Solid Snake – NoobTubeTV

In Blackout It Pays To Play Like Solid Snake

The more I play Blackout and find myself getting to the final 15 in solos (often ending up in the top five) the more I see some similarities between my play-style and the general feel of how I played the initial Metal Gear Solid Trilogy.

It gets old dealing with some of the streamers complaining about ‘campers’ in Blackout. Sure, sometimes it can be a pain to deal with it, but it’s not like multiplayer deathmatch where you respawn – it is one life and sometimes you get screwed from your landing point all the way through until the end of the match.

I once won a match where I fell into the game late, landed next to the brick building between Train Station, Hydro Dam, and Asylum. I couldn’t move from my spot and ended up having to seek shelter in a dumpster – no joke. By the time the last three circles started to collapse I had to take a gamble and sneak up the huge mountain outside of Train Station (which also included swimming across the river. The only thing that was missing from this was a cardboard box. I crawled up the mountain and let the opponents take eachother out until I killed the final opponent for my only kill of the match – and the win.

The point of this? I remember seeing a stream of Dr. Disrespect where he raged hard after getting owned in this wonderful way. He went on a rant about how it was probably the person’s only kill of the match, blah blah blah. He was acting as childish as he could at that point. Talking about what ‘real gamers’ do, etc. It left me rolling my eyes and cheering for the person that set him off. Why did I enjoy this so much? Because it reminds me so much of knocking on walls to spook guards and whatnot in MGS.

Blackout is a great mode with its fair share of super frustrating moments for all of us. Level Three Armor on an opponent at the end of a match happens to be my biggest pet peeve at the moment. Seriously, it’s ridiculous that that armor is nearly untouchable with a full clip from most weapons. Yet, I keep coming back for more and most of the time you can find me crouched and moving from cover to cover and picking off people as they clumsily sprint through the world to their demise.

To all those gamers out there in Blackout that get angry when I take them out I only have one thing to say.

Kept you waiting, huh?

Metal Gear Solid V – The Final Theory

MGS V – SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!!!

After my last article about getting over what seems to be a terrible ending to a game that we have put far too much thought into I started to look away from Metal Gear Solid V – The Phantom Pain and back towards Ground Zeroes. I have come to realize a couple things about these games and how we are looking at them from the wrong perspective (figuratively and maybe even literally).

Bear with me on this ride, it might get a bit silly as far as theories go.
There Are Three Chapters to MGS V
Ground Zeroes, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 are all a part of the story we have played through, assuming we played both pieces of software.
That said, if you look at the story and think about them as a stand-alone multi-disc game you will see that they are certainly a complete story in many regards. They aren’t a great story in any sense, but it is also the nature of the beast with games anymore. Now that we have seen the fallout of Konami/Kojima, I am sure there was a lot left out as well. Regardless, it doesn’t take away from the fact that if you look at both games you can see that it really is a rather full story in most cases.
The Deep Theory
Naked Snake- AKA, Big Boss was never a part of MGS V – Ground Zeroes.
I have come to look at the story as a whole in a new light. I believe we have all been lied to since the beginning of MGS V (Ground Zeroes). It is my theory that Big Boss was never present in either game. Venom Snake (AKA ‘Boss’ in MGS V – GZ & TPP) was set up from the beginning to undertake what turned out to be a strange mission of vengeance against a faceless enemy.
This rings of all sorts of metaphors and such if you let your mind wander down the ‘rabbit hole’. or maybe it’s a snake hole?
Ground Zeroes Observations and Points
From the beginning we have an eye patch (much like Snake in MGS 3 – Snake Eater). We also have two functioning arms, as far as we can tell. The intro sees Skullface interacting with Chico and Paz in Cuba as prisoners/torture victims. Snake goes on to rescue both of them and evacuate on a chopper.
A few things to note –
+ We are on good terms with Huey.
+ Skullface seemingly appears out of the blue as far as storylines go. They say he secretly commanded for Cipher and such, and that is likely true. However, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense for Big Boss to have any beef with the guy.
+ Chico and Paz both react strangely to Snake rescuing them. They almost don’t fully believe it is him – sounds quite similar to what happens later, no?
+ The entire mission and aftermath of the destroyed Mother Base, etc. seems manufactured to me. Afterall, Big Boss is supposed to be building a nation in Africa, not the ocean.
Ground Zeroes Theory(ies)
I believe a few things about Ground Zeroes that will make sense of the entire MGS V experience. The first is that from the beginning Big Boss was never under our control. I believe Venom Snake was being brainwashed and sent on this mission from the beginning. He wasn’t a medic on a chopper protecting Snake from some explosion on the platform. He was in the chopper with Miller on a mission that was supposed to play a part in him being tested as the doppelganger for Big Boss. We have always been Venom Snake as far as MGS V goes. V isn’t 5 in this case, it is V for Venom Snake. Roman numerals were never used for the other MGS games and I believe there is a good reason for that.
GZ – Off the beaten path Theory – There are a few other things that happen in Ground Zeroes that make me question everything as well. The Déjà vu mission is both a flashback for us, but also a strange flash forward for Venom Snake in the supposed time of MGS V (around the early 1980s). This makes me wonder if the snake hole is even deeper than we thought.
Maybe this is all a weird experience within a strange AI. Maybe none of this is happening, from GZ through TPP. It would make sense for this to be a total mindf**k if Kojima wanted it to be. If you played through MGS through MGS 4 you can see that nanomachines and mind altering have been integral within the entire experience. Maybe we are simply experiencing the created memories given to a clone of Big Boss?

