Metal Gear Solid Fame or Metal Gear Solid Shame

Big Boss is angry, contempt, it's kinda hard to tell?

Recently the masses got their hands on the latest Metal Gear Solid game called Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeros. When I say masses, I really mean it, as this game's release is available on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game is a prequel and a starting point for the much bigger Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, coming later sometime in 2015. The events take place right after Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and the focus this time around is with Big Boss in an action-adventure stealth environment set in a new shiny open world Fox Engine. With the game releasing for either $30 (physical copy) and $20(digitally copy) many have questioned the legitimacy of such a short demo, which is said to have 2 hours of gameplay for the main story, at such a high price.

Each system has its own exclusive bonus or visual flare.

No matter your opinion on the price and value of this title, one can positively say that it doesn't feel like a full fledged video game release. What the masses are getting is a little snip-it of what and how developer Kojima will be utilizing the Fox Engine to bring a whole new era of Metal Gear Solid. In my eyes though I feel like this is the console's first version of "early access" which has been a staple on the PC marketplace for some time now-and an opportunity for a struggling studio to take advantage of their fans. Developers are allowed to charge players an early-access charge in Valve's Steam program and digital giant distribution service. In trade, players get to toy around with the latest game still in progress, as given like VIP passes to experience all of the game. Often or not these games are at such an early process in their development that many key features are still missing or the developers go back to the drawing board wiping their current progress to start a new. Here Kojima has allowed people to toy around and mess around with Metal Gear Solid's new engine and get a piece of the story puzzle along the way, for a price.

Starbound is a notorious early-access game available on Steam, which has seen many server wipes over its development.

As the game came out there were reports that a speed run had clocked in the game in 10 minutes. Other reports were that if you did everything in the game, side missions and collectibles and all, it would go around to 6 - 8 hours of play. In my eyes, that's not much of a value but diehard fans have jumped on board to what I hope doesn't become an industry trend. Critical reception have also poured out for the game as many are hailing the game since it's behind the Metal Gear Solid franchise pedigree veil, eager to get more from the impending release of MGSV: The Phantom Pain. However take for example how Capcom, yet another Eastern developer and publisher, allowed players to sample a bit of the next installment of the Dead Rising franchise.

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade game, which ties the story from Dead Rising 1 to Dead Rising 2, allowed players a glimpse of what to expect with the next installment, acquire XP to bring over into Dead Rising 2 and all for a $5 digital entrance fee. At that time some people thought $5 for a demo, something you'll no doubt hear some echo about the MGSV: GZ release, was too much. You can think however you want on the value for MGSV: Ground Zeros, as that can always be debatable, but one things for sure, "early-access" has breached the console environment. Games are expensive, publishers don't want to take high risks and if they can get some cash from gamers eager to play the latest while a future game is in development then they'll no doubt continue this trend. It's just smart business, although due to it being relatively new a business that's taking advantage of gamers at the moment.

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero, let players experience the improvements over Dead Rising 1 in a small bit sized Xbox Live Arcade chunk.

I don't think this is advantageous for gamers out there. Even though many would love to test-drive a new game that's in development, as we're seeing more and more closed and open Betas for titles about to launch, I just don't get that motivation as I'd rather play a finished/polished product. However with a Beta program, you're not paying 30 or 20 dollars to play. The developer of Rust on the PC for example even urged players not to buy into the product he was still working on and stated it wasn't finished, had plenty of bugs that needed to be fixed and wasn't the final experience that he wanted gamers to experience. That didn't stop millions from plopping down their money to join in on the latest talked about the video game, as after all video games are in the entertainment medium sharing such other water cooler topics with movies and TV shows.

If anything I'll laugh if this "glorified demo" is included in the release of MGSV: The Phantom Pain , as the demo of MGS 2 was included originally with the copy of Zone of the Enders for free! It just strikes me funny when critical sources harp on how a game like Titanfall or Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare feel "bare bones" due to no meaty single player questioning the full asking price, $60/$30 respectively, yet when it came to the MGSV GZ game you rarely heard such acquisitions. It's a slippery slope we're heading down here and it's apparent the industry is changing, sometimes you hope the non-advantageous shifts come out being trends and not standards.

Grand Theft Auto V Gameplay Trailer

Well it's Friday so what happened this week in video game. Oh I don't know, a little something called Grand Theft Auto FIVE! Yes, gameplay footage was shown and my god it looks like it's going to be a game to rule them all, so to speak.

