How to Not be a Fanboy.

You wanna know what the most insipid and cancerous thing in gaming is?

Fanboyism.

It destroys the gaming industry and, more importantly, your enjoyment. 

"Fanboy" is term that's thrown around a lot but what is Fanboyism really? 

"Fanboyism is the fervid and unquestioning acceptance of a product and then defending that product against all reason and logic, with the end goal being a universal acceptance of that product as being indisputably better than everything else." - Spekter Gaming (2016)

~

The error in fanboy logic; 

NO product is ever better than all other products in every way.

The problem with fanboyism; 

If developers and publishers can make money out of fanboys that they know will eat up new titles no matter how bad they are, they don't care; for us it's about the game and the experience; for them it's about cold hard cash. 

More fanboyism = Lower standards = worse experience for us. 

Fanboyism also divides the gaming community by creating pointless rivalries and arguments between fellow Gamers. As a Gamer, YOU are part of a global subculture that YOU have been a part in creating; fanboyism puts a black mark on this subculture and on you.

SG's free 'Don't Be A Fanboy' starter kit:

A simple kit to carry with you wherever you go in the gaming universe

• Demand more; Don't just suck it up if you don't like something.

• Have a voice! Review games; write blogs, make YouTube videos and give reasons why you do or don't like a game and more importantly; make suggestions on how things can be improved.

• NEVER get on the hype train. Because the only station is Fanboy Central; once you're on it, that's where you're going and it's a one-way ticket.

• Don't defend one or a few developers/publishers. As your "favourites" or as being better than all the others. Instead, defend gaming as a whole. 

• Don't favour one platform over the others. Even if you don't play the others. Everyone has their preference and they are entitled to that. Instead of bickering about which platform is (supposedly) the "best" enjoy the fact that no matter what platform, you are all Gamers and you share that in common.  

• Support Independent Game Developers and Modders  These are the future of gaming and on the whole they don't get enough recognition. Do your bit by buying their products if they are charging for them, give feedback on them if you like them or not; just swing an email to the devs. Promote their products to your friends and the greater community via social media and forums if you like them.

• Defend your fellow Gamer! Put aside your differences and pointless rivalries and stand together on the issues that affect us all. So if they play Battlefield and you play CoD, instead of arguing about which one is (supposedly) "better" find common ground in the fact that both of you enjoy first-person shooters. 

We need to show a united front to get the things we want from game developers and publishers and show them that we won't just take every underdeveloped, buggy, unfinished game they throw at us lying down. 

You are a Gamer, so am I , so are all those other people you talk to on G+ or Facebook or whatever you use. So instead of fighting each other, stand together!

#GamersUnite 
#GamersAgainstFanboys

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Dusty Relics: Just Another Day in Paradise…

After skydiving your way into what looks like a tropical paradise only to find it full of assault rifle toting pirates and mercenaries, you could be forgiven for thinking the fictional world of FarCry 3 isn’t all that unlike the Somali coastline. After all, there are speed boats and AK’s there too. White coral sand beaches stained with blood, a crazed lunatic after your head, a strange tattooed woman with mind altering drugs and a maniacal crime lord running the show; just another day in paradise. 

FarCry 3 is unlike any other FPS you’ll play: it has depth, a good story-line, great action and a huge open world to explore. I personal hold it in higher regard than FarCry 4 in terms of enjoyment and replay value. Ubisoft has tried to do a lot of things with this game and it has actually managed to pull most of them off. The corner of the tropics that is ‘Rook Island’ is lush and often quite good to look at – the textures are well rendered and the colours are rich. The foliage waves majestically as it flexes from a grenade blast and the crystal blue water glistens, reflecting the flames from that speed boat you just machine gunned to destruction. The sun climbs slowly creating that beam across the sea and gently illuminates your little corner tropical hell. Max this game on a decent gaming PC and it looks effing' fantastic. 

Whether you are just out exploring, or waging war with wanton disregard for ammunition and explosives, the effects in this game are good, even up close. Its quite satisfying to see your knife punch through an enemies throat or your character digging shrapnel out of his arm with a stick (apparently no matter what happens, Brody, the protagonist, only ever gets injured in the arms...). Just sometimes on this game, its nice to stop and smell the napalm, so to speak. 

The rich textures and tropical lighting really contrast the often
brutal action and story-line of this game,
making it something a feast for the eyes and the mind.

You are quite literally plunged into the action as the first ‘tutorial’ type mission has you escaping from a pirate strong hold (much less friendly than Jack Sparrow) and then legging it through the jungle trying to escape certain death; chased by the henchmen of the one of gaming's most memorable villains - Vaas. The story then plays out in a series of missions that you can undertake at your leisure. The USP (“Unique Selling Point”, not “Universal Self-loading Pistol”) of this game is the world you escape into; the beaches, the jungle, the ancient ruins and enemy strongholds. Its up to you what you do with it and there is so much to do and explore. 

