Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain
- Thread starter Ddrizle
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đź‘Ť
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
The only really special one is the prisoner in the western refugee camp - the one in the depression near where you enter Camp Omega - during the "Ground Zeroes" mission. And it's only special because you get an achievement for extracting him. Although saved prisoners are worth extra points in your final ranking, they're not worth the trouble given the emphasis on time in the final tally.
Although I very much imagine that they might be ported over for The Phantom Pain.
- 9,168
- United Kingdom
- neema_t
That's the assumption most people have, I suppose the special people you capture will provide a nice boost to your combat and intel teams on day one. I wonder if Glaz and Palitz have any unique special abilities?
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
- 9,168
- United Kingdom
- neema_t
Well, it's a game, who knows - maybe you'll be able to develop a cure for PTSD.
So there's no preload period for PC, but apparently it'll unlock for download (but not necessarily to play) for everyone at 10am Japanese time on 1/9 - that's 1pm on Monday for me, I think. So I'll preorder, use the Steam app to start the download while I'm at work and - servers permitting - the ~25GB download should be done by the time I'm home on Tuesday, ready to be played.
That's the theory, at least.
- 4,464
- Azle, TX
- supermanfromazle
- SanjiHimura
To: Hideo Kojima
From: Konami
Subject: **** You!
From: Konami
Subject: **** You!
Since the video was uploaded, Greg Miller has come out and said that the playthrough will only be missions only coverage, AND will not go past Mission 5. He is still a douche for agreeing to this in the first place though, if you want my opinion.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
The joke's on Konami - I only have an internet connection through my phone, and I don't have enough data to watch YouTube videos.
- 13,892
- Adelaide
- Neomone
Boy, is he mad or what? You'd think Konami put his cat in a blender or something.
I don't see the big deal. Marketing campaigns market games. Big whoop?
If Konami think that showing off the start of the game will get them more sales, then it's probably a pretty good game. You only embargo everything if you think that people might actually negatively affect sales if they see what the game is like.
I don't care, I don't think I'll watch anyway since I'm just going to buy the game and I'd probably rather see stuff for the first time myself. But if I was on the fence, seeing the first five missions now might sway me, or at least get me hyped enough to consider it.
If Naughty Dog decided to allow Let's Plays of the first couple of hours of Uncharted 4 two weeks before release date, I doubt there would be ranting of that calibre. Dude is just looking for anything Konami does to be butthurt about.
Greg Miller is neither here nor there for agreeing to this. Konami would find someone to do it one way or the other, if that's what they want their marketing campaign to be. He'd be a colossal moron to tell them to go somewhere else. Business is business.
If you don't want to see, don't watch. Or you could be like this guy:
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
Demonising Konami seems to be in vogue right now.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
Because it centres on the alleged mistreatment of a video game autere. It's pretty obvious that Konami have lost their patience with Kojima, given that The Phantom Pain has gone years over time (remember the talk of it being an eighth-gen launch title? Kojima is almost as bad as Kazunori Yamauchi), and millions of dollars over budget. And it's not the first time, either.
- 4,464
- Azle, TX
- supermanfromazle
- SanjiHimura
You're missing the point. I'll try to summarize the argument without the language.Boy, is he mad or what? You'd think Konami put his cat in a blender or something.
I don't see the big deal. Marketing campaigns market games. Big whoop?
If Konami think that showing off the start of the game will get them more sales, then it's probably a pretty good game. You only embargo everything if you think that people might actually negatively affect sales if they see what the game is like.
I don't care, I don't think I'll watch anyway since I'm just going to buy the game and I'd probably rather see stuff for the first time myself. But if I was on the fence, seeing the first five missions now might sway me, or at least get me hyped enough to consider it.
If Naughty Dog decided to allow Let's Plays of the first couple of hours of Uncharted 4 two weeks before release date, I doubt there would be ranting of that calibre. Dude is just looking for anything Konami does to be butthurt about.
