Recent reviews by Roughneck Jackal

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As a long time enthusiast fan of the series, I'd like to clarify a few things about the collection in plain English.

The PC Master Collection, as far as MGS2 and MGS3 are concerned, are essentially just the original 2011 Bluepoint HD collection ported and running natively as an .EXE. As it stands right now, these are incredibly bare minimum ports, with the most attention paid to cosmetic things such as allowing you to customize which controller glyphs appear in game and offering multiple regional versions to be played. Bundled up in a fancy Unity wrapper which functions as a launcher for the games. KBM support is only barely serviceable, the games are locked to 720 upscaled (as of writing). MGS1 is a standout disappointment since it is an emulated PSX version with terrible filtering which cannot be disabled. (as of writing)

However, even in this current state, this is still likely the current best way to play MGS2 and 3 specifically. They function 1:1 with the Bluepoint HD collection and has has significantly lowered the bar in terms of making these games accessible, moddable and preservable for the future.

To explain why does need some context. Your available options for getting into the series (specifically with 2 and 3) prior to this collection were admittedly numerous, but came with a lot of caveats and flaws of their own. Especially if you didn't own, or didnt have access to consoles.

Your first option - obtaining the original bluepoint HD collection for PS3 or Xbox 360. This route has gradually become less and less accessible over time as it relies on obtaining both the game and the actual last gen consoles. Digital copies are (and has been) at the mercy of being delisted from the xbox store/psn as well. Not an easy sell to get somebody into the series.

Your second option - emulation for the series has made major strides in recent years. However, people vastly overestimate how accessible it really is. Emulation does require relatively decent hardware to work well. Current builds of PCSX2 are completely playable. There are however many long standing rendering and slowdown issues still present with 2 and 3. The other issue present are the reliance on pressure sensitive buttons for the games, which not many controllers nowadays actually support. It's possible within PCSX2 to remap the sensitivity ranges to compensate for this, but it only adds to the barrier of entry requiring a lot of trial and error just to simply play the game as it was intended. Emulating the HD Collection on RPCS3, is in a similar state. RPCS3 is updated frequently, but the HD Collection is still marked as only "Ingame"[wiki.rpcs3.net]. Admittedly, many of these issues have been slowly ironed out bringing it closer and closer to a playable state if you can afford to run it with the overhead. The 360 emulator xenia is not very viable and has an even worse overhead.

Your third option, Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2 were one of the few lucky games of the series to of received native PC ports of their own back in the day. Whilst the core of the game was there, these were incredibly buggy releases that needed numerous fixes to become playable. Driver updates and newer Windows releases relegated them to becoming less and less stable overtime. Things have changed since then, with the release of fanmade patches such as V's fix which implements many new features and fixes many graphical issues.[github.com]. Turning it into one of the best ways to play MGS2.

... However, MGS3 is still the odd one out. It never received a native PC port until now. Even in its bare minimum state, being based on the Bluepoint version of the game out of the gate obliterates the barrier to entry to actually getting into the series with far better frame pacing, less texture compression, insanely faster load times for menus, revised control schemes based on the 360 version of the game to avoid the pressure sensitive button problem (L3 raises and lowers weapon) and a completely unencrypted file structure allowing insanely easy modding access. Within hours of release, there is already a basic ASI loader plugin to forcibly fix the resolution, for instance.[github.com]. There are also specific fixes to many niche effects which were broken in the 2011 bluepoint versions

Could more of been done? Could they of gone to the levels of 343 did with Master Chief Collection and totally revamped the games with fixes, insanely good support, new features, restored features, etc? Absolutely. There are supposedly patches in the pipeline to fix a couple of the minor issues. But as it stands, at least as far as MGS3 is concerned, this is completely serviceable. You can now very easily get a friend into the Metal Gear series. With time, once the community have poured over the files and implemented their own fixes, this will single-handedly be the best way to play MGS 2 and 3 for both newcomers to the series, and those who are savvy enough with the series such as speedrunners and modders. I'm looking forward to somebody fixing the stinger missile blur in mgs2, which iirc has never worked on any re-release of the game to date.

This review rings especially true if the current leaks are to be believed, and Vol2 of the Master collection will include MGS4. Currently, there are very few routes to actually play MGS4 start to finish without owning a ps3 and the original game. I'm eager to see it finally on PC so it can be preserved and played in a far better form factor and improved performance.

Metal Gear Solid is a legendary series. One that has made a major impact on my life. I want to see it preserved as best it can, and made as accessible as possible. This release, has a few problems and is bare minimum, but that bare minimum goes a long, long ways in making it accessible to fans. No matter how you slice it, no matter how bad this could of been - it's a win for game preservation.

The battlepass being the biggest issue with the game currently says quite a lot. Gameplay alone is thoroughly enjoyable.

A love letter to every Command & Conquer fan out there.

THAT'S A POWERPLAY.

We must pull up our pants. So that we might - LIVE BETTER!

After playing the series from its inception, I can definitely say Arma 3 is the undisputed king of combined arms warfare.

FIX MULTICORE REEEEEEEEE