Ashley Wood's Art of Metal Gear Solid review

After reading (and watching) Ashley Wood's first Metal Gear Solid comic series, as well as it's sequel series, Sons of Liberty (which I never got around to reviewing... sorry), one could say that Mr. Wood pretty much has the visual style for the Metal Gear series down. Thankfuly, IDW Publishing agreed, and decided to release an artbook of selected imagery from both Metal Gear Solid comic series, as well as Ashley Wood's work from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, available for the first time in print.

First off, sorry about this one. I've had the book for about the whole summer, but because it was to be VFH's first artbook review I just had no idea how to make a write up for it. I mean, its not like a comic where you can judge the story or anything, it's just images. So, this is a different type of review than you may be used to here...

Pros
There's a lot of nice things about Ashley Wood's Art of Metal Gear Solid; of course, it's both Ashley Wood's art and it's all Metal Gear, so that pretty much makes it awesome to begin with. But in all seriousness, for a paperback book, it's printed quite nicely; I'd of preferred the stellar hardcover treatment that Sons of Liberty got, but this works.

And while the digital and traditionally made art work for the first two series is nice, the main attraction here was definitely being able to view Portable Ops' cut-scenes in still form for the first time. To be honest, after constantly looking at the MPO artwork in this book, I actually think it's some of Wood's best work in the series to date. Here's to hoping he gets hired for a Snake Eater or Guns of the Patriots series...

Cons
While the artwork in the book is beyond phenomenal, and has 120 pages full of my favorite artist drawing my favorite game series, there are parts of the book that really bothered me. The main kicker? Organization. While, more or less, the final third of the book is completely dedicated to showcasing Portable Ops, the beginning of the book is just a mess.

Yes, the artwork is beyond great, and the mix of both digital and traditional images is a nice touch, but the book constantly goes back and forth between Metal Gear Solid and Sons of Liberty artwork, and I'd of much preferred it to be divided. Also, while I understand it's an artbook, and it's basically comic panels and covers minus the words, but I wish there was some sort of description boxes (or maybe vellum sheets to not hide artwork) to say what issues/etc the artwork was from or maybe mediums used. As said, the Portable Ops aspect of the book is great, but everything else is a mysterious jumble.

Overall
Despite the jumbled mess, the artwork is fantastic, there's no denying that. If you're a fan of either Ashley Wood's artwork, or the Metal Gear series, or both, than there's no excuse not to get this. However, if you've yet to experience MGS in comic form, I suggest you find yourself some copies of The Complete Metal Gear Solid and The Complete Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty instead, and then maybe pick this book up. And while the main attraction, at least for myself, was the Portable Ops artwork finally in print, I did notice that there was some missing pieces. And quite frankly, I'd of much rather purchased a dedicated Ashley Wood's Art of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops instead, so that I would actually know what to expect.

Overall Score: 8/10

Star Trek: Countdown review

While J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek film has been a hit for fans and non-fans alike, IDW Publishing's official prequel comic collection is aimed at long time Star Trek fans.

Star Trek: Countdown ultimately serves as the background story for the film's main villain, Nero; only known in the film as the captain of a Romulan mining vessel, the Narada, who seeks revenge on Spock after his home planet, Romulus, is destroyed. This trade-paperback collects the four volume series which was released earlier this year (January through April) as a lead up to the film, but can easily be read before or after seeing the film (in my case, after).

Story
As stated above, Star Trek: Countdown serves as Nero's back story, since he is practically the only "new" character introduced to the Star Trek franchise via the new film; and I'm sure everyone is curious as to what would cause a man to literally divide the timeline of the Star Trek universe in half.

What I thought was really cool about this series was the way it connected Nero, and ultimately the entire Star Trek film, with the Star Trek: The Next Generation series and characters. In actuality much of the book is inspired by the TNG two-part episode, "Unification", which had brought Spock into the 24th Century, and it shows. As a fan, it was just neat to see familiar faces in new scenes, but if you're not a Trek fan, chances are you won't even be picking this up in the first place.

Writing
If you left Star Trek wanting more, this is your best bet; and thankfully, the writing makes it feel like it really is an unseen part of the film. As the "Official Movie Prequel" (as stated on the back of the book), Countdown's story was thankfully penned by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who co-wrote Star Trek alongside Abrams; while the book itself is written by Mike Johnson and Tim Jones. What's also nice is that the inclusion of The Next Generation feels natural, and not just tacked on, as the characters exist in a time not long after Star Trek: Nemesis, so it's nice to see that they tried to make this as canon as possible.

As for the book's focus, Nero, much like the film his story is an understandable one; but there's never a moment that you can really feel for him as his actions are always self-centered. Yes, I understand his entire planet was destroyed, and he did all he could to try and save it. But if you got the vibe that he's just a self-centered jerk from the film, his vibe is no different in the book.

Artwork
This is actually the part of the book I disliked the most, which can't be very good for what is essentially a visual medium. Call it my taste, but I was never wowed or overly impressed with David Messina's artwork for Countdown. It's not bad, his recreations of live action characters is pretty spot-on, but it never surpasses the look of generic comic book art.

Thankfully the great writing in the book makes up for the so-so art, but that may just be my personal preference of having a distinct, well done art style in comic books, and then good writing just ends up being the bonus factor.

