IGN gave Metal Gear Solid 4, Guns of the Patriots, a perfect 10.

The only other game on either platform to earn a perfect 10, has been Grand Theft Auto 4, which also came out recently.

So that puts PS3 and 2 perfect 10 games, and the Xbox 360 at 1… With the 360 having the same perfect 10 game as the PS3, so the PS3 is truly 1 up. But if you go to the next tier down, scores of 9+, the story changes. Xbox has nearly 50% more 9+ games which results in??? A more quality gaming base maybe? Or is it just that 360 has so many games due to being launched nearly a year earlier, that they just have so many they have to have a few gems in there somewhere?

I think the latter is somewhat correct. But GTA4 and MGS4 are perfect 10s? Ya, I think so. I played GTA4 on the 360, and had a blast. Very good storyline, tons to do, and it keeps you interested whether you’re in it 24/7 or just a couple hours a week. The same goes for MGS4. I had to put it down for a few days, but when I picked it back up I was immediately immersed in the storyline which I’d forgotten back to MGS1… But they did an awesome job of reminding me of the key points I forgot, which was extremely helpful in getting caught back up… Especially since I pretty much skipped MGS3.

Now the question to me is… Now that I’ve seen some of the power of the PS3 tapped in MGS4, with character textures, eyes, and facial expressions that look absolutely a-fricken-mazing, combined with a very very solid in depth storyline, combined with deeply immersing gameplay… Is GTA4 really a perfect 10? Am I comparing apples and oranges? I think I am. They are two very different games, with two very different goals. But I think that MGS4 is made so well, that when put next to GTA4, people who’ve played both would seriously have to consider which to play. I think the only thing MGS4 really has over GTA4, is polish.

Is it the PS3? Or is it just attention to detail? I think it’s Blu-Ray. I don’t think the same level of graphical candy can be attained with the 360. Not because it’s a weaker machine… But because I’d be willing to wager the visual texture files in MGS4 probably take up two or three DVDs worth of information. There is so much data, you even have to wait 2-8 minutes between some acts for the new data to load to the hard drive. I like this. This prevents loading/lagging between scenes, cutscenes, and storylines. Very very smart Konami’s behalf.

Yes.  Metal Gear Solid is worthy of a perfect 10.

That’s pretty much all I’ve got to say.

So which do you want? The apple pie, or the orange creme smoothy?

Gratuitous Linkage

As on you can see on the left-handed side of my sidebar, two games have been knocked off my most anticipated games of 2008 list.  Not because they’re bad or anything, but because I’m no longer anticipating them.  Because I got em.  HAR!

More notable, though not detailled well on the site, is the fact that Metal Gear Solid 4 is the first PS3 game I’ve purchased.  Why is that notable?  Because I bought my PS3 on launch day, November 2006.  I was overseas at the time on a military mission, somewhere in/around the Dead Sea in Jordan.   My wife and her friend had to brave North-East DC to pick it up from Gamestop for me.  So many games were announced as launch or soon after launch titles that I wanted to be sure I was ready.

Not my only mistake.  I jumped on the HD-DVD bandwagon as well, and that didn’t work out so well.  Shortly after buying my $180 HD-DVD drive, Amazon had a sale, offloading them for $50-80 a pop.  Boo.  And all the PS3 games got delayed and delayed and delayed…  So here we are, four and a half months shy of 2 years later and FINALLY a game worthy enough to proove what Sony was telling us it had comes along.  Unfortunately the PS3 Online Network is still gimped.  Their online virtual world was supposed to come out last year to compete with Xbox Live, but didn’t.  Then it was this spring.  Then this fall.  And the latest report said “Maybe the online virtual world was too ambitious…?” from one of the Sony Execs.  There are tons of MMOs.  Surely Sony and it’s dollars and dollars of clout could make even a simple MMO to run off the PS3 in the form of an online PS3 community.

False promises?  Don’t know.  But Sony is in bad shape, still losing money for every console sold from what I hear.  What does that mean for us gamer-types?  Well, the safe bet is the 360.  Blu-ray won the battle versus HD-DVD, but that surely does not mean something else won’t come along in a year or so to whoop up on the new ‘winning’ format.  Looks what happened to Laser Disc and Mini Disc?  Each had no direct competition, were way better than anything else offered at the time, and ended up dying as un-adopted formats because convincing people to change and upgrade their hardware has to be siginificant enough to make them spend their dollars on it.  But if left unchallenged, Blu-Ray will take the route of CD’s and DVD’s, where over time the customer base grows and grows and grows until it’s the norm.  But if a new “Ipod” comes out, that is a device that does something that lots of other devices already do, but now people think it’s “trendy”, then Blu-Ray could easily be crushed in my humble opinion.

