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While it may be pretty barren- there’s only 17 videos at the moment (still, more than you were probably expecting), we’ll have plenty more on the way, including more commentaries for our Team Fortress 2 escapades AND the upcoming ETF2L Highlander Community Challenge (yes, we’re competing), matches from our previous and future Starcraft II tournaments, video reviews and plenty of other surprises!

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This has kind of been a secret-side project of mine that I’ve been working on for quite a while. While it may not be OMFGNinja’s, it’s still a good series of videos for starters, or if there are a few techniques that people may not have thought of for the veteran Spy players.

Engineer Excerpt:

For Part 1, click here.

Another E3 event over and done with, and many people are left in awe of what’s to come for the future of gaming. I’ll be honest, this year’s E3 was great, but I don’t think it lived up to it’s expectations; motion control and 3D seemed to be the main gimmicks featured this year. Let’s get things started with a recap of each of the “Big 3′s” press conferences:

Sony:

Portal 2, Killzone 3, Infamous 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2… just to name a few of the trailer highlights. I guess I’ll make a separate post that contains all of the trailers mentioned here: there’s going to be quite a few.

The true crowd pleasers were Portal 2 and Metal Gear Solid: Rising, another Hideo Kojima masterpiece in works… only that it’s not direceted by Kojima, but Mineshi Kimura, who’s done tons of behind-the-scenes work on the other MGS titles.

While Portal 2 has many new features- the gel, tractor beam and vacuum tunnel to name a few- there was one thing in particular that turned me off immediately; Wheatly. Wheatly is your “sidekick”. Think of him as a talking Companion Cube, except I wouldn’t think twice if I had to throw him into the incinerator at the end of a certain trial. Also, as unbelievably successful as the first Portal was, it doesn’t need a sequel. You see, there’s this game called Half-Life 2: Episode 3 that Valve SHOULD be working on, but I feel it’s going to join Duke Nukem: Forever in the world of excellent games that never were.

Well… at least I still have my TF2 hats. Thanks Valve, the Mac Earbuds look stellar on Spy.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising, although a kind of “broken” trailer (cinema-title-game-slo-game-slog-game-slogan-game-tilte-watermelon), showed the Metal Gear Solid series taking not a step, but a giant vault away from the traditional hide-stealth kill-sneak tactics of the originals. Kimura says there will be an emphasis on stealth, but this is Raiden… come on. Look at that sword.

To make things a little more complicated than needed, MGS: Rising is set between the events of MGS 2 and MGS 4… Here, allow me, before you hurt yourself:

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Metal Gear

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (Metal Gear Solid)

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Yep, try and play them in order… I dare you.

On a hardware standpoint, Sony released more info about PlayStation Move. I’m not going to talk about it because motion control has already been done before, and I think this will be a projected flop. Reminds me of a Wiimote with a cue ball on the end.

Microsoft:

Speaking of projected flop, Xbox Kinect; it’s like PlayStation’s EyeToy meets Wii Motion Plus meets Dance Dance Revolution without the controller. Well, while it looks like some weird year 2062 rabbit ear antenna, it’s way less dorky-looking than the PS Move controller.

Killzone 3 was one of the highlights of MIcrosoft’s conference. I can’t say I was too impressed: of the footage that was shown, most of it took place in some sort of armored jet pack, where the HUD occupied 40% of the screen. The game is also going to be in 3D, which is just what I need. I won’t be able to see what I’m shooting at, but at least the HUD will have some virtual depth to it.

Halo: Reach… Yeah, I trust you already know about it.

Nintendo:

WHAT?! NINTENDO IS THE ONLY ONE TO NOT FEATURE MOTION CONTROL- oh, right…..

Well, after two years of people shaking there heads at Nintendo, their redemption year has finally come. Third time’s a charm.

There are two things that I can always say about Nintendo; they aren’t afraid to take risks, and they were the first to figure out the simple rule that “If something unexpectedly cool and new happens with an old formula, work with it”.

