
Either way it is time
For a bigger kind of kill
A bigger kind of kill
I see your face when I close my eyes
I see the muscles in your legs from the way you always rise
To the occasion of catching things that fall
Like the statuesque on pedestals (tall)
But I have navigated Iceland
I’ve laid my claim on Portugal
I have seen into the wasteland
Of the future, of the future of us all
(sunset rubdown foreverrrrr)
You're such a champion!
Thank you.
PS I have fallen in cyber-love with you since about 3 minutes ago.
aw, please don't do that. Although your flames are quick and mean, they will not last the year, but expire like a sudden shooting star.
We all burn in different ways! I'd like to just follow you a while. You're hoping for something a little more realistic?
Do you prefer Paper Lace on Dragonslayer or Enemy Mine?
I was originally Enemy Mine all the way, but now I see the merit of both and enjoy them equally.
If you wanna geek out about Spencer Krug you should email me, I don't want to clutter up my comments with stuff not related to games :(
Whoops. I got carried away! T_T
For the record I'm all about MGS2 - I am a fan of Raiden. I found his relationship with Rose to be quite compelling. Also, jungles irritate me, although that scene with the river and all the people you've killed is one of the most poetic sequences in any videogame! Except maybe when you have to kill Mary.
Big time cry.
I love emails. What's your frequency?
See front page of blog. I might not have the time on hand to write back immediately, but I love hearing from folks :)
MGS3 killed me. The story was amazing. The fight against The End. The final battle among the flowers. *sigh*
The first two acts of MGS4 were brilliant, despite burping Drebin and wassisname's stomach troubles. I loved moving through those environments. I felt the immersion that I value from the series, when I'm in an area, scoping it out, locating the enemies, coming up with an approach.
I felt like the later acts reduced your options and tightened the environments until you had very few options, while the frequency of the cutscenes moved into the interfering-with-my-enjoyment frequency. I also found the mechanical enemies less fun to interact with, though that may have had more to do with my perception of them than their actual behavioral differences.
I would be so happy if they made another game with an identical engine as MGS4, because it was gorgeous, and I felt there was a lot of unexplored potential. I think 4 got bogged down in an admirable attempt to make each act distinct, the nod to MGS1, and the desire to tie up a story made entirely of loose ends.
Now just give me a Big Boss game like Acts 1 and 2: big, multi-path environments. Just let me play with the engine.
May 22: "Longtime SVGL-ers know that I loathe the hype cycle, so I'm not about to get lathered up prematurely. Yes, I am going to E3, yes, I am looking forward to it."
>_>
May 26: "It was fate I woke up, because oh, man, all they have to do is show Big Boss and I get excited.
You know, I've been covering games a while now, and have even just recently lamented how, now that games are work, I just don't get as personally psyched about things or immersed in 'em the way that I used to. I worry sometimes that I feel more like an objective business writer than a real heartfelt gamer these days, and there's not much that can change that.
Except Big Boss. Even more than Snake, I love Big Boss. Commence fit."
<_<
It wouldn't be worth having that love if you didn't have an opposing force to stand against it, hmmm?
As much as I love Big Boss, my admiration for his three synthetic ripoffs holds top bar. ^_^
(My other beef about MGS4 was I think they failed to recognize that Revolver Ocelot was a really compelling character both as an individual and also as the person who tortured Snake and escaped from Shadow Moses, and him becoming Liquid [pretend or not] really missed, for me, what was the greatest potential for an interesting confrontation and climax. Not to mention...if we accept that he was "just pretending" to be Liquid than many of his cutscenes become unintentionally hilarious. This is not aided by the fact that I choose to hear him with the voice of Buster Bluth - "Hey, brother.")
That's not RAIDEN!!!!!