Wow, that should have gotten you excited, are you excited? If you're not, please check your pulse or maybe you're a robot. If you are a robot please leave a comment in the... wait a minute. So yeah, many different video game companies will show you cool stuff in a trailer for their game but not 100% of it will be actually what you're doing. Not the case with anything Rockstar! See the guy base jumping off a mountain, you can do that. See the guy diving into the big blue, yeah you can do that. The implementation of three main characters will also continue to breathe more depth into your gaming experiences. From switching from a suburban mid crisis father to a ghetto hood hommie just trying to get by will create some interesting moments no doubt. Throw in the improvements in combat - which is most likely influenced from Rockstar's outing of RDR and Max Payne 3 - and that little teaser of multiplayer, you've got yourself something that's bright on my radar.

E3, stick a fork in it.

E3 is done, not so much as the expo is finished forever, but E3 has come and gone. This year has shown us a ton of new information of games, consoles and the industry as a whole. From the unveiling of Xbox One's games to PS4's actual look and price, we've seen a lot. There were a lot of discussions carried out about who won E3. I think it's kind of absurd to have this black and white notion towards the event. On the other hand though we, as human beings, strive for competition and well it's in our DNA with "survival of the fittest" after all. Right off the bat many would call Sony the winner, they've obviously listened to everyone about our doubts with digital DRM, limitations on used games - which is for some the only way they can afford the hobby - and suspicious that under all that power of a system a big fat price will correlate.

The new Xbox One/PS4 controllers

However Sony's big E3 press conference was heavy on the talk and not enough on actual gameplay of the coming next-gen games. On the contrary though Microsoft's E3 press conference was the exact opposite - as previously they stated they'd be bringing part 2 of their Xbox One to E3 focusing on just the games. They showed lots and lots of gameplay footage of next-gen games but never once talked about their perspective moving forward towards a connected digital gaming "utopia". Some would say dystopia, the Kinect ever watching you - what a great time to announce a device like that with the NSA being such a hot topic these days - limiting the consumer's rights to resell their product and having an online check to make sure you're not a gaming pirate.

No seriously, I legally bought this game!

Arrgggghhhh, pirates are awesome though? At least that's what the latest trend from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and what we see with Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Of course in that sense the damn Empire deserves the justice as they've got it way better off than the common folk, (the British are in a luxurious lifestyle and the common folk are struggling to meet ends meet). Us gamers are the common folk and the big gaming companies are the governing British Empire. It's even comical to listen to the big timers at Microsoft tell people to play a Xbox 360 if you don't have good enough internet for the Xbox One. Ouch, that's kind of harsh.

In a small sense I can see that reasoning, heck in less favored gaming communities people are still playing on PS2s. There was actually one PS2 game shown at E3 this year and can you guess what the title was? Yup, it was the latest edition of FIFA, soccer is the world's sport after all. I think Sony talked to the common folk better off than Microsoft did and that's why they "won E3". What do people want, no limitations, good games and a fair price. Yup Sony announced no DRM and no limitations for the used games market, showed off some next-gen games as well as the price of $399 for the console. Everyone in attendance at Sony's press conference cheered and gave applause. It wasn't until the next day when we found out that Sony had lied to the masses and ironically previously were being adored for it. Sony's letting the DRM and used game situation be put in the hands of 3rd party publishers. Hmm, where have we seen this move before? Sony and Microsoft are fairly similar here, both requiring a membership to play online, both specialize in media other than games (they're both entertainment boxes), and both haven't really told us enough for a reasonable purchasing decision.

As you can see, they're about the same.

With Sony's PS4 price at $399 many were happy with the price point Sony had envisioned for the launch of their next-gen console - especially after their disastrous $599 reveal from their PS3's days. What wasn't talked about was discovered later on - we are the internet after all - with the fact that the Playstation Eye, a tweaked version of the previous Playstation Eye, will not be included with the purchase of the system. Well with a purchase of this new device, that was discussed at Sony's PS4 reveal event earlier this year, retailing at an estimated $60 we now have a PS4 costing $40 less than the Xbox One. That's not as big of a sense as $100 feels is it. It's obvious that Microsoft's Xbox One console, bundled with the new tweaked Kinect as well, helps make up its $499 price tag. The inclusion of this device shows the reassurance to developers that the platform is there, as previously developers could only develop for a limited optional device that probably less than half the Xbox 360 userbase didn't have. Some great games were shown off for the Xbox One but that lingering yeah what about the DRM situation was on everybody's mind. One thing's for sure I think I'll be grabbing a PS3 or WiiU since they'll be cheaper alternatives with a stack of exclusive games - Uncharted sereis, Mario Galaxy series and more - that I have not yet experienced.