While everyone else was messing around with motion controls (which was ironically laughed at when Nintendo came out with it a few years ago), Nintendo was brewing a technological hallmark in their lab: the Nintendo 3DS. I wish there was some way to do the 3D-without-glasses effect some justice, but pictures don’t really work all that well. Oh well, the 3DS has made some changes beyond that of the DS and all of its variations, with the inclusion of a joystick, a widescreen display top-screen, two camera lenses for taking real-world pictures in 3D, and a 3D depth adjuster in the form of a sliding bar.

The debut game for the 3DS was something no one expected- nor heard of these days- Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Pit has had cameos in other games, the most recent being Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but he hasn’t appeared in a stand-alone game since 1991.

Kid Icarus isn’t the only series to be pulled from Nintendo’s vault: Retro Studios is currently developing a nice little game called Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii. If you need a refresher, Retro Studios was the developer behind the groundbreaking Metroid Prime series, proving that not only could a game be taken from 2D to 3D, but it could be taken from a 2D side-scroller, to a 3D first-person adventure game, and STILL be awesome.

Back to the 3DS for a minute. While we’re on the topic of Nintendo’s classics getting taken out of the vault again, did you ever wonder what StarFox 64 would be like in 3D? That’s one of the many titles that are being remade for the 3DS’s launch.

In the visual department, Kirby’s Epic Yarn definitely turned some heads. While it may not be as flashy or processor-ending as games like Crysis 2, it gets plenty of awards for originality. Epic Yarn is like watching the designs on your childhood blanket come to life. It’s……cool. Strange, but down right cool.

Warren Spector’s presentation of Epic Mickey was a little vague; most of the time spent was about the usage of paint and paint thinner to affect the environment, but he did feature a level based on the classic Steamboat Willie cartoon.

There was much speculation over what Nintendo was working on for the next Zelda: Were they going to show it? Was it going to be for console? What art style was it going to be in, the cartoony Windwaker or the more mature and gritty Twilight Princess?

Yes, yes, and a strange mix of both.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was definitely a surprise; listen to the crowd when you watch the live feed trailer. I’m sure most people wanted to see another Zelda game in the style of Twilight Princess, but the series is notorious for trying new things with each title. Sword control has been changed: strikes are dependent on how you swing the Wiimote. As in, swing the Wiimote up from left to right diagonally and Link will strike in that same direction.

Skyward Sword was designed to be a Zelda that anyone can enjoy. Well, I can see that, yes. The style I’m not to sure about: it looks good, but it’s like the middle child of the console Zelda games as far as visual presentation.

Review: Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GC, 2001)

Developed by Silicon Knights, Konami

Published by Nintendo

Story- 9.8/10

Gameplay- 10/10

Design- 10/10

Control- 8.9/10

Music- 10/10

Fun Factor- 10/10

Overall- 10/10

If you’ve owned any generation of the PlayStation, then surely you’re familiar with the Metal Gear Solid series. For you Nintendo people- well, you haven’t seen a Metal Gear since…. NES. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is a nice port of the first two games in the Solid series, but does it do the originals justice, or does it fall victim to FoxDie?

The panel has decided: this game is #$%^&*#@ awesome.

Story- 9.8/10

Tactical Espionage Action- Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, if you’re a stickler for titles, is a remake of the first Metal Gear Solid game for PS.

Snake is forced out of a seven-year retirement by Col. Campbell after hearing news of FOXHOUND, their former unit, taking control of Shadow Moses Island in Alaska. The military base houses a new nuclear-based prototype weapon, Metal Gear REX, a mobile version of its predecessor. Campbell sends Snake on a one-man infiltration mission to stop REX from activating, and to save DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Chief Donald Anderson and ArmsTech President Kenneth Baker.

Gameplay- 10/10

Before playing Metal Gear Solid, I had a vague sense of what a stealth-based game should be like. After playing Metal Gear Solid, I had seen that a game had perfected stealth-based strategy.

