So that's it. And as clear-cut as many of the games on this list are to me, I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who would disagree with me on every single one of them (well, maybe not The Quiet Man).

And I'm good with that. Because my dislike of a game shouldn't take away your enjoyment of one. I have fun with lists like these, and then I move on. You should, too. Because the dirty little not-so-secret is this: none of us play games we hate for very long. I had so much damn fun with games this year, that I decided to have a little fun in the negatives, too. And I'd love to see what's on your list of refunds! Drop us a comment below, and have a great time with the new year! May 2019 bring us joy and pixels!

Fight me.

Here is the only advice you need when it comes to the art of seduction:

\n
1. Don't learn to seduce from video games.
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2. Don't learn to seduce from guys who go by nicknames that they clearly came up with in the 5th grade (aka, "Gambler")
\n
3. Don't learn to seduce at all.
\n

Women don't want to be seduced: they want respect and clothes with pockets built in. Offer both and you should get by just fine.

I've heard many people suggest that this game is meant to be silly or understood as a joke. And if that's the case, then the creator of this game's long career as a pickup artist must be such deep satire that it's virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.

Otherwise, I'd have to assume he follows the path of plausible deniability espoused by 20th century philosopher Nelly:

"I'm just kiddin'... Unless you're gonna do it."

And even if that were the case, the gameplay is awful, and the humor is as cringy as the time your father drunkenly wet his pants during the "drunken pants wetting" scene in A Star Is Born.

Don't learn to seduce from video games: I'm pretty sure there was a GI Joe "knowing is half the battle" scene written about that.

The hype surrounding Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery was so great that even jaded old grognards like myself allowed ourselves a moment for excitement. Create your own Hogwarts student, join your favorite House, and have magical adventures of your own? Where do I sign up??

No, not for the microtransactions. For the game itself.

...Oh, they're one and the same, huh? 

Okay.

Let me be clear: I don't mind microtransactions in a free-to-play game. I think most of us recognized that that's the entire point of free-to-play. But there's a difference between "pay for a heightened experience" or "pay to play some extra turns" and "pay up every fifteen minutes or so if you want this to last longer than your average YouTube commercial."

And even if the transactions were justified, the game is just dull, dull, dull. I swear to god, I had to wake the Sorting Hat up from a boredom-induced nap before he would assign me to my House. 

"Hey guys: remember that terrible video game from the nineties that's basically become a meme? Wouldn't it be funny and ironic if we made a new version of it that's also bad?"

No. It would be neither of those things. 

It might, however, be an incredibly shitty game.

Oh, who am I kidding? It would most definitely be an incredibly shitty game. Enter Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn.

Remember your high school friend who always took the joke a little too far? The one who thought South Park was the height of satire and had no ability to read between the lines? The one who thought the only funny jokes were dead baby jokes? 

Agony is what would happen if that kid played 2016's DOOM and decided he needed to make his own version of it. Even if the repetitive gameplay, terrible save system, and clunky stealth mechanics were fun, you're still left with a game that seems to believe that the only way to be frightening is to disgust and sicken. It's horror without mystery, fear without the fun, and disgust without the meaning. It's a 100,000 word novel, but it's just the same word written over and over again. 

That word is probably "agony", by the way.

(Editor's Note: this final joke has been put here by the recent law stating that a game review about Agony must contain some variation of said joke.)

Do you remember the scene in Addams Family Values where murderous psychopath Debbie explains why she's killed every one of her husbands (and parents)?

"Don't I deserve love," she asks, "And jewelry?"

The Culling 2 feels like the digital embodiment of that cynical, ugly attitude. The original Culling, while flawed, at least had a level of uniqueness that drew some attention. Unfortunately, it just couldn't compete with the vicious, skyscraper-sized monster that was PUBG. 

So when The Culling 2 was released this year, the ire of most gamers didn't come from a single source. It came from everything about this game. It really is simple math: 

Buggy mess + cynical attempt to cash in on what's how right now = nobody wantsta play.

And it felt like it came from a place of childish foot stomping, where the decision makers were convinced that they'd somehow been cheated out of a piece of the pie. So instead of making something that gamers could get excited about, it went with that age old question: "What's hot right now?"

It's a real shame that the developers felt the need to recreate the game from the ground up instead of just improving and sharpening the original to make it more competitive. But this is the games industry: where no one seems interested in learning from the mistakes of the past.

Zombies have become the Portlandia-style answer to anything gaming related. 

"Need help making that game more interesting and fun? PUT A ZOMBIE ON IT!"

I've grown sort of used to the over-saturation of the walking dead that's taken an active role in everything pop culture related over the past decade or so. But if there's one franchise that I never expected to be tainted by boring, endless hordes of zombie-style antagonists, it would have to be Metal Gear (a few years ago I would have said the work of Jane Austen, but we fucked that up good and proper.)