Firstly you are pretty much naked; I don’t mean you're strutting round in your birthday suit, I mean you have one gun and a knife. If you want to carry more weapons and ammunition, you must craft holsters and pouches from the skin of the animals found on the island. If you want to survive a gun fight, or hold your breath for longer when underwater, you need to find the right plants to make syringes to reap the various benefits. Luckily all this doesn’t require a degree in engineering or chemistry, it just requires a little time and what way to spend that time than exploring and hunting on Rook Island? 

The vehicle selection is very good in FarCry 3,
you'll probably find yourself doing a lot of off-roading between missions
 and with plenty of elevation changes the game is basically made for
stunt driving lunacy.

Whilst out foraging you will inevitably come across other points of interest such as shanty towns, ship wrecks, sunken ruins, underwater caves or old WW2 bunkers, to name but a few of the attractions. Exploring has also never been more fun with a host of vehicles to hoon it around in. From jeeps with machine guns on top, Land Rovers with machine guns on top, boats with machine guns on top, to hand gliders and quad bikes (without machine guns sadly), the driving, flying and boating physics are also smooth and for the most part very good. The different vehicles all handle and feel slightly different too, a point often missed in games that mesh a lot of concepts together under one roof; usually something remains unfinished. Thankfully this doesn't seem to be the case in FarCry 3. 

FarCry 3 features many gratifying close-quarters takedowns,
from a simple stabbing to pulling the the pin on an enemy's
grenade and booting him to the floor.

The gameplay is fairly intuitive and doesn’t require much getting used to; after all, it is, at it’s core, simply a fancy first person shooter, so most situations can be solved with a suitable application of firepower and explosives.There are a number of skills that you unlock throughout the game that will help you better survive the jungle and the bad guys. These can make things more fun, my personal favourite being the “grenade takedown” – no prizes for guessing the outcome of that one... or more useful one's like being able to make certain syringes for beneficial effects.

The skills you learn are depicted as tattoos on the characters left arm which builds into a half sleeve as you learn more skills, which is certainly a novel way of showing progression if nothing else. The skills are also quite varied, as they range from health increases, to more functional skills like special take downs and other stealth and fighting abilities that you can use. Though the game is a huge advancement over the previous FarCry games, and indeed any other FPS/free roaming type game, all that glistens is not gold and it does have its flaws. 

Despite FarCry 3 handling like pretty much every other FPS, it's
the story and the game-world that really set it apart from the rest.

One of the biggest flaws that shows up after a great deal of game play is the enemy AI. Most fire fights are just too easy, even if you crank the difficulty up all the way – all that really changes is enemy accuracy and how many more grenades they’ll lob to flush you out. There are four types of enemy that you will face for the whole game; regulars, chargers, heavies, and snipers/RPG wielders. Even though shooters have advanced a great deal, and FarCry 3 is a good testament to that, the enemies remain as dumb as ever and quite frankly its not hard to run circles around them. All you need is a good position and you're pretty much set and by good position I don’t mean dug in on a hill top, behind your jeep seems to suffice for 98% of encounters. They don’t flank effectively or gain position, its generally always a frontal assault. They call in back-up but its more of the same and never more than 3 or 4 guys. If you are in a ranged position up a hill or another vantage point, its ridiculously easy, as they never really come looking for you or deploy heavier weapons to flush you out. This is a shame, as it means every encounter with the bad guys is pretty much repeat of the last hundred times you shot those four mercs’ with child-like ease. 

Vaas is arguably one of gaming's most memorable villains;
he is the perfect blend of insanity, intelligence and brutality.
I'm still not sure why they chose Gok Wan to be the villain in FarCry 4..

Although you can liberate areas by clearing out the occupying enemy camps, after doing 4 or 5 you’ll begin to struggle with new ways to do that as well. Thankfully the story missions offer some variety and the story itself isn’t all that bad considering its an FPS. The protagonist, Jason Brody, skydived into hell when he and his friends were captured by pirates (gun swinging, not rum swilling) after landing. After a shocking escape sequence, Jason Brody then goes on a search for the rest of his friends who have gone missing too.

During the search, Jason loses himself and finds new allies to follow on Rook Island, leading to some interesting plot developments and choices as you follow his own personal story arc. The way the story, and Jason’s character, develops isn’t done all that badly and its is quite good to follow. It won’t win an Oscar and its no Metal Gear Solid but far flimsier tales are usually found in the realms of the first person shooter. I guess this one is also well done because Jason isn’t some double-hard bastard ex-marine gone rouge, he’s just a normal bloke who is forced to learn the skills he needs to survive. 

Unlike in Red Dead Redemption, you can't just
 gun everyone down if you lose, shame.

