Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Your assassins weren't nearly strong enough Kojima; though bruised and battered, I survived the night. Don't say we didn't warn you.

I feel better about the whole MGS2 thing today, but it's still kind of a sore subject. And of course it doesn't help to be bombarded with MGS2 letters, but I'm tough, I can take it.

Concerning the Arch Nemesis contest: the entry period is over. Sending me an email voting for yourself when you're not listed doesn't count, sorry. Vote for someone else, and make their day a little brighter.

Onward.

There just might be something to this line of reasoning. Looking back, you do seem to be right about the time difference between the announcement of MGS1 and the actual release. True, I didn't see any shiny happy movies of it at the time (which may have had more to do with my crummy modem than anything else) but the current movies aren't necessarily indicative of anything either. We all remember how quickly Square was able to get the FF8 dance sequence running on the PS2 hardware - MGS2 could be little more than an empty shell at this point.

But I've still gotta bitch about the long delay for a couple of reasons, not least of which is because it's fun. I expected way less of MGS back when it was announced - I'd played the original Metal Gear, and while it was a good game it didn't blow me away. There was no official release of the real Metal Gear 2 in the US, and when MGS came out I was too busy with schoolwork and Xenogears to give it a look. It wasn't until midway through my final semester that I got to experience the true genius of Kojima, and the memory of MGS still relatively fresh in my mind makes these delays all the more painful. But endure we must, so endure we shall.

I think not, since the bad ending seemed to suggest that Snake would be keeling over from Fox Die at any moment. Instead, I tend to think it's because of the explanation I gave in my answer to CT's letter here. </boast... no wait, I'm not supposed to do that.

Behold, salvation comes on a tiny two inch screen. I hadn't planned on getting MGS handheld, or even updating my pathetic circa 1989 Game Boy, but if this is the only way to get a Kojima fix at the moment then I guess I got no choice.

All I can say is, it better be good Drucker, or I'm coming after you. 

The whole ESRB is something of a double edged sword - you might argue that if games are as big as movies, or bigger, then they need the same kind of ratings as movies and the ratings need to be at least as well enforced. On the other hand you can question how much good the MPAA has done recently, and wonder if games shouldn't try and avoid that kind of situation.

Either way, banning M rated games is pretty dumb, in my opinion. But unlike most times I say IMO, this actually means something since I might be saying something different were I the CEO of Sears. It's easy for me as a broad-minded, committed gamer to argue that there's ultimately no difference between M rated games and  R rated movies, and while there are some issues with general access to R movies most people wouldn't call for a total ban. If I'm the CEO of Sears and many of my customers are from conservative small towns, people who'd get horrified if they had any idea what Silent Hill was like, I might launch a preemptive strike at potentially troublesome games.

Ultimately I think and hope that this won't have much effect on gamers as a whole, but this could be one of those "butterfly flapping its wings" chaos deals, so I'm keeping an eye out.

Ex-DA's get lifetime free plugs in the column. Drew will stop by to plug his new line of odor-absorbent drink coasters tomorrow, and I'll be pushing my upcoming pop album when I retire: "Chris Jones sings REM! Live!"

Allan's column is quite intelligent and insightful, natch. The only comment I have is that I don't see Wal Mart caving in on M rated games. They sell R rated movies IIRC, which is pretty much the same thing, and if they did stop selling Capcom, Konami etc. would probably sue their ass of for restraint of trade. 

I'm not sure if you're commenting on my original statement that FFT might bring $100 on the market, which I explained yesterday, or my comment that I wouldn't sell FFT for $100. If it's the latter, you're the one that's mistaken. Market value is far from the only to measure the worth of something. I love FFT, I'm pleased with the condition of my copy, and I really don't need the money. Hence, I would not sell the game for any small amount of cash. If someone offers to trade me a PS2 or something, we can talk, but as you say that's not liable to happen.

I should have checked that yesterday - it would have been all over the place had it been true. Someone pointed out to me today that the PS2 price isn't quite as bad as all that, since the controllers and memory cards will be backwards compatible, but I can't imagine being satisfied with anything less than current state of the art. I imagine most games will be fully analog compatible, in which case playing on a current Dual Shock would be somewhat disappointing.

If we can't have Lucky Dan, then the clear alternative is obviously Lucky, which is nearly as good. The same fundamental irony of calling a burning straw man with a nail through his chest Lucky remains intact, and Dan doesn't really add that much more coolness. By and large the new names will only be problematic to those who know all the Japanese names, and anyone who really cares about playing the game pure will have been avoiding those anyhow.

Yes, a solidus is a small diagonal mark. It's also a gold Roman coin. Neither makes sense in the context of talking about states of matter, which is what the two existing Snakes are named after.

Ok, yes. There might be some ways of getting Dex Drives to work with a Mac, although there are a couple of potential problems with your suggestion: I'm not sure to what extent a PC emulator would be able to work with a RS-232 add on, and if you have an iMac you lack PCI slots anyway. (I'm unaware of any kind of 232/USB converter, but I've never looked.) Still, I'd think it'd be easier just to find a friend with a PC.

I'd reply to this, but I think our fundamental assumptions are too different for meaningful communication..

Closing Comments:

Freedom! Yeah! And I get to go to a crawfish boil tomorrow, so that's also groovy. Don't torture AK too much while I'm gone, and I'll see you Monday.

-Chris Jones, running away fast as possible, unaware that he's on a leash