Recent reviews by Afevis Solmunko

While some may see it as an outdated entry in the franchise, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is often celebrated for its compelling and intricate storyline, which significantly advanced the narrative depth of video games at the time, and laid the groundwork for the stealth gaming genre, and in my opinion, is definitely a MUST PLAY for fans of 8/16 bit graphics;

Complex Plot: The game is set in 1999, where Solid Snake is tasked with rescuing Dr. Kio Marv, a scientist who has developed a revolutionary bio-engineered oil substitute called OILIX. The mission takes place in the fortified state of Zanzibar Land

Themes: The story delves into themes such as nuclear disarmament, the ethics of warfare, and the dependency on fossil fuels. These themes were quite sophisticated for a video game in 1990, adding a layer of depth that was uncommon at the time.

Character Development: The game features memorable characters, including the return of Big Boss as the antagonist. The interactions between Solid Snake and other characters are well-written, adding emotional weight to the narrative.

Cinematic Presentation: The use of cutscenes and dialogue to advance the story was innovative, providing a more immersive experience. The pacing of the story and the tension built through these elements were highly praised.

---

Initially the Master Collection launched in a rough place, with crashing issues, in-game hangs, game speed running way too high, every game being locked to 720p, however all those issues have since been resolved by the numerous patches Konami has put out.

As of patch 2.0.0, Konami has fully reupscaled all the videos up to 4K (with an option to have the original videos), added fully ingame control customization (for both keyboard+mouse and controller), as well as added 1080p/1440p/4k resolution support for MG1/MG2/MGS2/MGS3, however their implementation is still slightly flawed.

While it is an official way to play at those higher resolutions, those resolutions higher than 720p are achieved through AMD FSR upscaling - which is slightly blurrier than a native implementation of the resolution. This is due to an ancient engine bug that's been around since the 2002 Xbox port of MGS2 Substance which causes Depth of Field and other post processing effects to be reduced the higher the resolution goes (this issue is even present in the 2011 PS3/X360 HD Collection versions) - an unfortunate trade-off to maintaining a 23+ year old game engine that's been modified time and time again over the years. For proper native resolution (as well as fixing numerous legacy bugs such as broken water reflections[github.com]), MGSHDFix is still very much recommended (see the mod section below.)


Presently the biggest remaining gripe there is to have about the collection is the audio compression issues with MGS2 & MGS3 due to the PC port reusing the Xbox 360's audio (which was encoded using a very low quality xWMA codec), however there are mods that replace the low quality audio with the higher quality PS4/PS5 audio, fully fixing the problem (Better Audio Mod, which is also included in the mod section below.)


I've spent thousands of hours playing, speed-running, and meticulously researching these games inside and out across all its many releases, cataloging the minuet differences that are present across each version, from touched up textures, to reframed cutscenes, and of course investigating every single bug I can find / gets reported to me.


I can say without a doubt in its present state, with the addition of bugfix mods, the Master Collection release has exceeded the quality of the 2011 PS3 & Xbox 360 HD Collection/Editions, and as of patch 2.0.1, is the definitive way to play these games (outside of their original PS1/PS2 releases on actual hardware using an actual CRT.)


I personally maintain a community driven tracker that catalogs all outstanding bugs/issues, as well as everything that Konami has fixed, which you can find here (be warned though, there are spoilers!):� 
Metal Gear Solid Master Collection - Community Bug Tracker[docs.google.com]

---

As previously stated, there are numerous mods on Nexusmods which improve the state of the game even further beyond what Konami has already done to get it up to spec, adding proper high-resolution support, correcting audio compression issues, unlocking the game’s framerate, fixing explosion / particle physics running at double speed, and correcting hundreds of texture issues. (You might even notice while going through all the mods that I’m the person who made a LOT of them. 😉)




Here's the current definitive list for all the current bugfix mods for the MC:


MG1/MG2: MGSHDFix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, ultra-widescreen, and fixes some alt-tabbing issues.)


MGS1: MGSM2Fix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, albeit it’s still a work in progress so there are some minor issues, widescreen support, and allows you to toggle on / off the censorship and other minor changes made due to copyright reasons in the collection.)


Then for MGS2 & 3, I maintain bugfix modpacks on Nexusmods which contain all the current bugfix mods preconfigured to install via Vortex mod manager or mod organizer 2 with a single click. You can find get them here:


MGS2

� � � 
• Without AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]� 
  � � � 
• WITH AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]

MGS3

� � � 
• Without AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]
  � � � 
• WITH AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]

Lastly, for the Bonus Content: MGSHDFix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, ultra-widescreen, and fixes some alt-tabbing issues.)