The Phantom Pain Theory –
Every other complete Metal Gear Solid game (1, 2, 3, Peacewalker and 4) has had numerous boss fights and interactions. In TPP we also have boss fights, but they aren’t set up to feel that way.
We have to fight Quiet, Eli, The Man on Fire and Sahelanthropus (on a couple occasions). I think a lot of what we experience in this game as far as feeling like something was missing is when we consider two characters that we never really fight – Skullface and Psycho Mantis.

These aren’t important interactions in the sense of the overall story. I believe Kojima made these all rather forgetable because this isn’t meant to be a Big Boss story or Solid Snake… it’s Phantom story… a ghost story. It is supposed to blow away like ashes.

Also… nuclear disarmament and Peace (The elusive Chapter 3) will never happen. Why? Because if they happen there is no MGS – MGS 4. Sure they reference the tech being there in the future… but it is a losing battle.

Ocelot Protects The Man He Will Become. Eli (Liquid Snake) –
There was so much potential for holes to develop in the story that I believe Kojima was brilliant in this way. Ocelot didn’t seem like the Ocelot we have known in every other MGS title. Every other title has him acting incredibly arrogant and sometimes even foolishly. He is so even-keeled in MGS V – TPP (Keep in mind, he isn’t to be seen or heard from in GZ.?) that it makes me wonder if he is on Xanax.
The only time Ocelot really shows his true colors is in the torture room. interesting. Considering the game ends with a discussion between the two men about the future roles of David (Solid Snake) and Eli (Liquid Snake) in the fight for dominance as the real ‘Big Boss’. I think the real reveal is yet to be known. I believe there is something bigger on the horizon and it involves Solid Snake.

Kojima’s Good Bye To Metal Gear –
More than anything else with the Metal Gear Story from Snake Eater through Metal Gear Solid 4 as far as literal story timeline goes – Kojima has completed the circle/spiral. He started it all back in the Early-Mid 80s and then MGS grabbed us and put us on this wild ride. It is my belief that Kojima wanted to finish any of the holes in his timeline. I believe TPP was an effort to if not explain every detail maybe fill the gaps with something. anything. He had referenced on many occasions a wish to move on from Metal Gear. As selfish as I am for more Metal Gear from Kojima, I also understand how much it sucks to work on the same thing for a long time. let alone being an artist that has to work on the same art for decades. It sounds dreadful when you think of it that way. does it not?

Final Theory –
Metal Gear Will Go On And David Hayter Will Return As Snake
This might be more of a hope than a theory. However, there is something to consider with all of the Metal Gear Solid Storyline finished through MGS 4. Solid Snake is still living at the end of MGS 4. and Big Boss has made it to be alongside his clone as well.
Metal Gear as a series is now owned by Konami without the presence of Kojima.
It is my belief that Solid Snake has been cloned and they will find a way to develop a way for him to go on fighting with Hal by his side in the future. Before The Phantom Pain was announced, I posed a theory as to whether or not there would be another MGS game after MGS4 (see here).
I believe we will see Solid Snake once again and it will end up being around the year 2032-2040. This is because I believe Naomi took Solid Snake’s DNA (while probably possessing that of Big Boss and perhaps even Liquid Snake/Ocelot) midway through MGS 4. She seemed to be full of so much regret for having taken part in what turned out to be the brief life of Solid Snake that I think she wanted a chance to for lack of a better phrase – pay it forward.
Solid Snake isn’t dead by the time MGS 4 rolls credits, and Hal is still alive and kicking with Meryl, Johnny and Sunny. It is my hope that we will see Meryl become the new Colonel and Solid Snake’s clone enter the future world of stealth espionage when he reaches the age necessary to learn the skills that are waiting in his DNA.

