I had a few alerts (purely from the beginning getting the gear and such... I'm crap at that point. XD)

Guess I'll have to retry, the bosses were pants though on the boss extreme... It's the fodder that are a thorn in my side. Funny how easy that Liquid fell to me, no trouble at all... Shockingly.

Absolutely brilliant game. Best game out at the moment. The story is intense. The graphics are amazing.

The gameplay doesn't really add anything new but I think by now that people aren't playing MGS solely for the gameplay. You must be playing for the story. The ending sequence is beautiful and really ties up the series for me. It explains pretty much everything. Brilliant game.

Got it today... and I must say, AWESOME!!!!!!!11111111

I'm currently about 2 hours into the game on Big Boss Hard. Its gameplay and storyline are both great. I think the combat is the most integrated and fluid yet. Octocamo just makes the stealth more believable, and means that you don't have to go into your inventory to change camo, unlike in Snake Eater. As for the range of weapons... mindblowing. It's a tough cookie on hard, but that cookie is crunchy and delicious once you bite into it.

It's quite different to MGS3 in terms of gameplay. You can no longer just run through each area with ease, unlike MGS3; you take much more damage. And it's different to MGS1 and 2, since the guards can see further than 10m.

I remember in MGS1 when you shot a guard, then hide in a box; the guard would still say - 'Just a box'.....

Not to forget that oil drums are cooler than cardboard boxes. You actually have alot of opportunities to use them.
I agree. I've been killed many times until I got the hang of the stealth system, and even then, it's hard if you get caught. Big improvement in terms of difficulty, I think.

Also, how does the in-game music contraption work?

I presume you mean the iPod? If not just ignore me.

Well, select the iPod and while highlighted in the items menu, press down on the right analog stick about 4 or 5 times and you should be taken to track one of your current collection of music. Once you get the hang of it a bit you can try shuffles, repeats, specific artist's music etc...

Hope that helps.

Thanks, I got it.

Also, the range of weapons is amazing. Not sure what the difference between a XM8 and a M-17 is though, apart from their appearance. Both futuristic battle rifles.

Unfortunately there aren't many differences in a lot of the games weapons. It was nice at first to see such a great variety, but over time you'll come to use only a select few. Me I just basically use the Patriot, .50 cal, and tranq gun.

I don't have the patriot but I tend to use a variety of weapons, when not fussed over being heard/seen I'll use stuff like the Mk.23, the machine gun with 200 round capacity (i forget the name) the shotgun with 8 round capacity, the SVD and the M82A2.

When I don't want to be caught I use all the stun and tranq guns or alternatively I use the silenced weapons.

The silenced M14 is perfect. That, and I can get a headshot most of the time. I'm gurrd. No auto-aim or anything.