What year is it? I’ve placed my first preorder in nearly two decades and it’s for Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2. The collection includes Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear: Ghost Babel. My Steam Deck has done a lot of things for me since I bought it. It got me back into gaming after probably a decade or more of half-assed false starts and a backlog I’d long written off as lost. And now, apparently, it’s turned me into someone who preorders games again. I honestly didn’t see that coming. The last time I paid for a game I hadn’t actually received, the original iPhone wasn’t even announced yet and I was super excited about a game where you shot things wearing a nanosuit. A lot has changed since then. The nanosuit enthusiasm, mostly.
Way back in 2007, I walked into my local EB Games and placed what until recently I thought would be my final preorder. I’d just built a new PC, complete with a dodgy computer swapmeet case and shiny new Nvidia 8800 GTS. Crysis was the best looking game I’d ever seen at that point and channeling my inner Homer Simpson, I placed my preorder as a message to everyone else: “oh no you don’t, that steelbook is MINE”. The game was fine. Sure, it wasn’t quite the revelation I’d talked myself into at the counter and somehow I never finished it despite repeatedly promising myself that I would. It managed to sit around long enough that I recently found it in a drawer, listed it on eBay and finally moved on. I eventually finished it in past last twelve months, courtesy of the remaster. As for preordering, I hadn’t done a lot of it before Crysis and as it turned out, I wouldn’t do any of it after.
But this one felt different. Metal Gear Solid 4 has been locked to the PlayStation 3 since 2008. That’s eighteen years in console prison without even a glimmer of hope for parole and I was never going to buy another PlayStation 3 just to play it. I recently played through Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 and had an absolute blast. Well, the original Metal Gear games were rough at best, but that’s another story. After finishing Metal Gear Solid 3 and looking into how to play the fourth on the Steam Deck, I hit a bit of a snag as PlayStation 3 emulation just isn’t quite up to the task yet. I started to believe that Metal Gear Solid 4 and I would simply have to agree to part ways. Then Konami announced the Master Collection Vol. 2 during February’s State of Play and suddenly I was furiously Googling to make sure it was available on Steam and it absolutely is. I preordered it from Green Man Gaming as they have nearly 25% off, it might not be much but I’ll take it. This is Metal Gear Solid 4 alongside the HD version of Peace Walker with Ghost Babel (Game Boy Colour) as bonus content, all available on modern hardware. This feels less like a purchase and more like a rescue operation. Honestly, I smashed preorder before I could even begin to talk myself out of it.
August 27th is firmly marked in my calendar. Nearly two decades, one unfinished nanosuit shooter and an awful lot of life later: here I am again. Money down on a game I haven’t yet received. I’d like to think I’ve grown at least a little since 2007, more patient, more considered and less likely to get swept up in the moment. Then Konami roll out a trailer and my wallet appears on my desk before the music has even finished. The Steam Deck certainly has a lot to answer for. But… uh, I’m choosing to see this growth and I’m sticking to that story… unless this one also ends up in a drawer.
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