Operation Intrude – N313

With Metal Gear Solid V – The Phantom Pain leaving a bad taste in the mouth of almost every hardcore fan (myself among them) I am still waiting for Chapter 3 and I firmly believe it was going to be something magnificent.

This isn’t because I think Chapter 3 is coming… hell, it isn’t because I believe mission 51 will be finished and/or released. It isn’t even because I think Konami would all but totally redeem themselves. No… it’s because the last part of The Phantom Pain made me think we were going to the only part of Metal Gear that wasn’t ‘Solid’. I thought we were going to hear David Hayter’s ‘Solid Snake’ arrive in the jungle in search of Metal Gear and Gray Fox. When I first played through TPP and finished learning ‘The Truth’ I saw the tape for Operation Intrude and my heart skipped a beat.

This was the greatest game ever made and I was going to get to finish where I began as a kid. Then the credits rolled and there was no chapter three… there was nothing. A broken mirror with more questions than answers.

Metal Gear as a saga may have ended just before the lines of the circle met. This leaves so many questions among the fans that really aren’t as important as the story and filling the holes that The Phantom Pain left. I understand from the obvious message of literal Phantom Pain being felt by Venom Snake and his missing limb, and even our pain of feeling like the story remains unfinished. Yeah… we all get the message.

What left me in this still somewhat annoyed state was the feeling that I missed out on the last part of a story. It reminds me of James Caan in ‘Elf’ when he approves the story about the puppy and the pigeon although it is missing the last few pages. I saw chapter three coming… I saw Solid Snake creeping through the mist into Outer Heaven. I saw that first sleeping soldier next to a jeep… I saw it all ripped from me. I felt betrayed and yes even a bit angry.

‘What the f**k? That’s it? It’s over?’

I want so badly to join the believers out there that think there is more hidden for us in TPP. However, I also know better than to waste my time with trying to uncover something that isn’t covered to begin with.

The Phantom Pain is an unfinished epilogue and prologue in the same work. At this point we have to let it go and move on to whatever we decide to do next.

Metal Gear Solid 5 And The Nuclear Quest(ion)

After beating the known storylines in Metal Gear Solid 5 there are still so many small things to do and accomplish as far as side-ops and further development go. The biggest sticking point for many MGS players is the building/disarming of nuclear weapons in the FOB Resource section of their game.

I have yet to develop a nuke on my own to this point, but that didn’t keep me from reaching 150,000+ Heroism (unlocking the Hero Trophy and therefore making it possible to infiltrate other FOBs that already developed or stole a nuke for their own base). After breaking into the rival FOB last night and stealing their nuke while completing my infiltration I realized a couple things about my status when in possession of a nuke in MGS 5 – I am a huge target when I have a nuke. Now that this game has been out for nearly two months and gamers have been pouring over the details after completing the storyline there are really only two things left to accomplish.

Develop A Nuke/Disarm A Nuke
Develop the remaining items for Venom Snake (I refuse to call our character Big Boss) and the Buddys

This is where the entire basis of the FOB started to make me think that it really becomes meaningless after you have developed every item (including a nuke).

By the time most MGS gamers have earned enough heroism to break into an FOB and steal a nuke they won’t have any reason to break into a non-nuclear FOB. This means that having a nuke isn’t so much a deterrent as it is an invitation to have your FOB jacked with constantly (as long as you possess a nuke that is). The only reason I have been bothering to break into rival FOBs is to steal their minor metal and fuel resources… why? To develop a nuke, get the trophy and dismantle it.

Why dismantle it? Because if someone has played the game enough and is able to break into FOBs – your nuke is as good as gone and your resources have been wasted as a false deterrent. Also, there is no actual use for the nuke other than making it impossible for non-hero rated gamers to raid your FOB. Again, if you have all your weapons developed and have already developed/disarmed a nuke – who cares if someone breaks in and steals the resources you are basically done with?

It would be different if you could use your nuke against someone that has been trolling your FOB (I’m looking at you Crimson157). If we were able to unleash our nuke and totally destroy another user’s FOB this game would become total anarchy and probably lose even more gamers to the coming nuclear aftermath of Fallout 4.

So, to answer the nuclear question as far as MGS 5 goes – Develop and dismantle a nuke to get the trophy. Then focus on developing the rest of your FOB, weapons and such. After that, you can basically focus on trolling the CPU in single player and wasting more time with Metal Gear Online.

Speaking for myself – I plan on getting every trophy for this game and setting it aside for Fallout 4. It really is too bad that Kojima and Co. jacked with our minds and the end of a great franchise so much as to make it downright trivial to develop nukes.

