Breaking: Metal Gear Solid 4 to have really long cutscenes

by Ludwig Kietzmann on May 23rd 2008 10:30AM

If you haven't been getting along with Metal Gear Solid's blend of neck-snapping stealth and expository blabbering, the fourth (and sort of final) game in the series is unlikely to sway your opinion. CVG reports that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots features 90 minutes of cutscenes and... wait, hang on. It doesn't contain 90 minutes of cutscenes, but rather, alleged 90-minute cutscenes. If your interest or your attention span doesn't stretch that far, you'll probably have a better time watching a Slinky make its way down a short flight of stairs.

Removing the element of sensationalism, however, it should be noted that the article fails to mention where said lengthy cutscenes (which can now be paused) fall within the game. For all we know, they're at the end -- you know, when you're done playing. Even so, this revelation is unlikely to turn away longtime series fans. If anything, we suspect it'll have them even more interested. We certainly are!

In other "Why am I waiting so long?" news, alleged images of a Metal Gear Solid 4 store display box have surfaced online, showing a required 4.5GB installation. We've requested comment from Konami.

[Thanks, Hashbrown Hunter]

Read -- Loooong cutscenes
Read -- Biiiig installation

Tags: Codec, Cutscene, Guns-of-the-Patriots, Hideo-Kojima, Konami, Metal-Gear-Solid-4, Metal-Gear-Solid-4-Guns-of-the-Patriots, MGS4, PS3, Stealth

Reader Comments (215)

testingout

The install is disappointing... but I still have ~180GB of free space even with the entire Gundam series in DivX format...

yeah, I'll pick up a $140 320GB hard drive when I start getting close to full....

Sir Fidlious Wong---
Just wondering, did you have any trouble transferring your data to the new hard drive? Any stubborn files or stuff needed to be re-D/Led? I'm looking to upgrade my 60GB(I'm at roughly 15GBs left)in the near future.

I'm not so worried about D/Led trailers, music, or pics... but I want to make sure that I can re-download SPF2T and TEKKEN without hitting any snags.

I also replaced by 60GB with a 250GB.

I had no problems re-downloading all the files. You simply go to your download list and use that.

I thought it was $180 for 120gb, not $140 for 320gb? OHHHH wait...

Good to hear. :] Thanks for the info. There's a couple good sites running deals on the 'drives(trying to cash in on the stimulus check recepients, I guess), so I might get one sooner than I expected.

fox, you'll need an external harddrive other than your new one to backup your files to. It should take up about half the space it currently does once compressed, and all your games, saves, etc. should transfer. If you want to be extra safe, put all your saves on a thumbstick, and you can always redownload the games on PSN as many times as you want if it's the same machine

Well, Foxhound, I pretty much upgraded fairly early. And I didn't follow any "official" instructions. My steps were pretty easy.

1. Remove old hard drive.

2. Put in new hard drive and allow PS3 to format to it's specs.

3. Using external serial ATA conversion kits, put both hard drives into kits and plug into windows.

4. Transfer all game saves, not game data (installation files).

5. Put new drive with restored game saves (it should also be noted, the transfering of save files can be done via flash drives, so the conversion kits are pointless if you plan ahead, but I caught the conversion kits on clearance for $5 long ago) back into PS3.

6. In the XMB, go to the account information option on the PSN tab. Log in with your old account and go to transaction history.

7. From transaction history, anything you've downloaded is shown so you can download games you've purchased a grand total of five times. Provided you haven't exploited this weakness to give your friends pirated copies, this should last a LOOONG time.

Notes: Not sure if the downloaded game data or games can be transferred or not, but I'm more of the better safe than sorrow type so I went with the redownload.

All in all, it's pretty painless.

@FOXHOUND if you have an external USB HDD (or someone can lend it to you for a few hours, you can use the PS3 backup option, install the new internal disk and restore everything, without need to redownload/reconfigure everything (you will not lost things like playlists, video albums configurations etc.)

@Foxhound.

Also make sure you get a very tight fitting screw driver for removing the HDD from the ps3 and from the HDD case. The screws are ridiculously tight and very easy to strip.

"It eliminates load times"

It doesnt eliminate load times... it makes loading times smaller, sometimes just to match the 360 loading times. Or sometimes just to surpass 360 loading times by barely 2 or 3 seconds (DMC4).

Mandatory installation is not a good thing. It should be optional.

Did anyone have trouble removing those entirely too tight and too small screws from the HDD of the PS3? Crap!!! I used a screw driver, a smaller screw driver, a power drill and finally a neddle nose to get them out.

The HD replacement is actually stupidly easy. You either backup just your game saves to any old USB thumbdrive or memory card, or you can back up *everything* if you have something big like a USB hard drive (my full 60 gigger backed up to 45 gigs and took about an hour and a half).

Then you swap in the new hard drive. If all you did was copy game saves, you copy them back, and re-download games etc (as others said, you can redownload all you want). If you did the full backup, you plug in the external hard drive and tell it to restore from backup, and you're done.

It's really easy. The hardest part is getting the screws off the HD caddy.

Thanks evvvv'rahbody for the helpful suggestions/tips. :]

I know there's a guide in the PS3 manual, but since I bought my 60GB via eBay... yeah. As for the backup option, that's interesting to note - because I thought it would only backup/restore to the native drive it was initially done upon... Pretty cool that it could be placed onto another!

PS3 manual is online:

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/manualindex.html

"Even so, this revelation is unlikely to turn away longtime series fans. If anything, we suspect it'll have them even more interested."