Greg Miller is neither here nor there for agreeing to this. Konami would find someone to do it one way or the other, if that's what they want their marketing campaign to be. He'd be a colossal moron to tell them to go somewhere else. Business is business.
If you don't want to see, don't watch. Or you could be like this guy:
When you receive a preview copy of a game, you generally get slapped with a non-disclosure agreement (or a Review Embargo) promising that you won't disclose anything about the game until a certain date. This is generally good for the gaming industry as violating such agreements would put you on some form of industry blacklist.
As we have seen with Assassin's Creed Unity, the NDA can be used as a weapon. As with Unity, for example, they had a review embargo set 12 hours AFTER release date(12pm Pacific on release date). The only time this occurs is when the publisher knows it has a bad game in its hands.
As for The Phantom Pain? The review embargo lifts this upcoming Sunday, the 23rd, however, the reviewers would still be under a NDA stating that they can't really disclose anything about the game's plot until the game releases - the typical MO for a game with a early review embargo. Normally we would call that a day and sing kumbya.
But this is Konami, and The Phantom Pain, despite the whitewashing that it got from company executives, is still a Hideo Kojima produced game, and the world knows it.
The fact that Kojima is leaving Konami at Phantom Pain's release is nothing to sneeze at, and Konami, with their long history of screwing over their former business partners, wants to do the same with Kojima. Enter Greg Miller. Is Miller a bystander in all of this? Maybe, but even he must do his homework and realize that allowing a media person to play the game, by all rights and intents to be Konami's swan song in AAA gaming, nine days early is nothing but a screw job by the part of Konami.
- 3,640
- Morecambe, Lanc
- ellisnutt
I think you are looking far too much into this. Konami is getting some cheap, and quite frankly effective marketing.
People loyal to the franchise (who are already getting the game) won't want to spoil and watch it, whereas unsure, first time buyers get to see a good, in play taste of the game.
People loyal to the franchise (who are already getting the game) won't want to spoil and watch it, whereas unsure, first time buyers get to see a good, in play taste of the game.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
Not really sure what your problem is here. So what if Konami structured an embargo and non-disclosure agreement differently for one reviewer? Miller has made it clear that he is only covering the first five missions in a game reported to have over a hundred and fifty - that's just 0.3% of the game. And how is letting him play it nine days in advance any different to what other reviewers do? They will have to play the game before they review it, even if they can't publish those reviews straight away.
It seems to me that Konami have taken a pretty logical approach to this - find a reviewer with a pretty solid following and give him additional permission to show content that no-one outside the company has seen. Miller gets an increase in viewing traffic and probably in advertiser revenue, while Konami and Kojima get additional, continuous coverage for a week ahead of the launch. Who loses in this arrangement? To hear you tell it, Konami's decision is borderline criminal, but I am really struggling to see how that is the case. It's pretty obvious that you're only viewing Konami's actions through the context of the broken relationship with Kojima, and that you're assuming that everything they do is being done to make life difficult for him.
- 3,640
- Morecambe, Lanc
- ellisnutt
Completely agree with @prisonermonkeys there. While there has been a clear 'falling out', they aren't doing things in spite. Konami are a smart business who know how to sell games, and are acting as such. I'm sure Kojima won't be crying himself to sleep over this.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
They have to. Development of the Fox Engine is rumoured to be in excess of $50 million. I've heard a figure as high as $80 million quoted. And that's before taking into account the budget for The Phantom Pain, and modern video game budgets can easily run upwards of $100 million (why do you think there are so many Call of Duty clones? They're cheap and easy to make, and have a high turnover of sales). With the cancellation of the Kojima-del Toro Silent Hill project, the Fox Engine has no practical application outside The Phantom Pain. Konami are essentially looking at having to turn twice the sales of a regular title before they start making a profit here.
- 9,295
- Duisburg
I've jumped on the anti-Konami train as willingly as the next guy, but that's just BS. The whole argument is that Konami wants to **** Kojima over by spoiling the game to the fans of the franchise. Well, don't bloody watch it, then! As @Imari implied, nobody's holding a gun to anyone's head, forcing them to watch the videos on Youtube.
