Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain

[Sanji Himura]

Really? That's a distance of thousands of kilometres. And while I don't expect the game to be an accurate recreation of that distance, the most direct journey on foot would mean going through Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Israel just to get to the Egyptian border - and if it's in "middle Africa", then that would mean going to Kenya or Tanzania, which is probably twice as far. Kojima reckons TPP is two hundred times the size of GZ, but I don't think that would be enough to cover all of that.

You misunderstood the scale. A single map in TPP is hundreds of times the size of Ground Zeroes. Here is the Kojima map again for reference:

EDIT: Also, I just found this - Kojima says that he is "putting the game together". So from the sounds of things, all of the individual elements are done (or nearly there) and now they're starting to assemble them:
http://gamingbolt.com/metal-gear-so...eives-new-screens-development-update-provided
I don't know too much about the process of game development, but I imagine that all they will have to do next is debug it and fine-tune it. One thorough test of the alpha build to find critical faults should tell them how much longer they need, and from that, they can set a release date.

The next trailer could possibly set the release date for sure then. It is the only possible explanation as to why Kojima is even getting a trailer together for an event outside E3 and TGS.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

You misunderstood the scale. A single map in TPP is hundreds of times the size of Ground Zeroes. Here is the Kojima map again for reference:

I was under the impression that that was the entire TPP game world, not one map of several.

 

[Sanji Himura]

I was under the impression that that was the entire TPP game world, not one map of several.

Yes. They stress in the African Jungle gameplay that the map is so large that you could easily get lost if you didn't have the iDroid with you. Kojima even aids you further by restricting missions, once accepted, into a mission area. If you leave the area without completing your mission, the mission will fail automatically.

Here is a screen capture from the Gamescom 2014 trailer illustrating the point. The yellow lines are emphasis so that the mission boundaries are easier to read.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

They stress in the African Jungle gameplay that the map is so large that you could easily get lost if you didn't have the iDroid with you.

I have found that to be the case in most open-world games. Part of the appeal isn't just in discovering new places, but in getting lost and gradually finding your way back. I've found that in just about every open-world game I have played, from RED DEAD REDEMPTION through to FAR CRY 4.

I'm still not sure about this idea of walking from Afghanistan to Africa, though. They're just too far apart for that to work, even if THE PHANTOM PAIN has a msp two hundred times the size of the one in GROUND ZEROES. I imagine it would be like travelling between the North Atlantic and the Appalachian River Valley in ASSASSIN'S CREED ROGUE - both maps are (roughly) the same size, but when you get to certain points at the edge of each map, you have the option of travelling to the other. You skip all of the bits in between, and enter the new map at its waypoint. You still have to travel some distance from that waypoint to locations within the map - for example, it's about a kilometre from the North Atlantic waypoint to Halifax - though.

Because given the scale of travelling from Afghanistan to Africa, I very much doubt that the Xbox One and Playstation 4 could handle it, much less the X360 and PS3.

 

[Sanji Himura]

That is where the beauty comes in. Most, if not all, the missions would be isolated to Afghanistan and Africa, with interaction with Mother Base to break the tension. Most of the game would be isolated on those three maps. Cyprus and Camp Omega is the tutorial levels (along with the rescue Kaz mission), but no serious gameplay would take place there.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I thought that would be the case - it's the same setup as ASSASSIN'S CREED ROGUE, with most of the missions in the North Atlantic and the River Valley, with the occasional detour to New York.

 

[Jawehawk]

Because given the scale of travelling from Afghanistan to Africa, I very much doubt that the Xbox One and Playstation 4 could handle it, much less the X360 and PS3.

I don't see how it would be a problem, as it's not like it's all loaded at the same time. Hardware specs doesn't determine the size of your game world.

 

[sumbrownkid]

I laughed too hard. Ok PC version is clearly the best version.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Who is that meant to be a picture of?

 

[Sanji Himura]

David Hayter.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Okay, I get it now.

 

[Imari]

I don't see how it would be a problem, as it's not like it's all loaded at the same time. Hardware specs doesn't determine the size of your game world.

This.

The hardware isn't the problem with a game world that size, it's actually creating it in the first place. Unless they've got epic procedural generation tech, then it's either a massive job or significant parts of the world are going to look kind of crap.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Judging by the gameplay videos, it's a massive job. In GROUND ZEROES, some of the draw distances on the X360 are short - it's obvious when you do the anti-aircraft battery mission and try to tag the emplacements from you starting position - and some of the finer foliage textures look horrible at close range when you pan the camera around, but if anything looks horrible, it's an aesthetic rather than sloppy workmanship, like the refugee camps.