Like many AAA games, Metal Gear Survive takes that gloriously unfortunate tradition of stitching together pieces of everything that was popular a few years back without truly understanding what made those things popular in the first place.

So instead of a tight, exciting, soap-opera blended smoothie of stealth action like we're used to, we got a survival-horror-base-builder-hide-and-seek mish mash that was, at its best, underwhelming and dull. At its worst, however, it's a physical symbol of what happens when a soulless games corporation attempts to emulate the work of an artist who they truly don't understand.

Don't let the recent oh-so-meta-uber-hip trailers that just came out fool you into thinking that Square Enix was in on the joke from the beginning. The Quiet Man was an unironically buggy, janky, pretentious piece of drek that takes a truly interesting detail (a deaf protagonist) and proceeds to do almost nothing with it. 

No pats on the back should be allowed when a developer realizes their art is bad and decides to milk that angle. It's what I told you guys about Tommy-fucking-Wiseau, and would any of you listen?? NOOOOO and now I gotta listen to everyone's take on that trash dance fandango as if ineptitude is celebration-worthy and (Editor's Note: it was at this point that the author of this piece was found throwing his keyboard into a crowd of concerned onlookers while rambling about Michael Bay. He has been sedated and fed. We apologize for the inconvenience.)

I'm not mad, We Happy Few: I'm disappointed.

You took what was a genuinely intriguing and exciting level of stylization and satire, and somehow came up with the idea of adding in tired, never-were-really-all-that-good-in-the-first-place survival mechanics. The decision was sort of flabbergasting: so odd, in fact, that if it weren't based on the notion of emulating the popular Twitch games of days gone by, then I would truly have to believe in mystical coincidences from beyond the mortal coil.

But what it feels like, unfortunately, is a great-looking game made sterile and ineffective in the face of too much attention too early and possibly the intervention of an overwhelming games publisher that got caught in the creation process needlessly and abusively. 

Is Bethesda okay, you guys? Does it need to talk to someone? 

Because this shallow Petri dish of an online experiment isn't merely unworthy of the Fallout franchise, it almost feels like a cry for help. As if the Fallout 76 designers were being held against their will in a Saw-style murder basement, and the only way they could inform the outside world of their plight was to develop a game so unfinished, so buggy, so cynically jaded, and so contrary to everything that we had been hyped up for, that we would have no choice but to assume that someone over at Bethesda is in trouble.

But based on the insane number of microtransactions and the belittling lack of any real meat on this post-apocalyptic bone, I'd say that the only people in any real amount of trouble are the players themselves.

Y'know, we run into bad games all the time. We've been coping with them since one caveman suggested an early form of charades to another caveman. But now that 2018 is drawing to a close, I have to say: there's something special about the way games are getting bad lately. 

It isn't enough that a game is broken on release or buggy as hell (although we all know there's plenty of that). The massive army of indie games released on Steam every day alone is enough to inform you that, like the games we really admire, the games we truly hate have to stab us in just the right part of our loathing gland to truly receive the appropriate level of ire.

And 2018 had plenty of that. Shall we?

After an unseemly launch fiasco, Steam players are finally able to dive into the action survival universe of Metal Gear Survive, and as usual the PC crowd isn't quite satisfied with playing the game as it was intended.

If you've got the beefy rig that begs to up frame rates and run at higher resolutions, there is a way to unlock the FPS cap in Metal Gear Survive and really hit the throttle. The option isn't available from an in-game menu, of course, but can be set by modifying a text file that holds the Metal Gear Survive graphics settings.

Unlocking the 60 FPS Cap In Metal Gear Survive

First, up you need to navigate to the Steam folder that holds the graphical settings for Metal Gear Survive, which isn't exactly intuitive because Steam uses numbered codes in their folders.

The path you are looking for is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\(Your User Profile)\543900\local. This may look different on your machine, as the "(Your User Profile)" segment of the file path will likely be a long string of numbers instead of a name.

If your Steam folder is in a different location, you can get their quickly by right-clicking Metal Gear Survive in your library, selecting Properties, and then clicking Browse Local Files at the top of the Local Files tab.

When you finally get to the 543900\local location, you are looking for a file named SSD_GRAPHICS_CONFIG somewhere in that folder. In some cases, you won't see it at all, though -- this file may not appear if you haven't changed any graphics settings in the game yet.

 Accessing the Steam Userdata folder quickly

What Do I Do If The File Is Missing?

If the file isn't there, load up Metal Gear Survive's single player campaign and hit Escape to bring up the main menu, then navigate to the Options screen.

Choose Graphics Settings and then change any of the available graphical options at all, like upgrading the textures or light (it doesn't matter what you change, so long as something gets changed).

Select OK, then hit Enter on Yes and Yes again to save the changes, which will which force the SSD_GRAPHICS_CONFIG file to be created in that folder.

Modifying The Graphics File

When you get to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\(Your User Profile)\543900\local and finally see the SSD_GRAPHICS_CONFIG file, right-click that file and choose the option to open with a basic text editor like Notepad (don't do anything with fancy editing tools like Word, as this will screw everything up).