Hideo Kojima is known to be a film buff on par with Quentin Tarantino, and Metal Gear Solid 3 is his love-letter to 60's/70's cold-war era spy flicks, in what is frequently referenced as the best story ever presented in a video game.

Set during the Cold War in Tselinoyarsk, USSR (the tugay forests of what would be modern-day Tajikistan), the game follows Naked Snake (who later becomes Big Boss, the antagonist from the original two MSX games) as he embarks on a mission to rescue a defecting Soviet scientist and dismantle a weapon of mass destruction.

Snake faces betrayal around every turn, deception being one of the main paradigms of the game, making Snake question his own core loyalties, ultimately laying the groundwork for Big Boss's downfall from grace later on in the series.

Some may find the controls of this game dated, most of the game actions being intricately mapped across the controller/keyboard; having grown up playing this game since its initial 2004 release, muscle memory clouds any judgement I may make on that point. If you aren't the biggest fan of PS2 era controls, you may be better off waiting for the remake, METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: SNAKE EATER, which is currently anticipated for a 2025 release.

---

Initially the Master Collection launched in a rough place, with crashing issues, in-game hangs, game speed running way too high, every game being locked to 720p, however all those issues have since been resolved by the numerous patches Konami has put out.

As of patch 2.0.0, Konami has fully reupscaled all the videos up to 4K (with an option to have the original videos), added fully ingame control customization (for both keyboard+mouse and controller), as well as added 1080p/1440p/4k resolution support for MG1/MG2/MGS2/MGS3, however their implementation is still slightly flawed.

While it is an official way to play at those higher resolutions, those resolutions higher than 720p are achieved through AMD FSR upscaling - which is slightly blurrier than a native implemention of the resolution. This is due to an ancient engine bug that's been around since the 2002 Xbox port of MGS2 Substance which causes Depth of Field and other post processing effects to be reduced the higher the resolution goes (this issue is even present in the 2011 PS3/X360 HD Collection versions) - an unfortunate trade-off to maintaining a 23+ year old game engine that's been modified time and time again over the years. For proper native resolution (as well as fixing numerous legacy bugs such as broken water reflections[github.com]), MGSHDFix is still very much recommended (see the mod section below.)


Presently the biggest remaining gripe there is to have about the collection is the audio compression issues with MGS2 & MGS3 due to the PC port reusing the Xbox 360's audio (which was encoded using a very low quality xWMA codec), however there are mods that replace the low quality audio with the higher quality PS4/PS5 audio, fully fixing the problem (Better Audio Mod, which is also included in the mod section below.)


I've spent thousands of hours playing, speed-running, and meticulously researching these games inside and out across all its many releases, cataloging the minuet differences that are present across each version, from touched up textures, to reframed cutscenes, and of course investigating every single bug I can find / gets reported to me.


I can say without a doubt in its present state, with the addition of bugfix mods, the Master Collection release has exceeded the quality of the 2011 PS3 & Xbox 360 HD Collection/Editions, and as of patch 2.0.1, is the definitive way to play these games (outside of their original PS1/PS2 releases on actual hardware using an actual CRT.)

In regards to MGS3 specifically, the original PS2 version of Subsistence had an extra crossover gamemode (Snake vs Monkey), which was cut due to copyright reasons (ie it's a crossover with Ape Escape, a Sony exclusive IP), as well as Duel Mode (boss time trials), a "Secret Theater", which had a bunch of fun paraody-esque videos that the dev team made during downtime, and finally a small minigame during on specific portion of the main game called Guy Savage (a hack and slash prototype version of the cancelled Zone of Enders 3), which also got cut due to the minigame running on a completely different engine. None of these features made it into the 2011 HD Collection (

There ARE modding efforts underway which have already managed to get Duel Mode & Snake vs Monkey reimplemnted for the MC, but for other systems folks won't be as lucky.

I personally maintain a community driven tracker that catalogs all outstanding bugs/issues, as well as everything that Konami has fixed, which you can find here (be warned though, there are spoilers!):� 
Metal Gear Solid Master Collection - Community Bug Tracker[docs.google.com]

---

As previously stated, there are numerous mods on Nexusmods which improve the state of the game even further beyond what Konami has already done to get it up to spec, adding proper high-resolution support, correcting audio compression issues, unlocking the game’s frame-rate, fixing explosion / particle physics running at double speed, and correcting hundreds of texture issues. (You might even notice while going through all the mods that I’m the person who made a LOT of them. 😉)




Here's the current definitive list for all the current bugfix mods for the MC:


MG1/MG2: MGSHDFix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, ultra-widescreen, and fixes some alt-tabbing issues.)