 

[Sanji Himura]

News Digest for Metal Gear Solid V for 1/5/15:

There has been a major discovery of some lost concept footage for The Phantom Pain. An anonymous 4chan user discovered some footage that was uploaded by Yongsub Song on Vimeo some 6 months prior, around E3. A reddit user discovered the 4Chan post in the last 24 hours and made it public.

What is this footage, you might be asking? Well, it is early concepts of the iDroid interface, believe it or not, done by Kyle Cooper. In case if anyone is doubting the authenticity of the footage, Kyle Cooper is pretty big in Kojima land. He designed the main title sequences for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and he will design the main title sequence for The Phantom Pain.

I will stress again that this was an early build of the iDroid interface, so a lot of content could have been cut.



YongYea, my main go to person for MGS news, caught on to the possibility that co-op play may return to the Phantom Pain.

 

[Sanji Himura]

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain News Digest for 1/13/15

Development Status

Kojima tweeted a status update for TPP today on his English language account. In it he said that the game has entered the, "beginning of the main part." For those who are panicking over that phrase, don't be. What Kojima is simply stating here is that all of the code has been written, and like the editing room for movies, all of that code simply needs to be placed together in a cohesive unit and in the right order. There is nothing out of the ordinary in regards to major delays in release date, but the process could take a bit of time.



The Phantom Pain to be Present at a Game Show

According to the website Game Watch, The Phantom Pain will be present at this year's Taipei Game Show on January 31st, at 1pm in Taiwan time. In case anyone here in the States wishes to watch the stream live, the broadcast will be shown on January 31st 12am EST, January 30th 11pm CST, 10pm MST and 9pm PST. It will be hard to tell what Kojima will show at the confab, but the Taipei Game Show isn't considered a major gaming convention in the likes of E3, Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show, so don't hold your breath.



A Interview with Troy Baker. Compares Phantom Pain to Skyrim and more.

The first stream of Kinda Funny Games hit the internet with a special guest, the English voice actor of Ocelot Troy Baker. One of the massive questions that was asked was how big The Phantom Pain really is. Baker's response was a comparison to prior Game of the Year award winner Skyrim. He bluntly told the duo that the content in The Phantom Pain would make Skyrim look like an afternoon playthrough. That is some big stuff right there.

You can watch the segmented interview here:

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I'm really excited to see Baker in action as Ocelot. The character has never had the greatest run of voice actors, but following his work as Booker DeWitt in Bioshock Infinite and Pagan Min in Far Cry 4, he's going to make for an interesting quadruple-crossing Soviet John Wayne knock-off.

 

[Sanji Himura]

[Editor's note: This post could turn into a News digest if more than one news subject appears today]

Trailer Analysis of the Metal Gear Online Footage

Enjoy.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

One of the massive questions that was asked was how big The Phantom Pain really is. Baker's response was a comparison to prior Game of the Year award winner Skyrim. He bluntly told the duo that the content in The Phantom Pain would make Skyrim look like an afternoon playthrough.

Out of curiosity - and for the sake of comparison - how big is the world of Skyrim? I have never had the chance to play it.

All of the open-world games I own are of fairly comparable sizes. Far Cry 4's Kyrat is about six an a half kilometres from its two most distant points, and about four kilometres at its widest point. Grand Theft Auto V's Los Santos is about eight kilometres by six, though it's hard to tell as it's measured in miles in-game. Assassin's Creed Rogue has two maps that are about four square kilometres each, plus a third map that is about two kilometres long and one wide. Assassin's Creed: Black Flag is twelve kilometres by twelve kilometres, but most of it is the open sea. And I don't really know how big the worlds of Tomb Raider and Red Dead Redemption are, but I assume they are smaller. Of those six, Kyrat feels the biggest, as there is always something going on, very little repetition of buildings and landforms, and nothing is in a straight line; it might be six and a half kilometres from Banapur to Rajgad Gulag, but driving there feels twice as far.

So how does Skyrim stack up by comparison?

 

[Sanji Himura]

Out of curiosity - and for the sake of comparison - how big is the world of Skyrim? I have never had the chance to play it.

