I bought Metal Gear Solid 4 last Thursday night and ended up finishing it around 4AM (6AM if you count the hours of footage after the final boss) on Saturday morning. I just could not put it down and was drawn into it. Without checking the stats, I ended up with around 20 hours? of game time. Remember this includes watching the 8+ hours? of just movie footage. Hours of footage could totally be wrong as I just threw this out there, never counted or checked anywhere online.

Now I have never played the MGS series before, I have known about it and seen my brother play some levels here and there on some of the previous installments but just never got into it. I wasn’t much a PS/console gamer back than either.

If there was a possible score higher than a 10/10, this game would get it. I have never played such a game where not only am I drawn into the game but everything they did to make the game, gameplay or actual movie footage and so much more. I have just never experience what I have experienced in this game before. I’m no way comparing GTA4 to MGS4 but I do not think after playing this that GTA4 really deserves a 10/10 at all.

My brother keeps telling me to try some previous games of the series. I doubt I’ll do it, there are too many other games to play, those that I have not finished yet, have yet to play or have not come out yet. Plus, I love how MGS4 is, I doubt I’d dislike how the game is in the previous title or two but I’m not sure if I’d have a lot of fun (but I doubt it, I probably would still) because I love the little things that I don’t think previous installments have like how you can just buy weapons and customizations on the fly and everything else.

Anyways, In conclusion, this game exceeds 10/10 (if were possible). Now as any game out there, it has its flaws so it’s not absolutely perfect. But I still think it would deserve a score of 10/10 or higher if that were possible. Rarely do I ever find a game like this. Though I didn’t know the entire backstory behind MGS, only knew a little going into it. In the end I understood a lot, maybe not everything but I think you can definitely just jump in this game without playing previous. It helps you out, they could of done a LOT better with the story line, explaining it to you, cutting down the movies so they are not so long but it’s alright in the end. I also learned more by searching the net and/or using wikipedia.

I would not consider it awesome enough to resort to going out and buying a PS3 just to play this game unless you have other games you plan on playing on the PS3. Which are not many at all, still better off with an Xbox 360. Yet, this game is definitely worth having a look at if you do own a PS3. Yes, you may have to update your PS3’s firmware before you can play the game. You will have to install a few files before you can start playing the game (took like 8 minutes to start with) and then every so often, little installs of a few minutes or less will take place. I am not going to say it was fine and not annoying but it’s also was not a problem to me to walk away for a minute, you will probably not like being taken from the gameplay to watch movies that most of the time, last around 15 minutes or even longer as you get into the game. You will not want to skip them though unless your on your second or more play through. It’s still a good game to buy or at least, rent. Definitely beatable in most rental time periods if you have the time or get GameFly.