Besides mercilessly slaughtering bad guys in missions, and mostly for fun, Rook Island offers some other, perhaps more wholesome past times, including poker, knife throwing, racing, hunting and favours for the locals. So when you’re bored of gratuitous destruction and bloody murder, you can cool your heels at a card table or take to mountains in search of some rare beast. Thankfully, these activities also offer financial incentives, how much depends on how good a poker player you are but money can be made from selling the hides and plants you gather and other ‘loot’ items you can find as well – these are more bullet tokens than beer tokens, in truth.

The bow is arguably one of the most enjoyable weapons to use,
especially as it offers flaming and explosive arrows as well at normal ones.

There is a good selection of remorseless pieces of metal for you to unlock and do harm with. However, another flaw in this game I found is that all the guns can be unlocked for free once you activate the right radio tower, so what was the point in having a price for them in the first place if they are all going to be free eventually? In this sense it also makes the economics feature of the game a little redundant, as there is little point in gathering money other than to buy ammunition (which can also be looted from enemies or found in weapon stashes) – it would have been nice to make the gun you want more of a challenge to get. Another minor issue is that the type of combat tends to be short to mid range for most encounters, meaning a good assault rifle and a shotgun will pretty much do you for everything, making unlocking something new later on have little impact on the game. 

The fictional Rook Islands are far more enjoyable to explore
than FC4's fictional corner of the Himalayas. 

Sure FarCry 3 has its flaws but it does what it does better than most that have tried it. Rook Island as a huge arena is inspired and the game play is tidy and smooth. The graphics are lush and the textures are detailed and look great, it seems as though no expense was spared in creating this little corner of the tropics. The missions are varied and enjoyable and include everything from proper stealth missions to frontal assaults and even burning a marijuana plantation... 


There is a host of other things to do on the island from hunt bad guys for money in the “Wanted: Dead” quests, to doing “Rakyat Challenges” where you best performance is recorded online. As well as acast of memorable What's important for me is that it's enjoyable and FarCry 3 is a pick-up-and-play kind of game; if you are bored you can just grab a controller and shoot up an enemy base for half an hour, create havoc, burn and pillage, run out of the bushes and knife someone in the face. But if you want you can spend a long time exploring and discovering, doing missions and earning the associated rewards and all the time its fun and that’s important. 

For me FarCry has excelled where so many other FPS games have failed; longevity and replay value. That is a mark that many new games have sadly fallen far short of, including the most recent FarCry which lacked all of the charisma and replay value of it's predecessor - though let's be honest, FC3 was a hard act to follow. 

You could do a lot worse than spend a few hours discovering the awesomeness of this lost paradise and as it's been superseded by FarCry 4, FarCry 3 is a lot of gaming fun for a bargain basement price.

Battlefield 4 - Dafuq is Bullet Drop? 5 things to get to grips with and take your game to the next level.

Battlefield 4 has pretty decent ballistic modeling, however, the trick to getting the most out of your favourite guns is to understand a bit about the stats of the weapons you use the most. Then if you miss or get killed in a fire fight, where you went head to head with someone using a similar gun that you felt you should have won, you might have a better idea of why you ended up back in the deployment screen and they didn't. 

One of the tricks to poker is only to
play your opponent on your terms.
It's the same in Battlefield.

There are some key factors in choosing the right gun for the right occasion, because although BF4 offers a very well balanced weapon list some weapon attributes just suit situations and play-styles better than others - this is particularly handy if you want to step your game up and rely less on luck and coincidence to get kills and definitely handy for those who like to take the long-guns out and fire at great ranges.

Good poker players know the game and can maybe read people, the best poker players play the numbers. It's the same in BF4 to a great extent. But unlike poker you don't have to play the hand you're dealt, in BF4 you can stack the deck in your favour by playing to a particular weapon's best qualities.

The game features a number of different scores for various weapon attributes*, in this post I will be explaining just 5 of them; Bullet Drop, ROF & DPS, Bullet Spread, Recoil and Muzzle Velocity.

No.1

Bullet Drop

Lower bullet drop is preferable especially when shooting at range because it requires you to adjust less for elevation, meaning that you can aim more directly at your target.

Close target;
no real consideration needed for bullet drop

Without writing a thesis on Newtonian physics bullet drop is much like it sounds; the rate at which the bullet drops from its initial trajectory over distance. 

Measured in meters per-second per second (m/s^2). Basically a variable in-game gravitational force. Although often given as a positive number like 15m/s^2 it is actually a negative figure; -15m/s^2 because it is pulling the bullet downwards at that rate. Simply speaking the lower the figure the less downward force is acting on the bullet - the further it will fly straight.