THEN I played The Twin Snakes, and everything was surpassed again.

If you went into this thinking it was another run-and-gun military game, you’d be rudely awakened in the first five minutes of gameplay. If you aren’t sneaking around, shooting out cameras, or subduing enemies and hiding them in lockers, chances are…. you’re doing it wrong.

I mean come on, it even says it on the box: Tactical Espionage Action.

There’s one hinderance that I had, but without it, Metal Gear Solid wouldn’t be Metal Gear Solid- the cutscenes.

While beyond crucial to the story, and very well-directed, the cutscenes sort of “break up” the game, making it a little less fluid than would it could be. I’m sure someone somewhere said that these games could do without the cinematics… at the sacrifice of a good plot. I just don’t feel like watching a 30 min (exaggerated, but pretty close to) cutscene before fighting the final boss.

For first-time players who are just getting their feet wet, you may find this game to be very difficult, especially if you’re cocky enough to turn the radar setting to “Off”. That’s just a setup for failure.

Even for the veterans, there are many nostalgic moments of “How the heck was I supposed to figure that out?!?!” i.e. Psycho Mantis, which soldier is Meryl in disguise, how to escape the torture room, etc.

“What do you mean ‘You have a :30 time bomb in your inventory’?!?!’”

Design- 10/10

If there’s nothing to conceal yourself within an area, you just aren’t looking hard enough. If you need a better weapon, simply go and find one somewhere.

As small as it is, Shadow Moses has plenty of places to explore. There are plenty of Easter eggs hidden throughout The Twin Snakes that push you to search and explore almost everything: there are a few Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem posters here and there, there’s bobbleheads of Mario and Yoshi in Otacon’s lab, even Hideo Kojima, Shigeru Miyamoto and Denis Dyack have small cameos.

Weapons and items are littered everywhere, but it’s just a matter of looking for them. Even if you miss a weapon the first time, you can simply go back to that area and check again. Besides, the game will probably make you do that anyway…

Everything is incredibly detailed via the GameCube’s updated rendering: environmental conditions have been updated, blood doesn’t look like a C4+Ketchup contraption just exploded, and characters actually look like characters, not just weird compilations of polygons.

The inclusion of the first-person view from MGS 2 was a huge step up from the original, as you will use it more frequently than you think.

Control- 8.9/10

I’ve always wondered why “Start” wasn’t simply the Codec. Instead, “Start+B” brings up the Codec… Yeah.

The controls, albeit sticky at times, like crawling, get the job done. There isn’t much customization, so you’re stuck with what you got. most of the options have to do with switching into first-person view: reverse Y-axis, sensitivity and whether you wish to hold down Z, or tap Z to enter FP view. I could never figure out how to reload on the fly, and to be frank, you only use firepower in sticky situations.

Music- 10/10

The music does a swell job at capturing the essence of the game, though it lacks a little variety. Maybe “variety” isn’t the right word, but after a while, the background music gets repetitive. It’s a mixture of choral symphonics and robotic techno; doesn’t sound like it would mesh, does it. Every musical selection matches every in-game event perfectly; it enhances the games movie-esque quality to even higher levels of what you’d expect.

Fun Factor- 10/10

There are several references to actual, real world events in The Twin Snakes; yes, they’re crucial to the plot. I’m mentioning this, because games that run along a parallel reality generally turn into a chore to play; a boring, learn-about-politics game wrapped in a shiny wrapper.

This isn’t one of those games.

This, is one of those games that you pick up the controller with the intent of playing for about an hour, only to find that you’ve been playing for six.

Overall- 10/10

I’ve always been boggled as to why some people never liked the Metal Gear series; I suppose it’s the extreme emphasis on stealth.

Metal Gear Solid is a classic, a staple, a genre-defining piece of artistry. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes does just that again, but with better graphics… and it’s on GameCube.