Kojima Planning "Something Big" for Metal Gear's 25th

[John Funk]

Kojima Planning "Something Big" for Metal Gear's 25th

Metal Gear turns 25 next year, and Hideo Kojima is planning something - but don't expect to see it at this year's E3.

In July of 1987, Konami released a top-down "stealth-based" action game for the MSX2 computer system called Metal Gear, a game which would eventually see release on the NES. Eleven years later, in 1998, Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation brought the series to a new level of popularity, officially making it one of the biggest names in gaming.

July of 2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the Metal Gear series, and creator Hideo Kojima has something big planned to celebrate. At least, that's the news from a very quick yes-or-no Q&A session in the latest Kojima Productions podcast, according to Andriasang [http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05/27/kojima_questions/]. There is no word on anything related to the 25th anniversary celebration other than that.

However, Kojima's many "no" answers were as illuminating as his "yes" ones. According to Kojima, he will not be appearing at Microsoft's E3 press conference, he will not be announcing a Metal Gear Solid 5, they will not be showing the multiplayer of MGS: Rising, and there are no plans to port MGS4 to Sony's NGP, tech demonstrations notwithstanding.

On the other hand, Kojima did confirm that the 3DS remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - also known as the best game in the franchise and one of the best games ever made - will be seeing a release by the end of the year. That's something, anyway.

I would be very surprised if Kojima did announce MGS5, seeing as how Peace Walker was already supposed to be MGS5 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98590-Metal-Gear-Solid-Peace-Walker-Was-MGS5].

(Eurogamer [http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05/27/kojima_questions/])

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[LiquidGrape]

You are never going to give up on that photo, are you?

Not that I complain. It's glorious.

 

[Ninjamedic]

If it is a new Metal Gear game, I hope they implement the greatest close range defense mechanism of all time:

 

[John Funk]

You are never going to give up on that photo, are you?

Not that I complain. It's glorious.

It's actually in our Escapist Newsie guidelines. If we don't use the duck photo, we get beaten.

 

[Jazoni89]

So, does that mean that the mystery Kojima game at this years E3 is not Metal Gear?

Hopefully it's the third Zone of the Enders game.

Pretty please Kojima, with a cherry on top.

 

[Dan Brown]

I've never heard anyone else praise MGS3 as the best in the series. But don't get me wrong, I totally agree! (Although admittedly I haven't played MGS4 or any of the unnumbered ones)

 

[therandombear]

You are never going to give up on that photo, are you?

Not that I complain. It's glorious.

It's actually in our Escapist Newsie guidelines. If we don't use the duck photo, we get beaten.

I thought so.

They get beaten, lose their right for cookies and all of John Funks Gundam/other statues on his desk get incinerated.

..what kind of poker are we talking about here?

 

[ProfessorLayton]

On the other hand, Kojima did confirm that the 3DS remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - also known as the best game in the franchise and one of the best games ever made - will be seeing a release by the end of the year. That's something, anyway.

That's got to be a joke. Metal Gear Solid 2 is better than all of the others combined and multiplied by 10. Sons of Liberty is a masterpiece.

But as a big MGS fan, I'm excited to see what this news could mean. Possibly an HD compilation? Who knows. One thing I do know, however, is that no matter what it is I'm probably going to buy it...

 

[Rad Party God]

Hehe, from the moment I saw the name Kojima in the headline, I knew you'd put that photo.

Spoiler: I'd like to see this one someday

But whatever, I wonder what his plans will be?, maybe an HD re-release in the vein of the God of War Collection or the ICO Collection?, that would be sweet.

 

[Treblaine]

On the other hand, Kojima did confirm that the 3DS remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - also known as the best game in the franchise and one of the best games ever made - will be seeing a release by the end of the year. That's something, anyway.

That's got to be a joke. Metal Gear Solid 2 is better than all of the others combined and multiplied by 10. Sons of Liberty is a masterpiece.

But as a big MGS fan, I'm excited to see what this news could mean. Possibly an HD compilation? Who knows. One thing I do know, however, is that no matter what it is I'm probably going to buy it...

