Funny enough, the tanker mission with Snake in MGS2 was originally intended to simply be the entirety of MGS2 and the game proper featuring Raiden in the Big Shell was intended to be MGS3. However, when the section in the tanker with Snake turned out to be so short it was then placed at the begining of Raiden's game as a prologue instead.

1-2 hour gameplay, that's stressing it, is what the tanker mission turned into? I don't know how the team could think that that mission was a whole game originally. Are you sure about that? I'd imagine they had other stuff but still came up short. Goddamn. That was a cool mission.

I always look back in my life and try to figure out when everything started to be a dream, and that a sign was present that made things so ridiculous that I should have become self aware that my life is not really happening.

Raiden might be one of those signs.

I found out about it either in the interactive PS2 disc, Document of Metal Gear Solid 2, or the documentary discs that were pre-order bonuses with MGS3 and MGS4 respectively. In one of those three releases they acknowledged that the Tanker Mission was intended to be MGS2 sans the Big Shell Incident. It always struck me as a huge lack of imagination that they couldn't figure how to make a whole stealth game revolving around a huge tanker that would climax with an at sea battle against Metal Gear RAY. But there you have it.

.... I think I have that DVD.

I totally would have dug a whole game in that tanker. Wonderful setting for a game. Alas it wasn't the whole thing.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the MGS2 prologue:

Not sure if it was because of the negative feedback about the length of the game, but the price dropped for the disc version. Now it's $30 for all platforms.

Still too high.

Agreed. For two hours I'd pay $20.00 to have the physical disc but not more than that.

3 days...my body is ready

This is an obvious rental.

Not even that. If anything, watch the cutscenes and scant gameplay on YouTube.

I might Redbox this but I don't have a ton of time for games so I'd hate to end up paying $20 in rental fees.

38/40 from Famitsu

http://gamingbolt.com/metal-gear-sol...-a-superb-3840

I ended up reserving this at my local Gamestop today. I figure $30 is worth a gamble.

I read that Metal Gear 5 is expected to release in the early part of 2015.

I think I will just wait until the real game comes out. I'm sure this will be super cheap by then.

Now that the rumors of it being 2 hours have been squashed, what is the actual length of the game?

Core game seems like it can be done in 2 hours. But the 4 side missions and the console exclusive mission, for either system, extends it to maybe 4 or more hours. This all depends on how you play Big Boss.

I'm pretty much certain that we'll get some awesome package of GZ and PP. And my inner MGS whore wants to hold out for that possibility but I'm a whore for MGS. I want to play this ASAP.

Eh. I think I'll just go ahead and buy it. $30 for a game half as long as a $60 game doesn't seem like too big a rip-off. Also, I'm really itching to play something more "next-gen" on my PS4 until Infamous comes out.

Report back ASAP when you've played it out. I'd love to hear a player's thoughts on this one.

Still no reviews? I guess it could be bad.

I'm guessing 7.8 or so.

The usual suspects all have reviews up.

5.5 from Polygon, 3.5/5 stars from Joystiq, Yes from Kotaku, 5/10 from EGM, 8/10 from Gamespot as well as IGN. So it ranges from fair to good.

So an average game of rather short length equals a pass for.

EGM shows they don't know shit as usual.

If you have the time to rent it and beat it in a week, it's still $20. I say $30 isn't bad at all.