Game Review

Metal Gear Solid – A Game of Substance

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Metal Gear Solid (MGS), the long lasting series by Hideo Kojima, is the much loved game of many gamers including myself. It spanned two decades over many consoles, from NES to PS1, then to PS2 and eventually PS3 (and also Xbox 360 in Metal Gear Solid Rising). After completing MGS4 recently, after it came out for two years, I’ve decided to come out with a list of reasons why MGS is one of the best games ever!

  • The thrill of sneaking up to enemy (only to alert them and raise the alarm!).
  • The humour of the developer (remember in MGS1, you have to unplug your controller from port 1 into port 2 so that Psycho Mantis cannot read your mind.)
  • The engaging cinematic with a story that spanned across so many consoles and so many years.
  • The cool close quarter combat skills of Snake.
  • The often unexpected twist in the many of the MGS storyline.
  • The interesting easter egg found throughout the game.

MGS series has real high replayability. I remembered completing MGS1 at least 5 times, twice for MGS2 and thrice for MGS3. As for MGS4, I will definitely play it again!

Apart from the gameplay, the many fun easter eggs found throughout the games are another all time favourites of mine. Here is a list of my favourite easter eggs.

  • In the fight with Pyscho Mantis in MGS1, you are required to plug in the controller into port2 so that he cannot read your mind. Also, he can use his pyschic power to read your memory (or rather memory card).
  • Hand massage available after being tortured in MGS1.
  • In MGS1, in order to find Meryl, who is disguised as a soldier, you need to look for one that walks with a swaying butt.
  • The use of men’s magazine to distract enemy. In MGS4, you can even flip through the pages!
  • The Patriot gun that the Boss used in MGS3 has infinite ammo as its drum magazine is shaped like the infinity symbol ∞.
  • The fully playable MGS1 shadow moses as recapped by Snake in MGS4.
  • In the fight with the End, if you save and play the game a week later, he will die of old age.

Tell us your favorite easter eggs in MGS by writing in our comments. For now, let us await the release of Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Check the GameTrailer video series that explain MGS’s storyline. To end it off, enjoy the orchestra performance of MGS theme:)

Game Preview

Exciting games coming up!

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Great games coming up!

1. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (16 November 2010)- Assassin’s Creed’s plot is captivating and the gameplay is simply awesome. Looking at the demo of the multiplayer for Brotherhood, this game looks promising! The previous installment brought us to the renaissance period in Europe. The non-linear, open-style gameplay makes it one of the highest rated game. But what is exciting about this upcoming Brotherhood could be the multiplayer mode. Check out the video below:)

2. Marvel VS Capcom 3 (Spring 2011): Fighting games have been given a new live since SF4 which introduced 3D characters (and background) with the nice retro two-dimensional fight. No more irritating strafing or rolling. Marvel VS Capcom 3 looks like it is going to be a hit with the gathering characters which we love in this game such as Dante from Devil May Cry 3. Too bad we may not get to play it by end of the year.Oh btw, wouldn’t it be great to have a Square-Enix VS Street Fighter? And throw in Solid Snake with his CQC. Surely that will be a game-of-the-year!

3. Little Big Planet 2 (16 November 2010): The cute little sack boy is back exclusively again for PS3! But LBP2 is trying to push beyond the boundary of a platform game. User can now create racing, shooting and even Real-Time-Strategy game! Wow! I just hope that the game developer will not focus too much on simply just expanding the breadth of the game but pay attention to the depth of the game such as improving the physics (which is already very good) and the gameplay. I would still like to jump around platforms dodging fireball and falling rocks like in LBP. But would definitely like to see improvement for the platform game in LBP2.

That’s it folks! Any upcoming games which you feel deserves GameTrader.SG to mention, please add in the comment! We are always looking out for nice games to buy!

Retro Gaming

Retro Sega Megadrive (Genesis) controller for Street Fighter 4

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I miss the days playing street fighter on my sega genesis. Fighting on the screen (and off the screen) with my cousins and brothers. Seeking to further reminisce, I dig out my old sega genesis controller and was thinking of ways to use it for Street Fighter 4. The feeling of hitting buttons ‘a,b,c’ and ‘x,y,z’ to throw a light or heavy punch comes back when I used it to play the new Street Fighter 4.

For those interested in how I did it, please continue to read else enjoy the video:)

The sega genesis game controller has a serial port look-alike which tempted me to plug it into the serial port of my PC. Unfortunately it does not work! Connecting the old school Sega Megadrive controller to my PC is not as straightforward as what I have thought to be.

The pinout diagram is actually totally different from the serial port of the PC. Instead, I have to connect the controller port to the parallel port. This require sacrificing an old parallel port cable from my old printer and some soldering. Finally, I found a driver online that can drive the controller, and it works!

OLD SCHOOL ROX (just because I am getting old now, haha)!