My most desired PS5 Pro game isn’t out yet, so I’m killing time playing this PS3 classic – and it was a huge mistake

Remember when video games were supposed to be fun? No, me neither. While I’m getting more and more excited about the Unreal Engine 5 remake of one of my all-time favorite stealth games coming to PS5 Pro, I “might” have done something stupid. And when I say “stupid”, I mean “tormenting”.

The Pro Enhanced game that surprises me is Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Developed in cooperation between Konami and Virtuos, it is a comprehensive remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, which was first released on PS4 on November 17, 2004.

While I and many other MGS fans online were initially skeptical of Delta when it was first announced, subsequent trailers and screenshots really made me do a double take on a project that I initially saw as a dirty way to make money. But not now.

Every time I look at this remake it impresses me more and more. Based on the footage released from this year’s Gamescom event in Cologne, I think this is one of the most eye-catching Unreal Engine 5 games I’ve ever played.

Konami has already told future PS5 Pro owners what they can expect from the prosumer version of the stealth game on PlayStation, shortly after Sony announced the console.

In an article on the PlayStation Blog, Yuji Korekado, creative producer at Konami, said: “In Metal Gear Solid Delta, innovative PSSR technology allows the trees and lush vegetation of the game’s iconic jungle to become more vivid, and also improves the sense of realism of infiltration through the natural environment. “

Snake eyes

(Image: Konami)

Korkado added that he and his team will be able to “deliver smoother gameplay and improved frame rates throughout the game.” While I don’t expect the Delta to run at 120fps on the Pro, I’m hopeful that the $699 console’s AI-powered PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) will deliver 4K/60fps gameplay.

Annoyingly, Metal Gear Solid Delta’s release date doesn’t extend beyond 2024, which is a bit concerning considering we’re already in the first week of November as of this writing. So while I was impatiently waiting to get back to the sneaky Naked Snake Boots on my PS5 Pro, which should hopefully be on my doorstep when it launches on November 7, I decided to go back to Metal Gear Master Collection Vol 1 to get my MGS3 fix.

This was my first mistake.

Okay, honestly, Master Collection has improved a lot since I called it “one of the most shameful video games in years.” Tell us what you really think, Meiksy.

Recently, Konami finally patched an additional screen settings option that finally allows you to play stealth games in the native resolution of your monitor or laptop screen. At launch, every Metal Gear entry in the bundle was locked to a dismal 720p resolution on PC. It was only thanks to the work of selfless modders that PC gamers were able to play the Collection in 4K resolution shortly after launch and almost a full year before Konami’s official patch – and even then, the patch only applies to MGS2 and MGS3.

Master of nothing

(Photo: Future/Konami)

Technical issues aside, at this point I’ve been stuck on some particularly specific (and brutal) gameplay of Snake Eater over the last few months. However, thanks to the latest MGS Delta trailer, I couldn’t help but dive back into the classic espionage adventure to try and get the only two Steam achievements I didn’t unlock from the Master Collection port in MGS3 (for context, there are 58 of them in total).

Trying to get the “FOXHOUND” achievement for Hoo-boy was about as enjoyable as devouring a large plate of spaghetti and meatballs… just replace the meatballs with shards of glass. This is the second least earned achievement according to Steam records, with only 2.1% of players unlocking the virtual pat on the back, which simply requires “earning the FOXHOUND title.” No big deal, right?

Evil. So painfully and hopelessly wrong.

If this article receives comments, I suspect they will be of the “git gud” type. And if you’ve unlocked the Steam FOXHOUND achievement, you’ll get more power. Anyone who makes this ping on Steam is the undoubted sultan of stealth.

I’ve completed Metal Gear Solid 3 more times than I can count – I think it’s closer to 20, which is definitely not a decision I’ll regret on my deathbed. However, even though I know this subversive stealth masterpiece inside and out, the following requirements to unlock the FOXHOUND trinket will hopefully explain why this ultra-precise gameplay has been vexing me for months…

Complete the game on Extreme difficulty.
Complete in under 5 hours.
Use 0, continue. Yes, ZERO.
Don’t trigger a single alert.
Never take life medicine (healing item in the game).
You take 10 health bars or less.
Save less than 25 times.
Don’t use special times (like EzGun infinite ammo).

Burnt

I stopped my unbridled pursuit of the “FOXHOUND” rank in MGS3 and subsequent Steam achievement for several months while fighting The End, until I realized that wearing his “Fire” camouflage made the fight a sham. (Image: Konami)

Ouch.

Is plot to unpack there. But the most important are “continuation ban” and “no health medicine”.

I’ve been playing this game since I was 19 and now, scarily enough, I’m 39. Two decades of muscle memory does something to you. In this extremely obsessive case, that means I can slither through Snake’s Russian jungles, swamps, mountain ranges, and Cold War military bases like a fox that stole the Predator’s invisibility technology and then decided to eat every piece of poultry in the hen house without leaving a trace.

But god you have to reload an old save every time Down get noticed or, worse yet, get beaten to death by one of the clique of Resourceful Snake Eaters fighting bosses on Extreme difficulty; Damn, this shit stings.

There’s a lot of learning and replaying to get around that “25 saves or less” factor, combined with how difficult Cobra’s fights are in Extreme, which really took its toll. I started the FOXHOUND run on January 21st. Nearly 10 months later, I still haven’t completed this exercise in agony.

To be honest, I was probably a little stingy with these records. I have used exactly 10 of my allotted 25, with the last one coming on October 3; my game ran comfortably under 5 hours, precisely at “0003:30:39” according to Snake Eater’s storage device loading menu.

And that’s where I’m currently stuck: during a truly terrible boss battle against the game’s main antagonist, Colonel Volgin. Imagine a muscular, heavily scarred Russian with lightning-fast hands in an MCU suit and you’re just there.

At this point I must have lost to him a dozen times. When you can’t heal and are stuck with the obscenely small health bar that Snake leaves in Extreme Mode, taking a single hit can be fatal.

Fight or fry

(Image: Konami)

Make no mistake, Vulgin is miserable fighting at Extreme. I know his attacks like the back of my hand, his increasingly angry hand. I can now put him in a CQC choke, wrestle him to the ground, and then fire three tranquilizer rounds into his ribs as casually as I turn on the kettle in the morning. The problem is that several attacks are very difficult to avoid. Like the one where he starts shooting bullets out of his finger.

Worse? This occurred when he began to electrify random areas of the claustrophobic fighting pit where the scrap takes place during the second part of the fight.

Honestly, I lost count of how many times I fell into Yevgeny Borisovich Volgin’s fists. I know I basically have to finish the fight without getting hit, and that prospect is making me a little nauseous right now.

Even though my playtime is “officially” under four hours, I had to spend 10 times that amount relearning large chunks of the game just to be able to engage in an Elden Ring level boss fight… without having to slurp down those delicious Flasks of Crimson Tears.

By the time I finally beat Volgin, get the FOXHOUND achievement, and let go of my overly obsessive approach to gameplay, the PS6 will likely no longer be available.