The fight with The Boss is actually one of the reasons I hated the final battle with Liquid Ocelot. You go from an actual fight where CQC timing matters and stealth is absolutely necessary to..... something that doesnt' fit with the mechanics of the rest of the game at all. What the Hell?

It brought Eva cosplayers....

I double second this.

MGS3 was amazing, although I could see how it could suck if you take away all emotional and personal aspects from it. The bare bones game-play is still good, I don't know why you didn't like it. MGS2 for me was the best. MGS4 was terrible.

MGS2> MGS> MGS3> MGS4> MGS:PW> MGS:PO

I don't get this bit. You had a choice of discovering the backstory by

1. Reading about it in massive slabs of text and carefully researching the ridiculously convoluted world of Metal Gear or

2. Playing MGS3

You chose 1 first and followed it up with 2?

It sounds like you kinda ruined the game for yourself.

Anyway, MGS3 was probably the most emotional game I've played. I think it really signifies a point where the story really started to mature as we were finally discovering the motivations of major characters. The gameplay was also a significant leap from 1&2 adding in extra elements such as the camouflage that found its way into MGS4.

I read about it because I wanted to understand MGS4. Little did I know that I would fall dead inlove with the series and thus buy the rest of the games shortly afterwards. It came out of nowhere for me xP

MGS3 is my 2nd favourite MGS, just behind MGS1. I love almost everything about the game, the 60's setting, the immersive jungle, great gameplay, very cinematic, amazing boss battles. It's just such a brilliant game, can't wait for the HD collection.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence >>>> MGs3Snake Eater
MGS 3 Subsistence is the best game of all time. the ending is the most emotional ending for all time and the gameplay, the szenario, the caracters....are amazing!

What blows my mind is that you complain about MGS3's cutsense but MGS4 is your favorite in the story. I still can't rap my head around it...

Cutsense?

MGS4 allowed me to play practically every cutscene moment. I felt it was an amazing experience for me that blended gameplay with cinematics that till this day is only rivaled by Uncharted.

As for the story,
I was introduced to MGS with MGS4. So in order to fully understand it, I digged deep. So deep that perhaps I feel every single MGS game is actually MGS4 XD. To me it feels like MGS4 covered MGS3 but thats probably because I researched it. Although yeah.. I mean in MGS4 they tell you so much about MGS3 especially after credits. It felt like I was robbed of MGS3's story and I've emphasized this for the 3rd time now in this topic.

All I wanted to know is if aside from the Story, there was something that made this game extra-ordinary after 6-7 years.

Ive made up a list with moments of the game that truly amazed me.
1)The intro (Jesus christ XD)
2)The ladder (Because it reminded me of the amazing intro.. SNAYK EAATAAAAH)
3)The End (Such a fucking brilliant boss, wow.)
4)The Sorrow (Amazing, reflecting on how many lives you've taken. Pure brilliance.)

..Or actually add a 0)When Big Boss saultes over The Boss' grave with that tear in his eye.

Those are the moments I felt something epic. I guess an honourable mention would be Ocelot and Snake on the ship that Eva is driving. That fight.. although I didn't get to play it made me a tad upset. (You only got to pick a gun and pull the trigger). Im sure this must have been insane back in 2004 but after 2008, the immersion I got from MGS4 blew me the fuck away and I thought MGS3 (being better and all) was going to rival that aswell and not just the story. Lawl I get its funny that I say "Just" the story because the Story is fucking essiental, ESPECIALLY in MGS. I can understand MGS3 having an amazing plot and storyline, I really can and I am not robbing it off that. Im sad I didn't get to experience the story but like I said.. I simply wanted to know what else.

The soundtrack by the way is my favourite in any MGS.

The gameplay.. not so much but I believe every MGS might feel a tad outdated like someone mentioned above. It's very unique ofcourse but god I love melee in games and with a game that has this whole "CQC" aspect, I would LOVE for MGS3 to have had some deep stuff there. Even MGS4 being newer offers too little in that. It had this survival aspect... I guess I did not fancy Operation Snake Eater -> Naked Snake so much. Perhaps I am not that hardcore xP.

The lasting appeal.. the game has tons of different ways to approach things. Ofcourse nothing short of a true MGS game there.

The graphics.. I cannot comment. I found it to be bland but I am a graphic whore. Look at the games I play now. The only game that wow'd me playing a HD Remastered version is Shadow of the Colossus and that wasn't its graphics per se, it was the fact that I was blown away by the fact that you were able to do this in PS2 ..and I missed out on it XD. Once again I think it's because I am being spoiled right now, so badly that I can't appreciate things in the past which once again blows for me.

The story, said it already. Won't ever experience it in the way you other guys did. It feels like I got the entire MGS plot through MGS4. That game fucked me up so hard I was mindblown by how insane that story was. Turns out quite much was divided in the past games (Duuuh XD). I still didn't feel robbed of MGS1 and MGS2's story. I still struggle with MGS2's but the whole Solidus - Raiden thing was quite cool and I totally didn't read much into the Tanker incident along with the AI controlling Raiden and not the Colonel. I did know that the AI GW was gonna be destroyed from MGS4 but that was it. The focus I put into researching went largely into Liquid, Snake, Big Boss and Zero. I think I expected way too little from MGS1 as it's a PS1 game but I loved playing that game. I honestly rank it as high as MGS4 because my expectations were low even after MGS4 xD.

MGS3.. my expectations were just fucking crazy. I was like: Yeah, this is the game that'll blow MGS4 out of the water in pretty much every single aspect, hands "fucking" down. I love cinematic in games and I love cinematic games in general xD. MGS3 didn't offer what MGS4 and for instance UC3 does. I expected to be wow'd in the wrong way. Its all my fault entirely obviously.

To D2lewis or whoever feels like I am dead to them beacuse of this, let me fix that XD:
MGS3 is amazing but I didn't get to experience it. I am sad and devastated but even here I can acknowledge that the Story must have been crazy and ultimately I play MGS for the story (yeah well mostly). Can you remove the dagger from my back now? xD

ALSO, I feel like I hold MGS on a pedastole and that had to come back and kick me in the face eventually. I love the series so much that I am being overly critical. I had it coming x(