4. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - Has Kojima Gone Too Far?
Three words; 'flying, flaming whale'. Four more, 'tortured cleavage-heavy sniper'... oh, and another two; 'vagina bomb'. What do all these things have in common? Well, if you throw in some child rape and a cardboard box, you've got the next Metal Gear Solid; The Phantom Pain, a title that although everyone wants to get behind it - as well they should, Metal Gear is a phenomenally successful, influential and enjoyable series - looks to be that little bit too much over the edge of decency for the sake of shock-value sentiment. The thing is, nothing good every comes from a passionate creative force not having someone to bounce their ideas off - just look at George Lucas and the Star Wars prequels or The Wachowskis and the dovetailing Matrix sequels. Every time you get someone who happens upon a solid (ha!) idea first time round, the followup is always a publisher throwing more money at the concept or person, letting them loose with all their unused thrown-away ideas that were rightly dismissed. Hideo Kojima is the loveable maniac behind Metal Gear, and you can see even in Metal Gear Solid 2 it was a drastically different game from the first in terms of story elements and overall sense of believability once he was given full creative freedom. Now look at Phantom Pain's mixture of child soldiers and themes of torturing someone sitting alongside lighthearted slapstick elements like chicken-headed costumes and sexist imagery like plastering scantily clad women on cardboard boxes as distractions. It's borderline insane.