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Hello and welcome to the Long and Short of It, the podcast where we discuss each of the games on the Open Critic Top 100 list.

My name's Dan and I'm joined by.

This is Lawrence, welcome to the podcast.

Welcome to the podcast.

After a bit of a hiatus, how are you?

How was your Christmas?

Yes.

How was your new?

Year How was your day?

It's work time.

What's going on?

Yeah, fine.

It's been, Yeah, just before Christmas since our last episode.

Doesn't it say Christmas was quiet, New Year was quiet, everything's quiet and that's all I have to report other than I've just dropped a lot of money on a new mattress today so I didn't realise how expensive they actually are and it's made me a little bit sick.

But I've had a very bad back for a while so I think it's time to upgrade I'd say.

And is it a fancy memory foam mattress?

It is, yeah.

I went to try it today and the gentleman salesman was was upselling all these things.

I was like, let's go for that because you've got to invest in your own health, haven't you?

If you can't invest in that, what can you invest in?

And did you go for the option that's filled with straw?

Yes, I did.

I'm actually going to be sleeping in a barn for the remainder of 2026 because I'm actually a horse.

Well, so there you.

Go 2026, the year to.

Try a new thing.

That's right.

Did you have a lovely Christmas New Year?

And I did, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So I went down to Essex, saw some of the lads from the stag do and that was really nice.

Had a nice Christmas, came back for New Year and kind of had to hit the ball rolling with work straight away, hence the sort of delay in this episode.

Speaking of this episode, today we are here to discuss a game that we've already talked about, although not in this form.

So coming in at, I actually looked this up.

So coming in at #577 on the open critic list.

Gosh.

Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater with a score of 85 S Pretty decent score, but it just goes to show how competitive that top of the list is.

So I was interested to see some of the games that are above this and.

Literally every other game isn't it it seems seems.

Like all other 576 games ever made were above this.

1.

So that's right.

Yeah.

So without further ado, what is Delta Snake Eater?

What is the difference between this and the original Snake Eater?

It's, it's a remake, isn't it, of Metal Gear Solid 3, Snake Eater?

They've kind of rebuilt it from the ground up to some extent.

There'd been talks of Konami doing a remake of MGS 3 probably for about 10 years, probably more, because I remember it was around 2015, sixteen, that you were seeing those YouTube videos with the updated graphics on the pachinko machines in Japan.

Yeah.

And people were kind of getting a bit hype then.

And obviously the last real Metal Gear Solid game that was released was The Phantom Pain MGS 5.

There has been Metal Gear Survivor since then, but I don't think people really count that.

Metal Gear Survivor released in 2018, so we've.

Yeah, I've not played that hiatus.

We did get the the remasters re released on the in various places since then.

But yeah, yes, it's been All Quiet on the Western Front from Konami for a good long time.

Really.

Yeah, and they.

Returned in good form I'd say, in the year 2020.

5 Realistically, they they needed to do something, didn't they?

And I think that they've been really careful with MGS because really, I think it's very difficult to do an MGS game without the input from Hideo Kojima.

And of course, Hideo Kojima famously left Kanami in around about 2015 when he went on to found his own studio after a big fallout with them.

It is interesting that they've started.

I'm assuming that they're going to do more remasters like this one, but it's interesting that they started with #3 But I imagine we'll come on to that, won't we?

Yeah.

So for the sake of the listener, what's your history broadly?

I know I don't want to retread too much on what we touched on in the original episode.

For any new listeners, go back and listen to that if you like.

Yeah.

So what's your history with the game and where did you play the game for the podcast today?

So I think we both agreed that when we originally talked about Snake Eater, which was probably about three or four years ago now, neither of us were particularly happy with that episode.

I think we went through a bit of a phase where we just kind of rattled off the story of the game and then just talked about a few game play mechanics.

The Last of Us Part 1 was a was a victim of that as well.

So it's nice that we get a new opportunity to talk about Snake Eater.

The original Snake Eater came out in 2004, and I remember I didn't really follow games that heavily back in the early 2000s, but I remember seeing it in a magazine and seeing that it had already come out.

And that was at the time when new games cost either between about 30 and 40 lbs and just trying to rack up enough money so I can get it.

And I think you're the same as me.

We've both played this game, the original to death.

There isn't much that we don't know about MGS 3.

It is probably, arguably, I'd say the strongest of the Metal Gear games really.

So coming into this remake with Delta, I, I guess I had high hopes, but at the same time I wasn't on the hype train.

I didn't really follow everything to do with this game up before release.

Because for me, MGS 3 didn't really need remaking.

I think.

I think it's very good as it was, as long as you play the HD Collection version with the, you know, the movable camera, etcetera, but which is the subsistence version of NGS 3.

But yeah, I've played this game, MGS 3, not Delta specifically, but I've played MGS 3 a lot over the past 22 years, and it's probably in my top ten, maybe even top five video games all time.

So a remake of it was interesting.

And I didn't go into it with the same kind of feelings that I had about going into the remake of Final Fantasy 7.

I was a bit more, I don't know, kind of unbothered I would say is there's the correct term.

But I played this on the PS-5 the the base model as I do not have the PS-5 Pro.

So yes.

What's your history and where did you play it?

So I'm not going to go too much detail about the history.

Basically what you said, very similar thing really.

And all that detail is in the other episode for people to go in Peru if they would so like.

But in terms of Delta Snake Eater, I too saw the basically the pachinko version was the cut scenes for MGS 3 in sort of PS3 S graphics and it looked really nice.

It was same animation, but just these graphics that resembled MGS 4, which to this day still looks good.

So I kind of got hyped about that time and then obviously they they announced Delta Snake Eater.

