[No spoilers; fear not.]

Brian and I opened GameStop yesterday morning to claim our copies of MGS4. We actually arrived about five minutes before the store opened… and about one minute before a guy dressed as Snake. Camo shirt, bandana, eyepatch, cigarette, slicked-back hair… my first thought upon seeing him was Oh God; Brian later confirmed that he had a similar reaction.

Turns out that he wasn’t a rabid fanboy (this coming from a guy who would have attended a midnight launch of the game, mind you), but an employee of GameStop having fun with a major launch. His laid-back attitude, especially in contrast to what we were expecting, made the wait much more entertaining than it would have otherwise been.

The other people waiting included a (“get back to middle-school!”) young boy, a rather disgruntled-looking couple, and some random guys both older and younger than me. Not a terribly impressive showing; I can understand why they didn’t both opening at midnight.

…

The game itself controls quite well, and (of course) is gorgeous; my new favorite move (ever) is rolling around when you’re lying on the ground. This game is going to make playing other games where your set of abilities is hugely constrained (I’m looking at you, Resident Evil 4) even more frustrating to play.

…

If you didn’t read the legalese of the Metal Gear Online beta (lots of which involved issues with microtransactions), you wouldn’t have gotten a whiff of the capitalistic stench coming off of it. The final version of MGO hits you over the head with its capitalistic greed, explaining that you have the ability to create one free MGO character for your game and PS3, but will have to pay for others.

Also, some punk stole my MGO beta character’s name. This saddens me, as I had become rather fond of (my initial joke-character, before I realized I couldn’t make others) OGC.

Lots of noobs to feed off of in MGO right now; a good number of seasoned players are also around to pick them off. I’m nothing great, but I can still pick off the ones with rookie eyes… though I imagine I look like one of them, to anyone with some skill. Them: haha at least that n00b tried to shoot in my direction. Me: gdmnt.

…

But, yeah. This is the first time I’ve played an MGS title at launch, and also the first time I’ve played without an all-knowing Brian watching me get slaughtered. (The “all-knowing” part has changed; I’m still getting slaughtered.) I’ve improved over past games, though, where—if left to my own devices—I would have crawled through the entire game. Nowadays I’m more likely to take risks and actually move forward with some semblance of speed. (I.e. in the past I played as if I were Snake in enemy territory; now I play more like Snake in enemy territory.) Somehow the whole experience is more fun that way.