      Opening the SSD_GRAPHICS_CONFIG file with Notepad

There will be a big long jumble of text all on a single line that isn't very readable. You are looking for the entry labeled r framerate_control. If you have trouble finding it by scrolling, just hit CTRL+F to bring up the search box and search for "framerate" to jump right to the entry.

Next to the r framerate_control entry, delete the text that reads "Auto" and change it to read "Variable" instead (be sure to leave the quotes in this instance). Then save the file and reboot Metal Gear Survive to unlock the game's frame rate.

 Change the "Auto" text to read "Variable" on this line

Keep in mind that from this point forward, changing any settings from the in-game menu will over write this file, so you will have to manually go back and make the adjustment again to keep the frame rate uncapped.

Need any other help with this survival mashup game? Check out our other Metal Gear Survive guides here:

• Class Unlock Guide
• Food & Water Guide
• Beginner's Guide to Survival Strategy
• KUB Energy Guide

Metal Gear Survive requires players to gather as many materials and resources as possible. That's why you simply ought to pick up everything you see. But the most important element and resource of the game is Kuban Energy (KUB).

KUB is used in almost every recipe and everytime you want to level up, so you really cannot do anything without it. If you want to know how to get the most of Kuban Energy in MGS, then follow our quick guide below.

How to Get Kuban Energy in Metal Gear Survive

Gather Kuban Crystals

As you go along on your missions, you will come across clusters of Kuban Crystals, which can be broken into fragments. When you collect these fragments, they give you Kuban Energy (about 300 for a fragment).

So collect as many of these fragments as you can, as this is probably the easiest and the safest way to collect KUB in MGS Survive.

Kill Wanderers

Wanderers are zombie-like creatures in MGS Survive that attack in waves, meaning that they will come at you in groups of five or more. You can set up a fence in some tight spot so that they can't get to you, while you can easily kill them with a spear from your hideout.

When you kill them all, you can remove your fence and start collecting Kuban Energy from the dead Wanderers. Each one will give you about 100-400 KUB, which will quickly stack up in case you kill 10 or more at once.

Finish Salvage Missions

After you've done your first Singularity mission, you can start joining Salvage missions -- by far the best and most efficient way of getting new materials, KUB, and battle points.

During the missions, you need to set up an extractor and start clearing the waves of wanderers. The extractor will gather energy, and if you successfully finish the mission and withstand all three waves of wanderers, you will be rewarded with a lot of Kuban Energy (the amount depends on the difficulty you've chosen).

---

These are the three available ways of getting Kuban Energy in the game, and if you're looking for other Metal Gear Survive guides at GameSkinny, then follow the links below:

• Class Unlock Guide
• Food & Water Guide
• Beginner's Guide to Survival Strategy

There was always destined to be controversy and negative fan backlash from Metal Gear Survive. Even if it hadn't drastically changed styles from previous games, the very public, very ugly split between Hideo Kojima and Konami meant there was already a built-in base of haters ready and waiting to drag this game down.

We saw that unfold before the game even launched, with massive review bombing at Metacritic by people who never played the game, complaining about the bad mechanics on PC ... two days before it actually unlocked on Steam. Those people weren't reviewers with advanced copies either, because the advanced copies didn't unlock until the same time as the first-day buyers.

Having now finally been able to get on the PC version, I can say with authority that it turns out those overly eager Kojima fans were more right than they knew, just for all the wrong reasons. 

 The opening cut-scene of being utterly destroyed and sucked through a wormhole into an alternate dimension is a very apt metaphor for this game's place in the franchise.

Failure To Launch

Konami seemed to go out the way to shoot itself in the foot as frequently and as horribly as possible during every stage of this game's conception and execution. A word like "botched" doesn't even begin to describe the release, which was alternatively listed as happening on February 20th, the 21st, or the 22nd, with no consistency on that front.

When it unlocked for consoles, no one could play for more than 12 hours, as a glitch requiring an update prevented anyone from logging on. Things went even worse on the PC front, with no pre-load available.

When the projected unlock time finally arrived, suddenly the Metal Gear Survive page was yanked entirely from Steam, causing an uproar and extreme backlash from Windows players who were already out of patience. Later that night, a Tweet went out explaining the game would be available after a fix, with no projected time or date. It wasn't until this morning -- 3 days after releasing on console -- that PC players actually got to play. 

When the game starts with you as a battered, dead soldier being forcibly raised from the dead and sent out into the wilderness unarmed and alone to get decimated by angry hordes, I started to feel like this is a social experiment gone wrong and that we're all being punked.

 "He's dead, Jim." "Too bad, raise him from the dead anyway."

Who Designed These Controls?

Whatever word is ten orders of magnitude higher than "clunky" is the one you'd want to use to describe the controls and menu screens for Metal Gear Survive.