As I say, it seems like Konami's woken up after about a decade of being in hibernation last year, throwing out Silent Hill two remake, which was also pretty good.

Actually, I completed that last year and MGS 3D.

So it's nice to see Konami back in some sort of form and I'm quite excited to see where they go from here because it's inevitable that this is not the end of the story for either series.

Obviously we've just had Silent Hill F as well.

Again, well received.

I've got that game, but I've not played it yet.

So yeah, an interesting time for Konami.

They they suddenly realised that they were a game developer and they started developing games.

So that was that was nice of them.

I, I wasn't, I was sort of again, like you sort of hyped for this, but not not overly so.

And I think actually the the release of this game was quite muted.

Yeah, it was.

I don't know if it, I don't know if it was because it was just a busy year last year, and I think it was a busy year, but it didn't feel like this landmark thing.

It wasn't like when the Crash Bandicoot remake trilogy was released and everyone kind of went mad.

It was a much more yeah, subdued affair, I'd say.

So the version I played was the PS-5 Pro version, which is just a slightly enhanced version of the PS-5 version.

It does look very, very nice.

What I want to talk about, first of all, is the graphics.

I want to jump straight into, I suppose the really big departure from the original game.

What are your thoughts on the graphics?

What do they do well?

What don't they do well?

What does it add to the game that is obviously a game from 2004 In your mind I.

Again, like I said, I I don't really think that this remake needed to be made, to be honest.

I think that MGS 3 still holds up.

It is a very PS2 looking game when you play it, but I think that that lends itself and something that I think we might have touched on in the last episode if we didn't, I'm going to touch on it now is something that's Super Bunny Hop, which is a YouTube channel.

I don't think we've referenced on here in a long time, but he did a full deep dive of MGS 3 about 10 years ago and he makes a reference of how campy MGS 3 is.

And it's just like a silly spy thriller with a few serious elements kind of melded in there.

And it's got, you know, elements of Bond and there's a lot of like tips of the hat to to Bond, etcetera.

And I feel that the new graphics, they, they look incredible.

I think it's running on.

Unreal Engine.

Five yeah, Unreal Engine 5.

So it looks stunning.

I mean, you and me have got some opinions on some of the faces, but it does look incredible.

But I think in kind of remaking the graphics engine from the from the ground up, it kind of takes away a bit of the camp to the game.

And yeah, it makes it feel more gritty.

No, I'm not against it, but and it doesn't make the game feel different per SE, but it does it is noticeably kind of altered from the original.

In my opinion.

That isn't a bad.

Thing Tone.

Yeah.

But yeah, the tone's different and it's very, very gritty.

Very.

I don't even know the word, but it it just feels changed.

But in saying that, like the lighting in the game is incredible, some of the character designs, the foliage, the the areas that you are, it is mad.

And I mean, something that we might have touched on.

And the last time we talked about this game, it when I was going through playing, I was playing on normal.

And when you got to the fight with the fear, oh, not the fear, sorry, the fury in the underground section with the guy with the flamethrower.

I, I always forget how hard that fight is and I remember you and me playing it when we're at university.

I think we're playing it on hard and we were just getting our asses kicked by that fight.

Well, I played it on hard in the for the last episode, if you remember.

Yeah.

And I'll tell you that that fight was a pain in the.

Yeah, solid, especially if you're trying to do it non lethal.

Yeah, well, this is, and this is how I generally play, especially bosses, because obviously you unlock the camo if you do them non lethal, correct.

So yeah, it is a it is a a trudge at first.

I mean, jumping ahead at first when I got to the fury this time, I thought, oh, this is not too bad because obviously you'd warn me beforehand.

It was solid.

And then and then as the reader starts to fill up with fire and you just on fire, basically constantly eating through your life, you're like, I remember, I remember why this was annoying.

Yeah, I mean, the the point I'm going to make with the Fury is frustrating, super frustrating.

But that section just looks incredible with the fire.

Oh yeah.

And the light.

Yeah.

So overall the look of it looks superb.

Like amazing.

That's what I have to say about the graphics.

Just different, but not a bad different, just different.

Yeah, I'm, I'm sort of for it.

And I think the campiness is still there.

You're right, it's not as prominent.

I think when you first played MGS 3 or when I first played MGS 3, the campiness was not what I focused on.

No, the thing that hit me hard was the torture scene.

And it felt like serious with funny moments, gritty Cold War spy thriller.

And I think on subsequent playthroughs, when you when you see some of the stuff that's in there and some of the silliness and you've seen the cutscenes loads of times, so you're kind of focusing on different things, the campiness comes out a bit more.

Whereas seeing it in these graphics kind of reverted it to that first time that I played it.

And a good example of that is the torture scene.

That was pretty hard hitting this time because of the new graphics.

And it seems like they in the same way that they had all the way back there, it seems like they relished in creating this brutal, crunchy sort of torture scene.

So I think it probably added to it and, and the other way I think it added to it was the plot itself, the story, which is why I've done this bit before the plot.

I think having it in the new engine breathe new life in the store into the story for me.

I've heard this story so many times.

I've seen these cutscenes so many times.

But because it was in a new engine and I wanted to see what it looked like, how they did certain things, what the effects look like at certain moments.

So I was paying more attention and because I was paying more attention, I was digesting the story more and I was listening more.

And it's almost like they tricked me into becoming reinvested in what can be a story that you turn off from because you've played it so many times.

So and a good example of that is the in game stuff.

I was kind of there all through it, but the the the moments where it goes off into like archival footage, I find it hard again to tune back in.

When it's like the corner between President Johnson and Nikita Khrushchev and stuff at the start, yeah.