All of the open-world games I own are of fairly comparable sizes. Far Cry 4's Kyrat is about six an a half kilometres from its two most distant points, and about four kilometres at its widest point. Grand Theft Auto V's Los Santos is about eight kilometres by six, though it's hard to tell as it's measured in miles in-game. Assassin's Creed Rogue has two maps that are about four square kilometres each, plus a third map that is about two kilometres long and one wide. Assassin's Creed: Black Flag is twelve kilometres by twelve kilometres, but most of it is the open sea. And I don't really know how big the worlds of Tomb Raider and Red Dead Redemption are, but I assume they are smaller. Of those six, Kyrat feels the biggest, as there is always something going on, very little repetition of buildings and landforms, and nothing is in a straight line; it might be six and a half kilometres from Banapur to Rajgad Gulag, but driving there feels twice as far.

So how does Skyrim stack up by comparison?

There are two maps, Skyrim itself, and, if you downloaded the Dragonborn DLC, the island of Solstheim. If you compare apples to oranges, Solstheim is roughly one-sixth the size of Skyrim. Don't let the size comparison deceive you. There are plenty of locations for you to discover throughout the game.

Taking Troy's quote in the most literal sense however, if you wish to get the most out of Skyrim, be prepared to spend some time on side quests. The main campaign is quite short I think.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

There are two maps, Skyrim itself, and, if you downloaded the Dragonborn DLC, the island of Solstheim. If you compare apples to oranges, Solstheim is roughly one-sixth the size of Skyrim. Don't let the size comparison deceive you. There are plenty of locations for you to discover throughout the game.

But my question is how big the largest map is. I gave the likes of Kyrat for the purposes of comparison, so that I get a general sense of how big Skyrim is.

 

[Sanji Himura]

Skyrim, according to the Elder Scrolls Wiki, is 105,500 square miles, give or take.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Well, hopefully Kojima has populated TPP with interesting stuff. If he hasn't, it could end badly. Remember Codemasters' FUEL? It was billed as a massive open-world racing game, and it was boring.

 

[Sanji Himura]

Kojima crammed 161 missions into Peace Walker (33 Main Ops and 128 Extra Ops). 20% of the missions in Peace Walker(PW) were story related missions. Now if you were following along, there are allegedly 150 missions in The Phantom Pain, 11 missions less than Peace Walker. Now don't let the ancient history that can be proven by going back a few pages in this thread fool you. Allow me to ask you the question considering all that we know about The Phantom Pain, with its infiltration multiplayer aside from MGO, would the number of Main Ops in TPP actually multiply, compared to PW, by at least double, or even triple considering that the source of most Extra Ops could be infiltrating other people's Mother Bases?

 

[Sanji Himura]

Another status update from Kojima inside a Kojima Station video. The video does contain English translations by Claude Smith of Heavens-feel.com, a translation source for Yong's youtube channel. But if you want a Cliff Notes version, Kojima has just played through the game, and is taking notes on what to change on pen and paper in a color code scheme.

EDIT: And incase any of you were wondering why a different Snake was in the video above, this will answer the question:

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Found some new artwork:

I love the way the V is formed by a double exclamation mark.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Some publications are claiming that a release date has been set internally, but that it has not been made public due to potential delays in actually producing the game in physical form. However, as I haven't heard of these publications before now, I cannot verify them and so remain sceptical.

 

[Sanji Himura]

Some wonderful screens taken by way of Kojima's twitter account:



The first hints that there is a snow map have surfaced in this series of tweets by Kojima. Also, there is big news (something that Yong really glossed over) that you can customize the shoulder sleeve insignias on Snake in single player. In the American military, the sleeve of the current unit would be on the left, while your former unit will be on the right. The sleeve customization is limited to the right sleeve.




The first Single player screen shot of the bipedal mech, seen on the E3 2013 trailer and the Metal Gear Online trailer (The Game Awards). A quick analysis concludes that the mech can be equipped with two weapons, which in the twitter post is a gun on the left side and a mechanical arm on the right.




First image of DD in the field. Also to note is the cardboard box. (My theory) if the R&D unit's level is high enough, you could reinforce the cardboard boxes in the game so that they can be more sturdy. The consensus is that the box would only take a certain number of hits before they go away.



More details on MGO3. While I can't put the video to analysis, since it is 6AM here, I will edit this post again when I can hear the audio.

 

[Jawehawk]

Wasn't the release date set for Q1 of 2015? Or am I remembering wrong? I need a release, damnit!

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Wasn't the release date set for Q1 of 2015? Or am I remembering wrong?

It was a tentative date from the time when Ground Zeroes was released. My understanding is that that has been pushed back to Q3, but the final say-so will come from Kojima's studio.

 

[Jawehawk]

It was a tentative date from the time when Ground Zeroes was released. My understanding is that that has been pushed back to Q3, but the final say-so will come from Kojima's studio.

Pure sadness. But brilliant games require time I suppose.