There are times I feel like I'm playing Octodad or Goat Simulator -- two games that have completely wonky controls on purpose -- instead of a AAA polished title.

First up, you can't use the mouse during setup screens, the main menu, crafting bench menus, or in your inventory and can only navigate with the keyboard. At first it was unclear if this was a bug or if the developers just didn't bother to change the controls from console so that PC players can actually use the mouse.

The answer to that question was cleared up by going to the "Controls" screen to see that the keyboard mapping literally brings up an image of an Xbox One controller, with no keyboard controls available. The level of laziness and disregard for the PC fan base there is frankly infuriating.

 How did THIS get past quality control?!?

Apart from the keyboard nonsense, the game as a whole just has really odd controls. You've got to hold the right mouse button and then click the left to use any weapon, even if using a melee weapon like a spear and not something that has to be aimed like a gun.

Your avatar also slides when you stop running, so between that and having to stop, hold down right-click, then aim with the mouse and hit left-click to attack, hunting or attacking is extremely frustrating and imprecise.

Making matters worse, the game glitched out and wouldn't let me select the spear on my back during the early portions of the game for no apparent reason. This meant I had to run around trying to beat sheep to death with my fists so that I didn't starve ... which obviously didn't work. Time to start over from the beginning and watch all those cut-scenes again to fix the problem.

 Say hello to my arch nemesis -- the invincible sheep!

Tutorial: The Game

When we get past the launch disaster and figure out the awful controls, it's time to actually dive into the game, right? Wrong!

There's an absurdly long slog through cut-scenes before you actually get to play, and then an even longer slog through tutorial missions before getting into the majority of the game itself.

We're talking 2+ hours of cut-scenes and tutorials before you are seriously playing the game for real. This creates an incredibly choppy, un-fun experience, as the game puts its worst foot forward and makes a very bad first impression.

 For a little over two hours, this is the screen you will see most frequently

When you finally get to actually play Metal Gear Survive, what you get is essentially Fortnite meets Ark with technological zombies. The resource gathering, weapon crafting, defense, and base-building segments are very much in the vein of Fortnite's Save The World mode.

The survival elements like hunger and thirst go more towards Ark, but here these constantly dropping meters are significantly more punishing, to the point that I expect more than a few players to give up within the first few missions.

Hunger and thirst meters even drop while you are in your iDroid menu or crafting objects, so you can literally be on death's door just by spending a few minutes crafting fences or making new weapons.

 Forget the zombies, these numbers are your biggest enemy

Story Meets Survival

Although the gameplay is similar, Metal Gear Survive is much more story-focused than either Ark or Fortnite, so it does offer something different on that front.

A mysterious organization sends a nearly dead soldier through a wormhole to deal with an infection that destroyed an alternate Earth in another dimension in order to prevent the same thing from happening on their world. Of course, there's more going on than you realize at first.

The mashup of biological and technological infection results in some really interesting zombie enemies, and there's a fun Dead Rising-type scene at the beginning depicting being chased by a gigantic horde of zombies.

A few other similarities to that franchise pop up from time to time, like rescuing survivors and bringing them back to base camp, or the way the disembodied voice over the radio sends you out on missions.

 Where's Chuck Greene or Frank West when you need them?

The Bottom Line

So here's the deal: this is just Metal Gear art assets (and some of the franchise standard stylings like the radio communication scenes) but in a survival/tower defense game that's all scavenging, building defenses, and fighting off a wave of enemies. 

Essentially, this is Metal Gear Fortnite: Rise Of The Ark. It's a serious shame that so much went wrong here, because this is a game with loads of potential that I wanted to like.

Metal Gear meets Fortnite meets Dead Rising is exactly the kind of game I want to play, and if you can make it past the first few hours to get into the real game loop, it is a somewhat satisfying experience. Sadly, I don't expect many to get that far or to actually keep playing over the long haul on the multiplayer front.

Pulling vastly different elements from across the gaming universe into a crazy zombie survival experience, Metal Gear Survive hosts two different game modes focused on either single-player base building or multiplayer base defense.

In either mode, there's primarily one main class type, with four sub-classes to unlock down the line. Every player avatar starts off as a Survivor, and will stay that way for a long time.

Several days into release, many players on the multiplayer front still haven't even seen any other class, so if you're wondering what's happening on the Metal Gear Survive class front, you aren't alone. Read on to find out what's happening!

 
Metal Gear Survivor Class Options

Survivor Class

Just getting to the point where you can upgrade your Metal Gear Survive base class and skill set is a bit of a slog. You can't even officially level up your Survivor class until proceeding through the tutorial missions in single player and unlocking the skill trainer, which takes a few hours at best.

In the early stages of the game, boosting Strength directly and then taking the Combat Step, Thrust Combo, and Dive Attack skills can be the most useful paths to staying alive.

Thrust Combo, in particular, is helpful for attacking at range with a spear in the beginning of the game -- before upgrading to better weaponry. If you frequently get grabbed by zombies, the CQC Counter is also worth investing in to stay alive.

