StoryBot

If past Metal Gear games can be likened to a movie, then Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain can be likened to a nine season long TV series, not the 8 episodes British season or the 12 episodes cable season, I'm talking full 22 episodes network television season.  It took me almost 200 hours to 100% complete the game, now that is a long time, not just by Metal Gear standard, but by video game standard in general. Now that I am 200 hours wiser, I have more insight into the game, and I want to discuss about what's good and bad for an open world Metal Gear game. A Typical Length Metal Gear Story (Bad) Metal Gear Solid is a series renowned for its storytelling prowess. Mixing emotional story and comedy with well thought out, fully three dimensional character (I don't mean the polygon), touching on philosophies, political issue and anti-nukes message all the while fighting monsterly-sized robot in a true David and Goliath fashion. However, you will notice the story is all ...

Welcome to the second part of the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain review. The first part is quite the downer, because I mainly focused on the negative aspect of the game, because I am a firm believer of eating the vegetables. Now with all the bad things out of the way, I can finally talk about all the good things in the game. Which in this case, is a lot. Gameplay We all know that it is important for a game franchise to evolve with the times and good god, what an evolution this game is for the Metal Gear series. The modernized control scheme and the flawless stealth mechanic makes The Phantom Pain the most addicting Metal Gear game I've ever played. Furthermore, in The Phantom Pain, every seconds counts. On one hand, you can run around the Afghan desert or the African Savanna, capturing outpost, putting soldiers to sleep, fultoning the high ranking ones back to your Mother Base; on the other hand, you can whip out your iDroid no matter where you are and start managi...

Phantom pain is a medical condition where a patient can feel the sensation of pain that comes from a body part that's no longer there. This terms also ironically sums up the entirety of  Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, a game divided. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is video game auteur Hideo Kojima's latest entry to the Metal Gear saga, and given how things are in Konami nowadays, it is possible this game will be the final entry of the series. So, just how good this game is? As a long time fan of the series, I think it is safe to say that a lot is riding on this one game, which happened to be the swansong to a 28 years old video game series. Kojima can't possibly let the series goes out in a whimper, right? Thankfully, it doesn't. But... Here's the bad news. This game is supposed to be the missing link that connects Big Boss' story to the Solid Snake Saga, hence completing the story of the entire series. In many way, it is, however it also l...

“My mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.'” -Forrest Gump And Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is one of the best chocolate you will ever taste. I was still in Form 1 back then and just bought a PS2. A casual conversation with my classmate brought up a game called Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. My first reaction was of course, what kind of name is that, Snake Eater? Of course, 2006 is the golden era of PS2 piracy, where games cost five ringgit each, that means you don't have to regret your purchase even if the game sucks, so I bought the game. My first Metal Gear game. To be honest, I am a late bloomer when it comes to playing video games. Sure, my father bought me a PS1 when I was five,  but after a few session of FIFA World Cup 1998 and Road Rash, it was stowed away somewhere out of sight because I was considered too young to be playing video games. It wasn't until 2003, when I was in Standard 4 that I start...

Whew! Time sure flies by fast when your busy dangling between doing assignment and honing the fine arts of procrastination. It's been three weeks since my last post, and alot have happened, Pn. Raja Rodziah have started teaching about the Malaysian film history in our MM&C class. New assignment have been given and several movies have been shown. (No shots have been fired, yet...) Now, without further ado, let's start the recap. On week 9, Dr. Carmen have shown us a movie titled Big Durian by filmmaker Amir Muhammad. It's a mockumentary about the real event of Prebet Adam Mengamuk in 1987's Chow Kit Road.  As a born and raised Kuala Lumpurian myself, this event that transpired 6 years before my birth is totally unheard of to me, and it's happening on the streets that I have walk past countless time. It seems like my parent's generation, the children who have experienced the May 13 tragedy personally have mastered the skill of repressing sad histo...

On last Tuesday class, we learned about the four elements of analysis of art, which is describe, analyze, interpret and judge. However, as the assignment deadline are getting closer, my own procrastination has come back to haunt me. Because of that, I skipped an entry last week. For this week's entry, I will attempt to compress the lessons I learned in both week into one post in the form of me attempting to use the four element of analysis to analyze one of my favourite painting in our central bank's gallery, which is Hoessein Enas's Nafkah (1987). Describe Nafkah is Malay for sustenance. Usually, the term "mencari nafkah" is used to mean earning a living and it is exactly what was depicted in this painting. A group of fishermen pushing their boat out to the sea to catch fishes, to earn a living. Although the specific location for this picture remain unknown, but the depiction still rings true for all the rural Malay fishing village. In the background...

On this Tuesday's class, guest speaker Tan Zi Hao has come to our class to give a lecture about pushing the limit of speech. In his hour long lecture, he had shown us many of his artwork. Many of them are... interesting, to say the least. Picture credit: tanzihao.net However, there is one phenomenon he brought up that instantly get my attention, which is the relationship between language used to write for political discourse and the amount of attention the government pay to it. It is said that when a political discourse which is deemed unfavourable to the government is conducted in English, there will be less repercussion as compared to when the Malay language is used. The rationale behind this logic is that the government expected the English language speaking minority (where the opposition get most of their votes) to be urban, less conformist and more outspoken. But when similar discourse is done in Malay, the language rural folks (where the ruling party get most of their ...

On last Tuesday's class, we were asked two questions: What event is so significant that Malaysian artists should feature it in their artwork? Is it their responsibility to create a "Malaysian artwork"? This begs the question, what is a "Malaysian artwork" anyway? Is there a group of old men hidden somewhere within our government who meet everyday and try to determine what constitutes Malaysian artwork? If yes, then what are the rules and requirements? And most importantly, are the opinions of this bunch of old men valid? Should we care about what they think? Well, in my opinion, no, we shouldn't care about what they think, because by definition, MALAYSIAN artwork should be decided by all Malaysian, which is why we we call it Malaysian artwork and not government-approved artwork. But personally, my own definition of Malaysian artwork is simply any art form that is related to Malaysia. If there is one day when a Malaysian artist decides to draw t...