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We arrived in Boston this morning at 2:30am or possibly half past five, took a taxi whose driver seemed to think he had to accelerate like Damon Hill between traffic lights and then brake as late as possible, then came in and went to bed before getting up a few hours later. I've no idea what time it's supposed to be. The clock says something completely different from what I would expect. I'm not really any good at adapting to time zones quickly, and it seemed that a week in California was just enough to get me used to the new one before going three hours forward again - but I think a Sunday feeling comfortably ill on the sofa to get over the holiday is probably the most relaxing part of it. Never mind. We'll get to do it all again in three weeks.
After buying it in preparation for being in a house with a PS3 or two in it, we got the chance to play through a bit of Metal Gear Solid 4 during our spare time (so in other words we got about five inches through it). The gameplay's made another few changes from the last game, though the enormous number of extra things didn't seem to actually come into play that much - those being a stress meter, various types of camouflage again, hundreds of weapons and customizations for them... having to tap R3 to keep your heart going and try not to break your aging hip while going up and down stairs.
Actually, the older Snake seems to be surprisingly agile and doesn't, for example, start with a blanket and packet of humbugs in his inventory. The only difficulty that he had was thanks to my usual inept handling - the camera has been completely freed up since MGS3, which is very welcome as it means you can see things other than those to the North, but I had difficulty with the new first person shooter-like controls and in moments of any stress usually ended up spinning around in the wrong direction while being shot at from all sides, while Whitney helped me out with insightful comments such as "You've just died again" and "You should have put it on Wimpy mode at the start". I sort of miss being able to toy with the really stupid guards from the first of the series.
It was the first time I'd seen what the PS3 was capable of, though, and technically at least it's impressive. I had managed what I think is the rather impressive feat of not hearing any major spoilers since its release, so the storyline kept us both interested as it unfolded through the feature-length cutscenes. (Though I've no idea what the cookery programme at the start was about.) It seemed to be quite blatantly bringing everyone who had ever been mentioned in the series back for the last time - once the game starts there's some storyline setup about all weapons and their use being controlled through one organization, you're sold some guns by Trevor McDonald, then you meet up with Liquid who says BROTHERRRR a lot and then knocks you and everyone else out. That's about as far as we got.
After buying it in preparation for being in a house with a PS3 or two in it, we got the chance to play through a bit of Metal Gear Solid 4 during our spare time (so in other words we got about five inches through it). The gameplay's made another few changes from the last game, though the enormous number of extra things didn't seem to actually come into play that much - those being a stress meter, various types of camouflage again, hundreds of weapons and customizations for them... having to tap R3 to keep your heart going and try not to break your aging hip while going up and down stairs.
Actually, the older Snake seems to be surprisingly agile and doesn't, for example, start with a blanket and packet of humbugs in his inventory. The only difficulty that he had was thanks to my usual inept handling - the camera has been completely freed up since MGS3, which is very welcome as it means you can see things other than those to the North, but I had difficulty with the new first person shooter-like controls and in moments of any stress usually ended up spinning around in the wrong direction while being shot at from all sides, while Whitney helped me out with insightful comments such as "You've just died again" and "You should have put it on Wimpy mode at the start". I sort of miss being able to toy with the really stupid guards from the first of the series.
It was the first time I'd seen what the PS3 was capable of, though, and technically at least it's impressive. I had managed what I think is the rather impressive feat of not hearing any major spoilers since its release, so the storyline kept us both interested as it unfolded through the feature-length cutscenes. (Though I've no idea what the cookery programme at the start was about.) It seemed to be quite blatantly bringing everyone who had ever been mentioned in the series back for the last time - once the game starts there's some storyline setup about all weapons and their use being controlled through one organization, you're sold some guns by Trevor McDonald, then you meet up with Liquid who says BROTHERRRR a lot and then knocks you and everyone else out. That's about as far as we got.
