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Dyack Talks Metal Gear Solid - Twin Snakes
Courtesy of PlanetGamecube, we have their recently-typed-up E3 interview with Denis Dyack, the boss of Silicon Knights (Eternal Darkness), who are currently working on Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for Gamecube. This enhanced remake of the original Metal Gear Solid for Playstation is due out for Xmas 2003, and Dyack gives some hints as to how the original's content may be enhanced - "If you think about the first game and how it's all set up, and then think about the dynamics of the second game, it should be a completely new experience."
fp
MGS 2: Sons of Liberty was lambasted for it's endless cutscenes but was jaw droppingly gorgeous at the time.
MGS 2: Substance is actually very good. The full Sons of Liberty game, PLUS a whole pile of extra missions, not to mention a ton of VR missions. Awesome stuff. (And the soundtrack is fantastic.)
And then they announce this, a remake of the original from the PSX. Am I the only one intensely disappointed with this? I mean Substance is a good idea, take the original and add tons and tons of stuff on top. Marvellous, but to remake the original? That's just lame.
Great article. I wonder when will consoles get to the point, where personal computers are now, quality- and speed-wise. I think, that as soon as they achieve that goal, they will really start to push gamers' PC's out of the market. (Lindows, anyone?) Great reading though.
Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It'
Anyone remember the seperate VR Missions game that came out after MGS? I really hope they include that. I almost had more fun doing those than playing the real game...
That being said, I'll seriously consider getting myself a Gamecube if only to play this game, and Metroid prime but... A new metal gear title rather than a rehashed one would seem from my perspective to be evidence of more substantive support for the gamecube, rather than something which, while selling well, will essentially be nothing new aside from the addition of some game mechanics that weren't previously featured.
I don't think the thrill of playing this rehash will replicate the 2 days off I took from college in order to beat the original metal gear solid. Living out of my neighbor's dorm room and only stopping for sleep and pizza. This game put a serious dent in my GPA when it initially came out, unlike the sons of liberty which took about 4 hours of total playing time to defeat.
In the sense that another generation of gamers will experience what I consider to be a piece of gaming history, it will be fantastic, but still... I cannot keep myself from wondering why two original metal gear titles could not have been released.
Remaking MGS is great, don't get me wrong. I played through it on the PSX, then on the DC using Bleemcast (which was quite cool, I might add). It is, easily, one of the 10 best games out of the far too many that I've played in my lifetime.
I just think they remade the wrong game.
The original two Metal Gear games (MG2 for the MSX, not Snake's Revenge, bleh), while frustratingly hard and not graphically beautiful, had interesting plots and are referred to in the Metal Gear Solid series. Metal Gear was the first game I had for the Nintendo (my cousin gave it to me when I was 8), I hated it. I later read a book in the young adult section of my library that was a novelized version of the story and loved it (I really would like to find it again, but don't know who released it). I went back and played the game years later and loved it. MG2 was never released for a major console, just the MSX computer system. It had the first radar utility and was also very good story wise. It's a quality premise and with a nextgen system around it, both titles would shine.
Just think that if you really want to get a new generation of gamers into a (potentially) very good game that they haven't already played, you need to go a little farther back.
When Metal Gear SOlid came out on PSX, no one I spoke with even heard of the original.
Let that boy have a decent hair cut. Don't bring back the mullet! Well mullet or not I'm weak I'll buy it.
-- Some days you're the dog; some days you're the hydrant.
here
Looks promising. However, Konami should shoot the guy who thougt that sliding text phrases all over the preview would "enhance" the trailer experience.
ick!