Current Known Issues & Solutions

[Anyaira]

This post simply aims to gather all the issues that the community has found and will find, as well as solutions to these problems until Konami patches them up. This is for PC only, Deck users should create a different post.

Legend

• Number between brackets (eg. [1]): These indicate there's a solution for the problem which is listed at the end of the post, simply look for the same number for the specific solution
  
• [-A-] Issue can be solved by the user alone
  
• [-B-] Issue can be solved by a community patch/mod
  
• [SOLVED] Issue is solved from Konami's side and you might need to update your game
  
• [FIXED*] Issue is considered solved since there have been no reports for a long time related to the listed issue

[Updated on Sept 29 2024]

Many of the issues below can be fully or partially solved with mods, here's a Link to the repository of mods in this discussion forum.

Issues

General Known Issues:

• Games crash directly on some systems. (Still appens as of v2.0)
  
• Games output to a black screen on some systems. [FIXED*]
  
• Games output with black bars. [-A-][-B-][1][FIXED*]
  
• No option to change screen resolutions. [-A-][-B-][2][SOLVED]
  
• No option to change output mode (Full Screen, Windowed, Borderless Windowed). [-B-][2][SOLVED]
  
• Forced windowed mode (ALT+ENTER) on monitors with higher refresh rates than 60Hz can cause games to run above 60FPS with gameplay speed tied to the FPS speed (120Hz will cause game to run at 2x speeds). [-A-][3][SOLVED]
  
• Game runs at a higher speed than normal [-A-][3][FIXED*]
  
• Game has audio synching issues. [-A-][3][FIXED*]
  
• Language Packs are not available unless the player uses the SteamDB.
  
• Keyboard keybinds can not be changed. [SOLVED]
  
• Inconsistent controller input between the 3 games for Confirmation/Cancel (O and X, or A and B), MGS1 uses O/B to confirm and X/A to cancel, while MGS2 and MGS3 use the opposite. [FIXED*]
  
• Games have stretching on monitors that are not 16:9. [-B-][2][FIXED*]
  
• Games do not inhibit sleep mode on monitors (needs repro reports) [FIXED*]

MGS1:

• Internal Resolution locked to 240p, further forcibly upscaled to 1080p using a simple bilinear upscaler. [-A-][4]
  
• Steam Cloud Saves are not available. [SOLVED]
  
• Input lag is higher than normal.
  
• True analog mode is missing, analog stick is mapped to 8 directions only (emulates direction arrows).

MGS2:

• Internal Resolution locked to 720p, further forcibly upscaled to 1080p. [-A-][-B-][2][SOLVED]
  
• There is no way to exit the game unless the player goes back to the main menu by either dying or using a node.
  
• Steam Cloud Saves are not available. [SOLVED]
  
• Controller remapping gets reset every time the game is launched. [FIXED*]
  
• Audio is too loud, no in-game sound controls. [-B-][5]
  
• Audio is low quality and sounds distorted. [-B-][5]
  
• Audio issues in some/all cutscenes (low quality, crackling, audio compression?).
  
• Anisotropic Filtering is off/too low. [-A-][6]

MGS3:

• Internal Resolution locked to 720p, further forcibly upscaled to 1080p. [-A-][-B-][2][SOLVED]
  
• Steam Cloud Saves are not available. [SOLVED]
  
• Controller remapping gets reset every time the game is launched. (some reports say it does not carry over to the game but does work in the launcher) [FIXED*]
  
• Mouse has no RAW input, emulated through the right thumbstick only.
  
• Mouse buttons do not work. [FIXED*]
  
• Audio is too loud, no in-game sound controls. [-B-][5][SOLVED]
  
• Audio is low quality and sounds distorted. [-B-][5]
  
• Anisotropic Filtering is off/too low. [-A-][6]
  
• Brightness, Saturation, and Gamma levels are different from the original versions, and the game does not offer any tools to correct this. [-A-][7]
  
• Grass draw distance set too close to camera compared to original version.
  
• When playing at 720p, a blue line artifact crosses the entire screen whenever a particle effect is on-screen. [FIXED*]
  
• Controller inputs remain active even when the game is minimised/alt tabbed. [SOLVED]
  
• Awkward use of TAB for opening the start menu causes the menu to open/close when ALT+TAB out or into the game. (needs repro reports) [FIXED*]
  
• Introduced on patch 1.5 - Controllers are no longer detected by default, requiring players to go through steam's controller options to make them detectable. [-A-][SOLVED]

Solutions

Many of the solutions below can be found in this thread of this very same duscussion forum It also lists a plethora of other useful things that improve the game, so do give it a look for a more satisfying experience. This is the same link found above.