OMG
To me this image obviously suggests a sequel to Portable Ops, a game that would explore Big Boss's FOXHOUND years and further fill in the gaps between MGS3 and MG1. The give away is that it's obviously the Big Boss from Portable Ops (notice the suit) but his face is older... I'd say about 10-15 years. That would put the new game somewhere in... the 80's? Intriguing.
I also vastly (and I mean VASTLY) prefer Big Boss to Solid Snake, so a post-Portable Ops game with BB is actually *more* exciting to me than MGS4 was... or, at least, it would be if they hadn't messed up the series mythology so badly in 4.
Big Boss's ideological and moral journey--which was rich and complex in MGS3 and Portable Ops--was utterly undone in MGS4. His final speech where he apologizes for trying to change the world just kills everything that was interesting about the character and the series for me.
On one hand a new game about Big Boss in the 80's, moving towards building Outer Heaven, is the #1 thing I'd like to see out of the series. On the other, the knowledge that it all eventually just comes down to Big Boss giving his mopey apology at the Boss's grave undercuts everything.
I hate how MGS4 tied everything up in a little bow, gave me flowers and a wedding, and told me that's what I wanted. I think I much prefer the Hideo Kojima of MGS2 and 3--the one who's just trying to please himself--than the pandering Hideo Kojima of MGS4--the one who's trying to please me.
But yeah... I'll probably fucking play it. *grumble*
Just out of curiosity "Matt", what would you have expected otherwise? I wasn't overjoyed about sequences like the wedding either, but Big Boss' side of the tale is no better or worse than any of his clones', which could all take interesting turns on their own account (assuming this game is about any of them).
I'm just interested in what exactly you think got undercut by "Naked Son". You outlined your love for the pre-Solid Snake era, I just want to know why exactly.
Then again, if it's all one big ruse designed to make everyone look in one direction, we're all gonna look pretty stupid come next week.
~sLs~
SnakeLinkSonic: I think I expected something a little more like the difficult, challenging ends of MGS2 and 3 and less like a mushy, Hollywood ending where everybody cries and forgives each other.
What made Big Boss interesting (to me) was the moral ambiguity of his politics. Was he right? Was he wrong? Was he a terrorist? Was he a freedom fighter? I see Big Boss as a controversial, Che Guevara- like figure. The questions and contradictions embodied in his character are what make him interesting. To me what was satisfying about Metal Gear as a mythology and as a portrait of 20th century geopolitical angst is that it always asked these fascinating questions but always had the intelligence not to answer them... that is, until MGS4.
The answers, to me, were reductionist and lame. I don't even think there should have been answers. Let me decide for myself whether Big Boss was a hero of a villain. For godsakes don't ruin it all by telling me.
But hey, that's just me. MGS4 is in many ways a great game, but it also made me realize the reasons I loved the series are, apparently, not the reasons most fans do. I guess I'm just in the minority.
Oh, well I can certainly understand that I guess. I can see how liking the moral ambiguity would throw you off as it pretty much wipes it away with the conclusion.
I took it in the sense of having everything reach what could have been a far more disastrous conclusion than was depicted. That's why I'm so hesitant about whatever possible new game this could be (I'm still standing by it being all one big trick though).
I guess I kind of expected that ending though, given how played up Naked Snake's relationship with The Boss was. That blurred grounding of good and bad is something I'll agree with you on, but it always felt like that was the course it was bound to take. Especially since Kojima SUPPOSEDLY wanted to wrap things up and leave the franchise behind him.
I was always more partial towards the clones because they were ravenous synthetic monsters (whereas Big Boss was the more humanistic original). In reality, Liquid was the only one I'd say had the most flawed outlook, and even his stance is debatable. I've always seen Big Boss and his "sons" with a sort of ambiguous idealogical haze around them. I'll always chose Solid Snake because he'll forever remain the most "pathetic badass" I've ever seen.
With the way GotP put that neat little bow on everything, I'll agree that there should have been less answers. The conclusion did leave me in more solace than slight though, so I can live with that.
~sLs~
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