I don't think I've watched a TV show like them. The Vietnam and Polar Expeditions episodes, I'm talking about. After watching both, I was left reeling; the BBC are allocating their budget well with these being churned out. Top Gear has always been a jolly fun show, with lots of cars and explosions, but these two felt more like inspiration. Makes you want to try something like that, for the hell of the experience. Bloody fantastic. Anyone else feel the same way?

I came across this at my local Budgens today.





The fact that it was being sold in Budgens was strange. By the way, my American buddies, Budgens is a chain of tiny supermarkets. Every Budgens I have been in has been awful. I don't get how the name, "Zone", relates to the Wii, though.

This month's musing is something that has been constantly on my mind for a few weeks now, which is what is leading me to attempt my first “Monthly Musing”. As someone who loves to write, the decision to participate was easy- I know which characters I adore, and I know that I want to write about them. As with most MGS posts, spoilers ahoy.

On the surface, especially to the casual player of Metal Gear, Solid Snake, the antagonist, seems like a shallow enough character: he's just a badass. The 'ultimate soldier', as they like to put it. This may be true, but there is another level to Snake that I feel makes him worth of my attention. Snake's demeanour hides his inner feelings well, but at the same time, expresses them perfectly. The way Snake acts towards people, his body language, his choice of words, his very personality, is what makes him such an amazing character.



Snake's hidden personality is expertly shown throughout all of the games. In Metal Gear Solid, Snake is shown straight away to be an incredible force. Not only does his gruff voice and muscled posture portray a veteran soldier, but his knowledge of the weaponry and equipment (a Hind-D?) craft the image of the 'ultimate soldier' from the very start. Savvy and able, Snake connects with the player simply by being awesome. As the story progresses, and Snake collects more allies and enemies, those people become your allies and enemies. Despite his uncaring attitude, Snake's connections to Meryl and Otacon are clear- he truly doesn't want them to be hurt.

Through Metal Gear Solid 2, Snake is seen from another angle: Raiden. Since Snake is your informant, you see the legend first hand. He helps Raiden out, along with Otacon. Not only does he become even more awesome, but his strong friendship with Otacon, although never admitted, is clear. The relationship between Snake and Otacon connects the two characters inexplicably, and makes them so much more human. All too often in video games the characters interact and are allied with each other. In Metal Gear, they are friends. Not only that, but Snake's sentiments that he shares with Raiden, about passing on thoughts, feelings, and knowledge to the next generation give Snake, in the player's mind, a mind. Snake isn't just a war machine that gives out information about guns and helicopters. He has feelings, aspirations, and opinions.



Metal Gear Solid 4, though, is the climax of Snake's journey, career, and personality. Snake's relationship with Otacon becomes very prominent, especially during the epilogue and after the credits. Otacon wants to spend the rest of Snake's life with him, and Snake, despite his words, clearly wants his buddy Hal to stay with him too. The most important thing about this is that the player, me, wants him too as well. There is a strong bond that makes both characters incredibly human. During the corridor scene, Otacon gives Snake words of encouragement, endearing himself further. During the scene in the GW core, in the graveyard, Snake calls out “OTACON!”- pushing the bond even further. Not only is there a bond between the two characters, there is a survival instinct placed upon the player- your concern during the climax is for Snake's safety, because you know that the other characters love Snake as much as you do.

The interactions and bonds between the characters in Metal Gear are the key to the incredibly powerful characters. I'm sure if Snake was a lone wolf, who never became close to anyone, the ending of MGS4 would not have been as moving as it was. MGS4 made me feel so tense during the corridor scene, so pumped up to be finally taking on Liquid/Ocelot, and so sad when I thought Snake was going to take his own life. The only reason the game made me feel like this is because of the characters. Snake needed to finish that corridor to save the rest of the cast, and save Snake and Otacon's friendship. Taking Ocelot on was exhilarating because the character/s of Ocelot and Liquid have been built up over the games, and never been fully closed, until now. Ocelot had gained my respect in MGS3, so on one level it was duel, and Liquid had refused to die so often that he needed to be taken down for good. The protagonist/antagonist relationship is another that sparks an emotion, except this time, it was not hope and fear, it was relief and closure. Finally, when Otacon tells Sunny that Snake has “gone away”, once again the bond between the characters that I have seen develop over many years appears to have been shattered by death, and this makes this moment incredibly powerful. Without these amazing characters, this could never be so.



The human traits and subtle way in which they are displayed make the characters of Metal Gear Solid some of the best characters, not just in video games, but in any media genre. Most characters are defined by their obvious feelings and blatant statements, but Metal Gear creates true characters by making them behave just like actual people. Actually, scratch that. They're better characters than real people.

I downloaded the Bioshock demo from Steam today, after finally installing that last bit of RAM I needed to play the thing. I still have a question for the community, though:

Does the game get better?

The demo, to me, seemed like a poor man's Half-Life 2, especially as I don't really like the Unreal engine. The atmosphere is obviously stunning, and I'm loving that, but the combat, even on easy, is made difficult by dark environments and less-than-perfect aiming. The Eve powers are cool and all, but they don't really seem that useful, and I found myself just using the wrench the whole time because that way if something came near me it would die, instead of me missing constantly with the powers or the guns. The Tommy Gun was okay, and it was easier once I got it, but it was still quite annoying.

