I'm pretty new to Giant Bomb and I'm loving it so far, but I was a bit surprised to hear that Jeff doesn't like this game and I haven't been able to find any background on why he doesn't think it's a good game.

It is just not his thing.

Because not every game is for everyone.

Sincerely,

8.8 Halo 2 Reviewer Jeff Gerstmann

I remember a long time ago they he said that he just hated the mechanics of it. The healing system and having to stop and worry about food and camo seems like the exact kind of annoying thing Jeff would hate.

I don't think he's ever liked the controls in the first three MGS games, and 3 doesn't really have super intuitive controls. The button sensitivity in 3 for the combat and enemy hold up options certainly don't help.

He also doesn't have much patience for stealth games. 1 and 2 had way more predictable guard patrols, but the open spaces of 3 made sneaking much harder. No SOLITON radar that shows vision cones adds an extra layer of challenge (or frustration on Jeff's part). The default camera doesn't do the game any favors either.

He also isn't a fan of the camo system. I think he got too OC when it came to the camo index so he always ended up going back and forth through the menus just to have the right camo on. Having to manage stamina is another minus.

Because Jeff is smart.

Seriously though,I would assume it has a lot to do with the amount of micro-management and whatnot that arguably make it much more tedious that any other numbered game in the series.

Because it's a terrible game?

The answer to every one of these "why does Jeff hate X" threads is because he's Jeff. (The list starts about a quarter of the way down the page.)

The Metal Gear series is very high on the list of divisive video game list. It tends to lead people toward extreme opinions.

Jeff also tends to enjoy or dislike games based on their control schemes. IIRC, the controls are the reason he didn't like Red Dead Redemption.

Having watched the first 3 MGS series playthroughs I don't understand why anyone likes any of those games in the first place, they seem terrible on every level gameplay and story wise; with the exception of graphical prowess for their time. /shrug

MGS3's first person shooting controls by today's standard would look like a person designed them to be bad on purpose.

Jeff doesn't like games that make him think he's not thinking enough about something that really should not be thought about all the much. He is sort of like Brad in that way, but less confrontational about it.

The most complicated thing that was ever in the Metal Gear Solid series in terms of gameplay was the requirement to stop and then push a button as opposed to moving and pushing a button.

Red Dead Redemption, Resident Evil 4 and MGS 3. Some of the best games ever made, but everyone has their own taste, so who are we to judge, lol.

Some people just have wrong opinions sometimes.

I think he liked mgs4 more because Kojima just caved in and gave the controls everyone wanted in that game.

Welcome to Giantbomb lasse_momme! You'll soon discover Jeff hates alot of good / great modern games and then makes Call of Duty his game of the year. lol. Its not blind hate though, he always has an honest reason and explanation for why. Even if i dont agree.

I love Jeff, but he's jaded as fuck with most modern video games and hung up on nostalgia for old games (see his old games show). But hes our great leader so he can do wtf he wants.

As for MGS3, i imagine the controls arent to his liking, or the camo / food system

This is a lot like asking, "Why doesn't Jeff like mushrooms? Mushrooms are amazing and I love them on everything, they are my favorite food! I've been unable to find any background on Jeff's history with mushrooms and why he doesn't think they are a good food."

He just doesn't like the game. Don't lose any sleep over it.

Jeff hates a lot of things and likes very few things.

Though Jeff isn't an overarching authority on video games so its not like it matters.

thanks for all the great answers, much appreciated! I don't have much of an opinion on the game myself as I haven't ever played it, so the thread certainly wasn't meant to be percieved as an "I like this, why doesn't Jeff like this?!" kind of thing, I have just heard a LOT of praise for that game compared to a game like MGS 2 or 4 which Jeff claims are the stalwarts of the series, so my curiosity was piqued, when I heard proclaim that he didn't like 1 and 3, which seem to be generally considered as the better games in the series.

Jeff hates a lot of good games and he's pretty hyperbolic when he does it. However, when "cornered" and he can actually intelligently explains why and then its easier to understand: that doesn't happen often.

For example, his Bloodborne talk was very hyperbolic.

Red Dead Redemption *cough*

Just a heads up .. Jeff dislikes A LOT of great games .

8.8 is WAY too high for Halo 2.

This guy gets it.

Jeff can be an incredible font of wisdom and sensibility, but he does tend towards hyperbole.

I think you're thinking of Twilight Princess.

I haven't played Halo 2 but this is just funny. How can you call anything Jeff says hyperbolic when an 8.8 is WAY too high for a 95 average game? And yeah, Jeff gave the PC version of Halo 2 a 7.

