The Intro-
Epic [ep-ic] Adj. - 1. noting or pertaining to a long poetic composition, usually centered upon a hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is narrated in elevated style: Homer's Iliad is an epic poem. 2. heroic; majestic; impressively great: the epic events of the war. 3. of unusually great size or extent: a crime wave of epic proportions.

The Good-
I'm just going to work right down the list here. Graphically speaking MGS4 is probably one of the most amazing games you'll see to date. The rendering is smooth and the lighting effects are just flat out awesome. This, along with detailed environments and one of the best physics engines this side of Half Life 2 makes for a near perfect gaming experience. Unlike sloppily programmed games, gravity seems to work like it's supposed to, arms are not seen constantly flailing when someone gets shot, and you never get stuck in the gaming negative space when the physics engine gets confused. All in all, MGS4 runs about as smooth as you want a game to. Sound is top notch from the score, to voice acting, to in-game effects. Hearing David Hayter's rendition of an aged Snake brings a strange sense of comfort with the past character, but at the same time conveys the idea that he's seen some sh**.

Gameplay with large scale games like this always tends to scare me. Luckily my fears were quickly put to rest. MGS4 gives you almost nothing to worry about, it's just an improvement on the past system. The HUD is easy to get used to and switching to different items and weapons is smooth and precise. Character handling and in-game actions are extremely well done. There is the occasional "oops I held a button down too long and now I'm laying down when I want to be crouching" but this is easy to get over. The controls after the first few interactions become very intuitive and almost second nature, allowing the fourth wall to fade. Replay value is moderate - for me games with epic stories are tough to want to go back and play all over again. On the normal difficulty setting you're putting in 30+ hours easy (if you watch all the cut scenes).

There is a lot of little easter eggs to find in the in MGS4 world - including iTunes, which you can play with your iPod in game to change up things. Nothing like stalking baddies while you have some classical tunes playing. Both Apple and Triumph Motorcycles have subtle top notch product placement on display here and there. Lastly of course is the story. Kojima has been known to create these extremely dramatic, intricate and over the top stories and with MGS4 he doesn't disappoint. Basically, MGS4 is an epic family reunion where everybody and the second cousin has something to say. Of course MGS4 is riddled with Kojima's usual sense of humor, a very funny sequence towards the end of the game comes to mind. It will literally have you scratching your head going "WHAT!? This is awesome!!"

The Bad-
There's a lot of stoppage of play and it stays pretty constant throughout the entire game. This includes, most notably, ridiculously long and superfluous cut scenes. At first they happen every 5-10 minutes of gameplay then later spread out to about every 30-45 min of gameplay, but these cut scenes aren't your normal cut scenes - they're on average 10-15 min long and some even range much longer. MGS4 is pretty much a movie that you happen to be playing. Now I get this is Kojima's style of story telling - I also get that this is something you should expect going into a MGS game. But there were so many points in the cut scenes that are either drawn out and not necessary or that have parts the player could have some hand in as opposed to just passively watching. But like I said if you're into that it's fine - you still get a ton of gameplay time it's just broken up way too much and for way too long for me.

The Ugly-
It's not. I'd take it out on a nice dinner if I could.

The End-
MGS4 is about as near a perfect game as we'll see right now. Every bit of this game is amazing - minus the cut scenes of course. As being a fan of the series myself I knew what I was getting into when I picked this game up. It's one of those titles that once you start there is nothing else - no other games draw your attention and reality softly slips away. In about 2 days time I logged well over 25 hours - my couch has a permanent mold of my ass and my girlfriend almost broke up with me. You'll be playing this title until it says "The End" and you're going to enjoy every last minute of it.

[8bit Take]: Perfect [per-fikt] adj. - being entirely without fault or defect.