Overall
As said, this is really a collection for Star Trek fans. If you left Star Trek wanting to know more about Nero's story, or just missed your Next Generation buddies, this is certainly a book to pick up. But if you only know Star Trek because of the new film, I don't think this book is a necessary inclusion to your reading list.

Overall Score: 7.8/10

For more Star Trek, be sure to read my review of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek.

Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty

Noticed that there's no 2? That's because I'm talking about the comic book series. That's the name of the comic adaptation of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the game. The series was completed and the hardcover collection, The Complete Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty, just arrived at my home today. I had pre-ordered the book about a month ago from Amazon. I was practically sold when I saw the $34.65 price tag, with a list price of $55; and with Amazon Prime's free 2 day shipping, it was a deal ... a steal even.

Considering, it was supposed to arrive on July 31st, and then I was given a notification that it was delayed till August 5th, but it arrived today, so I'm not complaining. I'm pretty glad I got this now though, considering there is no announced release for the Metal Gear Solid 2: Digital Graphic Novel. Plus, I'm just a big fan of Ashley Wood, and I missed my chance at getting the hardcover edition of The Complete Metal Gear Solid, which is actually advertised on the back of the book despite not being available. I plan to read this as soon as I can, though I'd like to get through Watchmen first.

You can probably (no promises!) look forward to reviews of both Watchmen and The Complete Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty in the coming month or so.

MGS: Digital Graphic Novel review

What's this? Yes, I have submitted a review after quite a long hiatus. because of that, the title I reviewed has some age to it, but it's a worthy game no less.

Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel review at classic VFH.

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UPDATE (3/22/10) VFH Classic is dead:

Background
Back in 2004 IDW Publishing and Konami teamed up to bring Metal Gear Solid to the comic book world. The series was written by Kris Oprisko, and illustrated by Ashely Wood (one of my personal favorites). The entire retelling of Metal Gear Solid was then taken into digital form, and remastered onto the PSP in a one of a kind experience.



Story
The story is exactly the same as that of the original Playstation game Metal Gear Solid, and its remake The Twin Snakes. The only other additions to the story are new connections and relation between character found in the "Memory Building Simulation Mode".

The always memorable opening scene.

Gameplay
Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel isn't exactly a game, but its not exactly a UMD video, which makes it so hard to categorize. Essentially the "game" is split up into 3 modes.

"VR Simulation Mode" which is the bulk of the game, as it is the graphic novel itself. There a re a few settings for this mode, for instance, if you dont feel like accessing any special content, are a fast reader, or just want to see the pretty pictures, you can set the entire story to play through without any interaction; however I suggest you only do that after reading the story once or twice. what's great also is that since chances are you won't finish this in one sitting, you can "bookmark" you progress. But the default setting will have you just pressing a button to go the next word bubble or scene. And another button to access the next mode...

"Mental Search Mode" is where the interactive comes into play. When in this mode you can pause each frame, and search through it in and out, finding Kojima logos that access new data in the "Memory Building Simulation Mode".

Access "Mental Search Mode" at this scene will allows you to look behind Ninja's fist and find his data file

And lastly is the "Memory Building Simulation Mode". Here you'll see an ever growing, 3D array of icons that can be interlinked to find out new information amongst characters, items, and organizations. It sounds great in concept, and is actually pretty neat when you just starting out. But by the time you have nearly 100+ little files, it's gets quite hectic, and the poor camera system that moves you around the array isn't of much help either.

Video
As the game is visual only, it's nice to see that the pages and artwork of the actual novel have transfered quite well digitally, even when zoomed in upon in the Metal Search Mode. Here and there you'll also notice a couple 3D models that fit in quite superbly with the 2D graphics thanks to well rendered cel-shading and textures.



Sound
There is no voice over in this game aside from choice grunts here and there. So if you aren't a fan of reading, then you're out of luck. It sort of takes away from the classic Metal Gear Solid experience because the voice cast is usually so well suited to the series. But imaginative players will easily be able to imagine David Hayter's iconic voice as they read through this novelization. Otherwise, some light, but well suited Metal Gear Solid tracks can be heard, as well as some well placed, good quality sound effects.

Final Thoughts
If you are big fan of the Metal Gear Solid series, then there's no excuse for you not to have this re-imagining of the classic game. Also you may want to considering picking this up just as a comic book fan, just too see another take on releasing a graphic novel. Personally, as both a comic and game fan, I'd like to say this is one of the most stylized Metal Gear products out there, and the novel in itself is one of Ashley Wood's finest visual works. If you can find this, buy it.

8/10

MGS: Digital Graphic Novel on ... DVD?

Here's a weird one. That 2nd Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel, will in my opinion, sadly, not be coming to PSP it seems. It will be coming on DVD, the same day that MGS4 launches, but in Japan only. It will contain both the first DGN and the new one, based on MGS2: Sons of Liberty, both with full voice over. And according to the comic's artist, Ashley Wood, it will run a total of 5 hours! It does seem cool, but without a PSP release, it just looks less likey to arrive here, and that's a shame.

Note: Wood does say that it will arrive later in other regions, but if they plan on bringing in the English cast, from both games, expect it to take some time. And no, voice clips from the original games couldn't be used because lines were rewritten and the stories are at times, are told from different view points.

Original post by Ashley Wood

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