And the gratuitous link:  here

30 days.

That’s how long it’s been since Baby #2 was born, how long I’ve been on leave from the Navy, and how long my chin has been growing hair. I don’t think that I’ve ever been able to go a full 4 weeks without shaving before. I tried to think back to the last time I was able to take 30 days of leave in a row, and I don’t think I ever have except when transferring between duty stations.

My last duty station was great when it came to time off, so I never had to really take leave there until the end of my tour when I had saved too much, so that if I didn’t use it I would lose it into the black hole of excess. During Xmas, our boss would make sure we would get a week off, leave free. To circumvent the system we would have to ‘call in’ to check in every few days, which counts as showing up via ‘telecommuting’. It was really nice working for “government civilians”. But the only detractor is that it was in Washington DC. I think I rant about DC every so often, so I’ll refrain from it this time. But at my last command, if you needed to do something… Run an errand, couple days off, whatever… The boss was very very flexible so long as you paid your time back… So one day off equals working a day on the weekend or working two shifter or night shift… Not a bad deal when you really want/need a day. The regular military does that too, but they aren’t nearly as flexible depending on the current situation and mission.

Anyhow. The baby girl was 10lbs 10oz at her last checkup which was at 2.5 weeks. She is probably over 11lbs now. I think she’s going to be bigger than her big brother. Maybe I’m wrong, but the misses and I think she’s over 24″ already too. It was really nice being able to stay home and help with the kids a bit. Little Will and I got tons of time to bond and mom is a little jealous because he now runs to me when he wants something instead of her. But that is also a pseudo blessing for time because she was focusing on Baby Nara. The last couple days she’s been doing a little more with Will so that she and him will be able to get back on a schedule while I go back to work.

Work. Back to it. I have to admit I do miss it a bit. Having your hands tied taking care of babies all day is indeed hard work. I felt obligated to sit and watch a lot… While she is able to multi-task allowing them to run around a bit while she does what she needs to do. I think she’ll be fine. I was fine as well, but it was new to me and obviously a bit of a challenge. It was a good time regardless. Once B had recovered from her C-section and was able to handle Baby Will a bit, then I was able to do some catching up on projects. Cleaning my war zone of an office, having a giant yard sale, cleaning, waxing, and pampering the cars a bit, cleaning the outside of the house (covered in algae from the roof cleaning), bought a trailer, recycled about 50 lbs of cardboard, and a couple of home improvement upgrades.

30 days well spent methinks.

Today’s gratuitous linky.

For those of you whom don’t know… Midway has partnered with DC Comics to bring DC Characters into the next Mortal Kombat game. I think I have to buy it based on name alone.

I mean, come on… It’s MK! And DC! WooT! I remember my very first MK 1 tournament at the TILT! arcade behind Lakewood Mall (which is no longer there anymore, last I saw it was replaced by a SuperMex). In fact, I still have the shirt from it… Has to be about 15 years old now.

As for the other stuff… We’re in week three. Week three of my leave from the Navy (one week left) and week three of little Nara’s stay on this here blue planet. Everything has been going pretty well, though I’m a bit more tied up then I’m used to being. By that I mean there are a bunch of projects I’ve been waiting for some time off to get to… And now that I have some time off I have to be the all day every day baby sitter for my oldest. Not that I mind… I just hate to see those projects get put off longer. Such as I bought a shed that needs to be put together. The lawn needs an overhaul. The roof needs painting (already have the paint). The algae I water blasted off the roof is still stuck to the side of the house and driveway. Both cars need some TLC; wash, claybar, wax… I got new handlebars for my ATV, they just need to be installed. I need to fix a friends laptop. I need to build a computer for another friend.

And on and on… It’s alright though, because taking care of the family is number one, right?

Also, I should be updating my flickr pics soon.

Here’s the gratuitous linky for today: http://worldscollide.com/

Happy Cinco de Mayo all…  Especially special for us, because today we have a new addition to the family.

Baby Naralieu Isabella was born at 8:17am Guam Time, 8lbs 14oz, and 21″ long.  She and her mother are recovering at Guam Naval Hospital and should be home by the end of the week.