Hell, this is the first thing Konami did recetnly that I have to seriously applaud them for! Nothing says "careful, this might be a turd" like thorough, drawn-out NDAs and review embargoes. Granted, I won't watch it, probably, as I don't want any of the missions, or the story, spoilt for me. But what's oh so evil about giving us the option to do so if we so wish? Actually, the more I think about it, the more I feel like this is their reaction to some of the hate they've been getting of late. You know, showing everyone that they didn't run the game into the ground just out of spite as Kojima leaves.
Konami could do whatever and get some serious hate, though. I know, I know, they did bad stuff to their employees, but there are worse companies out there by the dozen that nobody cares about - because it doesn't affect their beloved vidja games. I'm guilty of that, too, I'll admit that, but this is getting ridiculous.
Jawehawk
Premium
- 4,652
- Denmark
- Yohansen_92
I wonder what is going to happen to the Fox engine after Phantom Pain. Ordinarily, I'd assume you'd continue to use the engine for your games, as well as license it out to other devs, but with Konami potentially leaving triple A games for good after Phantom Pain, what use do they have for it? Who even owns the license for it? Kojima, or Konami?
With the engine having been so expensive to develop, someone must have further plans for its usage in the future.
With the engine having been so expensive to develop, someone must have further plans for its usage in the future.
- 9,295
- Duisburg
I'd say it's Konami's property. Kojima Production might have developed the whole thing (with who knows how much input from others within Konami), but Konami surely paid the bills. Can't imagine that they were stupid enough to pay for the development of the FOX Engine without securing the rights to it.
As such, it won't go to waste.
- 13,892
- Adelaide
- Neomone
Nope, you still lost me.
I don't see Konami screwing Kojima over at all in this, I see a marketing campaign that nobody would have blinked at if it wasn't Konami.
I mean, everyone is going to be playing the game in two weeks anyway. Even if those five missions happen to be the absolute height of storytelling, it's the equivalent of seeing the first five minutes of a two and a half hour movie. It's going to be enough to set the scene probably, but not nearly enough to be delving into hardcore storytelling.
Would it really be a big deal if two weeks before release Terminator 2 showed the scene with Arnie teleporting in and wrecking the bar? It's a cool scene and it gives you some idea of the set up for the movie, but it tells you nothing about how the story is going to unfold.
For a gaming example, maybe you could use that first scene of The Last of Us with Joel and his daughter. It's incredible, but all it does it set the scene for the rest of the game. There would be nothing wrong with showing that 2 weeks prior to release to build interest. It spoils things a little bit for some, but that's why you have to choice of not watching it if you already know you're going to buy.
I imagine that's exactly what Konami's going for. If they have a compelling first few missions, they think that they'll hook some customers by showing them just how good the game really is. Think about how much story they can really disclose in 5 missions, some of which we've seen already.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
Indeed, all we've really seen is mission three, "A Hero's Way", and that amounts to neutralising a local Spetsnaz commander, and a Side Op where you rescue a translator. I don't see how that fits into the wider plot, much less how it represents a significant spoilee.
Like I said, the game is reported to have a hundred and fifty missions. If Miller only shows five, then that amounts to 0.3% of the game.
- 4,464
- Azle, TX
- supermanfromazle
- SanjiHimura
When you put it that way, I guess I overreacted. I think that what Greg Miller is showing then is the rescue of Kaz, something that is necessary for the game to continue.
- 13,892
- Adelaide
- Neomone
Well, ~3%. But it's still not much.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
We already know Miller survives - after all, he gets murdered by Liquid Snake in 2005.
There's a reason why I'm not a maths teacher.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
If they're intent on moving to mobile gaming platforms and banking on the legalisation of gambling to open new markets, then I would say that they will wait to see how The Phantom Pain does and then move to sell the rights to it. It's of no use to them otherwise, and developing an engine is so expensive that you have to use it in other projects to offset the cost.