They... they're talking about me! -elated pig squeal-

LoL, anyway I'm glad I requested paid-time-off days off from work then to play this. Especially if I've got a friggin' 4GB or more to install before playing. Everyone knows "I-love-a-da-MGS", but man... console game devs really need to find a way around this whole trend. I might as well go back to PC gaming at this rate if I'm going to install GBs worth of stuff and tweaking before playing.

To be fair, there is no tweaking. not like you have to set the resolution, figure out what graphics settings work best with your hardware, etc. Sony does seem to have some stake in sandwich shops, however.

Once you get a new hard drive, you'll be happy games install key data. It eliminates load times, so instead of making a quarter sandwich every 30 minutes, you just make a couple once, and get it over with! Mandatory installs = a good thing, and enable developers to do more.

Foxhound, if Konami is running the industry average, installation shouldn't be more than 10 minutes. Capcom is doing something funky to get theirs so high.

SuperGayParade, mandatory install =/= a good thing. Optional install is a good thing. Yeah, it gives developers more of a chance to do more but more often than not, they use it as a sort of disc image. Mainly because optimizing data location based on physical media on BluRay is still largely unfamiliar territory. And for every Uncharted, there is a FEAR.

I sighed yet laughed at that pun.....

Some games it does eliminate load times. Or at least significantly weaken them. Ridge Racer 7 loads hella fast. In Gundam, the briefing can't get past the second paragraph before the load is ready. In Dynasty Warriors 6, often, by the time you're done setting up your character with the weapon and horse selection, you're either ready to jump in, or remarkably close.

Dont tell me you play Dynasty Warriors 6 Fid.

I... I thought it was common knowledge by now. I love Dynasty Warriors, and Drakengard. But I don't snag each copy. Usually I pick up the even numbered versions. Even enjoyed the Samurai Warriors if for nothing else than playing as Oda Nobunaga.... I even have an import copy of Gundam Musuo.

Now the necessity of Blu Ray makes more sense...

Isn't the point of video games supposed to be to tell a story through an interactive medium? I'm not paying money for a CG movie

The MGS series doesn't use CG but it runs of the in-game engine

CG as in, computer generated. As in, not real people

It's funny how people complain about the install...what about PC? Those are mandatory installs also. Oh but it's a console, the PS3, so were gonna whine about it. I just don't understand the big deal.

Because consoles aren't supposed to be PCs.

People have to find something to complain about... They could complain about the massive amount of homoerotic content within this game, but I suspect they secretly like it.

Except most PC installs also mean you don't need to use the disc afterwards.

What everyone else said.
But also other systems don't need to do this. I go into town, buy TP, Galaxy, Prime or some other jock off big game. Put it in the Wii and play. Same for any of the big games on the 360.

I buy a big game on the PS3 and I have to install it. Shitty bluray and it's slow speeds. At least let us install the full game so we don't need to swap discs. Oh we can't... Piracy doors come flying open.

I don't remember 12 GB installs taking 10 minutes on a PC, I have a 320 GB HDD that cost me $65, and I don't need the disc afterward.

Yikes.

You know, I really liked The Emperor's New Groove, and it's nowhere near 90 minutes long.

Another entertaining alternative to 90 minute cutscenes: Ice Age on Blu-ray.

The last MGS I played was MGS2. I really enjoyed the game... until the final cutscene orgy.

If my memory serves, that thing ran about 45 minutes (with possibly an interactive button press here or there to break it up).

What I clearly remember, though, was that movie was dominated by unending, inane, poorly written, faux-political diatribe.

Shit like "Can love bloom on the battlefield?" Or "Jill, the master of unlocking" is fun and kitschy when it's a brief sequence in a well-executed game, but as a non-interactive feature-length film it sucks ass.

At this point in my life, the vast majority of my gaming sessions are 90 minutes or less. If I'm going to spend that much time watching bad cinema, it better have Halle Berry naked in it.

Hopefully, the XBox 360 version will significantly edit the final movie, since it won't fit on a DVD-9.

@ J.Goodwin

Yikes? Emperors New Groove? What are you five?

ahahaha.... the 360 version... ahahahaha

ENG was a good movie. :p Mostly because it's one of the few, possibly the only, animated Disney films WITHOUT a song and dance number(i.e, no "Hakuna Matata")...

Didn't ENG start with a song and dance number?

ENG kicks ass.

ENG started with one, but it got interrupted in the middle of it, which sets the tone.

in the egm they said that cutscenes are the same lenght as gameplay

wasn't that the fake EGm? with the review going A A- and B+.

So cannot wait to see these cutscenes. 20 days to go!

if gamers didn't complain about the initial download they would complain about load times throughout the game. todays gamers are turning into big vaginas and are just looking for something to complain about.

AZ---
But see, if you had played the previous games; the load times are little-to-none since gameplay and cutscenes shared the same graphical quality. :\ Which is the reason why I'm a *little* nitpicky about it... it obviously doesn't radically change my favorable opinion toward MGS/Koji'Pro, but I'm sure it'll be noted in the Negareview on this site.

FOX they still do. The cutscenes look to be in engine and not pre-rendered. So not sure what the point is you are trying to make. If they were pre-rendered they would look A LOT better.

Ahh, now it makes sense why Ubisoft made that april fools joke with MGS and AssCreed. Both games have a tremendous amount of expository blabbering.

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Breaking: Metal Gear Solid 4 to have really long cutscenes

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