Far target;
Aim needs to adjusted to account for bullet drop

What this means in real terms is explained in my amazing MS Paint pictures here; at long ranges you will experience this drop a lot more so you will be forced to either adjust your aim correctly or zero the scope (if possible) for the range you are shooting at. In Battlefield you really only have to consider this when using sniper rifles or perhaps DMRs and usually only at ranges greater than 150-200m unless the rifle has a very high bullet drop rating. With other weapons like assault rifles your primary problem isn't bullet drop when pushing those kinds of ranges, it's your shot spread and minimum damage - though every gun in the game has it's own specific 'gravity' which will tell you how it will function at range it's usually not something you need to consider unless you're sniping.

No. 2

Rate of Fire (ROF) & 
Damage per-Second (DPS)

Rate of Fire and Damage per-Second are different things that are intrinsically related. ROF is how fast the gun will fire, whether that be automatically like an assault rifle, semi-automatically like a DMR or manually like a bolt action sniper rifle; it is the rate at which you can discharge the weapon. More accurately described as rounds per-minute (RPM).

DPS is the damage you can do to your enemy each second (assuming all your shots land) and is related to ROF. So a gun can have high base damage but a pretty average DPS thanks to a low ROF or fairly average base damage but a high DPS because of a higher ROF. 

Take the SAR-21 and the FN P90 for instance. 

The SAR has a higher max damage but a lower ROF - which gives it a maximum DPS of 245 (600rds / 60 seconds = 10rds/sec: 10rds x 24.5dmg = 245 Dps).

While the FN P90 boasts a DPS of 315 despite its lower max damage. (900rds / 60seconds = 15rds/sec: 15rds x 21dmg =  315 Dps)

So what does that mean in real terms? 

Well naturally a higher DPS is usually preferable for close quarters battle (CQB); engagements at <20-30m. This is the engagement range where you need to do the most damage in the shortest amount of time because targets will move through your line of sight very quickly or come up on you fast. So in this comparison the FN P90 is favourable. 

However there are usually trade-offs to high DPS weapons like the FN P90 - these are things like accuracy over range and max/min damage. With these things considered the slower firing SAR-21 would much more preferable for shooting at medium to longer ranges with it's higher velocity and longer damage-drop end range and higher max/min damage. 

So picking the SAR-21 for CQB wouldn't be great idea just as choosing the FN P90 for longer range shooting also wouldn't do you any favours. Considering a gun's effective DPS is key to picking a good weapon for CQB specifically but a high ROF won't be ideal for all engagements. Simply put - high ROF; better in CQB (usually), lower ROF typically more accurate over longer ranges. 

No.3

Spread

One of the key attributes that can affect your shots-on-target percentage is bullet spread. This is easy to imagine as a cone that the bullets make coming from the muzzle towards the target; smaller the cone = less bullet spread. 

Bullet spread is typically given as a rating in degrees; smaller the number the tighter the spread hence why it helps to think about it as a cone as degrees of variance over range creates a cone shape. 

What does this mean in real terms?

In CQB, not much as the closer the target is to the weapon the less you will be affected by bullet spread but equally the more accurate you have to be as if your target moves you will be forced to readjust more at close ranges. 

At medium ranges the 'cone' will be larger than in CQB, so technically you will be putting more bullets in a greater area; this works for and against you; initially this means you can be a little less accurate and still hit your your mark but equally it means your shots will be less accurate on the whole - somewhat of a paradox. 

The trick is to figure out the best range for your chosen weapon and where the 'sweet spot' of the bullet spread cone is, so that it gives you the greatest forgiveness for slightly wayward aiming and the highest chance of scoring a hit - this sweet spot is regarded as the weapons most effective range and it is slightly different for all guns. The thing you have to remember is the cone expands over range and is three-dimensional; expanding across X, Y and Z axes.

Notice the difference between zero shot spread (top) ADS-not moving with a sniper rifle and a greater degree of variance (spread) ADS-not moving with an average assault rifle. Note also that the degrees of variance here are exaggerated to make it easier to visualise; with typical assault rifle ADS spread actually being around 0.2/3 degrees which would be hard to show.

Many times when inexperienced players get killed in straight up fire fights it's because they aren't using their weapon within it's most effective range (among other reasons..). Even experienced players can sometimes be drawn in to engagements where they have to fire outside of their weapon's effective range or are too close for their weapon to be most useful (this often happens with those new to DMRs as well, who get drawn into using it in CQB or getting into sniper battles). Basically speaking pushing outside of your effective range means you're at the fat end of the cone, which mean lots of bullets over a large area -wide spread = terrible accuracy.

Understanding your weapon's shot spread is key to understanding it's most effective firing range and that is key to you putting your opponent back in the deployment screen before he puts you there.

No.4 

Recoil 

Recoil in a general sense is muzzle jump but in more detail it is the amount the muzzle moves in specific directions when the weapon is discharged; the directions are up, left and right (U/L/R). It is given in degrees and as with many values relating to accuracy, less is generally better as, in this case, it means the muzzle is moving away from true (zero degrees of variance) less when you fire.