1. Black bars solution Steam community post, now also a community patch.[github.com]
   
2. Screen Resolution Workaround: This requires a Hex edit of your game files, or using a community patch that does the same thing , here's another option - This works for 3, but also technically for 2 as well, though it results in glitches for postprocess effects and the UI. A third option now, which also fixes the black bars issue.[github.com] This also adds borderless and windowed modes.
   
3. Forced window mode, high speed gameplay, and audio desynch can be fixed by going to the control pannel for your graphics card and locking the maximum FPS for the games to 60, Konami added a workaround guide, you can follow this community guide. This is reported to not always work.
   
4. MGS1 bilinear upscale fix or partial fix by some steam community members.
   
5. Audio fix for low quality audio in MGS3 in Nexu Mods.[www.nexusmods.com]
   
6. In order to fix the anisotropic filtering issue, you need to go into your Graphics card's control pannel and enforce it (to 8x or 16x, it has little cost).
   
7. Gamma/Brightness/Saturation can be fixed by the user by changing the Brightness to -12 and Saturation to 115 (reported to work for AMD cards through the control pannel but likely can be done so for all other vendors)
   
8. Link to the community guide on the fix to patch 1.5's issue with controller detection.

Credits

I don't take credit for any of these issues being identified nor their solutions and workarounds, this is just a collection for easy access. Most of these issues I have identified from posts in the metal gear solid reddit, as well as this discussion section on steam.
Any other issues that get identified, you can post below and I will add the little by little to the above post. If it gets too large, I might have to create a different post, or I will delete those issues that have been [SOLVED].

[Sabotaje]

does the resolution mod affect screen effects in MGS2 like rain sprinkles in 1st person view and fog? On the GOG version these effects needed to be removed for the widescreen patch to work because they would get broken.

[Aker]

Messaggio originale di Tatacaw:

does the resolution mod affect screen effects in MGS2 like rain sprinkles in 1st person view and fog? On the GOG version these effects needed to be removed for the widescreen patch to work because they would get broken.

Nah, you should be good as long as you don't play the game with a super high resolution. I play at 1920x1080 and it looks good still.

[DragonViking666]

still not fixed all 3 MGS games running properly. As snake moves like he is in slow motions. Was working at first but the update before recent one that just came out in November the issue started. So idk what the hell is going on got 1 friend how seems to be have 0 issues but i can't play any of them :( Anyone figured out how to solve that issue???

[Sascha]

Other issues that update 1.3.0 fixes that aren`t mentioned:

MGS1:
- MGS VR Missions trophy now unlocks

MGS2:
- The weird rusty metal noise that we heard in the Strut E (Material Distribution Facility) on MGS2 MC has been patched, it is no longer present:
https://twitter.com/Kuwabara357/status/1724419332115976323
- The weird high-pitched noise that didn't match the original version when walking on metal plates in MGS2 has been patched (Introduced in 2011 HD Collection)
https://twitter.com/Kuwabara357/status/1724418422899954086

MGS3:
- Virtuous Mission is now spelled correctly in the MC menu:
https://twitter.com/Kuwabara357/status/1724421362716914056
- The point of fire of the cigar that we saw double in MGS3 has been fixed (Introduced in 2011 HD Collection)
https://twitter.com/Kuwabara357/status/1724420990132785541
- L3 was assigned to several options on MGS3 in the X360 HD Collection. Now interrogation use L2/LT so it doesn\`t conflict with raising/lowering the weapon:
https://twitter.com/Kuwabara357/status/1724431374981943774

Other things that are being worked on they didn`t mention:
- Switch between windowed and full-screen mode
- Ability to change the mouse sensivity in mgs3
https://twitter.com/naven0m/status/1723421168223293658/photo/1
- Ability to change the pixel aspect ratio in MG NES, Snakes Revenge and MGS1
- CRT scanline filter for MG NES, Snakes Revenge and MGS1

[Deathraven13]

Messaggio originale di Sascha:

Other issues that update 1.3.0 fixes that aren`t mentioned:

MGS1:
- MGS VR Missions trophy now unlocks

MGS2:
- The weird rusty metal noise that we heard in the Strut E (Material Distribution Facility) on MGS2 MC has been patched, it is no longer present:
https://twitter.com/Kuwabara357/status/1724419332115976323
- The weird high-pitched noise that didn't match the original version when walking on metal plates in MGS2 has been patched (Introduced in 2011 HD Collection)
https://twitter.com/Kuwabara357/status/1724418422899954086