MGS1: MGSM2Fix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, albeit it’s still a work in progress so there are some minor issues, widescreen support, and allows you to toggle on / off the censorship and other minor changes made due to copyright reasons in the collection.)


Then for MGS2 & 3, I maintain bugfix modpacks on Nexusmods which contain all the current bugfix mods preconfigured to install via Vortex mod manager or mod organizer 2 with a single click. You can find get them here:


MGS2

� � � 
• Without AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]� 
  � � � 
• WITH AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]

MGS3

� � � 
• Without AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]
  � � � 
• WITH AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]

Lastly, for the Bonus Content: MGSHDFix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, ultra-widescreen, and fixes some alt-tabbing issues.)

Metal Gear Solid 1 explores several profound themes that contribute to its rich narrative and enduring impact:

Genetics and Identity: The primary theme revolves around genetics and the concept of identity. The game delves into the idea that one’s genes do not solely define who they are. This is exemplified through the characters of Solid Snake and Liquid Snake, who, despite being clones of Big Boss, choose different paths and ideologies.

Nuclear Proliferation: The game addresses the dangers and ethical implications of nuclear weapons. The threat of a nuclear catastrophe looms large, reflecting real-world concerns about nuclear proliferation and the balance of power.

War and Its Consequences: Metal Gear Solid critically examines the nature of war and its impact on individuals and society. It questions the glorification of war and highlights the psychological and physical toll it takes on soldiers.

Technology and Control: The game explores the relationship between technology and control, particularly through the concept of Metal Gear, a bipedal nuclear-capable robot. It raises questions about the extent to which technology can and should be used to exert control over others.

Free Will vs. Determinism: The narrative often touches on the tension between free will and determinism. Characters struggle with their perceived destinies and the extent to which they can shape their own futures, despite genetic predispositions or external pressures.

These themes are interwoven throughout the game’s plot, character development, and dialogue, making Metal Gear Solid a thought-provoking experience that goes beyond typical video game storytelling, and often lead to it being considered one of the great cinematic pieces of media of the late 20th century.

---

Initially the Master Collection launched in a rough place, with crashing issues, in-game hangs, game speed running way too high, every game being locked to 720p, however all those issues have since been resolved by the numerous patches Konami has put out.

Presently the biggest remaining gripe there is to have about the collection is the audio compression issues with MGS2 & MGS3 due to the PC port reusing the Xbox 360's audio (which was encoded using a very low quality xWMA codec), however there are mods that replace the low quality audio with the higher quality PS4/PS5 audio, fully fixing the problem (Better Audio Mod, which is also included in the mod section below.)


I've spent thousands of hours playing, speed-running, and meticulously researching these games inside and out across all its many releases, cataloging the minuet differences that are present across each version, from touched up textures, to reframed cutscenes, and of course investigating every single bug I can find / gets reported to me.


I can say without a doubt in its present state, with the addition of bugfix mods, the Master Collection release has exceeded the quality of the 2011 PS3 & Xbox 360 HD Collection/Editions, and as of patch 2.0.1, is the definitive way to play these games (outside of their original PS1/PS2 releases on actual hardware using an actual CRT.)


I personally maintain a community driven tracker that catalogs all outstanding bugs/issues, as well as everything that Konami has fixed, which you can find here (be warned though, there are spoilers!):� 
Metal Gear Solid Master Collection - Community Bug Tracker[docs.google.com]

---

As previously stated, there are numerous mods on Nexusmods which improve the state of the game even further beyond what Konami has already done to get it up to spec, adding proper high-resolution support, correcting audio compression issues, unlocking the game’s frame-rate, fixing explosion / particle physics running at double speed, and correcting hundreds of texture issues. (You might even notice while going through all the mods that I’m the person who made a LOT of them. 😉)




Here's the current definitive list for all the current bugfix mods for the MC:


MG1/MG2: MGSHDFix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, ultra-widescreen, and fixes some alt-tabbing issues.)


MGS1: MGSM2Fix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, albeit it’s still a work in progress so there are some minor issues, widescreen support, and allows you to toggle on / off the censorship and other minor changes made due to copyright reasons in the collection.)


Then for MGS2 & 3, I maintain bugfix modpacks on Nexusmods which contain all the current bugfix mods preconfigured to install via Vortex mod manager or mod organizer 2 with a single click. You can find get them here:


MGS2

� � � 
• Without AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]� 
  � � � 
• WITH AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]

MGS3

� � � 
• Without AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]
  � � � 
• WITH AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]

Lastly, for the Bonus Content: MGSHDFix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, ultra-widescreen, and fixes some alt-tabbing issues.)

An absolute classic, MGS2 is one of my absolute all-time favorite games.