At launch, before unlocking the sub-classes, the Survivor class can upgrade these core attributes and skills:

Dexterity

• Two-Handed Combo: Combo attacks with two-handed weapons increases according to skill rank
• Heavy Smash: Use more powerful two-handed weapon weapon attacks
• Sprint Smash: Perform a special attack with two-handed weapons
• Stomping Ground: Perform a powerful stomping area attack
• CQC Counter: Parry a zombie attack and kick the adversary in any direction

Endurance

• Heavy Combo: Number of combo attacks with heavy weapons increases according to skill rank
• Heavy Impact: Unleash a more powerful heavy weapon weapon attack than normal
• Sprint Impact: Perform a special attack with heavy weapons
• Leg Sweep: Trip an adversary and knock them down

Vitality

• Thrust Combo: Number of combo attacks with thrust weapons increases according to skill rank
• Heavy Thrust: Unleash a more powerful thrusting weapon weapon attack than normal
• Sprint Thrust: Perform a special attack with thrusting weapons
• Foot Press: Grab an adversary and kick them in any direction
• Quick Hands: Collect resources from enemies, animals, containers, and other objects quicker

Strength

• Swing Combo: Number of combo attacks with one-handed weapons increases according to skill rank
• Heavy Swing: Unleash a more powerful one-handed attack than normal
• Sprint Swing: Perform a special attack with one-handed weapons while sprinting
• Combat Step: Perform a side-step while readying a weapon
• Dive Attack: Unleash a drop attack directly below you (can be used only when close-range weapon is equipped)

Unlocking Metal Gear Survive Classes

Even after the slog to start upgrading the Survivor, there is an even longer wait to unlock the other sub-classes -- they aren't available until you complete the campaign entirely! 

During the post-game segment, Virgil will have you hunt down Memory Boards, which unlock the four sub-classes available and grants the Ability achievement / trophy.

Your choices at this point expand to include the Assault, Jaeger (Hunter), Medic, and Scout classes. These classes are fairly self-explanatory, with Assault focusing on close range and beefing allies; Hunter focusing on long range skills such as guns and bows; Medic supporting with healing options; and Scout offering a versatile, well-rounded class option.

 Leveling up the basic Survivor class

Have you managed to unlock the extra classes in Survive yet, and what's your favorite way to play? Let us know in the comments section! On the way to unlocking those sub-classes, be sure to take a gander at our other Metal Gear Survive guides below:

• Managing Hunger and Thirst
• Beginner's Survival Strategy Guide

Get ready for a vastly different experience than you may have been expecting from Metal Gear Survive as the franchise switches gears out of typical stealth combat and heads into survival territory.

Both the multiplayer and single-player modes are oddly similar to the early-access title Fortnite, focused on building defenses and mowing down hordes of shuffling zombies (and occasional bigger beasts).

Adding another element to the survival side, you will also have to monitor oxygen, thirst, and hunger in addition to ammo, crafting components, and structure health. If you don't want to get caught out in the open with no food and water, read on for our full guide to the Metal Gear Survive hunger and thirst mechanics.

 Managing hunger and thirst in the iDroid
(thanks to MKIceandFire for the screenshot)

Making Clean Water in Metal Gear Survive

The stamina gauge is tied to your thirst meter -- the thirstier you are, the less stamina you have for running.

While there are a moderate number of dirty water resources available, these often aren't worth using since drinking dirty water will make your character sick. What you really want is tons of clean water.

Early on, you can only get clean water by finding rare sealed water bottles. These aren't found often enough to be a reliable source of clean water, though, so you need to use the Hanging Pot at a Campfire to continuously boil your own clean water supply.

The Hanging Pot upgrade for the Campfire can't be unlocked until completing the seventh chapter of the main single-player storyline mode, so ditch the multiplayer matches for awhile to unlock the Metal Gear Survive Campfire and Hanging Pot combo.

Not sure where you are in the story? Access your iDroid and pull up the map panel to see your current chapter. After getting access to the Hanging Pot, building a Canteen lets you keep a steady supply of water in storage. Don't put any infected water in there, though, as the only way to drain it out is to drink it all!

 Crafting a Campfire

Finding Food in Metal Gear Survive

The hunger gauge is tied to your maximum health, so you want to stay well fed if you intend to survive. As with dirty water, eating raw food makes you sick, so avoid at all costs!

Exploration is key here at the beginning, as food sources replenish at varying rates and can be found in out-of-the-way locations, like vantage points at the top of structures. Checking out nooks and crannies in buildings often leads to food discoveries. Food spoils when carried in your inventory for extended periods, so if you have more than you need, unload it in storage at the home base.

You don't want to be constantly scrounging for food, though, so it's a good idea to start farming by grabbing some potatoes or corn and starting a garden. Potatoes can be found down the hill from the starting base near a burn pit, or in the area near a crashed helicopter. Corn is often found if you head east away from the base and search the ground.

