Michael Gissi

Critical Analysis of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

April 9, 2017 by Michael Gissi Leave a Comment

The Metal Gear franchise is a series of games created by developer Hideo Kojima and is renowned for having one of the most in-depth storylines in all of the videogames. The series contains 10 main releases spanning nearly 20 years and countless spin-offs in-between with the most recent major release being Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Unfortunately, MGS5: TPP is the last Metal Gear game developed by Hideo Kojima following his departure from Konami, the longtime publisher of the series. His decision to leave the publisher was largely due to a restructuring of the company and a power struggle that ensued, making MGS5: TPP the last “true” Metal Gear game.

Metal Gear games are typically action-adventure with a focus on stealth and espionage. The storyline revolves around the existence of several “Metal Gear,” or bipedal tanks that world governments, military contractors, and terrorists constantly seek control or the destruction of. Metal Gear are considered superweapons and are highly desirable for those seeking global dominance. Many of the games are played by Solid Snake, one of the several genetic clones of the legendary soldier known as Big Boss. Major Spoiler (skip if desired): However, MGS5: TPP is played by Punished “Venom” Snake, a former lieutenant of Big Boss that was unknowingly turned into his body double using hypnosis and plastic surgery. Punished “Venom” Snake assumed Big Boss’s identity, thereby becoming his ‘phantom’ which is where The Phantom Pain gets its name.

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Compare and Contrast: Morrowind and Skyrim

March 3, 2017 by Michael Gissi 2 Comments

For more than two decades, Bethesda has been producing phenomenal role playing games within the constantly evolving Elder Scrolls universe. These action/adventure open world games take place in the high-fantasy world of Nirn that contains themes surrounding medieval rule, Celtic mythology, elves, and wizardry. In addition to this, Elder Scrolls also incorporates obscure elements such as fantasy cultures (eg. Khajiit, a race of tiger-like creatures) and horror themes (eg. vampires and demons).

In the world of Nirn, all of the Elder Scrolls games take place on the continent and empire known as Tamriel. Containing 9 different provinces, within Tamriel exists the provinces of Morrowind (Elder Scrolls 3) and Skyrim (Elder Scrolls 5) where the respective games take place at different points in time. Although these games are built upon the same fantasy world, there several differences that set the games apart aside from graphical differences. Bethesda had made numerous major changes in the 10 years between the initial releases of Morrowind and Skyrim.

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“Tech Support” – Initial Pitch

February 25, 2017 by amj5584, Jesse Wengel, Matthew Carson Moll and Michael Gissi 1 Comment

“Tech Support” (tentative/working title)

The player must navigate the world of his computer in order to destroy the malware that has taken hold of his beloved gaming rig. The game world itself will be a caricatured vision of various computer hardware components. The narrative is as follows:

“Our hero downloads a game torrent, only to find out the file was a trojan horse! His roommate, who is the Will Hunting of Computer Science, rigs together a system that will allow our hero to upload his consciousness into the computer in order to do battle with the malware without having to reformat and lose all of his files for class or his precious dank memes.” [Read more…]