Yeah, so it's kind of like it tricks me into being fully there, like for the first time all over again.

The other wonderful thing about this graphical upgrade hit me about halfway through.

I got to the top of the mountain after the very, very long ladder and I was messing around with first person play and third person play.

And when I got out onto the like the, the dunes at the top of the mountain, I saw the the scorpions out there, I saw the wind blowing.

I saw the background, which was more dynamic than it has ever been.

And the thing that they add with this graphical overhaul is atmosphere.

And when you go into first person, you're crawling across those dunes.

It feels more real than it ever has.

Like you can see everything.

One of the things that that MGS 3 does really well is each little area is like a self-contained ecosystem.

And within that you've got different animals, different plants, lots to see and do, lots of things to collect.

And it feels alive, but they've taken that alive feeling one step further.

And then when I thought about it, I was, I never used to enjoy that, that mountaintop area.

It was just like.

I always quite like that bit.

I don't mind the first bit of the first piece, but not where you go through the trenches and you've got the the the soldiers with like the flamethrowers and stuff.

I'm not into that bit.

But the bit before, yeah, I like that bit.

I gained a new appreciation for that area, and I look back and I thought about the jungle areas and I thought, they've done this all through, like every area.

If a video game is made to feed your imagination so that you feel like you're in a living, breathing world, they've taken what the original did.

They've kept the structure, they've kept the boundaries that were in place in the original, but they've just suggested that the world beyond is more and that really enhanced this playthrough for me.

So those jungle areas, as you'd agree, I think are more alive than ever.

That the foliage, the little animations of the animals, which have changed very slightly, and it and the rain effects are better than they've ever been.

That was one of the things that always annoyed me in the original was that the rain just was barely there.

So yeah, it just felt like these ecosystems come to life.

And last thing I want to touch on with the with the graphics is for the most part, they have kept all the original animations.

And this is for the most part a really good thing because those animations really do hold up.

And that was the thing that really excited me about the original at the time was how good the CQC looked and how well animated these cutscenes were.

Now there's the occasional wonky moment.

That still stays in the remake, but some of them have been ironed out a bit.

So one of the things that I always thought looked wonky in the original was the bit where you're in the sidecar of the motorcycle and it just never looks quite right.

It always just looks a bit janky and not fluid and jerky.

Snake.

'S too big for that sidecar.

Yeah, whereas they've made use of motion blur and they've made use of cinematic camera angles, and that section looks smoother than it ever has.

And I was kind of again, flicking between first person, third person cinematic view and yeah, it looks great.

So the only side that I think is slightly let down by keeping the original animations is that the facial animation, it's quite static by today's standards.

And I think we've grown to kind of expect a bit more and it looks a bit jarring when you see the level of detail on display elsewhere.

Now, I I'm not saying that I wanted like a huge amount of facial animation because I think that would have gone against what the original game was and had, but it was just something that at times looked a bit.

What do they call it when still when something?

No, it'll come to me.

So basically when when something looks jarring because everything else looks realistic.

So the smallest thing can take you out, right?

Yeah, it will come to me.

So yeah, on the whole, a really impressive, lovely looking graphical makeover that for me at least, refreshed my experience of MGS 3.

Now I'm going to give you, we're going to go back to something we used to do because we've done the story and the plot in the previous episode.

I want you to give me an overview of the plot within one minute and then we can dive in a bit more into some of the particulars.

So I'm actually going to time you.

I'm going to give you one minute, starting now.

So MGS 3 takes place in the 1960s amid growing tensions between Russia and the USA.

The story primarily result revolves around the protagonist called Naked Snake, who, if you've played the former games, is a younger version of Big Boss going through his first kind of big solo mission.

Along the way, he gets betrayed by his mentor named the Boss.

A nuclear missile is fired at a Russian facility, and the Kremlin basically orders that the Americans prove they didn't launch the nuke because it was launched by a bad guy called Colonel Volgin, a Russian.

And as part of your mission, mission Snake has to kill the Boss, his mentor.

So it's got a whole kind of country, Cold War, war vibe, but also a very personal element, too.

Is that bang on a minute?

Yeah, that was pretty good actually.

Yeah, pretty good.

There you go.

Nice.

So I think we're going to dive in a bit further.

I'm going to I'm going to mention my my points that I've got written down and you add anything that you want to talk about as well.

So some of the things again, because I kind of re digested this story this time and that was interesting.

One thing I've always liked about Snake Eater in the same way as MGS 1 is it's a simpler, less convoluted affair.

Now, probably taken on its own, it it's still probably a bit intimidating to someone new to the series, but for people that have been playing the series for years, this is simple.

This is about as simple and elegant and stripped back and naked, so to speak.

As the series gets.

I see what you did, and it only gets more convoluted as we get on in.

Yeah.

I think the other thing is because we've got this Cold War setting, it feels historically adjacent and it feels a bit more grounded than the other entries in the MGS series, which kind of go off into sci-fi land very quickly.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, you could, you can play MGS 1 and and by halfway you're like, OK, this is this is not the reality that I know, although it does start off quite grounded in MGS 1, and that's probably one of the other simpler affairs By MGS 2, it had grown into something that I don't think any of us do, as we've talked about back all the way back in the MGS 2 episode 5 years ago.

Indeed.

So episode I believe that was, Yeah.

And I distinctly remember our section on Emmer Emerick, which we didn't actually go into too much detail.

On on the United States of America.

Yes, well, that is important that those are who funds us for this podcast.

That's correct.

The real.

You might say.

My third question, you can answer this if you want, is Vogue and stupid.