I think that jeff along with others were put off with mgs3 for not picking up straight after the madness of 2 add the menus you constantly have to use i can see why it gets the hate.

All of them are wrong of course did you see the shagohod sequence!?

it blew my 15 year old mind back in 05

It puzzles me why people think there are games that are untouchable. As if people cannot like them for any reason and they they are perfect until the end of time. As if getting a 8/10 or above makes them unimpeachable to taste forever!!!

Metal Gear games are not everyone's cup of tea...nor are Mario games or Half-Life or any other "mythical nonsense" series or title. This will become more and more apparent as the first genrtion and second generation of game players dies. In 2025 most gamers between 10 to 30 won't give a damn about what people from 1970 to 1999 liked. Just as you don't play with a sticks and a metal hoop, gamers won't be playing old games except as a novelty.

There was a time when the waltz as seen in 18th century period dramas a elegant dancing, was considered "riotous and indecent". Old video games will not age well, the very best will be considered quaint and silly. In our minds they are good, but only to some of us, and in teh future new gamers will have an ever degrading point of view on them.

Jeff just hates lots of games. It's what he does.

Jeff is really picky about videogame controls.

Follow Giant Bomb for a little longer and eventually youll understand jeff. By that I mean you'll understand not understanding him.

@monkeyking1969: Yeah, I never understood why people get upset when someone doesn't like something thats considered great by the majority. It's like when someone badmouths the Beatles. People go fucking apeshit.

MGS3 is the worst MGS, but still an OK game. The Beatles were bad. Thats fine.

I disagree with Jeff a lot but that's okay because you know, opinions!

He might not love it, but it's clearly like Nights and Yoshi and a bunch of other stuff where he plays up how much he dislikes it for comedy's sake quite a bit.

Sometimes its hard to tell when Jeff is playing towards a "character" on the Bombcast and live shows. That being said I will not go into complaining about review scores he's done and try to use that against him: everyone has an opinion and I'll not sit here and act like someone giving a game a 7/10 is the end of the world. What I will discuss are things he's brought up on the podcast and others things. For example, he frequents to trolling often. Granted, this is hilarious and typically I love it, but sometimes its clear that he...stretches the truth for comedic effect. For example, he may be a total badass Bloodborne, but he isn't just walking up and spamming R1 on everything. If he'd like me to believe so, sure...whatever. Like others have said, he frequently talks shit about largely loved games like Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption, and others but that's fine...because he's wrong.

I will say I tend to enjoy Jeff's trolling and subjective hate of things more than I do Brad's tendency to be factually wrong about something or Patrick's penchant to just say, "Oh that fucking sucks" but then get upset when someone says something contrary about some obscure game he enjoys. Whatever.

I like all the crew and wouldn't have them any other way. Even Dan.

I like Doctor Who but when someone says, "yeah, I didn't care much for it" I don't really even question it. In fact, I would say many people are super into Doctor Who now...because its a fad, but that's another discussion that's not even worth having because it will hurt some people's precious little feelings. That being said, many on the podcast are super jaded and do have polarizing opinions...but that's why Dan Ryckert is the hero we need...not the hero we deserve.

He hates the menu based stuff, and he doesn't like stuff set in the past nearly as much as more futuristic/cyberpunk stuff. Also, it isn't really that "crazy", which is his sole reason for enjoying MGS2 and MGS4.

The only truly bad thing is when people say everyone should hate something.

I can get that a "person" not likely something, but "those people" need to admit that some people like it. I hate Halo, but I will admit without grudge it was a super important game series. I think Bethesda games and their engines since Fallout have been UTTER SHIT...total garbage....but I can admit that people like Fallout, Fallout New Vegas, and Skyrim. These don't are clunky, glitchy, and poorly designed, nobody should like them; but I can admit some people do like them - so I mostly shut up about it. I think Myst was terrible...but I would never even try to sway people on that issue...it a puzzle game and some people like puzzles that are super convoluted and tough.

Expecting everyone to like something at least has a slice of joy about it. But when you have to tear everyone who likes something "not so great down" that's just dumb. The rabid "this isn't a game" crowed or people who want to trash everything just have sourness on their side.

Jeff doesn't like a lot of things and sometimes exaggerates his dislike for comedic effect. In MGS3's case, the stuff with camoflauge and wound management is the exact kind of futzing around with menus that he hates and also it isn't as balls-to-the-walls insane as MGS2 or 4.

