Game Design, Metal Gear Solid, Music, Playstation 3
No Metal Gear Solid Theme in MGS4: What Gives?
One of the most celebrated films in all of dork-dom is this little space opera called Star Wars. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Arguably the most infectious part of the entire movie was the music composed by maestro John Williams, punctuated by a series of themes that still resonate throughout society a generation later. While maybe not as widely-known as Star Wars’s intro, there are few video gamers who haven’t heard the Metal Gear Solid theme, which was present in all of the series’ PlayStation and PS2 iterations. So gamers were understandably surprised when the theme was absent from the fourth game in the series, Guns of the Patriots. While composer Harry Gregson-William’s score met—maybe even surpassed, in my opinion—the standards of the previous games, the main theme’s truancy left many gamers befuddled.
Well, befuddle no more, fair readers, as the answer has emerged from its cardboard box hiding place: accusations of plagiarism!
Dear 
Celebrities are the glue that holds our society together. Need proof? Ask your friends or coworkers who their state representative is, and you’ll most likely be met with a blank stare. Ask about Brad and Angelina’s babies, however, and you’ll likely still be hearing about them until Ms. Jolie reveals she has another bun in the oven/package from Cambodia. So why not revel in our collective fascination? After all, there are some pretty fascinating celebrities out there (I’m looking at you, Gary Busey), meaning there’s tons of potential for video game material. So here are a couple of game ideas starring some of our favorite celebrities, complete with a dash of their real-life shenanigans.
On Friday morning, Konami released a mysterious photo teasing about a new installment in the Metal Gear series, and the message boards have been overrun with rumors ever since. The teaser truly reveals nothing, combining the series’ iconic exclamation marks with the universal “power on” symbol, all of which is set on a jet-black background. Seems like a standard release teaser, right? But it’s the ad’s use of neon green—a color commonly associated with the Xbox brand—that has further ignited the already-flaming rumors that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will soon be adorning Microsoft’s console. Could this be true, or is Hideo Kojima once again messing with gamers’ minds?
It has been over 13 years since Chrono Trigger was released, and three console generations later, this game still sits proudly as one of the best RPGs, nay, video games, ever made. Yet after its initial release on the SNES, the game has only been available as a part of Square’s Final Fantasy Chronicles collection that was released in 2001. Despite featuring new animated sequences by character designer and anime god Akira Toriyama, this version was dismissed by fans due to lengthy load times, terrible resolution and sound effects engulfed in static. But Square Enix has finally given Chrono Trigger the treatment it deserves by porting it to the Nintendo DS, allowing the game to perform better than its SNES ancestor. Also, it fits in your pocket. Neat!
The new Xbox 360 commercials are dumb. Sure, there’s lots of eye candy and pretty music, but just think about the commercial for a second: they show some people watching an Xbox 360 in motion and enjoying, only to later find out that the 360 has EATEN THEIR BRAIN, hollowing out their skulls and replacing the insides with colorful images beamed in by some ungodly TV technology. Last time I checked, moms and politicians everywhere are still arguing that video games rot our brains, so I can’t say this ad speaks in the gamer’s favor. Furthermore, let’s pray that HDTV (Head Destroying TV?) isn’t some secret government plot to erase our minds.
Let’s face it: having good dialogue isn’t exactly vital to making a good video game—anyone who enjoyed the original Resident Evil or Gears of War can attest to that. Yet every once in a while, a game is elevated above its peers simply by including clever and enjoyable dialogue. Even games with less-than-great gameplay can find success due to an excellent script (Psychonauts comes to mind). By adding great dialogue to an already great game, you create something every player wants: not a game, but an experience. But enough of that philosophical hoopla; the dialogue in these games is pretty damn good. 
Xbox 360 owners have been patiently waiting for series developer Rockstar to deliver the Grand Theft Auto IV DLC they promised, only to be met with news of delays and Nintendo DS spin-offs. But finally, six months after the release of GTA IV, Rockstar has announced that the first episode of downloadable content, called “The Lost and Damned,” will be available on Xbox LIVE on Feb. 17, 2009. Rockstar also announced that there will be one more episode released, but no date was set on this installment.