While your garden is growing more food, don't forget to listen for animals to hunt in the nearby area, as a garden alone won't always provide enough food with enough frequency to stave off hunger.

 Roasted Gerbil? Yum!

Those are the basics you need to know to manage hunger and thirst! Have you found any other reliable sources of cooked food or clean water? Let us know in the comments below.

Not sure how to get started on base defense and crafting now that you're properly fed and hydrated? Be sure to check out our Metal Gear Survive beginner's guide over here.

Heading out into those conspicuously Kojima-less waters, Konami now officially embarks on the journey that is Metal Gear Survive, and sadly it got off to a choppy start.

No pre-load for PC, the Steam edition arriving two days after console, the game not working until nearly a day after it was supposed to launch on consoles anyway -- the whole thing was an unbelievable mess.

Now that we can finally dive into this new iteration of the series, your entrance doesn't need to be half as sloppy as the game's release. With the Metal Gear Survive beginner's strategy guide tips below, you can jump right in and start defending against waves of the mutated undead!

The Basics

Metal Gear Survive is a whole lot like Fortnite's Save The World mode (and I would bet money that a Battle Royale version is in the works right now as well).

If you've played that game, you pretty much know what to expect. There's a stamina meter for running, most objects -- from tires to boxes to metal barrels -- can be harvested for resources, and your goal in most standard matches is to build defenses and then protect an object against waves of zombie-like enemies.

As with Fortnite, a glowing spot appears to indicate higher damage, although here it shows up on zombies instead of on harvesting components. All zombies also disappear at the end of the wave, so don't waste ammo on taking them all out if your defensive structures aren't in immediate danger.

 Harvesting drum barrels for iron (thanks to edepot for the screenshot)

Base Defense

Learning defensive layouts and the directions enemies come from is key, as is memorizing enemy types, so that you don't put up useless defenses that can easily be bypassed.

Spend the early part of the match (and in between each wave) harvesting and throwing up fences and traps, then in the later segment, your goal is to take down the horde of Wanderers.

When building defenses, you don't need to fully encircle most bases. The hordes of Wanderers come down a predetermined route marked by arrows, so you can easily create choke point kill zones. Throw a fence in the path, then set a turret to mow them down. A balloon trap ahead of a turret is another great combo.

Let your defenses do their job, and focus on taking out the bigger creatures like the bomber zombies that can easily take down your fences. Shooting at their legs trips them up, and stealth attacking from behind can net an insta-kill. Otherwise, focus on the red spot on the back of the head.

 Placing a fence

Always Online

There's a specific reason why this entry of the Metal Gear universe is always connected to an online server.

Single player and multiplayer are directly intertwined, and you should go into the main single-player mode first -- not just to learn the ropes, but to increase your stats and stock up on plenty of materials that transfer over between the modes.

While you can jump straight into the deep end, in general you don't want to head straight into multiplayer with absolutely no character progress.

Resource Management

You need to always keep your various materials topped off and in steady supply, whether that's resources for crafting, food and water so you don't die, or Kuban Energy harvested by breaking crystals. Kuban Energy is critical not just to leveling up but also to upgrading to the advanced workbench so you can craft better weapons.

If you see a resource, grab it. Yes, this gets grindy, but it's necessary. Think of every time you walked by flowers or branches in Horizon Zero Dawn (or anytime you walk by anything at all in Fortnite) -- you want to stock up so you don't get caught unprepared later.

While wandering and crafting can take up a lot of your time, taking on side quests between waves of enemies is a great way to stock up on resources and ammo since you get bonuses for completing them. These missions frequently offer up powerful extra weapons to use in the next wave, and that can be critical, as ammo is scarce.

 Using harvested resources to craft defense structures

Those are all the basics you need to know to survive against waves of Wanderer zombies and bloated bombers in this retooling of the Metal Gear franchise. Have any other Metal Gear Survive tips and tricks to share with us? Let us know how you play in the comments below!

After a recent rumor about the possibility of MGS HD Collection coming to PS4 was proven false, Konami caught a bit of heat from frustrated fans and gaming journalists. The company's reputation among gamers has steadily declined for a few years now and people are wondering if they'll ever turn things around, especially with the lukewarm reception of Metal Gear Survive. Konami has a lot of work to do if they want to be a top dog in the industry again.

Who is Konami

For the uninitiated, Konami is a Japanese entertainment company known for creating several popular video game franchises like Contra, Castlevania, Frogger, Metal Gear Solid, The Goemon Series (my personal favorite), and even Dance Dance Revolution. Konami is also famously credited for creating the Konami Code, a cheat code that has been featured in hundreds of video games since its discovery. Just about everyone who has played video games knows or has tangentially heard of the code. 