Like, again, replaying this game, Yeah, seeing how many people around him, literally everyone is not on his side.

Yeah.

And he just doesn't realise, like everyone is playing him and the amount of things that happened throughout the story that you think, how did he not clock that?

Like why does it take to the very end of the game to realise?

I think that with Vogue in he is such like, I think they tried to give him some depth by saying you know about his background and the the philosopher's legacy and how really it's his by rights or whatever, which obviously isn't.

But then you come back to the whole camp thing, and I think Volgen is the compassing of the entire game.

Because one thing that sticks out to me is Volgen's captured Snake planting C4 on the fuel tanks of the shagger Hod, which for the listener is the big mech that you have to defeat at the end of the game.

And he's got Snake, and he could just shoot him.

Like he could just kill him and he's like, ah, so you want me to tell you about the philosopher's legacy?

Fine, I'll do that before I kill you.

Yeah, which is a James Bond nod.

Yeah, absolutely.

And it's just like he feels like the biggest meme or the biggest cartoon in the entire very two-dimensional.

Yeah.

And I mean, there's an element of that to Ocelots as well, because Ocelot is very much like an anime character with his weird little meows and his yeah, quirks.

But yeah, it.

Does, but there is more to him as you find out by the end.

Absolutely.

But no, Volgin feels like he's there to be the, I'd say like he's the amalgamation of what they want to portray as Russia, big and slow.

And that was the opinion of the US in the 1960s, wasn't it?

Is that like the Russia was behind like a step behind everything that the USA did, but they were just burly and you know, you shouldn't take them on head on in a fight because they'll knock you out.

Yeah.

Do you remember years ago we were watching Is it Deadliest Warrior?

Yeah, I remember that.

Yeah, yeah.

The one where they have the and it was the old weapons and they put them up against each.

Other, yeah.

And it was like Spetsnaz versus some, yes, some division of the US, Yeah, yeah.

Army, I think it was the Seals.

Yeah, and, and the US guys by the end said we were scared of those spetsnails.

Like they were just intimidating.

That was a great show that just disappeared.

It was as well.

It was the the guy that played Faramir in Lord of the Rings was the narrator, wasn't he?

We.

Watched quite a few episodes of that.

Yeah, we did.

It was.

A bit of a blast from the past and listeners there.

And and it's funny, like he he says, oh, in that same cutscene he says Eva Tatiana, which actually, I don't know why it took me so long, but Tatiana being a reference to From Russia with Love.

Oh, right.

Tatiana, Tanya, which is the the name of the bomb girl in in From Russia with Love.

Again, probably me being reinvested in the story allowed me to clock that.

Yeah.

So he says, oh, we're going to kill her.

And then then the boss just marches her away and said I'll take care of her.

Yeah, don't worry about it.

I'll put this.

No, no, we're just killer here because why?

Why are you walking her away?

It's just it just doesn't make sense.

Camp Another another thing that I sent you a message about.

I think I said this in the original episode, actually.

Why?

Why?

Why did they feel the need to say that the boss was the first astronaut?

Like, yeah, it's nothing.

And it's just this weird moment and it's like, like what?

What's that about?

I don't really get.

It it's because she's because she's badass.

That's what that is.

If you're the first person in space, you're badass.

Not Buzz Aldrin is the boss.

And, and I thought they were going down some lines with the like radioactive stuff, but they just do nothing with it.

They just say, oh, by the way, I was the first astronaut and I viewed space from outside.

And then I came back and I'm not going to give you any more details about that secret mission.

Obviously it was off the record because no one knows about it.

But there you go.

That's me.

It's just like a huge secret for someone to have.

And why wouldn't he know that?

Like, why wouldn't Jack Naked Snake know that?

Anyway?

It's just such an odd thing to throw up, throw in there in there, her final monologue before she dies.

Oh, by the way.

Just just so you know, space.

I've always felt this and I don't know what you think.

The fury always seems out of place in the Cobras.

Yeah, he's the most grounded one.

Like the least weird one.

But he just, he feels like he was added later on because it's like in that first cutscene when you see the Cobras, he is there in the background if you glimpse hard enough, but he didn't say anything and no one really mentions him outside of his little section.

It's just really strange.

And when you when you find out about him and his back story, which actually I think is pretty cool, it's like it's really different from theirs.

And it's like, why would this person be teeming with these people?

It just, it feels like, Oh well, we need another boss.

We'll Chuck this one in.

He's also an astronaut.

He's not the first one though, no.

He's the Sapphire.

That's actually how they met the boss and the Fury.

They actually met in space them.

Floating around in space.

Yeah, they met on the precursor to the the International Space Station.

That's what that was.

My last point about the story, and then I'm sure you've got a couple of points that you might want to touch on, is despite the the astronaut thing, the boss's back story where she talks about being with the Cobras, fighting in World War 2, her history of the Sorrow, getting pregnant, having the the child taken away, and then which?

Turns out to be naked.

Snake.

Yeah, Yeah.

So all of this stuff feels ripe.

Yeah.

For a prequel if they were ever to do.

Yeah, I think we've talked about that before, like a prequel.

Plan.

Yeah, we did.

Yeah.

And you could have, this is me just going with my imagination.

I don't think they'll ever do this, by the way, which is fine.

But you could have Naked Snake has a character in it, but you don't play it.

You could see him from a third person perspective again.

Like like a John Marston in Red Dead Redemption 2, but with like a little.

Less involvement maybe, And I actually think a slightly younger boss would be a great protagonist.

So.

And because they never, they touch on it enough that it's intriguing, but they never really give you any of the details.

It's this sort of chapter that exists within the realm of Metal Gear Solid that we never hear fleshed out, and that's interesting.