Kept You Waiting, Huh? – Metal Gear Solid 5 (MGSV) And What Could Have Been

It has been awhile since NoobTubeTV has given the world a piece of its somewhat unique views in the gaming world. I know you have missed my sardonic presence – and I have missed your views and comments.

The newest and (final?) iteration of the Metal Gear universe has been out for nearly a month and it has proven to be everything I had hoped for from the gameplay perspective shown in the MGS5 Prequel Ground Zeroes. We will start with the positives and the gaming gods know there are tons of them. This game handles as well as any third-person title I have ever played and the presentation that comes with it somehow makes it feel like I am taking an active role in a movie throughout.

Here's to you Solid Snake. The real protagonist of Metal Gear. — Here’s to you Solid Snake. The real protagonist of Metal Gear.

There are a few instances when you might get frustrated with the handling – climbing over seemingly non-existent rocks/hills/rises around the open worlds of Afghanistan and Africa. It makes you roll your eyes when Snake/Boss/You/Whoever can’t run over and through a small area but can climb cracks in walls with the ease of Spiderman. Similarly, you might encounter a few times where aiming your weapons at a target doesn’t account for some sort of rigid tent pole or the like (again, an eye roll… nothing to break a controller over).

While playing through the first twenty missions or so I started to find myself hoping to meet all sorts of characters as the story unfolded. Some of the characters and reveals you come across are enough to make you use your inner-Keanu Reeves and say ‘Whoa’. Then you keep playing through the game and it is like you are experiencing the first part of Kojima’s master symphony. Then just as the crescendo begins to build in volume and you start marking this game down mentally as the greatest gaming story/epic of our time – it starts to fade from a master symphony and into Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.

We have been Rick Rolled in the worst of ways by a gaming master director and his estranged publisher (Konami).

I felt like Dr. Grant and the Jurassic Park crew when they go on their sitting tour of the laboratories and they resort to breaking the bar over the seats and going to the lab anyway. I felt like that… except the bar was not going to move and Kojima and Co. were riding away in a black SUV and counting my money.

I am trying my best not to spoil anything for you if you haven’t played the game all the way through (whatever that means…).

Okay. I won’t spoil any plot points for you, but you should know that this game is built in such a way from a story perspective that you will pick and choose missions as you go through and there will be cassettes unlocked as you beat each mission, etc. These aren’t some sort of optional cassettes though. For those of you that complained about the MGS4 pointless video sequences – this is how Kojima tried to make you happy… and I hate you for it.

I put far more time into MGS5 than I probably should have over the last month or so and I must say I wish I had about half of it back. When I play a game that starts with Chapter 1 I don’t expect Chapter 2 to be the last chapter of the game. Yes, I am serious – Chapter 2… is the final chapter of this game. Even Shakespeare and basically every other play/movie has three acts. Not only does this game leave a sour taste in my mouth, it locks me in a room with a lackluster online multiplayer and no toothbrush.

The end of this game is such that you will be left disappointed and pissed off like Mass Effect 3 left many die hard fans. Unless you are a Kojima apologist (like the Mass Effect groupies) that think everything about this is perfect and is a fine way to end a great story.

The only problem with the apologist point of view is that you have effectively done nothing meaningful to the story of Metal Gear by the time you have finished the main ~~farce~~ story. I wanted this game to keep on being what it seemed like it would be as I saw a couple key characters in much younger forms. It was almost like playing through a prequel of the Harry Potter stories as Lord Voldemort and just as you are getting your army of deatheaters together and prepping to Avada Kedavra everyone – the story is scrapped and the credits run.

At least I can still finish The Witcher 3 and look forward to Fallout 4. Metal Gear Solid 5 went from being the best game ever to being maybe a Top 5 game of 2015.

If you are a die hard Metal Gear fan like my brother and I you should still buy this game and play it. Otherwise, just stick to playing MGS4 over and over again on your PS3 and enjoy what should have been the final chapter of MGS.

Kojima-san, I would have rather kept on waiting.

Q1 of 2013 Is Going To Make It Feel Like Christmas Again

One of the best parts about the holiday season is the release of new games. From Halo to Call of Duty and through the gauntlet of other adventure games like Assassin’s Creed and Hitman we are usually spoiled with a treasure trove of games to sink our free time into. Typically, you will see a dramatic slowdown in the summertime because most people are on vacation or outside getting in shape for the beach (PS – You should be starting that now).

The second best time of the year for gamers is March. March is the typical month where you will find that games have been pushed to in order to avoid competing with big-money/big-name titles like the Call of Duties of the world. This year we have quite a few games coming out that should prove to excite almost every genre of gamer from late January through March.