MGS2 serves as a warning regarding media manipulation in the digital age, especially with the usage of AI, being used to generate false contexts and outlooks. (The game itself was, intentionally, an example of deliberate media manipulation, by having all the advertising for the game only including Snake and completely excluding any mention of Raiden until they very day the game released, people were led to believe Snake would be the main character for the entire game.)

Without delving too far into spoiler territory, the game touches on high level digital societal concepts, such as echo chambers[en.wikipedia.org], and filter bubble[en.wikipedia.org], concepts that weren't even named until almost a full decade after the game's release, which has given the game, and by extension Kojima himself, an almost prophetic image in most critical analyses.

The game has a seemly infinite amount of content to ingest, with over 8 hours of Codec calls available, and almost 6 hours worth of cutscenes on top of that, there is NO shortage in the worldbuilding department here. Coupled with what was considered the best stealth gameplay of the early 2000, this game is an absolute gem that has kept me coming back time and time again - playing it to completion to at least ONCE a year since its release.

---

Initially the Master Collection launched in a rough place, with crashing issues, in-game hangs, game speed running way too high, every game being locked to 720p, however all those issues have since been resolved by the numerous patches Konami has put out.

As of patch 2.0.0, Konami has fully reupscaled all the videos up to 4K (with an option to have the original videos), added fully ingame control customization (for both keyboard+mouse and controller), as well as added 1080p/1440p/4k resolution support for MG1/MG2/MGS2/MGS3, however their implementation is still slightly flawed.

While it is an official way to play at those higher resolutions, those resolutions higher than 720p are achieved through AMD FSR upscaling - which is slightly blurrier than a native implemention of the resolution. This is due to an ancient engine bug that's been around since the 2002 Xbox port of MGS2 Substance which causes Depth of Field and other post processing effects to be reduced the higher the resolution goes (this issue is even present in the 2011 PS3/X360 HD Collection versions) - an unfortunate trade-off to maintaining a 23+ year old game engine that's been modified time and time again over the years. For proper native resolution (as well as fixing numerous legacy bugs such as broken water reflections[github.com]), MGSHDFix is still very much recommended (see the mod section below.)


Presently the biggest remaining gripe there is to have about the collection is the audio compression issues with MGS2 & MGS3 due to the PC port reusing the Xbox 360's audio (which was encoded using a very low quality xWMA codec), however there are mods that replace the low quality audio with the higher quality PS4/PS5 audio, fully fixing the problem (Better Audio Mod, which is also included in the mod section below.)


I've spent thousands of hours playing, speed-running, and meticulously researching these games inside and out across all its many releases, cataloging the minuet differences that are present across each version, from touched up textures, to reframed cutscenes, and of course investigating every single bug I can find / gets reported to me.


I can say without a doubt in its present state, with the addition of bugfix mods, the Master Collection release has exceeded the quality of the 2011 PS3 & Xbox 360 HD Collection/Editions, and as of patch 2.0.1, is the definitive way to play these games (outside of their original PS1/PS2 releases on actual hardware using an actual CRT.)

With MGS2 specifically, to clarify why I state the original PS2 version still being the best (on an actual PS2, not through emulation), even the 2003 PS2 release of Substance had its own issues - ranging from broken skyboxes[imgur.com], missing voice lines, partially broken ocean textures[imgur.com], and the fact that Konami accidentally left all[www.movie-censorship.com] the EU censorship in the game (which unfortunately got carried over to all future versions.)


There are still plenty of minor cosmetic bugs in the Master Collection release of MGS2, however every single one of them can be traced to a previous version (with most of them originating from the 2002 Xbox port.)


I personally maintain a community driven tracker that catalogs all outstanding bugs/issues, as well as everything that Konami has fixed, which you can find here (be warned though, there are spoilers!):� 
Metal Gear Solid Master Collection - Community Bug Tracker[docs.google.com]

---

As previously stated, there are numerous mods on Nexusmods which improve the state of the game even further beyond what Konami has already done to get it up to spec, adding proper high-resolution support, correcting audio compression issues, unlocking the game’s frame-rate, fixing explosion / particle physics running at double speed, and correcting hundreds of texture issues. (You might even notice while going through all the mods that I’m the person who made a LOT of them. 😉)




Here's the current definitive list for all the current bugfix mods for the MC:


MG1/MG2: MGSHDFix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, ultra-widescreen, and fixes some alt-tabbing issues.)


MGS1: MGSM2Fix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, albeit it’s still a work in progress so there are some minor issues, widescreen support, and allows you to toggle on / off the censorship and other minor changes made due to copyright reasons in the collection.)


