If the issues with Metal Gear's overzealous and silly expositions were the result of the translation of the script from Japanese to English, why doesn't this problem feature in more games outside the MGS franchise? Nintendo, a company famed for its disinterest in anything but the most basic of plots, has better structured and more concise writing than Kojima does. To be fair, over exposition is a problem in many films/games, but Kojima just takes it to a whole new level.

rofl at the article...and the writer...after playing it confused him more??...obviously not written by someone who has played ALL of the previous MGS....everything in MGS4 just explained what i was confused about in the previous MGS...

hideo's writing is awesome..he brings in real life issues as well...controlling emotions and such...already doing that in the military with prozac about depression...that's just one example...but with each MGS...kojima has found different real life issues to bring up very subtly...

these are many points alot of people fail to see...most people just see the writing for the storyline itself...but there are more element to kojima's story than meets the eye...that's one reason i believe people think kojima's writing is bad...that's just my opinion on it though...

I don't remember Ocarina of Time having good dialogue... and I don't think Mario has much of a plot or dialogue.

Now see here, sir, I don't find this reasonable. You can claim that it's thematically rich or full of symbolism or relevant issues or whatever you like, but the writing is still over-long, wordy, and altogether in need of an editor who is willing to chop a game's wordcount in half at least.

Ocarina of Time was made over 10 years ago, and was by no means bad for it's time (the script suffered mostly from poor localization). Of course, with the introduction of the current localization staff, that is not an issue in more recent, and in this case relevant, titles.

Mario (main) games are well written, and often quite humorous. The quality of the script has little to do with complexity of the plot.

Of course, I only used Nintendo as an example. Feel free use any Japanese game you feel has superior writing to MGS, if not a superior plot.

MGS should focus on gameplay and convey the plot through other means other then cut scenes.

Scatter random files and such around the place which contains the info is better off than having to watch so many scenes in quick succession.

There should be a clear line between a video game and a film and MGS2-4 have crossed the line too much.

I came in here hoping to see some funny quotes from MGS. Big block of text turned me off.

I like the story. I love the writing. Sure some cutscenes run on for ages but as long as I'm getting an enjoyable story out of it, I don't give a shit. I find myself watching anime, movies and tv shows alot more than playing games these days because most games lack interesting story lines.

I'm also pretty sure that if it wasn't for Hideo Kojima's crazy scripts the name "Metal Gear Solid" wouldn't be HALF as big as it is today.

Hideo Kojima needs to ignore these whiners....

he is good at what he do.

I mean, don't you think it's a bit like comparing oranges to apples when you're comparing a game like Mario to Metal Gear Solid? And how was the plot in Mario games complex? I didn't play Mario 64 (played a few of the older ones on my GBA), but I don't remember a complex plot... And how long are the dialogues in Mario?

I'm in no means saying MGS has a good script or not (and only sugesting that perhaps the cringe worthy script is due to bad localization).

But really, Mario?