So yeah, that those are my points on the story.

Other than that, I think it's quite a cohesive up and down narrative that works really.

Yeah, I mean, I think the story is the strongest parts of MGS 3.

However the gameplay is also maybe not right up there with it, but it's it's a close second.

But I think I agree with you, a prequel for the boss would be interesting, particularly more information about the Sorrow because you know, there's the you can find all this information out if you play with the the radio and talk to paramedic in the major quite often.

But it's like one of the little Easter eggs.

I love.

I loved it in the original.

You know, it's cool that it's there is when you've got your arm broken, you've been thrown off the bridge at the start of the game during a virtuous mission.

You've got to cure yourself.

You move the camera around.

You can actually see the corpse of the sorrow from when the boss took him out four years before, or whenever it was.

But yeah, I mean, it isn't the tightest story of all time, is it?

It's, But I don't think it's meant to be.

And they haven't really touched the story at all in this game.

It is just a gameplay overhaul and visuals, which is fine.

Yeah, it's just changing the engine, which, yeah, the story didn't need changing, and I'm glad they didn't.

Yeah, I agree.

And it's the fact that in this game you can still tackle any particular area in 17 different ways if you want to.

You know, it's the fact before you fight Ocelot for the first time, towards the beginning, you go past a little base, it's got a helicopter in there.

If you blow that helicopter up, that helicopter won't show up when you're up in the mountains.

Stuff like that.

I love it.

And taking out the end early.

So instead of having a massive sniper fight with him, you end up taking on an Ocelot unit.

And taking out Ocelot and causing a time paradox.

Yes, quiet.

There's just so many cool things.

Yeah, in in this game.

There are, and they're all still there in in the remake, which is cool.

This was, I mean, we'll talk about the remake elements in a bit more detail in a moment probably.

But this is a lovely, lovingly made remake, and for that I like it.

And I and I agree, each area is like this little self-contained playground full of, as I say, an ecosystem, but also full of these enemy kind of dynamic patrol routes and a number of ways that you can tackle them and a number of things that you can play within the environment.

This isn't the finest MGS gameplay.

It's surpassed by MGS 4 and 5, but it's still pretty good with this they've made.

It it brings it back up, doesn't it?

Like the game play in this game is very similar to MGS 5, you know, with adding things on the Crouch walk, etcetera, you know, that kind of thing.

Quality of life upgrades.

Yeah.

And one of the other things that I like is like when you're aiming, when you're on the ground, like Snake will roll onto his side now and you.

It's just that fluidity again, that wasn't in the original game.

So I like that stuff.

I think that stuff doesn't take anything away, and in fact only adds.

It's, it's the, it's the case of they didn't need to add stuff here because you, you look at, I think we've talked about it before.

When you look at the, the twin Snakes, which is the remake of MGS 1, which came out on the game cube.

That game was broken by the fact that you could, because it used the same engine as MGS 2.

The game was broken by the fact that you could then go into first person and take out whoever.

Yeah, I agree with that.

I, I, I love that game and I've got a real fondness for it.

But yeah, you can, yeah, you can exploit certain parts of it.

Not all of it, but yeah, certain parts of it.

You can exploit it for sure.

OK, so on to our ever present featured gameplay is king.

Is Metal Gear Solid 3D fun to play?

Yeah, of course it's it's the same game as as what came out in 2004.

And and there were certainly times when I was playing it, I was going back into areas or purposefully dying so I could do those bits again.

Like messing around with the I think the area is called Deleno Vodno with the the bridge with the the ropes and just messed about with that and cutting the ropes.

So stuff like that.

It's very replayable.

It's almost got an element of like Hitman to it where you can just try certain areas different ways.

So yeah, very fun to go back to and very fun to play.

And I'm assuming that you will probably agree.

I started playing this after you obviously, and I've, I've just finished it on Friday.

I think I finished it and I was deliberately playing like a bit of a cowboy, but not, not, not meaning I was going around killing everyone, but I was just messing around and I would swing from stealth to going around assassinating people and everything in between just to, to to push the game and see what I could do.

So I had quite a fun playthrough of it, really.

Yeah, it's fun to play, without a doubt.

It's it's it's the game that you remember, but with a new coat of paint.

How does this game compare to other remakes, recent remakes, or any other remakes?

Would you say is it more successful, Less successful?

What do you think?

Well, like you said, this game kind of went under the radar and I've not really talked, heard many people talk about it either since, whereas Silent Hill 2A load of people have talked about that and how good that remake is.

And yeah, I mean, the only other remakes I can think of on the top of my head, there aren't very many remakes these days.

It's more remasters, isn't it?

Obviously you've got Final Fantasy 7, you've got the remasters of The Last of Us, you've got, like you say, the Crash and the same trilogy, You've got the Spyro Reignited trilogy.

I don't think that you can call the recent Oblivion release a remake.

It's a remaster, so it's hard to say.

But I mean, it does everything right in my opinion as to what people would want from a remake, I think.

I think enough time had passed between the original and this that that lick of paint really made a nice difference because there were times when the original was showing its age a bit visually.

So it was it was the right time.

And you feel like this coat of paint will last another 20 years, which, yeah.

So they've done a good thing here.

So let's talk about the audio in every respect.

So the voice work, the music, the ambient sounds, all of it.

Let's lump it in here.

Yeah, I mean, they, they updated the, they got a lot of voice actors back I think, didn't they?

Well, it's it's all the same.

It's all the same audio from the original game.

Oh.

Is it?

I thought that they'd, yeah.

Have they just upscaled it then?

Yeah, they've just, they've just used probably higher quality.