Another recoil consideration is first shot multiplier (1SM) which as you can guess, multiplies the U/L/R recoil by X every first shot. The thing to remember is that recoil is a cumulative value, which means it stacks on itself if you hold the trigger down (on an automatic weapon) or fire very rapidly with a semi-automatic. So, assuming you do not counter the recoil, the gun will continue to move X amount in the three directions every time a bullet leaves the barrel creating that familiar muzzle climb.

Lets take the M416 as a pretty standard assault rifle. It's recoil values are; 

Up: 0.32, Left: 0.12, Right: 0.28, 1SM: 2.2

So what does this tell us? Well firstly, if you fire rapidly the weapon will primarily pull up and to the right which means you will have to counter the recoil by steadying your aim down and to the left. The 1SM tells us that every first shot, whether you are operating it in single shot or burst firing, the recoil will be increased by x2.2 where x is the base recoil value. 

Remember that recoil is given as degrees variation from true (zero). So lets say you burst the M416 for 4 shots -

Shot 1 will have the U/L/R values of 0.7, 0.26 and 0.62 degrees away from true, while the remaining 3 shots will have the base values above. 

"Well, naught-point-something is barely even 1 degree" I hear you cry. 

Yes, this is true but remember the spread cone? The degree of variance accumulates over range meaning the further your target the more variance you will experience; the more likely you will be to miss if you fire rapidly.  

What does this mean in real terms? 

In real terms you want to be looking for weapons that have lower recoil values or attachments to manage the recoil. 

Of course you can just get used to a particular weapon and understanding it's recoil model is key to this. Many people find it easier to aim in a certain direction as well - target tracking - you find it more with real firearms (because of the dominant hand preference) but even on games people can develop a preference. So if you find it easier to track a target moving to the right then you'll likely find guns with higher left recoil easier to control as you're used to adjusting your aim carefully to the right. Just something to consider.

No.5

Muzzle Velocity

MV controls two very important and related things; time to target and as an extension of this; how much you need to lead a target moving across your line of sight (LoS). Why is this important? Well, higher MV makes hitting moving targets are medium ranges easier as well as hitting stationary targets at long ranges less of a waiting game. 

Couple of things to note; firstly is that MVs on BF4 are not accurate - the 7.62x51mm NATO load, for instance, is stated to do 670 meters per-second (m/s) for the CS-LR4 sniper's rifle while the actual 7.62 NATO will achieve velocities in excess of 800 m/s (this is most likely simple game balancing as engagement ranges are significantly less than they are in real life). Secondly; velocities are also variable dependent on the gun despite being the same cartridge; for instance the Bulldog and Mk11 Mod 0 share the same round; 7.62x51mm NATO but the Bulldog has an MV of just 450 m/s while the Mk11 has an MV of 640 m/s.

Time to target: This
displays a basic x axis adjustment error;
the aim point has not
allowed for t (time) to target.

One of the key considerations in BF4 is firing at moving targets because very few people stay still for that long. MV plays a crucial role in this as it dictates how fast your bullet will reach it's mark (t - time (to target)) subsequently this vector how much you will have to adjust your aim along the x axis (aim ahead) to compensate for t.

As an extension of this; when shooting at longer ranges at moving targets you will also have to compensate for elevation (bullet drop) y, as well adjusting for x and t. Making hitting long range moving targets a real 3-dimensional feat of marksmanship as you need to judge for your target's movement speed as well.   

What does all this mean in real terms? Simply speaking it means that the further the target it away from you the more you have to adjust your aim to compensate for target movement, elevation and time to target. Which also means the further they are away from you negatively affects your probability of scoring a hit (more variable factors involved). 

What this means when choosing a gun depends on the ranges you plan to use it in - at close ranges the difference in a 500 m/s MV and a 700 m/s MV are negligible at best but push that engagement range out and suddenly you'll notice a huge difference; leading a target is much easier with higher MVs as it requires less adjustment and therefore less of a margin for error if the target suddenly changes direction - with a high velocity weapon there is still at least a small probability that the shot may hit them if they change direction as it takes less time to get there. 

With assault weapons this changes their most effective engagement ranges; the AUG-A3 for instance with a high MV of 670 m/s make it exceptional at close and longer ranges - put a 3/4x sight on that and you can punish people at ridiculous ranges for and assault rifle. Whereas the Bulldog, although having equivalent spread, has a much lower MV which is going to make it much harder to hit moving targets at longer ranges. 

With sniper rifles it is much the same, ideally you want high MV to help you nail those sprinters but you have to couple this with the elevation adjustments you need to make when shooting at long ranges. So the ideal sniper is high MV low bullet drop as it allows you to aim more directly at a moving target - remember the more adjustment you have to make the higher the margin of error. 