Then for MGS2 & 3, I maintain bugfix modpacks on Nexusmods which contain all the current bugfix mods preconfigured to install via Vortex mod manager or mod organizer 2 with a single click. You can find get them here:


MGS2

� � � 
• Without AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]� 
  � � � 
• WITH AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]

MGS3

� � � 
• Without AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]
  � � � 
• WITH AI Upscaled textures[next.nexusmods.com]

Lastly, for the Bonus Content: MGSHDFix[www.nexusmods.com] (Adds high resolution support, ultra-widescreen, and fixes some alt-tabbing issues.)

(Review text hidden)

Great game, there's plenty of reviews about the real tone cable being unreliable. There's a LOT of copycat/knockoff ones out there, so your mileage may vary with your specific cable.

Also there's a ton of DLC that can no longer be purchased due to Ubisoft's music licenses having expired, so it's partially abandonware at this point. Thankfully there's workarounds for this as well as custom music you can add via customforge.

Likewise, you can easily find downloads with all of the DLC files on google if you don't want to shell out nearly $5000 USD for all 1555 (at the time this was posted) songs.

This is a hidden gem, the next among us level of smash hit.

It's essentially Wario Ware minigames with the ability to push your friends around and murder them, absolutely amazing party game for groups!

It has workshop integration for cosmetic items, with a pretty hilarious selection of stuff from the community so far.

Best of all, IT'S FREE! Definitely try it out with some friends!

Updated 4/2/23
Naughty Dog has released a patch fixing a bunch of issues already, and has stated there will be two patches addressing a number of performance issues and crashes over the course of the next week (source: https://www.pcgamer.com/naughty-dog-apologizes-to-last-of-us-players-on-pc/ )

Nvidia's also acknowledged that a number of the crashes folks are experiencing are actually related to the latest series of drivers (versions starting with 531), and that they're working on a fix for the next driver version. These crashes are also plaguing a few other games, so it's not just an issue with TLOU. Downgrading to 528.49 reportedly fixes these crashes for the time being.

Likewise, for gamers using nvidia, there's a few tweaks you can do right now to increase performance (typical yields are +20fps) as well as fix numerous stuttering and crashing issues. With them applied, my game now completely builds shaders in just under 6 minutes, a far cry from the previous hour + build time, and I've yet to experience any crashes.


1) Use nvidia profile inspector to change the game's memory allocation policy (this is towards the bottom in the other category) from MEMORY_ALLOCATION_POLICY_AS_NEEDED to MEMORY_ALLOCATION_POLICY_AGRESSIVE_PRE_ALLOCATION.
This will change how the game handles VRAM management. This fixes stuttering, and has reportedly fixed a number of crashes.
https://github.com/Orbmu2k/nvidiaProfileInspector/releases

2) Use DLSS swapper to update the game to the latest version of DLSS. The game comes with version 3.1.1, which is outdated, and the newer version (3.1.11 as of writing) has had numerous performance fixes. It'll also fix some visual ghosting issues some folks experienced at lower FPS.
https://github.com/beeradmoore/dlss-swapper/releases

May 26, 2023
They added most of the stuff in as features in the main client. I dig it. They made right, more or less. It took them a lot of time, but it's finnnnnne now.

Come dance. ♥

___________________________________________________________

July 25, 2022

Cancelled my VRC+ after a year and a half. Devs backtracked on supporting the modding community, and is adding EAC effectively blocking out mods completely.

They've promised they'll add some of the functionality mods added into the base game, but it shouldn't take over 5 years to add something as simple as notifications when someone joins your instance in a social game, let alone the numerous other mods that fixed bugs that would crash users, adding basic game things like DRAW DISTANCE so your framerate isn't terrible in an instance with more than 25 people, ect.

10JUL22 Update

A new patch has come out fixing the audio issues, woo. They also fixed an issue with some missing geometry which resulted on one of the bonus levels that prevented 100% completion.

________________________________________
Decent port. Still has some of the original glitches. Both the n64 and PS1 versions are included.

You can change the framerate the game runs at in the configs (%AppData%\Roaming\Piko Interactive\Glover\config.ini)
; 0=Classic (20FPS), 1=Stable (30FPS)
; 2=Smooth (60FPS) 3=Detect from Monitor (Unlimited)

Dev said they're working on fixing some physics stuff that gets messed up at 30fps, but it seems to be running fine for the most part.

No ingame graphics settings, but forcing antialiasing & anisotropic filtering via nvidia control panel works fine.

As for the original glitches, some sound effects do get cut off in some areas (this waas present in the n64 version, I'd assume it's an audio channel conflict.)
https://youtu.be/XTu7N4hDtEg