-Raiden

I could stop right there but I will go on

-Raiden whining to Rose
-Rose nagging Raiden
-Raiden whining to Colonel
-Paul Eiding phoning in his lines
-That Big shell bullshit
-Solidus Snake
-Bullshit ending
-Human genome project was conspiracy theory
-take over world via the internet
-hour long cutscenes
-The President fondling Raiden's Balls
-half as many boss fights most of them extremely lame (invisible wall in Fortune fight)
-Extremely derivative of prequel lamely covered up
-the plot makes... no sense at all, especially the ending.
-lame codec conversations
-Oh yeah and Democracy in America? Also a Sham.
-Ex War criminal becomes President, identical twin brother of Solid Snake yet no one notices
-Same Ex President hijacks oil rig with help of russians... err...
-oil rig secretly built a ship 100x larger than any ship ever built... just a few miles from New York.
-Fat Man = the worst boss fight ever.
-Bomb spray quest = blatant boring padding
-Iroquois Pliskin, everyone thinks "Why can't I play this guy?"
-Fortune = broken boss fight,
-This:
Would that somehow have been all right if Raiden had been a woman? This is crazy world!

While MGS3 had:
-better than Solid Snake, play Big Boss in his prime, voiced by David Hayter.
-Deep camouflage system but not overpowered like octocamo
-Eva - such a sensual character
-The most epic boss fights... ever. The End and especially the final confrontations
-Large and interesting rogues gallery of opponents
-GREAT codec conversations, the banter you can have with SIGINT = classic
-The Boss - epitome of cool
-Wonderful rich Soviet-themed setting
-That music, that Bond-themed opening
-A personal story that matters in the centre, not a gigantic bullshit conspiracy theory
-Snake vs Monkey mode
-You get to kill Raidenov
-Volgin - perfect balance of fantastical and realism. Comic Book reality. Not Crazy person reality
-highest gameplay-to-cutscene ratio since MGS1
-Deep healing/vitality system

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Man, this makes me want Rising out already! MGS4 is the second best game ever, after Conker's Bad Fur Day. If it's Metal Gear related and on the PS3 I'll probably get it... I'm a fanboy, I know.

 

[Trogdor1138]

I'm hoping for a PS3 compilation of MG1,2 and MGS1-3. I would pay so much for that. Especially if it had all the extra features from VR Missions, Substance and Subsistence. It would be the greatest disc ever made.

I'm looking forward to what he has in store, Kojima is my favourite videogame developer.

 

[Treblaine]

On the other hand, Kojima did confirm that the 3DS remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - also known as the best game in the franchise and one of the best games ever made - will be seeing a release by the end of the year. That's something, anyway.

John, you mixed up Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4 again.

How could you like a game with such a broken stealth mechanic. The octocamo was just so "overpowered" it was too effective and the enemy was not smart enough to make the adding the extra challenge to balance it out.

Oh yeah and the story telling:

Globe trotting all over the world half way through the game you still have no clue what you are supposed to even be doing, doesn't help how the ending of MGS2 made ZERO sense. I have asked several die-hard MGS2 fans and they all give completely different and contradictory "explanations" for MGS2's ending. None of them help with MGS4.

"WAIT Last 45 minutes a LONG dead character is going to come back to life, say a bunch of insane shit that contradicts EVERYTHING but wraps up all loose ends by banal exposition then die and sort it all out"

 

[Mysten]

"Everything post-Metal Gear Solid was all a dream. It ended after Shadow Moses!"

Oh, Kojima, you do love me!

 

[Treaos Serrare]

so many awesome things it could be, really, id kill for a PS3 port of Peace Walker*covets his autographed copy*

 

[Treblaine]

On the other hand, Kojima did confirm that the 3DS remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - also known as the best game in the franchise and one of the best games ever made - will be seeing a release by the end of the year. That's something, anyway.

John, you mixed up Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4 again.

How could you like a game with such a broken stealth mechanic. The octocamo was just so "overpowered" it was too effective and the enemy was not smart enough to make the adding the extra challenge to balance it out.

Oh yeah and the story telling:

Globe trotting all over the world half way through the game you still have no clue what you are supposed to even be doing, doesn't help how the ending of MGS2 made ZERO sense. I have asked several die-hard MGS2 fans and they all give completely different and contradictory "explanations" for MGS2's ending. None of them help with MGS4.

"WAIT Last 45 minutes a LONG dead character is going to come back to life, say a bunch of insane shit that contradicts EVERYTHING but wraps up all loose ends by banal exposition then die and sort it all out"

The exact same mechanic was in MGS3 - the difference is it was manual as opposed to MGS4's automatic.

You can't blame MGS4 for MGS2's problems, or your not paying attention. Its easy to follow whats going on in the game - Liquid is up to something, find out what. Follow him.

