Better strap yourselves in, laddies. This one's gonna' be a long one. Also, going to include some music occasionally with sections, like this. That's for the first part, by the way. The rest will be smattered about as links.

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Introduction

Hello friends! I'm sure you've seen me about these parts before -- I'm Dr_Angelic. But if you haven't seen me around here but the name sounds familiar, you may have seen me about the r/Eve subreddit! (It's where I spend most of my time.) As sort of a mini-update, I'm doing well post-alliance-tournament, regardless of the fact that we got ROFL-stomped in both of our matches. I've been getting by with an assortment of games that I've ended up with by the good nature of others on r/GiftOfGames, and one on my friends list (more on the latter at the end of this section).

So far, I've received 3 games from GoG-fairies:

• Elite: Dangerous
• Watch Dogs
• Before the Echo

Update on the games:

Before the Echo: I'm still playing this one every so often! It's a very nice casual game for when I need to wind down after a harsh day at work. And I have some unhealthy obsession with crafting everything in the game at least once. So by that, I'm only on the 3rd level (out of 7)! But I think I've got the hang of the game. It's quite nice.

Watch Dogs: I beat this sucker. I beat it into the ground, and then some. I literally played nothing but Watch Dogs for almost a week and a half straight, maybe more. Then I played a bunch of multiplayer and finished up the side missions that I hadn't done (but not all, that's like 100%'ing an assassin's creed game... which I am liable to go back and do for II/II.2/II.3 at some point).

Elite: Dangrous: Wow. If I didn't have one heck of a time already grinding my butt off in Eve, I'd probably play this even more than I have already. I did find it slightly easier to use the out-of-steam launcher, so my hours might not be as indicative. I played the heck out of this during my vacation since I only had really crappy internet (yes, in Solo mode then, if anyone's wondering). This is one of those games that I have to plan a night for nowadays, since it's just such an engulfing game. And attractive. No, I'm not hitting on the game. I am a little dissapointed with the devs for the expansion coming out soon, but at least I'll still be able to play without it! (Just like payday 2. Which I admittedly need to play more of.) Even though I found farming NPC Pirates very lucrative, I mainly just do exploration, and even though I still get the jitters when I fly about a sun at high speeds, I enjoy just being in the middle of unexplored space, flying about and seeing things other players have never seen before. Was thinking of attempting to mod it with SweetFx, but I think I'll hold off on that for now and appreciate the game how it is (and not heat up my room by causing my computer to catch fire).

Update on myself:

I'm doing a lot better since the last time I had actually requested a game (Elite: Dangerous, since the other two were offers I picked up on. From the same person, crazily enough. You cray, u/jpsCrazy.). Work had died down a little before everything picked back up in the "oh god everything is once again falling apart and burning and you're the only person to hold it together on second shift". Alas, that's how things go. I binge-watched Rick & Morty recently, and have absolutely loved every minute and a half of it. Sort of fell off on studying for my Series 7 -- but I've been casually reading the study book, so that's been helpful. Been playing a bunch of F2P games as of late as well as re-playing a bunch of old classics on my old gamecube -- the metroid series, wind waker/twilight princess, pikmin (don't look at my posts on r/Warframe, I'm a noob). As far as my Reddit karma goes, I've been gettin' away with some real BS on r/Eve, but also getting/giving some solid advice. Still busy as all heck with work, and nearly every night have to immediately put up my feet somewhere for a couple of minutes.

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The request

So, to provide some backstory on the request itself, I first have to admit a mildly embarrassing fact: I've yet to actually PLAY Snake Eater or Peace Walker personally. I have, however, played through part 1 of Sons of Liberty... and that was confusing enough as it was. That aside, a couple of months back (read: nearly a year ago!), I got the chance to play MGS: Ground Zeros on my friend's console (can't remember which one, I'm pretty sure it was the Xbox, though). After going through the main campaign and the side ops a couple of times when visiting, I sort of forgot about it until someone mentioned that Phantom Pain had just come out. I swiftly added Ground Zeros to my wishlist and discussed the game with my S.O.

This is where the weirdness of getting a game from a friend from way back in the day comes in. Not even 30 minutes after putting it on my wish list, a very old friend of mine from college sends me Ground Zeros, saying that he had pre-ordered TPP and got a copy of it... after he had already bought GZ when it first came out. Well, needless to say, I was up until 7 AM that night (and really dead at work that day). I've been playing it on and off for fun over the past two weeks, and jeeze, I was happy I downloaded it when I did. My internet went out for nearly two days at one point -- with some bits of service here and there. If you ever want to see what kind of a person someone is, don't just give them no internet, give them BAD internet. I'm definitely not even remotely close to 100%'ing the game, and I don't know if I'm going to want to attempt that. Not really THAT much of a completionist, thank you very much.

Well, now we're getting to the point of this long-winded-yet-totally-necessary request. I would like to request Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This (currently popular) sequel to Ground Zeros, and in turn, Peace Walker, if you consider GZ & TPP to be part of the same game is apparently getting rave reviews and high praise from all sorts of fans of the series. Heck, I even binge-watched (can you see a theme? I like binge-watching/playing things) a Let's Play of Peace Walker in order to psych myself up for it. Given, I still don't understand the storyline, but w/e. How many hours have people been getting out of it on average so far? Oh, I'd say about... 80-100 plus hours just to complete the main campaign. Not even all the side quests! I've resisted the urge to watch any Let's Plays of the game, nor look at any spoilers for it.

I should not be this hyped about the game. Heck, I've even planned what music that I'm probably going to put for the custom music on the helicopter. Either this or that. First one's a rather nice 'Orchestra-rock' esque theme from Kill La Kill, and the second one is the Pillar Men theme from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, part two. Both of which I would recommend people go watch at some point.

Why I want it? For the sheer amount of content, fun, and "kojima-ness" the game holds. It's honestly one of my most anticipated games of the year, and I had to resist the urge to get it (or spoil it for myself!) -- and get groceries instead. Eating, contrary to popular belief (among some groups, that is), is more important than playing a AAA-game immediately on launch. That second part is mainly why I haven't gotten it yet (and aren't planning on getting it for a couple of months, or whenever it goes on sale).

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All that aside, I've got an itching to play TPP... and until then, I'm going to be a good kojima fan and play the heck out of Ground Zeros & Before the Echo. If y'all have any questions, feel free to leave some comments! I'm always down for chatting about inane random things. Including Eve. Especially eve.

Fly Safe!

o7