E3 is fast approaching!

If you ask anyone who plays games, probably a majority of them will say yeah they get excited when E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, rolls around every year. To the hardcore gamers this is like the Superbowl of the video game industry. To many of the mass audience that plays games but doesn't wade through gaming forums E3 is a week of gaming news and trailers that help define what's coming. Well E3 is less than a week away and many sites already have "This is what I want to see at E3" so I'll just cover it in general.

This year's E3 should be a good one specifically due to the big two Sony and Microsoft going to show off their very new next-gen consoles to a global audience. Everyone is watching, even people that don't focus heavily on games, let's be honest these consoles are two computers that let you do about anything on them. Surf the internet, - check - watch streaming TV and movies, - check - keep in contact with your friends -check. Microsoft caught a lot of flak targeting their first - as they claim their big press event & console reveal is segmented into two parts - segment on all of what the general public is probably interested in. Now at E3 we're supposed to get the second segment, the games!

Oh man and they've promised a lot with 15 titles upcoming for the Xbox One with 8 of which are new IPs. There will be many many games shown off at E3 this year but many are interested to see what one two punch Microsoft comes out with swinging. Why should people be bothered to upgrade their gaming console if they're quite content with what they have right now. The main thing it looks like that will influence this decision is the ever connected gaming world where players will experience persistent worlds. Many people on the PC front are already putting up their arms in shrugging fashion noting they can do that already on their computers. True, but I think it's now going to become a global invasion to every player on this planet. As the years go by and we all get more connected we're going to find ourselves immersed in a social gaming environment which I feel will only strengthen this beloved hobby of many.

The Used Games War

News broke that a next gen system unofficially termed the Xbox 720 - not pictured above - will not allow people with used games to access them. An activation code will be used initially when the consumer puts it into the system and thus eliminating the ability of a second hand exchange since the game's activation code will have already been used. Of course in order to verify this code your system will have to be connected online.

Many however are wondering if this will be a similar concept to DRM techniques seen on the PC market. With this part of the market piracy is rampant due to almost all PCs sold having a burning disc drive device. To contradict this piracy strict DRM has been put in place where the common denominator is you have to be connected online in order to play said game. Often times being thrown back to the main menu when a connection to the authorization server has been lost and initially, when this concept was first used -as it appears to be learned via the mass complaining of gamers that ironically conveyed this outrage through an online connection-, loosing all your progress since your last save.

Rumors about Sony doing something similar with their next gen system unofficially termed the PS4 -again not pictured above - have also arose due to Sony patents found online that talk about a system the tags games for this similar process. See the gist of things here is the system will read the game's tag, similar to the activation codes that Microsoft will implement with their 720, allegedly, but instead not require an online connection as the authorization process is done via the hardware as opposed to an online server. However similarly this will cut the used games market out as a game that's already been tagged with a specific system will not work on another. That's the whole point of this DRM technique.

I modded my original Xbox way back in the day because it didn't allow me to watch movies without going out and buying a remote for movie playback, while this feature was do-able right out of the box as per modders discoveries. If I feel like a company is putting restrictions on the product I purchased then I feel you as a consumer have a right to complain. These companies want to dictate what you can and can not do with their product and will often ban you from live if you're found to be a "cheater". Now obviously this doesn't go so far that you have to get authorities involved because of illegal actions being carried out. Still the ability to play used games, and thus either try out a game you're not sure about -or to save money picking up a used copy, on a console is paramount to many many consumers out there that enjoy the video game industry. Online passes and DLC have been put in place to deter consumers from pawning off their unused games for a little cash or bonuses towards the latest and greatest.

Oh I also highly bet that, just like the online pass, that you'll be able to buy another code with the gracious action of handing over your credit card. I really hope that does not happen, publishers are already getting their cake and eating it too, as the saying goes.