Rumor: Reviewers Can't Talk About MGS4 Cutscenes, Install?

Reviewers often have restrictions about what they can and can't talk about in reviews - in my experience, these have been restricted to plot details, which have an embargo date a little bit later than the general review does. But MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo has apparently heard from some gaming media sources who said that when it comes to Metal Gear Solid 4, particular details are off-limits.

I’ve been told by two gaming media sources who asked to remain anonymous that Konami representatives had been asking print reviewers to keep some technical details out of their reviews, namely the length of the game’s cut-scenes and the size of the game’s installation on the PlayStation 3.

Such details wouldn’t have been plot spoilers, but perhaps the publisher was concerned that they would be viewed as negatives?

Konami representatives declined to comment to me about any of this, as did editors of a few major video game magazines.

So, no one wants to talk about it - but, as Totilo points out, here at Kotaku we've already seen box shots that suggest a 4.6 GB install for the game, and information suggesting the game has at least some rather lengthy cutscenes, possibly even 90-minute ones. Both bits of information seem to have spread like a virus all over the internet already, so if this is true, what would be the big hush on Konami's part?

My theory, for whatever it's worth, is the big I-word: Investors. These folks buy stock based on how they think a publisher's major releases will perform. Largely, these guys aren't gamers, but analysts (who do tend to play some games) offer them a basic checklist of positive and negative traits based on market sentiment.

An investor sees popular words like "sandbox," "open world," or "player choice," and can guess a game will perform well. An investor who sees words like "90-minute cutscenes," "large install" or other issues has been taught that these are things we, the game consumers, tend to get up in arms about, to the point where we leave 500 comments on a post about 90-minute cutscenes. And thus, the investor loses confidence in the title's financial forecast. Of course it's not that simple, but those who deal in finance would prefer to believe there is a fixed "formula" for success.

And my guess - just a guess, mind you - is that publishers are not particularly worried about Wall Street types reading Kotaku on a daily basis, but instead hope that when investors or analysts do a quick Metacritic scan, they don't see anything that could be construed as a red flag.

Or it could just be the LaLiLuLeLo. Dunno.

Souce kotaku.com

So Far, The Lowest MGS4 Review Score

Some of you probably don't care about the reviews and are going to play Metal Gear Solid 4. That's fine. Others of you are interested in what the critics are saying.

• Metal Gear Solid 4 is, in most senses, the biggest Metal Gear yet. But the best? Maybe not. If the super-slick thriller of the first Metal Gear Solid remains Kojima's masterpiece, then this operatic monster is his magnum opus.
• Tune out the details, and Guns of the Patriots is a properly gripping yarn, full of thrills, spectacle, laughs, and even tenderness and pathos. You won't understand, but you will care.

• The new gadgets are superb, the weapons are expertly realised and much easier to get hold of, and there are always plenty of options, even if stealth is still usually the best of them. Hand-to-hand combat feels more natural. The environments are more complex, but nothing like as large or open as you might expect, and this is still a linear game.

• Despite Kojima's downbeat sentiments on the PS3, he has produced a technical and presentational tour-de-force. The visuals do have rough edges but the art, especially the character art, is flawless, somehow maintaining extravagance and understated cool simultaneously. Harry Gregson Williams' music, whether providing scripted excitement or dynamic accompaniment, hits all the right cues, and musters a memorable, delicate theme. And the surround soundtrack is clearly a labour of love and extreme dedication, probably the best in gaming to date...

• In Guns of the Patriots' incredible, cathartic, climactic scenes, the lines are blurred so much that you can barely tell whether you're playing a videogame or watching a film. To some that might sound like an insult, but to Kojima and his fans, it's nirvana, something for which the series has been striving for ten years, and it could not be a more appropriate note to end on.

• An unbelievably lengthy and self-indulgent epilogue — you can't call it a cut-scene, it's an entire film in its own right, and a deeply boring one too — is how Solid Snake's career comes to a close. Too bad, but no hard feelings; you can ignore it if you wish. The drawn-out sentimentality is fitting, in a way. Snake may have started out as a gruff, two-dimensional cliché, but he bows out very gracefully in Metal Gear Solid 4, assuming the mantle of the world-weary samurai, or the enigmatic nameless cowboy from a spaghetti western, as if it were always his.

• You could not ask for a funnier, cleverer, more ambitious or inspired or over-the-top conclusion to the Metal Gear Solid series, but it's definitely time to move on.


Eurogamer gave the game an 8/10 for whatever that's worth.

Souce kotaku.com

PAL PlayStation Store Update

The PAL PlayStation Store update's got more meat on its bone this week. While its lacking in videos, trailers and demos, it does manage three full games, which is nice. One of them, OK, it's very, very late. Almost a year late. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. The others are the original Rayman along with MediEvil: Resurrection, given a third lease of life as a downloadable title.

Games and Demos
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Rayman
MediEvil: Resurrection

Expansions And Add-Ons
Army of Two: Veteran

Game Videos
Metal Gear Solid 4: E3 2006 Trailer
Overlord Raising Hell
Super Stardust HD

Themes and Wallpapers
Prince of Persia Prodigy Arabesque Wallpaper
Prince of Persia Prodigy New Prince Wallpaper
PixelJunk Monsters Wallpaper

Souce kotaku.com