OK, So it's exactly the same recording.

Yeah, I mean the it's the same as 2004 then just upgraded a little bit, I suppose in terms of the quality.

And you know, like I think anyone who's an MGS fan would agree that the voice of Snake is David Hayter.

It is in Keith.

Sutherland I can't express enough, and I know I have my moans in the MGS 5 episode.

I can't express enough how happy it made me feel in a game released in 2025 to have David Hayter's voice as Snake.

Yeah.

It's the only it's the only correct choice for for that voice and I I don't know if if Kajima had to fall out or something during MGS 5 or or.

Whatnot.

I don't think they did.

He just, he always wanted to replace him, didn't they?

Yeah, we wanted a movie started in the house.

What?

Kajima's like weird.

But no, the the voice acting still on point.

And the thing that I always find funny whenever I think I've like, I've known this for years and years and years, but the voice of the boss is the same voice for the news reader on Family Guy, the woman.

Yeah, I don't know why I find that funny, but yeah, I think the the voice acting is brilliant.

And you know, big fan of.

The Little Mermaid.

Oh, really?

Yeah, so, so the actress that played Eva, she went by a pseudonym for MGS 3, which was Suzetta Minet, which was the name of her dog, I think, which was Suzette Monet.

And it's the actress that played The Little Mermaid, I think in the in the cartoons, maybe I'm not big on The Little Mermaid, so I couldn't tell you much.

But yeah, so famous actress they got to play her.

OK, interesting.

But yeah, like the voice acting still quality and the music itself.

I'm kind of lifting again from what from George in the Super Bunny Hot video mentions, but he talks a lot in that.

I've not seen that video for a few years, but he talks a lot about how the music in that film, in that film, in that game is so perfectly designed because it's Harry Gregson Williams that designed the did the music design how it's.

MGS 2 onwards.

Yes.

How it's so perfectly designed in line with the environment and what's going on is you know, when you're in a section of caution after you've been spotted and you know that they're looking for you, you've got strings that are being plucked.

That would kind of the the the sound that the strings make kind of suggest mischief or something going on that shouldn't be.

And it's just the music in this game is superb.

It always has been.

And I'll always say that.

And I think MGS music in whole is always brilliant.

And then the I think.

It was one of the first games to really add a filmic quality to its music.

And then you've got the Foley of everything that's going on around you in the jungle in, you know, the.

Amazing.

Yeah, it is.

It is superb.

So the the sound design is still a a big tick.

Yeah, One thing I was thinking when I played it this time was how much silence there is.

Yeah.

And, and this this is a compliment by the way, I think especially in the setting that you're in, building that atmosphere, hearing the crickets and everything else in the jungle and just the occasional silence that you have it, it's really powerful.

And when those music cues kick in, they mean something.

So when you finally hear that famous MGS soundtrack, the main theme towards the end of the game, it means something and it's earned.

And I will never forget.

It's always stayed with me, like when when the theme comes in at the end, when when State goes into the Oval Office and sees President Johnson.

Like, I love that.

It's just such a nice moment.

And one thing that I think this remake does is it really punctuates those moments, like visually and with audio.

So the stuff with the boss in that field, it's more stunning than it's ever been.

Yeah.

And it's just they've refined that, they know what those powerful moments are and they've really honed in on them and it's lovely.

What was your favourite camo?

I to be fair when whenever I've played it I always go with the camo that's best suited for the the area.

But if it was one way it didn't really matter.

I'd always go for the like the green scrubs, like the just the normal green camo, you know with the splitter face paint.

Yeah, yeah, sorry.

I go for the splitter body and the splitter face paint where I know that there's a cool cutscene coming up because he looks like something from Predator and it's just cool.

Yeah, I mean, because I because I pre-ordered it, I mean, I completed this back in December, so I've not played it for a while, but I got some of the pre-order yeah, I mean perks.

So like I've got like the gold, the gold camo and something else.

I can't remember what it is.

And then there's the tuxedo and stuff as well.

The white tuxedo, Yeah.

So yeah.

Homage to.

Bond, obviously, and that's actually a homage to your wedding suit, I believe.

Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, it is.

So it was obviously a nod to Bond in Goldfinger, and there's a lot of love for Bond in particularly MGS 3.

But there's also that famous thing that when, when in MGS 2, so when Big Boss takes his his, his mask off, he's supposed to look exactly like Sean Connery.

That was what he was written to look.

Like, oh, solid a snake.

Obviously, yeah, yeah, obviously an older, an older Sean Connery.

Yeah, OK, Yeah.

So there is, there's lots more camo in there.

There is the blobby camo.

There is the blobby camo which?

Which is a nod to our podcast of.

Course that is correct.

Thank you.

Yeah, Kojima World Order.

So OK, if you know, I've got a couple of questions on the Question of the week.

This is an interesting one.

Can a remake totally replace the original?

Can it make the original sort of null and void?

And it becomes the only option.

Yes and no.

I think that for for people like you and me who love the original and we're in our our mid 30s, then no you can't.

However, if you were suggesting someone that wanted to get into the like, like I've said a few times, listener of the podcast and friend of mine James, who I introduced to the MGS games in around 20/15/2016 when when when we lived together.

He'd never played any of them before and he struggled because they were quite aged.

They were a bit dated by that point, particularly MGS 1.

If today he was like, oh I want to play one of the MGS games, which one should I go for?

I said, well, if we are not going in canonical order, start with MGS Delta because it will be the easiest for you to pick up and play in line with what gamers are used to in terms of control schemes, in terms of what they expect from games these days.

So for newcomers to this series and newcomers to this game, then I'd say play the new one because you're not losing anything by playing it.