Konami's Fall

More recently, Konami has made several decisions in the gaming space that has left many gamers frustrated. The first decision that really shocked the gaming community was the cancellation of the Silent Hills game in 2015. This title was supposed be the next big game in Konami's critically-acclaimed horror franchise, featuring a collaboration between the mastermind behind the Metal Gear Solid series, Hideo Kojima, and none other than the acclaimed film director Guillermo Del Toro. The cancellation left a bitter taste in everyone's mouths that would lead to further controversy down the line.

FUCK KONAMI https://t.co/YRl5uXQlO6

— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) December 2, 2016

Later that year, Konami stopped Hideo Kojima from receiving an award for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain at The Game Awards 2015, prompting his departure from the company a few days later. 

Konami has received further criticism for their apparent withdrawal from the console gaming industry while delving deeper into pachinko machine production (think pinball meets gambling). Right now Konami is best known for Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, Pro Evolution Soccer (PES is FIFA's biggest competitor in gaming), and pachinko -- a far cry from their glory days in the video gaming scene.

Konami's Future

As a business, Konami's main goal is to make money. While their stock has taken a slight dip the past few months they have still had their stock rise this past year, just as it has over the past five years.

Konami's future in video games may be dependent on the success of Metal Gear Survive. Unfortunately, Metal Gear Survive doesn't have a lot going for it out of the gate, and impressions of the game's current build are a bit pessimistic. Fans may feel obligated to take a stand against this particular title, given that it's the first Metal Gear game developed since Kojima's departure -- and it shows. Survive's gameplay is unlike what you'd find in a traditional Metal Gear game due to a greater emphasis on "horde mode" and base-building mechanics, instead of focusing on the tactical stealth that the series is so well-known for.

With that in mind it's understandable, though still disappointing, that Konami is considering withdrawing from the console gaming industry to focus on their more profitable ventures in mobile gaming and pachinko. Making AAA games is expensive, and Konami may not want to take that risk anymore.

However, if they want to continue making video games for their fans they should reconsider remastering some of their older IPs. The success of Crash N. Sane Trilogy and Shadow of the Colossus have proven that fans are thirsty for a hit of nostalgia, and Konami could jump on the Switch bandwagon and bring back some of their old Nintendo titles (I'm looking at you Contra and Goemon's Great Adventure).

Besides reviving old franchises, Konami should also consider reaching out to Hideo Kojima. There's no way he is coming back, but a public apology, or at least an explanation might go a long way in the eyes of the gaming community. It'd just be a peace offering or a show of good faith, and good PR is something the company desperately needs right now. Microsoft owned up to their mistakes with the launch of the Xbox One, and since then, they have begun to accumulate a lot of good will from the community. This is Konami's chance to do the same thing.

Alternatively, if Konami decides console games are not for them, they could sell their IPs. Konami's name may be forever tarnished, and while it's unlikely to happen, selling their old, beloved IPs may be a good way to bring fans back by having someone else revive their old franchises.

Ultimately, the choice is Konami's. They have smart people working for them who will try to make the best fiscal decision for the company's future. Whether that future will make video gamers happy is yet to be known. What we do know is that Konami has a lot of work ahead of them if they want to regain the trust of their fans.

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Do you think Konami will ever get their sh*t together? Which of their games would you love to see revived or remastered? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to stick around GameSkinny for all your video game news, reviews and more!

If you want to play Metal Gear Survive when it releases next month, you’re going to need to have a stable Internet connection. Konami has also confirmed that the game will feature optional microtransactions.

This new information comes from GameSpot during a recent preview session. The game will require a constant online connection in order to smoothly transition between single-player and multiplayer modes. "Metal Gear Survive's online connectivity requirements were built to support a seamless integration between single player and co-op. This will also enable us to provide ongoing content post-launch,” Konami told GameSpot.

"Always online" isn’t an uncommon term in modern gaming, with online-driven titles such as Destiny 2 and Overwatch requiring access to the Internet to play.

The game will also feature a microtransaction store allowing players to use their in-game currency to purchase Boost Passes, which grant advantages for a set period of time, as well as other beneficial items such as “Support Defenders.” The ability to buy currency with real money is optional, as it will still be naturally earnable through gameplay.

Metal Gear Survive will release February 20th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Stay with GameSkinny for more information on Metal Gear Survive as it develops.

As we get closer to the release of the first Metal Gear not made by franchise mastermind Hideo Kojima, a lot of conjecture around the gaming world has focused on a simple question: Will true survival elements work in a Metal Gear game? 

Starting today, Metal Gear Survive will try to answer that question through its open beta. Franchise fans can test the game themselves from January 18 to January 22 on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. According to all sources at the time of this writing, the beta will not be available for PC gamers. 

The Metal Gear Survive beta will feature three missions and two maps. Although the maps were revealed to be Wrecked Base and Desert Mine, the available missions were not detailed ahead of the beta’s release.

Any progress made in the Metal Gear Survive beta will not carry over to the game’s retail release. There will be in-game items available for beta participants, such as a nameplate, head accessory, and bandana, but it is currently unclear if these items would carry over from the beta. 