Unlike many other shooters BF4 has a very well balanced weapon list; there are really no 'top guns', they all have good and bad points. 

It is the understanding of these small differences from gun to gun and their ballistics that will make the difference to you and also explain why some guns seem to work better for you than others even if they are the same class. With nearly 100 firearms to carry into battle you have a lot of options to consider.

The most important thing is to know what works for you, your play-style and the scenario you're going into. You want the edge in battle? 

Get to know your weapon intimately. 

Squad dismissed!

~

~

*All my in-game values for the guns I discussed came from Symthic

Metaru Gia Soriddo 5; Non-Tactical Incohesive Distractions - "Part Deux"

I'm still not sure what this game is supposed to be. 

It's got Metal Gear Solid on the cover but it's just not Metal Gear Solid, it features characters from the games but they're either plain pantomime (Kazuhura Miller) or watered down versions (Revolver Ocelot). There are other characters like Quiet (generic female fan-service), Skullface (It's like the Lone Ranger sat in the sun too long...), Huey  (because it's important to keep Christopher Randolph in the games but never mind David Hayter) but realistically, and honestly , you don't give a shit about them, any of them. Not like in the previous games where you cared about the characters.

Despite the distinct lack of memorable characters and narrative and pretty much anything else that made the MGS series good and besides the fact that it isn't even Big Boss who you're playing with there are other issues with MGS5... shock horror.(Omfg!! spoiler!! And there was no warning or anything! Welcome to in the internet kid. I'll be honest with you - I ain't spoiling much, trust me and if you didn't work that out within the first 20 minutes of the game.. sucks to be you) 

What really takes this game from behind are the sometimes horrible horseplay....er..., gameplay... dynamics, piss around in free-roam enough and on missions and you'll fast learn about these things. Free-roam, by the way, is largely this games best aspect. If that doesn't tell you something you're either a shameless fanboy or plain stupid.

So, what are they? Well we talked about aspects of the game in the last MGS5 post [Clickbait - No seriously this is actually the link to the other post, see it in the panel to the right >>> Wait, if it's there, why did I make this link? O.o] and covered Mother-waste-of-space, Free-whoring, Codec Calls (Wait, what codec calls? Yeah), the Voice of Medic.., err.. I mean Snake and Cut-scenes (Wait... there are cut-scenes..?). But I want to take this post to talk about the actual guts of the game - the gameplay - because on the front of it MGS5 claims to be MGS and then some but in realism it's basically a Fox Engine tech-demo and not a great one at that.

So let's start with one of my personal favorites...

Telepathic Soldiers

The troops in MGS5 are something else, they can accurately discern your location without having ever seen you; throw enough magazines or pop one too many decoys and, as if my magic, they know exactly where you are. Exactly; not a roundabout location or a rough idea, they know your exact location - what's odd is that the second one knows they ALL know without any form of communication. Now the soldiers in the first MGS were genome soldiers, genetically advanced troops but man, these Russians... shit son. Snipe from 300m away and they're onto you, whether you're using a silencer or not. What's also odd is that they use the most basic assault rifles in the game yet they will hit you with almost every shot, at full sprint, when you're 200m+ away but if you try to repeat the same feat, you'll need to lie prone and your target will need to be stationary if you you want even a 3rd of your shots to land from the same gun..

The Skulls

I have no idea where this 'unit' fits. They are supposed to be an upgrade on the Frogs most likely and the Ocelot unit from MGS3 but they are far more ridiculous. Along with teleportation and being practically impervious to pretty much everything they were obviously designed to be a challenge but they just turn every mission they feature in into a mindless run and gun to try and get away from them or kill them - which is no mean feat either. I remember early on getting so frustrated with their interruption in a mission that I had my Main Battle Tank airdropped to me and just blew the shit out of everything that moved I got them all but they still managed to destroy my tank.With the Frogs there was an element of tactics and stealth, but with the Skulls the second you move, shoot or fart they're onto you like an over-affectionate girlfriend with a rape fetish. And if you've gone into a mission loaded out for stealth you're gonna have a bad time. They just don't add anything to the game other than "Oh... fuck my life, these cunts, again".

Quiet

It's pretty clear that this character is plain Page 3 eye candy to break up the cock fest character lineup in MGS5. I can just imagine the development meeting about Quiet.. 