As for Big Boss being dead, no, they told you he was dead. A character not actually being dead but pretending he was is a pretty damn old narrative device.

Automatic made a CRAPLOAD of difference.

It means with ZERO THOUGHT OR EFFORT you can lay down ANYWHERE and be effectively invisible.

MGS3's stealth mechanic worked because less in more. You have to WORK for each camo and each works only so well with each background. There were other elements such as trading camouflage for status effects like reduced bullet damage, reduced flame damage and so on. There was an actual GAME to it. You very rarely got +90% camo, you had to really keep yoru distance and keep low and still, even then it was a gamble of getting spotted.

Octocamo was like playing with cheats from the start.

I AM paying attention, we ALL are it's just Hideo isn't. It's amazing how many "clear explanations" of MGS2 are hastily dismissed when MGS4 doesn't fit with them at all. MGS4 actually goes to extraordinary lengths to explain everything, it gos TOO FAR and does it in the worst possible way.

The appropriate way to recover from MGS2's bullshit is say basically "it was all a dream" and have the beginning of MGS4 be the end of MGS2. You play as Snake (in Pliskin role) as you find Raiden who has gone completely insane with a samurai sword, he is clearly hallucinating and babbling about conspiracy theories. You knock Raiden out and discover the full extend of Solidus and Ocelot's plan. Taking Raiden back to your HQ you discover is one of the many victims of Solidus who weaves such complex tales of lies and conspiracy theories to control his child soldiers that they are utterly dependant on Solidus.

Colonel Campbell tells Snake he remembers interrogating this Raiden after he was caught on a suicide bombing mission that had been ordered by Solidus, only he was so fucked in the head that the brainwashed soldier began having delusions that Campbell was his commanding officer. He would have vivid hallucinations of codec calls with Campbell thinking they were calls from a codec-radio implanted in his head, but it was just his broken mind. He desperately wanted to kill Solidus but couldn't willingly think about it from the decades of abuse and brainwashing, so he constructed this fantasy of Campbell and Rose to send him on this mission. That he was an American agent. That he could be like Solid Snake.

THAT would actually make sense because everything about MGS2 to do with Raiden is INSANE. This "oh I've been ordered around by AI" is nonsense, no computer is even one-millionth as sophisticated to pull of a deception like that. But the human mind is. Think about it, what is a codec call but a voice inside your head? How many of the insane things Raiden hears are from codec conversations?

MGS4 is full of so much "what a twist" M Night Shyamalan bullshit.

-Snake was not "told" Big Boss was dead he KNEW he was dead he killed him himself, the game explicitly said that they resurrected him only for him to conveniently die once his exposition was over.
-if you are going to bring back Big Boss WHY DO IF FOR JUST THE FINAL 45 MINUTES OF EXPOSITION. Bring him back to be an ACTIVE character, have him be an ally or a final boss or a third point on a triangle of conflict.
-That bullshit run-around with the body of Solidus? Claiming even Eva knew about the switch yet why did she throw herself into flames as the sight of Solidus' remains being destroyed? That is bullshit, makes no sense and is hugely annoying. It just feels like Kojima tacked on the graveyard scene with zero build up
-Major Zero was the mastermind of The Patriots? REAAAAALLLLYYY! That just sounds like they ran out of characters from the back-story.


How is this for an idea:
Solidus and Big Boss are TWINS! None of this "third clone with rapid aging" bullshit.
Yes they were selected from birth by a eugenics program comparing nature and nurture, and whether life experiences can - in any way - be transmitted through genes. And also how much we are bound by out genes.

Solidus and Big Boss are genetically identical as twins, from their birth in 1930's (time of a LOT of eugenics ideas in both Germany and America) but they were raised completely differently. Solidus was basically raised to be evil, to do every little underhanded and Machiavellian thing to achieve his aims as a soldier, Big Boss was far more idealistic. But how would they turn out?

While Big Boss was on sensitive missions in the Soviet forests, Solidus was on a Rampage throughout South East Asia doing horrific things in battling communism but also secretly and selfishly building a base of power.

It's like Solid and Liquid. Same genes, different circumstances. They are one they opposite, complimentary and opposing, ying and yang.

MGS3 wasn't as compelling as MGS1 but unlike 2 and 4 at least it was coherent and well rounded but still keeping that touch of Metal Gear madness enough to keep things interesting (over the top Villains) but not crazy town (the president is a fake, as well as the Human Genome project).