I don't think that means Kojima is a bad storyteller. If a director decides to make a 26 episode tv series rather than a 2 hour feature film does that automatically make him a bad storyteller? No, but it allows him to focus more on character development and plot detail.

There is about 7-8 hours of cutscenes in my estimation. I completed the game fairly fast so it was roughly 50% of the content for me but like other reviewers mentioned it may as well be only 1/3rd of the game depending on skill level and willingness to explore. 

As it's been said before it's the second half of the game where the cutscenes begin to overshadow the gameplay. I think those that prefered MGS3's pace more will enjoy the first half of MGS4 which is more akin to that while MGS2 fans will probably enjoy the pacing of the final half.

I'm on my second playthrough now and I'm taking my time this time to explore and experiment so the cutscenes become less frequent as a result. The pacing is not without fault but the amount of story told in MGS4 easily surpasses all previous games combined in terms of scope. Unfortunate it is that many of these side stories are completely unnecessary fan service that simply detract from the overall integrity of the game.

Much of the pacing and storyline issues is a result of fan service. Considering Kojima decided to go that route he still managed to do an amazing job in maintaining the quality of storytelling through logical decisions. The question is whether the unnecessarily high ambitions of this all star cast story was really where Kojima wanted things to go or if he simply decided to tie things up all in the manner of some fan service or another.

Well at least this game will sell alot at launch, expect terrible legs though.

With this new revelation in the game's cut scene length MGS4 has confirmed everyone's suspisions that the franchises is drifting ever farther from the "Core" (Mass Appeal) audience and is venturing evermore into the realm of "Hardcore" (limited niche appeal) status.

This combined with an unanymously unimpressive online experience, I don't see this game fairing too well in the long run, but expect a huge launch.

I mean, just look at eveyone's first impressions on the game, half of them don't know what to make of the game while the rest make excuses for what they feel to be compromises or concerns in the game. I'm not saying this is a bad game, but when the most anticipated game of the generation comes out and the first thing people have to say about isn't, "OMG! THIS GAME IS BETTER THAN SEX!" (like they did with GTA4) it has to make you wonder.

Since when is "nearly 90 minutes" a "gross exaggeration" of 78 minutes?

How did you get the game early DTG?

Kojima overall gets a 9.5 for his MGS games.  Great gameplay, horrible storytelling through cutscenes.  My only gripes with him are story based.  A shame really.

 I give that post a 9.8.

They went on to say "Yeah! Do you think we'd actually have a cutscene that SHORT??" ;)

 Agree, the only thing that let me down of the first one is a lot of conversations between a few minutes of gameplay...

I ordered the game through ebay after a friend of mine on Neogaf recieved a real copy in less than a day. I was lucky because a day or two later the guys account was already banned. I'm still buying my LE edition on day one though.

Yeah you could be right. A few new European reviews today gave the game an 8 which really is below expectations for a game of this caliber.

Despite the divided opinions I would say this game is vastly superior to MGS3 though in both storyline and gameplay. That might not count for much considering I don't particularly like MGS3 when stacked up against the rest of the franchise but I think MGS4 will be one of those games that many people will hate while others will worship it as the best in the series. Only something as uncompromising as MGS4 can do that.

But it definitely is far away from mainstream. The flashbacks are quite frankly next to useless for newcomers and the storyline is so heavily based on all 3 past games and is so complex that if you're new to the series you will be very mind**** here and won't understand half of what's going on.

Wow, that's a very short game if it has that many cut scenes and you beat it in 15 hours.

70-75 minutes -> 90 minutes is not a "gross exaggeration".  That's an exaggeration but not a ridiculously huge one.