In defense of Eurogamer for sending a relatively new guy, I think all the reviews that are being released today are done by people who went to that special event in Japan. They may simply not have had anyone else available. And an 8 is probably consistent with their scoring so far, though I would be interested in putting SS Brawl review next to this one, because in that review fan service seemed to be valued a lot, and compared to Brawl, fan-service in MGS4 is probably a great white next to a piranha. Of course, if you were really evil, you could try to argue that Eurogamer's huge investment in terms of fairly unique Live integration features in their website (with special leaderboards for which Eurogamer site memeber finishes all achievements in GTA IV for instance) ... I don't think they had those features yet when they gave Gears of War (or Halo 2) a 8/10.
Then again, Eurogamer's scores have always had a mind of their own, and the text of their review is often as good as the best of them. In that respect, you can't pay too much attention to their scores ultimately, as we've discussed very often before.
Anyway, because I think all of the reviews have been done by people who went to that special event, I think that is part of the reason why MGO hasn't been included in the review and why other aspects of the game have not yet been mentioned (not to mention that there were NDAs signed on what you weren't allowed to spoil or mention I think).
It will be interesting to see what the retail version will look like. I think I'll probably get it, even if it's just for historical purposes. I've bought at least 4 of the 5 games, even if I've probably never finished more than a third of them (my half-brother on the other hand has finished all of them several times over, and as he hasn't got a PS3 yet, maybe I'll invite him over and just watch him play
).
Anyway, good news for all the 'haters' that the non-interactive bits can be skipped. I know that has been an often heard complaint. For me it was the other way around, I couldn't wait until the next cut-scene. I had the same with all the PS1 and PS2 Final Fantasies - those cut-scenes were, to me, rewards that kept me playing, and I invariably stopped playing at some point because I got stuck in the game, yet always regretting not having seen the rest of the story. In that sense, the MGS3 non-interactive version on the third disc is a godsend and should always be included in these games.
I'll be sure to watch at least that disc before I start on MGS4!