MGS3:
- Virtuous Mission is now spelled correctly in the MC menu:
https://twitter.com/Kuwabara357/status/1724421362716914056
- The point of fire of the cigar that we saw double in MGS3 has been fixed (Introduced in 2011 HD Collection)
https://twitter.com/Kuwabara357/status/1724420990132785541
- L3 was assigned to several options on MGS3 in the X360 HD Collection. Now interrogation use L2/LT so it doesn\`t conflict with raising/lowering the weapon:
https://twitter.com/Kuwabara357/status/1724431374981943774

Other things that are being worked on they didn`t mention:
- Switch between windowed and full-screen mode
- Ability to change the mouse sensivity in mgs3
https://twitter.com/naven0m/status/1723421168223293658/photo/1
- Ability to change the pixel aspect ratio in MG NES, Snakes Revenge and MGS1
- CRT scanline filter for MG NES, Snakes Revenge and MGS1

Pretty neat.

[WhiteExperience]

A few things I've noticed on MGS2:

- Several visual effects in cutscenes are not working;
- There are several bugged achievements that require you to do a number set of things, but they reset every time the game is closed ("Bye Bye Big Brother", "Johnny on the Spot", "Don't Taze Me, Bro", "Nothing Personal" and "Rent Money");
- The soft reset functionality that allowed you to reset the game by holding down all shoulder buttons, select and start at the same time was removed from the HD Edition;
- Blood type and date of birth information were completely cut from the Dog Tags;
- No mouse support whatsoever;
- The Start button is set to the Tab key on the keyboard, you can't change or disable this, so everytime you use Alt+Tab, it will open/close the game's menu;
- Your gamepad inputs are all active when the game window is minimized;
- The instruction manual available in the HD Edition was removed, you can only see a worse version of it online in a Konami webpage;
- When you change your button layout on the launcher it doesn't save your option, you need to change it back on the launcher every time before you open up the game;
- No Steam Trading Cards;

[Afevis Solmunko]

found another bug, the sun doesn't render correctly at the start of the plant chapter, and the clouds are a single color as a result. confirmed it happened in the hd collection too.
https://www.reddit.com/r/metalgearsolid/comments/189elhp/mgs_master_collection_mgs2_plant_intro_sun_cloud/?

[Punished_Stallion]

the audio for mgs 3 is absolute trash. and that mod doesnt even help

[Anyaira]

I have updated the sound thing for now, somehow didn't add it for some reason before... or maybe I thought it was the cutscene thing only. There's enough reports to know it's very broken. As for the other issues posted, some are already in the list but might have different names, and others I will add a bit later.

[johnnypearl]

Black Bars on a 4K screen TV.

[Anyaira]

Messaggio originale di johnnypearl:

Black Bars on a 2K screen TV.

The issue with the black bars is already listed, unless this is a different issue with similar or identical results. Try the solution linked in the solutions section. Alternatively, look for the recommended mods link, it's the first one in the solutions section.

Edit: It could also be your TV, as mentioned in another post, some TVs, like LG OLED ones, might generate "fake" resolutions that result in the black bars, when the game is executed. The other post has a solution linked as well.

[Aker]

New update should take care of the following:

[Bug Fixes and New Features]

[Metal Gear Solid]
Added new screen setting features
Added the following features.
The settings for each of these features can be changed both before and during gameplay.

(1) Smoothing
Can be turned ON or OFF.
Smooths the picture when turned ON, generates a sharp picture when turned OFF.

(2) Game Screen Settings
Can be set to “Standard”, “Pixel Perfect”, or “16:9”.
The Steam® version of the game also features a “Fullscreen” feature. Can be set to a total of 4 settings—“Standard”, “Pixel Perfect”, “16:9”, or “Fullscreen”.
Wallpaper, display area, and screen filter features are also available when using the “Standard” or “Pixel Perfect” features.
The aspect ratio displayed may differ based on the settings or particulars of your device/setup.
Widescreen: *The original game’s picture (including when letterboxed) will be stretched to fit the 16:9 aspect ratio, in accordance with the aspect ratio of your screen.
Fullscreen: *The original game’s picture (including when letterboxed) will be stretched to fit the maximum possible aspect ratio.

(3) Screen Filter
Can be turned ON or OFF.
Applies a filter that displays scanlines like those on a CRT TV when turned ON.

Added an audio settings feature
Settings for the game volume and main menu volume can be changed prior to play.
Only the game volume can be changed during play.