The first game we have to look forward to is Company of Heroes 2. CoH2 is continuing the franchise that puts real-time strategy into World War 2. Real-time strategy is a simple concept that can (and does) get rather involved as you get further into the
game. The general way of looking at this is from the base understanding that you are a commander telling troops where to go and what to do rather than just pointing and shooting. Company of Heroes is a great game for anyone that is a fan of WW2 history or simply a fan of RTS games. This game is for the PC, so be sure that you take a look into the system requirements before jumping into this title. If you need a game that will give you the ability to play online against others or simply go against the CPU and try to work on your decision-making and strategic abilities you will get that and more with Company of Heroes 2.

The best part about strategic games is that they aren’t always some sort of battlefield commander genre. One of the best franchises ever has a new direction coming this February in Metal Gear Solid Rising: Revengeance. Revengeance is taking the Metal Gear franchise in a new direction with an old face for fans of the series. Raiden made his presence known in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The downfall to this was that many fans (especially American fans) of the series were let down that Solid Snake was only present for the first part of the game before making a cameo in Raiden’s portion of MGS2.

Why was Raiden disliked by American gamers? He was designed as a long-haired blonde twenty-something (already sounds a bit feminine, right?). Not to mention the fact that he didn’t have much of a personality. Even Solid Snake (the ultimate non-emotional ‘Mr. Mission’) had something more to him than Raiden’s almost whiny persona.

That all changed in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns 0f the Patriots where Raiden came back as a cyborg ninja that resembled Grey Fox from the first MGS game. Raiden suddenly became a character that people wanted to utilize and get to know. He developed some sword play in MGS 2 but MGS 4 took it to new heights and now that he is the featured protagonist in MGS Rising: Revengeance – you know more people will want to check this game out.

Now that we are getting closer to March at this point – why not focus on the most anticipated title of 2013 – Grand Theft Auto 5.

GTAV is going to blow the minds of gamers everywhere when it releases (or rather – if it still releases) in March should break almost every sales record. This is going to continue the trend for free-roaming violence with a decent storyline for people itching to get out and enjoy the chaos brought on by warmer weather. If this game is delayed yet again, you should expect it to release in May. This would simply continue the same trend that other Rockstar games have created over the last few years – namely Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire.

Metal Gear Solid 5 Confirmed – Was There A Brief Sign In MGS 4?

It is one thing to grab onto a rumor and let it throw you around like a cat on a ceiling fan. It is another story altogether when the developer/director confirms the news. Kojima has always been great at marketing his games and putting the pressure on himself and his game designers to make every Metal Gear title the best it can be. It was after hearing this that speculation started jumping around the collective head of NoobTubeTV and the rest of the Metal Gear fanverse.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is slated to come out at the end of 2012. If you couple the return of Raiden (a badass bionic ninja) in the upcoming game with the fact that Metal Gear Solid 4 was Solid Snake’s ‘Final Mission’ you would think that the series would be meeting its end. Then again… this is Kojima’s story about Nanomachines and Cloning we are talking about!

Without trying to spoil anything for those that have yet to play Metal Gear Solid 4 (or any of the other MGS Titles) –

There is a cinematic scene in Act 2 where Snake is interacting with Naomi Hunter (the original scientist that injected Snake with Nanomachines “Foxdie” in the first MGS title). As you can see from MGS to MGS2 and then finally MGS4, Solid Snake has aged like Mel Gibson in Forever Young. This is the entire meta-story of MGS4 in a nutshell and it really seems to be the beginning of MGS5.

MGS4 Naomi — Dr. Naomi Hunter – The Queen of Jacking with DNA and Nanomachines… Do we have her to thank for MGS 5?

During this cinematic scene, Naomi takes a reading of Snake’s cellular structure and DNA. In the process you can see her screen and it reads “Copying Solid Snake”.

Copying Snake — While this seems like a crazy thing to grab onto as the basis for the next MGS game, you should take stock of all the hints and fun bits Kojima has included in past MGS titles.

The next step is for Kojima to give a projected release table… and he hasn’t.

This leaves two possibilities:

1 – Metal Gear Solid 5 will be among the final games developed for the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 generation of consoles.

2 – Metal Gear Solid 5 will be among the first games developed for the next generation of consoles and could once again be a Playstation exclusive title in order to push sales of new consoles when they are announced.

Either way it goes there is some joy to be had in the Metal Gear fan community. However, this does beg the questions –

If Snake is cloned again… what will he be like?

What will his name be? (Solid and Liquid are taken… Gas Snake seems a little stinky)

How will the other characters develop? (Don’t forget about Sunny! She looks like a big part of the future of Metal Gear)