Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection was my 2022 Game of the Year. What I had appreciated so much about that game was that it wasn't just a collection of data that people had grown to love, it was a collection of the human beings who had done so much to pioneer the games industry. In an age of layoffs, where creativity is under siege, here was a collection that respected its own. I'd long considered Digital Eclipse as the best of the best when it came to this, further impressing me with their Gold Master Series, a Criterion Collection-esque way of covering games in interactive documentaries. It occurred to me that not many important games will ever get this treatment.
20 years before Atari 50, Metal Gear Solid 2 got that treatment. But what sets this apart from Digital Eclipse's efforts is that Metal Gear Solid 2 got that treatment only a year after its launch. Karateka had to wait forty years. The result of this is that The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2 captures a glimpse of the active creative process, still fresh on the minds of those who had worked on the game. You see that through the images and videos of the development team, and there's so much to see here. It surprised me at how much they had documented the creative process for this game, what quickly becomes evident is that the team saw this game as important, and that what they were doing here was significant. They were right.
Just as MGS2 had taught, the creatives and artists of MGS2 wanted to pass on as much of the three years of hard work that they could have. It feels so miraculous that we have this about a game so significant and so soon after release. With Atari 50, it was miraculous that we were still able to hear from developers half a century later, but as time passes so does memory and so do people. There is something wonderful about reading about the people who made this game, to hear what it had meant for the people involved. Many of the developers had children during development. One of them, Makoto Sonoyama said "The theme of MGS2 'passing on to the future generation' overlapped with my life."
In no other game will I see explanations on how the technical nitty-gritty of how the game works, not like this. To see cut and experimental content so soon after release, to see just about everything that MGS2 had to offer. The team was so EXCITED about MGS2. They had every reason to be.
20 years before Atari 50, Metal Gear Solid 2 got that treatment. But what sets this apart from Digital Eclipse's efforts is that Metal Gear Solid 2 got that treatment only a year after its launch. Karateka had to wait forty years. The result of this is that The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2 captures a glimpse of the active creative process, still fresh on the minds of those who had worked on the game. You see that through the images and videos of the development team, and there's so much to see here. It surprised me at how much they had documented the creative process for this game, what quickly becomes evident is that the team saw this game as important, and that what they were doing here was significant. They were right.
Just as MGS2 had taught, the creatives and artists of MGS2 wanted to pass on as much of the three years of hard work that they could have. It feels so miraculous that we have this about a game so significant and so soon after release. With Atari 50, it was miraculous that we were still able to hear from developers half a century later, but as time passes so does memory and so do people. There is something wonderful about reading about the people who made this game, to hear what it had meant for the people involved. Many of the developers had children during development. One of them, Makoto Sonoyama said "The theme of MGS2 'passing on to the future generation' overlapped with my life."
In no other game will I see explanations on how the technical nitty-gritty of how the game works, not like this. To see cut and experimental content so soon after release, to see just about everything that MGS2 had to offer. The team was so EXCITED about MGS2. They had every reason to be.
Better than celebrities saying "yeah he's cool bla bla"
Absolutely wish more games could get this kind of secondary release. Just a disc full of game development materials and behind-the-scenes footage. There's so many interesting things that got cut from MGS2 that you can read about in here.
More games need to do this.
makes a standalone bonus disc or executable to see the main game development documentation.
makes a standalone bonus disc or executable to see the main game development documentation.
this isn't even a game
Every game should have an equivalent of The Document of MGS2 - literally everything and everything you could ever want pertaining to MGS2 is here. Things you'd expect like an extensive model viewer, concept art, and music test but it goes much deeper than that like a cutscene viewer with noclip enabled, full technical breakdowns of the game systems, the complete english script(!), Kojima's original game plan in Japanese(!!), all of the trailers including internal use test footage dating back to 1999(!!!), extensive staff interviews(!!!!), and much more, all presented in a slick package. If you like MGS2 or even just diving behind the scenes of game development you need to spend an afternoon with this.
one day...
é uma instalação que compõe o museu inteiro: todas as coisas aqui são dedicadas à mesma obra, que por si só só poderia ser documentada de um jeito lúdico. você usa os mesmos botôes pra trocar de tela que usava para trocar de arma, escuta os mesmos sons, espera o mesmo segundo e meio antes de uma cena (ou, nesse caso, algum trailer ou vídeo promocional) carregar.
é difícil falar de mgs2 hoje em dia simplesmente porque parece que tudo já foi destrinchado e o jogo alcançou um status que dificulta muito o acesso à seu modo mais puro. além de jogar sem ter entrado na internet nos últimos 22 anos, essa aqui é a melhor forma de ver como todas essas opiniões se formaram. a sofisticação do menu, os relatórios (que, infelizmente, estão em japonês no disco [mas podem ser acessados em inglês na internet]), os créditos à equipe inteira (inclusive os músicos além do harry!) dentre entranhas de desenvolvimento: modelos de personagem não usados, modelos de lugar não usados, modelos arquitetônicos não usados. tudo meio de modelos de personagens usados, modelos de lugar usados, modelos arquitetônicos usados. música, movimentos, e até uma quantidade razoável de missões VR (que, é claro, só poderiam ser jogadas em um disco chamado "documento").
tem menos do que um menu de "extras" de dvd e significa muito mais. um filme esteta, uma revista multimídia, um companheiro mordaz: tudo o que o jogo original também é.
é difícil falar de mgs2 hoje em dia simplesmente porque parece que tudo já foi destrinchado e o jogo alcançou um status que dificulta muito o acesso à seu modo mais puro. além de jogar sem ter entrado na internet nos últimos 22 anos, essa aqui é a melhor forma de ver como todas essas opiniões se formaram. a sofisticação do menu, os relatórios (que, infelizmente, estão em japonês no disco [mas podem ser acessados em inglês na internet]), os créditos à equipe inteira (inclusive os músicos além do harry!) dentre entranhas de desenvolvimento: modelos de personagem não usados, modelos de lugar não usados, modelos arquitetônicos não usados. tudo meio de modelos de personagens usados, modelos de lugar usados, modelos arquitetônicos usados. música, movimentos, e até uma quantidade razoável de missões VR (que, é claro, só poderiam ser jogadas em um disco chamado "documento").
tem menos do que um menu de "extras" de dvd e significa muito mais. um filme esteta, uma revista multimídia, um companheiro mordaz: tudo o que o jogo original também é.
Very interesting.