"Oh shit, we've gone and written too many male characters! Better overcompensate with this one female role and turn her into fap-bait. Yeah, that oughta' balance things out". (or whatever that is in Japanese) 

Seriously guys, little less Hentai and a little more decent game writing. Now MGS has never been shy about adding attractive female roles in games, hell, MGS1 had Natahsa Romanenko, Meryl, Sniper Wolf and Naomi as in-game 'eye candy', and y'all remember the B&B corps right and EVA? All these, however, had 100% more character depth than the mute markswoman and that brings us to our next point; taking Quiet into the field. She has to be the most useless buddy that Snake can take with him. She's not an especially good shot, frequently when I've ordered her to fire she has missed her mark and she cannot be equipped with a silenced gun so that makes life hard. She's a mediocre scout at best as she'll miss a bunch of enemies in outposts and get her to scout the same outpost twice and you'll get two different results. She's not intuitive at all, unlike DD who will adapt to the situation, Quiet will sit on a rock 300m out of range and line of sight of you unless you specifically order her to move up.

So what does Quiet actually add to the game? 

Bewbs. That's about it. 
Seriously, just shoot her in the face after fighting her the first time, you won't be miss her.

Walker Gear, Tanks & Armored Fighting Vehicles

I'm not sure, what are we playing? World of Tanks for Metal Gear Solid? Another departure from the tried, tested and loved MGS dynamic is the addition of a number of unnecessary things in MGS5 - it's gone from solo stealth operations to rolling in full riot gear in a Battle Tank. While this is fun, I can't deny that - who doesn't like Tanks right? It's just not Metal Gear in any way. It's like Kojima's dev team had been playing a bit too much Battlefield 4. The walker gear is also a lot of fun and I get that Snake has Motherbase behind him but what has this game become now? In-between full on solo sneaking and full on air-support and battle tanks resides this strange no-mans-land that is neither stealth or action and this is where you end up frequently in MGS5 - wondering what exactly you're doing wearing a sneaking suit with a silenced pistol while driving an armored fighting vehicle. More so if you played and enjoyed the other titles in the saga. If this is you're first MGS title, well good for you, because you were Konami's target audience, congratulations but if you're an Old Snake like the rest of us you know what I mean. 

Infinite Caution

Time and time again bases and outposts have gone into Caution (old fans know what I'm talking about) after the  guards suspect something is up and rightly so, but here's the problem; there is no cool down. Unlike in the other games, you can't seem to wait it out - the guards remain in this state indefinitely as long as you are in their AO. Which plainly, is stupid. I tested this by throwing a decoy into a guard post - one of the small roadside checkpoints and activating it. They instantly went into caution of course, so I retreated a bit and hid in my box and decided to try and wait it out and see if they returned to a normal state - I went and made a cup of tea and dinner for my kids and came back to find them still patrolling with sticks up their asses looking for the source of the intrusion. This doesn't make sense and again adds nothing to the gameplay other than an un-realistic annoyance. 

Stealth Camo

Come the fuck on, seriously. Stealth camo used to be something you had to work for - in MGS2, 3 and 4 you had to work damn hard for it. No alerts for the whole game in MGS3 and 4 and collecting an obscene amount of dog tags in MGS2. It was a reward for being a badass at the game, it wasn't just thrown out to you as a free perk. In MGS5 you just develop it at Motherbase and it's not even like you need your R&D team to be at an especially high level either. Oh you're new to the MGS experience? Don't worry about actually learning the game and getting good at it through trial, error and effort here's some stealth camo and chicken hat, cuz, y'know, learning through doing; ain't nobody got time for that.

Afghanistan and Angola

There was word that the game was supposed to have more than two areas but y'know, full game development? Ain't nobody got time for that! That and the modern Triple-A standard appears to be "get it out fast DLC/ patch it later" though no DLC is coming for MGS5 anyway. Gee, thanks Konami, way to bend us over. But besides my gripes with greedy-ass punk bitch game companies the two areas we got are, for the most part, incredibly.... empty. The actual playable ground space in both ares isn't as large as it's made out to be as a great deal of it is inaccessible terrain the rest of it is comprised of large expanses of empty space. Just take a look at this map of Afgan - the inaccessible terrain has been de-highlighted and you can see that what you are left with is less than half of the actual map space with more than half of that being empty land and roads. It's worse in Angola as the map is flatter and less mountainous so the areas of empty space are even bigger. This wouldn't be an issue if they'd filled it more with roaming enemy patrols or other points of interest but it quite literally is just bare land.

Stealth Cop-put

Metal Splinter Cell Solid

The similarities to the last SplinterCell are.. quite frankly, ridiculous. Whether this was by sheer coincidence or actual implementation is unclear but the style of the stealth is almost identical. Indeed, even the take-downs, though using different techniques, feel the same. Although I have to say the hand to hand elements of SplinterCell seem more dynamic and versatile than the one's in MGS5 and the cover system was more intuitive and smooth in SC as well as the collision detection for the cover system in MGS5 seems very hit and miss. 

Just check out these screens....

Sam and Snake make short work of enemies in had to hand combat.

Snake and Sam grapple enemies and use them as human shields in a gun fight

Snake and Sam even move in a similar fashion with very similar camera angles

Sam and Snake take cover behind a small wall. 

If it looks familiar it's because both games feature settings in the middle east too..