It isn't different.

The story's the same.

Whereas Final Fantasy 7 Remake I'd say play the original because the story deviates.

Different cases, isn't it?

Yeah.

And same same with the Crash Bandicoot games, I'd say play the new one because I mean it's slightly harder than the originals but you're not losing anything really other than nostalgic charm which these people won't have because they weren't playing these games in the 90s when they were bought out.

Yeah, yeah.

Would you go back and play the original now though?

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

I mean a pain actually.

No, it wouldn't be a pain in the ass because that'd be a pain in the arse because I'd have to sort my PS3 out, but I wouldn't.

I'd just get the the newest HD remake or whatever.

So yeah, 100% like I'd probably play the original over this one.

Not because I didn't like it, but just that's, that's my jam.

You know, I'm used to that one and I like it more.

Things don't have to be new and shiny to enjoy them.

I wanted, I want to dig more deeply into the remake because there's a lot of stuff in there.

There's a lot of additions, there's a lot of stuff to unlock that I haven't done yet.

So it's kind of awakened.

And don't get me wrong, I probably won't replay it straight away like I did with MGS 3 when we did that for the podcast, but I do want to jump back in.

And there, there was that urge because the secret theatre, yeah, we talked about this before we recorded, like you said.

Oh, I wonder if that's in there.

And I said, surely not.

Surely they won't.

But they have.

Yeah, they've redone the secret theatre.

So all those ridiculous cut scenes that we talked about in the original episode that are really funny.

Yeah.

Well, when we were sending it to each other back then, we were like crying, weren't we?

Because we were laughing so much.

Yeah, yeah, but they've done them in the in the new graphics, like they're there and you can get them.

You've just got to unlock them.

And there's there's so much other stuff as well.

There's there's there's like the invisibility, stealth suit, infinite ammo, bandana, all that stuff is in there for MGS stalwart.

So yeah.

OK, let's, let's let's go to our wrap up and we can we can dive a little bit deeper on this.

So is at 577 is Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Heater with a score of 85.

Is it one of the best games ever?

I can't say.

Is it in the top 100 because it's not technically this is a bonus game for the new year.

This was our New Year's episode, our New Year's celebration bonanza.

We hope it's done that for you.

Certainly done it for us, I say with a bit of sarcasm.

But there we go.

I I don't think that it does it.

I mean, I can't remember where MGS 3 is.

I know that it's quite high up, but this doesn't replace MGS 3 on the list for me.

I kind of see it as a supplement, like if you liked this, then give this a go or if you want to play that game, but you're a little bit worried about that again from 20 years ago or 22 years ago.

It feels a bit archaic.

Do this one.

You're not.

There's not much difference, and you can't have them sharing the same spot on the top 100 list.

So I kind of put them together, but I would say that #3 outranks Delta.

But maybe that's just from a point of nostalgia because I like the original.

So would I say that 500 and something is the correct place for it?

I don't think so.

I'd say that it probably should be a bit higher than 500 and something, but this isn't.

This doesn't even feel like it's a real release, it just kind of feels like it.

Yeah, partly because of that muted release as well, wasn't it?

Yeah, I think so.

So it's not in the correct place in my opinion.

But at the same time maybe it is because this is just a just a re release of a game from 22 years ago, but it's put some makeup on really.

What do you reckon I was?

It took me a bit of time to get into it, as I say it really clicked sort of up in the mountains and I was messing around for quite a while with the end as well.

Brilliant boss.

Bastard, I appreciate that thought.

In this version I do the original.

Yeah.

Again, it just feels really alive, that environment where you fight him.

Yeah.

So yeah.

Whereas in the original, I feel like it becomes a bit like I've done this before, like becomes a bit rote.

So again, it, it breathed life into it.

So once it did click and I sort of realised what they were doing, which actually was quite simple what they were doing.

But once it just started to vibe with me, I really thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is, I know it's a remake of one of my favourite games, but this to me is A10 game like this is really, it doesn't get much better than this for me personally.

And I think the stuff that they've brought to the table have been positive additions.

And as I say, for me, it breathed new life into certain elements.

It made those environments feel more alive than they have ever felt it.

As I say, it allowed me to breathe in that story like I hadn't done in probably quite a long time and appreciate it.

And because of that, I had a bit of a moment with it.

And I'm not saying that I'm going to have that moment again every time I play it.

I'm not because, but it's the same moment that I had probably when I played the original, maybe not quite as good as that original moment, but it's up there.

And for me that makes it pretty special because those moments for me in games are few and far between now.

It doesn't happen very often.

I agree like the I will say I had like the biggest grin on my face booting the game up for the first time and seeing Snake do the Halo jump part of the the aircraft in the opening courtesy and I was like like madness is so cool.

Although my nitpicky brain did did immediately think he's just throwing his cigar on the floor.

The doors opened and then it's taken about 15 seconds for the extreme amount of wind that will be going in there to make the cigar move.

And then he stands on it and I was like, I hate being an adult.

Why have I noticed that?

Well, that again is like that.

So the phrase I was thinking of earlier uncanny valley, where things look so realistic that the smallest thing that doesn't stands out like a sore thumb.

And and there is a bit of that in this game.

It's like when you're when you're outside Granin's factory, the dogs, the way that the light shines on them, they look a bit shiny.

And I thought, oh, that doesn't look great.

Yeah, like, it it those things stand out more because everything else looks so good.

But yeah, so I, I had a moment with this.

I can understand why Konami went to this one first because I'm I'm trying to avoid saying Kojima because I think actually it dismisses all the work from everyone else.

He left 11.

This game exactly, and it wasn't a one man production.

