Finally able to play MGS Peacewalker!

[duffmanth]

So I bought MGS Peacewalker when it first came out for PSP last year, but got to a point where I couldn't play it anymore because my thumb got so sore from using that shitty analog stick on the PSP. Also controlling Snake became so frustrating with only one stick to move him. Finally thanks to the MGS HD Collection, I'm nearing the end of Peacewalker, thanks to being able to use dual thumbsticks!

I hope Sony releases some great games from the PSP in HD form like the two Syphon Filter games, so that people can play them how they were meant to be played with dual analog sticks!?

[substantial_snake]

It was a great "bonus" to the HD collection and I'm glad more fans of the series will get a chance to play it now. It was definitely one of those games that fell into the "looks great, too bad its on a portable" category for a lot of people. The PSN enabled online is the biggest change outside of the new control schemes and definitely something that I'm looking forward to.

PeaceWalker is one of my favorites overall of the entire series. I really liked how to story was relatively uncomplicated for a MGS game while still being interesting, also over the games I've personally grown more fond of Big Boss overtime then Solid Snake as a character. The LONG expositions on world politics and philosophy the series is know for were basically cordoned off from getting in the way of the main game while still being accessible if you wanted to get into it using the walkman/cassette tape system.

The expansion of the army building system used in Portable Ops was also pretty fun again allowing you to either get into the system of hunting down possible recruits to research items and upgrades or largely not depending on your personal preferences of how you wanted to play the game. The small visual nod to the growing force you were building with the aerial view of MSF was a really nice touch and I got a huge kick outta watching my army grow and expand.

Especially now in the HD collection the controls are some of the best of the series while forcing you to think differently about how to plan your next more. Although it took getting used to I eventually enjoyed the fact that going into your weapon or item menus didn't just pause the action like in previous games, it forced me to think twice before acting on pretty much every encounter I faced. I know a lot of people griped about the removal of crawling and I really don't know why they chose to do it, however the maps really aren't designed for it anyway so its something that I didn't end up missing.

I think I've sunk at least 70 hours into the game and still haven't maxed everything, beaten every boss, or gotten every item yet. Peace Walker is MGS5 in everything but title and it really feels like a true main entry to the series. I am only disappointed that Portable Ops wasn't also featured in this release because it also was a pretty slick canonical MGS game that again a lot of people didn't play because of its PSP release.