Now I know that screenshots can't give the entire picture, so to speak, but it says a lot and if like me you have payed both games you'll know what I mean and it is strange. Previously though both titles were the undisputed stealth heavy-weights they were very different breeds of stealth, in many ways they really couldn't be compared. I recently got SC Black List again - mainly for the brilliant 2P split-screen - and the similarities became stark to say the least. When I first started playing MGS5 it felt somehow familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on it, now I can. 

Crawling over small ledges and up/down stairs
I briefly touched on the cover system in the section above and this I suppose is somewhat of an extension of that because it makes navigating the world in a stealthy manner just that little bit more frustrating than it really should be. Snake seems unable to crawl up or down stairs or up or down small differences in elevation and this makes stealth very frustrating as often you will have to resort to returning to a crouch, and risk being spotted, to walk up the obstacle before going prone again. Now I don't know many people who can't crawl up steps while prone or up/down small elevation changes like up onto a rock that a foot or so higher than the ground, so you'd think Snake would take this in his stride, but nooooo,that's far too much to ask. 

How high can I jump from ??

I still have not figured out the fall damage multiplier for MGS5 yet, it seems highly variable. Snake is able to dive roll from the roof of a 2 story building one minute without so much as a scratch while other times, at equivalent heights he'll suffer a broken ankle while other times the fall will straight kill him. This makes skillful parkour escapes somewhat hit and miss as oftentimes you'll jump straight to your death from a height that previously you'd been ok with.

Upgrade paths vs. 

The Legendary Gunsmith.

This was an odd but kinda cool idea to add to MGS; being able to customise your weapons. We kinda got some weapon customisation on MGS4 with attachments and that kind of thing but nothing this advanced. I'm not gonna lie, it does feel very gimmicky and that paint job gives you no tactical advantage but it sure is fun. 

The system also isn't implemented that well as no explanations are given for the different kinds of scopes for instance; US No.1 and Soviet No. 2... Oh right, so what does that mean? Well unless you've used and made a note of either, you won't know. But here's the strangest things about it - the Legendary Gunsmith actually overrides various R&D upgrade paths. Allow me to explain... 

Take the silenced tranq sniper rifle for instance or the silenced semi-auto sniper rifle. Both have distinct upgrade paths from other guns of the same type. If you want the silencer on the soviet tranq sniper rifle you need to fulfill various conditions, likewise with the silenced semi-auto. However, if you've got the legendary gunsmith you can simply modify either gun to your own standards (like putting a silencer on the tranq sniper and semi-auto) - providing you've at least developed a couple of guns in the same class to provide you with the parts - avoiding the R&D upgrade paths to those specific guns entirely. Which is good, kinda... but it largely defeats the purpose of the R&D tech-trees in some cases. 

"Dynamic" difficulty curve

This is one of the worst things about MGS5, there are no difficulty settings; it's a sliding scale. What this means is that the game gets progressively harder the more you play but here's the problem with that - firstly it lures inexperienced players into a false sense of security and, let's be honest, even a rank noob can get lucky and run and gun every mission but eventually - thanks to the dynamic difficulty scaling which does not adapt to player skill - they'll come up against something they simply cannot beat and will be completely unprepared. For us more experienced players it largely ruins the first half of the game because it's so mind-numbingly easy. There's a reason that games, even modern ones, have set difficulty settings; so everyone can benefit and play how they want to play, sliding scales never work they always either make it too easy or too hard. The Assassin's creed series also suffered the same thing for most of the title - the games are just too easy.

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MGS5 is a lot of fun, the same way FarCry and Just Cause are fun and that seems to be where this game now firmly sits - for me it's lost it's seat in the stealth action hall of fame alongside games like Hitman and Splinter Cell because this game, unlike the others, plays much better when you just grab a bunch of decoys and C4 and fuck around in free-roam, picking up the odd SideOp now and again if you stray into the area. It no longer feels or plays like a serious MGS title and while this is a good thing in many ways the game has lost itself in gimmicks and online multiplayer it seems. 

Metal Gear was always about the skill of the player against the challenges of the game using just what you've got, now your skill doesn't matter so much and it can be argued that this was just make the game appeal to a wider audience but MGS never had a problem before and certainly didn't need dumbing down to accommodate anyone. Coupled with these bad bits of game coding and bad dynamics it seems like what MGS is, has been lost in a game that, oddly for MGS, is too ambitious and tries to do too many thing - a Jack of all trades but a master of none. 

Now,... where did I park my tank ?

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Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. As always I'm open to discussion and ideas too. 
If there's something you'd like to see me write about then let me know! 

It doesn't matter what you use, only that you game. 

#GamersUnite

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Spekter Gaming YouTube channel possibly coming sometime in the next couple of months, need to build my gaming rig first, watch this space. Peace.