I agree with you. I thought the Story in MGS4 wasn't perfect and more Anime-like than the others, but much much more creative

Heavy rain, is good it creates tension. But it creates tension by lieing to you, and has as many holes as I've seen in a story based game this generation

still it was fun as hell

In my opinion Kojima was trying to send Snake out similarly to how Frank Miller sent Batman out in The Dark Knight Returns and I think it can actually be seen as a send up to the earlier work.

Can the story in MGS 4 really be called any more ridiculous than most of the stories in entertainment media from Japan that is also considered to be quite good?

I don't think there is any way MGS 4 is more ridiculous than FLCL for example. Yet FLCL tells an excellent story.

I think, it's a little bit too ridiculous, its not much so. but yes.

MGS4 was heavily Japanese Storytelling. Which is quite different. But in videogames, there isn't a whole lot of Japanse Storytelling especially in action games

JRPG's And Metal Gear,

The reason why I got metal gear, was the style in the story was told reminded me of Ghost in The Shell... those kinda things

I'm not hailing any games story as the greatest story in the world.  Like I said, I don't expect videogame stories to rival Hollywood productions.  Many people expect them to.  I just like there to be some cohesiveness and keep things plausible within the context of the story.  Was Heavy Rain perfect?  Of course not. No game story is (Very few movies tie up all the loose ends as well).  But as far as storytelling and keeping the player involved in said story, it deserves to be commended.  I guess thats why I enjoyed it more than most games claiming to have epic stories.  Character connection.

Really, it is "To each their own".  Different people have different taste amd I am not going to ram my opinion down others gamers throats (Not saying you are by any means).  I just agreed with the OP on MGS4.  For someone who had started playing the series when the original was first released on the NES, it was a major disappointment.  I'm glad you and others enjoyed it...It just wasn't for me.

I agree, with, character connection.. might be something that, videogames do better than with movies beings your kind of interacting and walking around with them (by thumbstick). Makes you feel more immersed I guess, Like I mean even though you don't get to choose directly. I felt more like Meryl in MGS, and many of the FF Characters. That atleast for me its a different connection than I get from movies... and sorta similar to Serialized TV shows. atleast for me. Like I mean part of being a videogame like... when I watch a movie like avatar I'm like cool its done. But when I play ME of Certain Final Fantasy's I feel like I actually saved the world (to a reasonable extent.)

And even hollywood writers fail on a regular basis to create good scipts. So videogames with storys I think have so many more elements they can screw up on than a movie.

BTW my only perfect movie for me is Blade Runner, not perfect but perfect.

Sorry, have to uhh advertise a 30 year old movie :)

Because story isnt the most important part of a game.

Congrats, you have managed to sound like a complete authority on what gaming should be while setting up your ability to dismiss those who disagree with you by declaring them to be something other than "intellectually minded."  I guess my current fascination with opera is negated by my love of Mario because my brain does not always crave somthing that is stimulating enough. I guess I can never hope to fathom the complexity of your inner thoughts.

Aside from stating your opinion as fact, you did so in the most condesending manner. Games that focus on gameplay and games that focus on story are not really enemies.If you are lucky you get both.  there are people who enjoy both styles, and I would argue that they are both very important and valid. I honeslty like both, depending on my mood. If I had to choose, I would go with gameeplay as videogames are meant to be more interactive. Still, an amazing story can really make for memorable moments. The death of Aeris, The Revan reveal of KOTOR, etc. are some of my favorite gaming moments. They are right up there with the night my freirnds and I pulled an all-nighter to beat NSMBW. We still talk about that night with nerd war stories abound. Maybe I am not the intellectually minded indivudual that you are, but I've had a hell of a lot of fun playing simple, silly games with my friends.  I will take that any day.

@ thelifatree

really what i liked about it really ere the concept the story tried to explore. Maybe it was not the story itself exactly. I really liked the concept of "What type of man will you be?" as the central theme of the narrative. There have been many rpgs where you choose between good and evil, but I really liked how they presented it. Having you father be a good man who failed gives you an example of who you could be, and the orginal end was meant to be the cumulation of that moral exploration it was just ham-fisted and contrived.  I enjoyed the game, but have no desire to replay it at all. I personally preferred Borderlands, it has a very basic story but my roomate and I have played through it multiple times as well as the dlc. I prefer little to no story over bad or poorly executed story.

(God, I love you Bomberman. )

I agree with you... no story is better than a bad story... poorly excecuted to me, it depends on the situations, such as how many interesting ideas does it involve etc. And to the extent of how badly its executed

What always baffles me is how games like half life 2 and bioshock can be considered as having great storylines. To me, those stories are so contrived and "safe" to the point where it hardly feels as if there is a story at all.
MGS3 is the best story game of all time, though, and MGS4 is really great too. However, the problem with mgs4's story is that in order to actually experience the narrative properly, you need to have played the previous 3.