Yes, he's got his fingerprints all over it, but there are so many other Eurges.

And Carl?

Yeah, exactly that that you see in almost every MGS game credit sequence.

But he gets overshadowed.

Input into this game.

It's not just a Kajima game, it's it's an MGS game by Foxhound Studios.

And so I think it's their finest hour, not his their finest hour.

And I hope I'm not against seeing another MGS game.

I think it's been long enough.

I I don't think it disturbs that original lot of MGS games.

No, it will be a new cycle.

Yeah, and This is why focusing on a different character could work, stepping away from that Solid Snake story or that Naked Snake story.

And I hope it's given them the confidence to do that, because they did deliver on this one.

Like they delivered more than anyone really thought they would.

They did exactly what they set out to do, and they achieved it.

So I think it's the finest hour and I can see why they picked this one.

I think I'd be interested to see if they would do MGS 2 after this, because MGS 1 obviously had the Twin Snakes remake.

MGS 2 sort of been untouched since.

Yeah, subsistence or substance.

Sorry.

And I feel like it could do with a bit of an overhaul really.

And I'm still waiting for that remaster of MGS 4.

I was thinking about this structurally.

I feel like MGS 1 and MGS 2 are sister games like.

Yeah, and then MGS 3 plays like it's on his own, as does 4.

Ah, but I but I think MGS 4 and MGS 3 are sister games because I feel like I feel like MGS 2 plays on some of the things and your expectations from one.

Yeah, of course.

And I feel like MGS 4 does that with three.

There's a lot of anti war stuff here and there's a lot of things that are said in MGS 3 about the climate of war and how humans are destined to kind of go from one war to the other.

Yeah, something.

Like MGS 4 is the realisation of that.

Friends can become enemies as fast as the wind changes or whatever, which, to be fair, time of recording in late January 2026 feels very prominent.

Yeah, and and I feel like MGS 4 took that idea and created a game where we had these proxy wars.

It was the natural conclusion of MGS 3.

So I see them as one and two assists to games, 3 or 4 assists to games and five, just as the yeah, a very strange thing.

And do do go and listen to that episode because we do have some thoughts on it.

Obviously gameplay wise.

Great if you if you want a cutscene where Snake is in the back of a Jeep with Skullface.

That's the that's a great.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't think this is the best MGS in terms of gameplay.

I think that goes to four or five.

I'd say five.

Reason.

I think I'm torn, and I'll tell you why.

Because Four has the curated little playground environments that, yeah, all the other games had.

And you've got that skill set within them and they're slightly larger, whereas 5 goes full open world.

And because of that, I sometimes think it loses a bit of direction.

So I feel like 4 is a more curated, directed version of that gameplay, whereas 5 is let's take all the barriers away and see what the player does, which in a way is liberating.

But at times I like that more curated approach.

And replaying this reminded me of that.

OK, that.

So for me, I think it does deserve to be up there.

And I'm not saying that it replaces that original game in terms of the effect that that had on me, but what it did do was remind me of the feeling that I have playing the original game and the love that I have for that game.

And as I say, moments are few and far between these days.

So I'll take that.

And I kind of appreciate that.

And I don't know if it replaces it, but I will say that I'll probably go back to this one sooner than the original.

Yes.

And that's a win in my eyes.

Yeah, of course it is.

That makes.

Sense.

So yeah, I'll I'll leave my thoughts there.

I think.

Yeah, set at the table.

Yep.

So what do we have coming up next for the avid listener?

We have a slightly shorter game next time, which some of you may be glad to hear won't take us as long.

I imagine a couple of weeks.

We're playing a game relatively recent game came out a year or two ago on every system called Bolottro, which I kind of stumbled upon when I got my gaming PC.

So I had three months free of Xbox Game Pass PC version.

And I kind of heard people talk about it like on the gym, Inquisition and a few other places.

So I tried it out and I became hooked instantly.

And funnily enough, I found another game that's very similar to it called Clover Pit, which I've been playing on Steam.

Very, very addicting.

And yeah, is good.

I think you'll be an interesting episode.

Have you started it at all?

No, so I've downloaded it on my Switch to I'm away this week for work as I am for the next month.

Really not not completely away all the time, but I'm away for at least two nights per week.

So yes, I will give that a good run around there.

So we're going to do 2 shorter games and one bigger game in the background and hopefully get those out to you within the next.

Sort of, yeah.

That was a long.

Month.

A couple of months, yeah, yeah, whatever it is, yeah.

So yeah, that'll be next time.

Bilotro should be an interesting episode.

As always, if you like this episode, you know, we always appreciate a a comment, a like or a share the the usual calls to action.

And yeah, if you want to get in touch with this with a long shortofitpodcast@hotmail.com or we are on Instagram.

But yeah, that's pretty much everything from me today.

Is there anything?

And a final question from me, we said a few times in the lead up to this this episode about that original episode and, and not having done it justice.

What's your thoughts today?

And I've got my own thoughts, but yeah.

I feel that we've done the MGS 3 universe justice this time because we just weren't barrelling off out of the story.

I feel that we've been a bit more balanced, which I'm glad about.

Yeah, I feel like this is a nice companion piece for that original episode.

And if you take them both, we probably covered most of it.

Probably not for some people, but yeah, for us at least.

So yeah, I thought we did all right.

No, I agree.

So yeah, on on to the next one.

Hopefully it will be also a very good episode.

Gives a round of applause.

Yes, please.

Please clap.

As Jeb Bush once famously said, yes.

But yeah, we will see you in probably a couple of weeks for Blot Trope, but in the meantime, take care, Cheerio.

See you on the next one.