Why does Dan hate anime for absolutely no reason?

Sometimes people just don't like things.

Granted, I think Jeff dislikes metal gear for at least a vew valid reasons.

I think the larger meta-point is that the site is built around an ongoing discussion largely because it's just them being them all the time and as such a lot is buried in podcasts or videos that would answer a question like this but good luck finding it. In that way asking the people who have been here the whole time absorbing everything is a smart tactic.

Basically this site and the things they've been putting out has a lot of history and it's weird to think how deep this goes when you stop to look back.

I believe he has specifically pointed out in the past that his dislike of MGS3 were the weird systems (camo/food/surgery) as well as the setting. He's mentioned a few times about how he really likes "futurey shit" and the more indoor, corridor environment of MGS2 because it has more of that "spy" feel then running around in a big green jungle in MGS3. Add to that the fact that he already wasn't a fan of the control scheme in pre-MGS4 game (seriously who would, they are insane) and you get a recipe for really disliking the game.

Personally, I was right there with him when I played 3 for the first time. Even to date I really dislike playing it yet thing story wise it's one of the more well put together games in the series. MGS4 however, is an absolute GD masterpiece and I wont hear otherwise.

Probably has a lot to do with dumb menu based micromanagement. Also I remember him complaining semi-recently that 3 made the whole series weirdly incestuous, because even more so than the last ones that's the game where you discover every character knows every other character throughout this weird history where everything's all super connected, and you have this whole cyclical story going on. I think he said it made the world feel smaller.

Its more surprising to me that there are any Metal Gear games that Jeff likes.

It seems to me a lot of the game is just a chore and feels unnecessary.

The stupid healing and camo system combined with the awful controls seems to be a perfect mix of things Jeff hates

Specifically speaking, knowing Jeff from video game websites over the past 18 years or whatever it's been now, Jeff only needs one reason to not like a game. Original release of MGS3 it had the awkward camera on top of the already crazy control scheme. Plus a lot of people don't like the menu management (which I've never understood because I barely noticed it at the time, but people complained about it with Fable also so people really seem to hate menus). He has mentioned multiple times he didn't like to manage the camo, stamina, and all that.

Jeff also doesn't like when games challenge him to do something again until he succeeds (which is weird because he likes old arcade games) so that's enough to make him just say "fuck this game" when he's not enjoying the mechanics.

He also really hates stealth games for some reason that I actually have never understood. Him and Dan like to rag on Splinter Cell because the first game (and only the first game that I recall) had missions where if you were seen at all you immediately fail. Maybe it's just a patience thing- some people don't have any. I say this because people have been complaining about the Bloodborne load times, and while they're bad I don't have a special HD or anything on my PS4 and I take the load times to relax because Souls type games are stressful as hell.

So, what it boils down to is "Different strokes for different folks."

The first release of MGS3(non subsistance) is possibly the biggest pain in the ass out of any MGS console releases. I love the game. It's possibly my favorite MGS game, but the amount of menus you have to go through in that game to do anything just fucking sucks.

From what I can tell Jeff doesn't give a fuck about stories in games; or at least he doesn't value them as a primary component in games, or as a feature that can make up for bad game play. I also remember him mentioning that he has a low tolerance for bullshit game design that should have been fixed a decade ago, like intentional annoyance or busywork (A good example is Majoras Mask or Yoshi's Island). So when you don't see value in the story of Metal Gear, you are left with a game series that controls like shit, is openly antagonistic to the player in every way possible and filled with useless busywork.

TLDR: MGS is like a shit sandwich; it doesn't matter how great the attention to detail is, if there is a giant turd in the center it's still a shit sandwich.

Because it's a bad game and not liking bad games seems normal.

Gotta love that AVGN humor. "You like it, but it's objectively bad because I don't like it." Great, keep up the good work.

Eh, who cares. Jeff's opinions, believe it or not, are not more or less objective than anyone elses.

Welcome to GB, by the by! Don't let staff thoughts get you down. No one likes everything.

oh I dunno MAYBE JEFF HATES BAD GAMES?? There I said it.

I like Jeff but disagree with his opinions on a whole bunch of stuff. Mass Effect 3, mostly.

It's fine, he can usually break his thoughts down pretty well. So I like hearing his critiques. Even when all he has is "it's shit, and he's a piece of shit!"

I can totally see someone hating MGS3 compared to the bizarre (and waaay stupider) masterpiece that is MGS4.

not enough left trigger right trigger. 4 has that though which is why it's his favorite