Metal Gear Survive will release February 20 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more news and information on the game as it develops. 

Are you one of those people who's still unsure how to feel about Konami's upcoming Metal Gear Survive? Well, maybe what you need is to see some actual gameplay, and Konami has provided exactly that.

Earlier today at the Tokyo Game Show, Konami released the first demo footage for the co-op title. Lasting 15 minutes, it shows a squad of four players breaking into a compound and holding it against a swarm of the zombie-like enemies. There's no annoying, scripted chatter between the players to dampen it.

"Using co-op stealth, infiltration, and defense tactics, and special new equipment and weapons, the squad provides a glimpse of both new and familiar survival gameplay elements that form Metal Gear Survive."

The footage also confirms the appearance of the Fulton Cannon from Metal Gear Online, which can be used to take items back to your base or for strategic purposes as demonstrated in the video (it involves a sheep).

The mutliplayer stealth game will be released on Xbox One, PS4 and PC in 2017 and is the first Metal Gear to not involve the series creator, Hideo Kojima.

Konami's latest installment in the acclaimed Metal Gear franchise, Metal Gear Survive, is the first installment to be made after the departure of series creator, Hideo Kojima. It takes place immediately after the events of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, when Big Boss leaves a destroyed Mother Base and four random soldiers of his are sucked into a wormhole to another dimension.

These four characters are four players, working together in online co-op in this horrific new setting that forces them to fight demented zombie-like beings. Konami states this is part of the complete MGSV experience. 

Pardon my French, but this is horse crap. I've been a fan of Metal Gear for a long, long time. Everything important about Hideo Kojima's world can be found in the incredibly complex story, the bombastic boss fights, and the thrill of infiltration. These three core things are what make a Metal Gear game. This new game, Survive, is a slap in the face to everything that makes a Metal Gear game, well, Metal Gear.

Yes, Konami has stated that the new game will have stealth, and thankfully they are not calling it a new Metal Gear Solid game, otherwise my fanboy side would probably be too hotheaded to write even the most opinionated of articles. 

But think about it- this game is 4-player co-op against a bunch of zombies. That's the game idea we have here at its core. With this gameplay foundation, the game isn't anything like the series fans love. The game whitewashes a time-vortex scenario so half-assed, the creators might as well be outright telling us - no, this isn't Metal Gear. But would you have bought anything else from Konami?

And it's true! I wouldn't buy anything they throw at me after not letting Kojima finish Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain with the awesome ending he had intended. I love this series, it pains me to see that they're merely using the famous franchise as a lifting off point for a game that, from what we can see, has nothing to do with Metal Gear. 

Even if Survive is a good game in its own respect, it pains me to even see it as a game. When I look at it, I have the same feeling I did with Metroid Prime: Federation Force, A Good Day to Die Hard, and Rainbow Six: Siege. They use a title to get the name out there, but they don't carry the weight, the content, or the heart of what made their franchises so great. Maybe this is a way to help me - and many other livid fans - understand that Metal Gear is truly over.

What do you think? Is Metal Gear Survive worth having the name of the franchise, or should it have been a standalone title? Leave a comment with your thoughts, and as always, thanks for reading.

In case you missed it, Konami recently announced their first post-Kojima Metal Gear title. Titled Metal Gear Survive, it follows a new group of characters that get sucked through a wormhole to a parallel dimension overrun with zombie-like monsters. No, I'm not making that up and yes, the reception from fans has not been pleasant.

One of the many complaints the new title has received is the lack of any stealth gameplay; a core element of the entire franchise. Konami, however, has attempted to assuage peoples' worries that, despite the game's heavier focus on co-op, there will be stealth.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Konami's brand manager Richard Jones said:

"Obviously Metal Gear is well-known for its stealth, that is, primarily, what makes Metal Gear. There is stealth in it. I know when you're watching the trailer it's all very action-packed and it doesn't really elicit that feeling, but there will be stealth."

Jones continued:

"One of the really interesting things that we will be exploring and playing with is how stealth and co-op can actually co-exist. We've formed gameplay that kind of allows and enhances that. We're not going into a lot of depth at the moment, but we will, obviously, in the future."

Jones also went into detail about Metal Gear Survive's new weapons, equipment and items and how they'll retain the franchise's core values:

"One of the things that Metal Gear is well-known for, and very good at, is giving you a vast array of equipment from weapons to items to all forms of devices and allowing you to experiment and use those creatively, and that is part of the fun and part of what makes Metal Gear... Metal Gear; it's the creativity around using your weapons and items. And it's something we've looked at and something which we're hoping to build upon with new weapons."

When asked if development on the game started before Hideo Kojima left the company in 2015, Johnson simply responded with "Yeah, we're not talking about that right now." He also confirmed that the game is currently being made in Japan but no developer or director were mentioned. Jones also mentioned that Metal Gear Survive won't be a $60 title.

Metal Gear Survive will be released in 2017 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.