I can tell that I'd absolutely love the environment and the setting, and I was pretty scared when I saw the Big Daddy take out the guy who attacked the 'Little sister'. However, as I say, I'm not too convinced with the combat. Does it become easier to kill people once you get weapon upgrades and the like? I found myself running from all enemies as much as I could, because it was so dark I couldn't hit them unless they were close enough to give me a good whack.

So, Destructoid community, please give me (hopefully non-spoilerific) some info on the way the game evolves. Thanks in advance.

Platinum games, a studio consisting of old Clover developers (Okami, Viewtiful Joe)), have announced "Madworld", a stylistic kill-'em-up for the Wii. I assume anyone reading this can go look up the game for themselves, but in short summary, the game is completely Black and White, with only blood in colour. You'd better be a fan of red if you're getting this game, as you're going to see a lot of it. The game features a large amount of incredibly brutal killings, largely down to the fact that the protagonist has a chainsaw instead of a right hand. Here's a video, probably soon to be taken down by Sega, as they have done with all the other ones:

http://wiiloaded.com/images/portal/videos/madworldvideo.html

The game itself looks like a brilliantly fresh new Wii game, and by fresh I mean new and exciting, not electric scales for �60. It makes me glad that the Wii is having a great cult game growth, with No More Heroes, Okami, and now this. Granted, they are all cel-shaded and made pretty much by the same people, but someone's got to get the ball rolling, right? I really hope more games like this that will definitely attract the hardcore gamers will come out on the Wii.

It's list time! I'm gonna list some things, in a list. I hope you like lists! This one is about my opinions. My opinions are limited to videogames. Lists!

1. I love communities!

I came to Destructoid a little while ago, in part due to the great community. Communities shape the way we play games. If it wasn't for the gaming community on the internet in general, things like the companion cube and mudkip memes would never happen. Not so much mudkip, because that was 4chan, which is not a community but just this one guy called "Anonymous" posting over and over again and yelling at himself.

Communities in-game also make games so much better. Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3. If you are a minority and you're playing Halo, make sure you never reveal this in any small way. In CoD, however, this is greatly reduced, because all the idiots are playing Halo 3 instead. I'm not saying you're an idiot for playing Halo 3, but you must agree that is their general hangout.



By far the best community that I've seen is that of Team Fortress 2 on the PC. I've never been annoyed by someone on TF2 for more than a few seconds, thanks to the mute button, but that's not the point. People are just nicer there, and that makes the game a brilliant experience. Another game with an awesome community is Smash Bros. Not so much now that Brawl has come out, but during Melee's career, I was part of that community too, and they really were a great community to discuss the game with, and develop the metagame. A good community feeds a good game.

2. What I don't like about videogames.

The main thing that pisses me off when it comes to video games is getting bored. If a game doesn't feel like a good game within the first five minutes, I feel that it can never be a good game. I play games to have fun, not to endure a boring section to get to a better one. Something like Half-Life, however, where you aren't actually doing much at he start, but you're intrigued, is good. I like to be interested by a story, not have it forced upon me. When a game makes me watch a confusing and boring intro, I will not enjoy the game. I guess I suffer from a short attention span, but I don't care, because the start of a game matters so much to the overall enjoyment of it.

3. These are cool characters.

Solid Snake. One of the coolest characters ever created, with the best voice actor in any game, combines to form a force of awesomeness that causes otherwise normal people to grunt "Metal Gear!?" in a husky voice every time someone mentions him.

Luigi. He's overshadowed by his brother, as everyone knows, but everyone also knows he's much cooler than Mario, too. He's got so much more personality, because of the fact that Mario is supposed to be so generic, so you can assume his role in the games. I don't care about this, so Luigi is awesome to me. His final smash in Brawl sums him up, I'd say. The most random and nonsensical thing in the game, like Luigi is the most random and silly of the Mario franchise.

Every character in TF2. They each have more character than most real people I know, combined.

4. I don't agree!

I don't like Halo. Never have. I also don't enjoy most Zelda games. Wind Waker is my favourite, where it's most people's least favourite. Metroid Prime is an alright game, but it's by no means the best game on the GameCube. Mario Galaxy is kind of boring. I prefer Melee to Brawl. Every GTA game is rubbish, and yet I have still bought every one of them, just because of the free-roaming aspect. Mario Kart: Double Dash is by FAR the worst Mario Kart game (contrary to the opinions of everyone who doesn't own the game, who seem to love the bloody thing). I despise the touch screen controls of Phantom Hourglass. I think Spartan: Total Warrior is massively underrated. I prefer Goldeneye to Perfect Dark, by a very wide margin.

Finally, this probably isn't something you disagree with, but Wii Sports is incredibly boring after your first night of having a Wii.

5. End of list.

I hope you enjoyed reading my list, and I hope you'll enjoy flaming me in the comments! Bye!