*Warning: Contains Spoilers and geeky video game references you may not get or care about

I’ve never been a hardcore fan of this series. Before yesterday the only games in the Metal Gear story that I actually played was the original Metal Gear for Nintendo, MGS2: Solid Snake on PC and MGS3: Snake Eater on PS2…I think. There have been so many releases under the Metal Gear Soild moniker it’s tough to keep up. I finished the NES and PC versions but only played a about a quarter of MGS3. Being a huge Splinter Cell (SC) fan at the time, Snake Eater didn’t give me the instant gratification of a perfect stealth kill I would get from Sam Fisher. Not to mention the weird storyline and excruciatingly long cut scenes. So after all this you might be wondering why I purchased MGS4. That’s simple, I’m a nerd that hates missing out on big game releases.

I should mention that I’m maybe 3 hours into this game so don’t expect a full review, just the impressions from a dude who (currently) thinks this entire Metal Gear series is “Okay”.

Despite having a knack for milking the hell out of a cutscene, I have to admit that Hideo Kojima is probably the most creative video game producers out there. This shows within the first 15 minutes (8 of which are used to install the game on your HD). I’m going to spare you the description and let you see for yourself:

Now let’s talk about the game. I’m going to try my best to avoid describing every single detail and just give my impression.

Despite my misgivings about long ass cut scenes, I was actually looking forward to watching them. The main reason being the graphics, secondly the hope that I can catch up on the story. Surprisingly most have been short, with the intro using the ‘interactive’ feature that MSG are known for. Also, just so I can get this out of the way, the graphics are amazing throughout (click on the below pics for hi-res goodness).

On to my make-or-break feature, the gameplay. Selecting weapons and items is easier than ever thanks to the ability to toggle through your inventory by pressing R2 and L2 buttons. This feature is huge for me as it’s a lot easier to change weapons and access items on the fly as opposed to hitting the start menu and changing weapons. I’m sure most of you will agree that takes away from the gameplay. The Oct-Camo is a God-Send with how it automatically adapts to the environment (chameleon style) instead of the player having to once again, hit start and change it manually. There is an abundance of weapons that you will be able to have access to early in the game with the help of arms dealer Drebin and his monkey. On a side note, this may just be me but I think the scene where they introduced Drebin and his monkey may have been unintentionally racist. Scroll to the 1:55 mark on the clip below and make your own judgment:

Seeing as I’m still early in the game the only characters I’ve encountered have been NPC’s, pretty smart ones at that. Seeing as Old Snake isn’t fighting for either the rebels or PMC soldiers (”bad” guys), I really had to take advantage of the Oct-Camo, shadows and my trusty cardboard box as they are quite sensitive to any movement or noise…just how a stealth action game should be. What does drive me nuts is that both the Middle Eastern and PMC soldiers have heavy American accents. What up with that Kojima? You could have used that money you from Apple for all that product placement to pay for better voice actors. Speaking of Apple I should mention there’s an iPod in this game, you can actually use it to play your own music but only if it’s equipped. And seeing as you can only equip one item at a time, when it comes to hunting NPC’s in the dark, I need my trusty night vision goggles, not Hannah Montana’s “Best of Both Worlds”. To add to the pointless feature, it’s a 4th generation black and white iPod. This game takes place in 2014. Are you telling me that Apple drops the iPod Touch for the older version in the future? Perhaps we live in a more simple world then.

It takes a lot for me to actually write my thoughts on something I’ve only experienced for a few hours (I’m also trying to kill time at work). Based on this you should be able to tell how much I’m enjoying this game. I currently don’t have a hint of buyers regret so here’s hoping I won’t for the approx. 17 hours I have left to play…Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots *cue gunshot sound and starwipe aaaand we’re out*