- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I voted for MGS3, mainly because I have fond memories of MGS2. But I think both games are like apples and oranges - they're fruit, but other than that, are different.
The MGS series, let's face it, isn't the most realistic thing in the world. Solid Snake doesn't act like a real soldier would, and how many times have you seen world crises involving giant nuclear armed robots? The story of the MGS series has just got plain weird, too. It is very convoluted and full of just bizarre twists. I enjoyed the story of MGS2, but I had to play through it another time before it made any sense.
Splinter Cell, on the other hand, draws its inspiration from more realistic sources (terrorism, etc) and is more real in terms of mission objectives and weaponry. The SC games' stories are often told in a manner similar to that of a Tom Clancy spy thriller (which, given the fact SC was created by Tom Clancy, is not surprising) and the game is generally more down to earth than the "La-li-lu-le-lo" fantasy story of MGS.
I would say the character in MGS, at least in part, is Big Boss. The character is missing an eye in one of the videos, and in the English language trailer, is shown with an eyepatch. Also, the E3 2003 handout had "BIG BOSS" spelt out in it if you looked. However, there are inconsistencies with the 1960's setting shown before. One of the trailers shows 'Snake' fighting a group of soldiers flying on hover platforms. That doesn't seem like 60's tech to me...
Also, the trailers say things like 'ReLive Memories' and 'ReLive the past to survive the future', which leads me to suspect that the game might have part set in the 1960's, and then catch up to where MGS2 left off. Hideo Kojima has made a lot of statements that MGS3 is the end to the series, and not resolving loose ends from the future (MGS2) would just be stupid.
I would bet there will be another character switch, but only from Big Boss to Solid Snake, and given that they both have the codename 'Snake' it wouldn't be in violation of past statements that you won't switch characters away from a character called Snake in MGS3. Switching from past Snake (Big Boss) to the future Solid Snake looks quite feasible, in my books.
That said, there's no way of knowing what will happen. The trailers for the last MGS game were altered so that they hid the Raiden character switch, so who knows what will happen?
We'll find out when the game is released on Nov 15th, and given that we'll all be playing Halo 2 for quite a while after Nov 9th, probably later.
[Edited on 8/25/2004 9:31:01 AM]