Added a controller response speed customization feature ( Steam® )
Can choose between “Fast” (new!) and “Stable”.
Some setups may experience unstable performance when set to “Fast”.
If you experience any such issues, please change your settings to “Stable”.

Applied fix to have the game give priority to user set button designs ( Steam® )
Fixed some other minor issues



[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]
Added an audio settings feature
Settings for the game volume and main menu volume can be changed prior to play.
Only the game volume can be changed during play.

Added a "Window Mode" ( Steam® )
Added the ability to change the game to a "Window Mode" prior to play.
This feature can be turned ON or OFF by pressing Alt + Enter on the keyboard.

Applied fix to have the game give priority to user set button designs ( Steam® )
Fixed an issue where the laser pointer would not be displayed during specific cutscenes (PlayStation® 5, PlayStation® 4, Xbox Series X|S, & Steam®)
Fixed an issue where the sea lice would not be properly displayed during certain cutscenes.
Fixed some other minor issues



[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]
Added an audio settings feature
Settings for the game volume and main menu volume can be changed prior to play.
Only the game volume can be changed during play.

Added a "Window Mode" ( Steam® )
Added the ability to change the game to a "Window Mode" prior to play.
This feature can be turned ON or OFF by pressing Alt + Enter on the keyboard.

Applied fix to have the game give priority to user set button designs ( Steam® )
Fixed an issue where certain face paints are displayed at a lower resolution
Fixed some other minor issues



[Metal Gear & Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]
Added an audio settings feature
Settings for the game volume and main menu volume can be changed prior to play.
Only the game volume can be changed during play.

Added a "Window Mode" ( Steam® )
Added the ability to change the game to a "Window Mode" prior to play.
This feature can be turned ON or OFF by pressing Alt + Enter on the keyboard.

Applied fix to have the game give priority to user set button designs ( Steam® )
Fixed some other minor issues

[Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 Bonus Content]
Added new screen setting features
Added the following features.
The settings for each of these features can be changed both before and during gameplay.

(1) Smoothing
Can be turned ON or OFF.
Smooths the picture when turned ON, generates a sharp picture when turned OFF.

(2) Game Screen Settings
Can be set to “Standard”, “Pixel Perfect”, or “16:9”.
The Steam® version of the game also features a “Fullscreen” feature. Can be set to a total of 4 settings—“Standard”, “Pixel Perfect”, “16:9”, or “Fullscreen”.
Wallpaper, display area, and screen filter features are also available when using the “Standard” or “Pixel Perfect” features.
The aspect ratio displayed may differ based on the settings or particulars of your device/setup.

(3) Screen Filter
Can be turned ON or OFF.
Applies a filter that displays scanlines like those on a CRT TV when turned ON.

Added an audio settings feature
Settings for the game volume and main menu volume can be changed prior to play.
Only the game volume can be changed during play.

Applied fix to have the game give priority to user set button designs ( Steam® )
Fixed some other minor issues



[Issues Under Investigation]

[Metal Gear Solid]
An issue in which certain cutscenes stop playing
An issue in which analog input does not work as intended



[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]
An issue where gameplay video recorded using the platform's features does not retain a portion of audio ( Xbox Series X|S )
An issue where inputs via the keyboard are registered for the game even when the Alt key is held down ( Steam® )



[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]
An issue where a portion of character textures are displayed at a low resolution
An issue where gameplay video recorded using the platform's features does not retain a portion of audio ( Xbox Series X|S )
An issue where inputs via the keyboard are registered for the game even when the Alt key is held down ( Steam® )



[Metal Gear & Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]
An issue where inputs via the keyboard are registered for the game even when the Alt key is held down ( Steam® )

[Anyaira]

Updated the bugs list with 1.5 fixes as well as the controller detection bug introduced with it. Also added a link to the mods repository from the other forum post for even easier access.

There are still some bugs from MGS1 not updated on the lis, so refer to the post above for clarification.

[Bonk Investor (RadioDiver)]

Solution number 8 doesn't work after going in-game (for me at least), i created that post so if you see this op maybe edit this post.
i jus wanna play some mgs3 man

[Anyaira]

Messaggio originale di Bonk Investor:

Solution number 8 doesn't work after going in-game (for me at least), i created that post so if you see this op maybe edit this post.
i jus wanna play some mgs3 man

Then I take it it doesn't really solve the problem, or maybe the instructions aren't clear enough... can't really do much from this side unfortunately, I can only post it might not work for everyone =/.