I’ve been saying it for over a year now: “The day Metal Gear Solid 4 comes out is the day I buy a PS3.” So on Thursday, June 12th, that’s exactly what I did. I even drove an hour to a Wal-Mart in a small town at 6 AM to make sure I could secure the special system bundle. Being a huge fan of the series, I wanted to savor the experience, so I waited until the weekend to start playing, when I could really devote my time to the game. In the meantime, I perused reviews praising the game for its brilliant gameplay and for fixing problems that had plagued the series from the beginning. Naturally, I was even more excited to begin playing. So imagine my dissapointment when I actually popped in the disc and found it to be more movie than game.

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Great lineup of games for this week’s 1UP Show, with three big name games fighting for your attention. You can expect Dan Hsu to get the answers to your questions about Gears 2 directly from the face of the franchise, Cliff Bleszinski.

If that’s not your thing, then perhaps a little Battlefield: Bad Company talk will interest you? I think the general consensus is that the game’s trailers have been hilarious — who doesn’t like poking fun at Metal Gear Solid, Rainbow Six and Gears of War, after all? — but that won’t count for much if the game doesn’t live up to the franchise’s name. David Ellis and Shawn Elliott will discuss.

And finally, the newest addition to the lineup of 1UP podcasts, 1UP FM, gets a major plug during the segment featuring Atari’s Alone in the Dark.

Now make with the downloading and check out this week’s 1UP Show in the format of your choice:

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Thank you, Yahtzee Croshaw. I knew I could count on you to be the guy who finally played Metal Gear Solid 4, stood up, and said “What the hell?” Reviewers everywhere have been slathering praise all over the game’s redundant story and brushing aside its ridiculously long cut scenes, but not Croshaw. This has to be the most spot-on review of MGS4 I’ve seen. It is a great game to be sure — when you’re actually allowed to play it — but yes, Kojima really needs an editor.

Via The Escapist

The trailers for Bad Company have been hilarious, particularly the ones mocking games like Metal Gear Solid, Rainbow Six, and Gears of War. The launch trailer for the game is also pretty funny. Plus, it’s got a tank chasing a golf cart, and you really can’t go wrong with that. Throw in some sarcasm, and you’re guaranteed to have a solid game trailer. That’s a little free tip for anyone out there in PR land. Having a solid marketing campaign will help sell your game, even if it isn’t the greatest thing in the world. (Which I still don’t feel like Bad Company is.)

In the days leading up to Metal Gear Solid 4’s release, the bundle featuring an 80GB PS3 along with the game was in ridiculously high demand. Websites offering pre-orders for the bundle were sold out within minutes (and in some cases, shut down entirely) and some stores held impromptu lotteries on launch day to decide who would be walking away with one of their very own. Luckily, Sony has noticed the demand and plans to ship more bundles out in early July.

“While we can’t provide specifics on inventory levels, the Metal Gear Solid 4 PlayStation 3 bundle is a limited-edition offering that’s experiencing high demand from Metal Gear and PlayStation enthusiasts,” the SCEA statement read. “We’re pleased with the strong consumer interest in the bundle and are working to ensure that additional shipments are provided to retailers.”

At this time, the 80GB bundle still seems to be one of the best deals for anyone interested in getting a PS3. Hopefully the people that missed out the first time will get a second chance at the bundle in the coming weeks.

Via GameRush

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LnmR1X3G9I[/youtube]

Already having slapped Metal Gear Solid right upside its head in hilarious fashion, two new trailers for Battlefield: Bad Company have been released, each poking fun at another big name game. I’d recommend watching this Gears of War trailer before watching the trailer above as a refresher so that you know what’s being made fun of. As for the Rainbow Six one, it’s simply a matter of having played any R6 game or ever having seen SWAT-style hand gestures being made.

The Gears one was much funnier in my opinion, but they’re both quite good. As I remarked previously, hopefully the game’s humor lives up to this marketing campaign; I haven’t played enough of the game yet to tell if it has, but I’ll say this: I haven’t laughed out loud at anything in the game through the first level, so take that as you will.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK9wPfUB0ak[/youtube]

Finally, the words many PlayStation 3 gamers have wanted to hear for quite a long time: the PlayStation’s version 2.40 firmware update will, at long last, add support for in-game XMB access, in addition to the achievement-wannabie trophies.

There’s no release date or further details on 2.40 yet, but Eric Lempel said we can expect the official details “shortly” on PlayStation.Blog yesterday, so those should be along shortly.

In more immediate news, the 2.36 firmware update is nearing its release, but will include much less exciting features such as improved system stability when playing original PlayStation games. Whatever — I already finished playing through Metal Gear Solid. Let’s just get to 2.40, already!

image via The Waking Badger

The new Battlefield: Bad Company trailers are pretty funny, especially the one you see above poking fun at a certain tactic employed by Solid Snake. Hopefully the game itself turns out to be as funny as the ads; otherwise, that’d be mighty disappointing to see a game’s humor get outclassed by some videos.

In addition to the ‘Eye Patch’ trailer, you can find the new ‘Run Wild’ trailer right here. It’s not quite as topical and doesn’t include any special military barrels, but it’s still got me very excited to get my hands on the actual game next Wednesday.

“Why would he do that? That’s as stupid as hidin’ in a cardboard box.”

It’s Friday, and that of course means a new episode of The 1UP Show. This week, some conflict enters the office when some Dungeons and Dragons players try to recruit fellow nerds for some analog gaming. Then the team talks about the new Flash Map Pack for Portal which features the same maps as found in the flash version of the game. Next up is a preview of Project Origin, the sequel to the hit FPS, F.E.A.R. The game already looks creepy, and the AI can be pretty smart, it seems. Finally, there is of course a discussion about the pros and cons of the latest Metal Gear Solid game (which I’m not watching until I actually finish the game myself).

As always though, you can download the new episode using the links below.

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Our Mission this week is to debrief you on the history of Konami’s Metal Gear series. Maniac Elephant (Ron) and Infamous Cockroach (Shawn) discuss their past experience with the Metal Gear missions and plan a tactical approach for the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4: Twin Acid Sons of the Patriots Liberty Eater’s Revenge mission that is set to go into operation this coming Friday.

The two mission specialists also talk about a rogue military superweapon (The Incredible Hulk), a rogue government assassin (The Bourne Conspiracy) and a silly child’s game featuring a plastic college professor (LEGO Indiana Jones).

This weeks show is available by direct download here.

As always, you can get past episodes from our podcast page at http://podcast.filefront.com, and you can send your comments, questions, suggestions, or snarky comments to podcast@filefront.com.

File-N-Forget is also available on the iTunes Music Store.

You can get your own Metal Gear Codename by checking out the Metal Gear Name Generator.