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Metal Gear Solid - Behind The Scenes

Posted by simoniker on from the corporeal-and-slitherine dept.

Thanks to 1UP for their feature discussing visiting Konami's Japanese offices to check out Metal Gear Solid's newest incarnations. The writer shows some worthy skepticism: "It's a bit odd talking to [MGS creator Hideo] Kojima after playing Metal Gear Solid 2. The question 'What in the hell possessed you to write that script?' is always in the back of your mind", and discovers Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for PS2 has a whole new plot angle, as Kojima explains: "By playing this game, you'll learn about what went on between the two superpowers - America and the Soviet Union." Elsewhere, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for GameCube, also shown despite its Canadian development base at Silicon Knights, lets "...cutscene director Ryuhei Kitamura... cut loose with some of the most inventive violence in videogame history."

10 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Kojime riding a Segway by Zugok · · Score: 2, Funny

    I knew it!! The Segway is connected in someway. Snake has to find theorigin of the Mretal Gears. In actual fact, the first Metal Gears were Segways, designed to be used as tool around the office, much like the Labors in Patlabor. But then some fool had to play around with a staple gun while riding one.. Others prefered to joust. The military picked up on these antics and the rest is history...

    --
    "I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
  2. Hmm... by SuperMo0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As long as MGS3 isn't an interactive MOVIE, I'll be interested in trying it.

    I'm much more interested in grabbing Twin Snakes, if only because I'd love to have the experience of beating a GCN game in a day. >_

    1. Re:Hmm... by CaptMonkeyDLuffy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It can be a question of degree...

      Just because one game spends too long in cutscenes for a particular person's tastes, doesn't necessarily mean they only want to play games with minimal/no plot. There are plot heavy games out there that go heavy handed with the application of cut scenes. Shoot, these days there a few games where it would be possible to play through a game to the end with more time spent in cutscene than in interactive gameplay. On the other hand, there are plot heavy games that make minimal use of cutscenes and still are very tied to their plot.

      To sum it up, just because a person doesn't like a game that is heavy on the cut scenes doesn't mean they don't want a plot heavy game. Silicon Knights(developers working on the MGS1 cube remake) are a good example of this. Their Eternal Darkness is a great example of a very plot driven game that didn't rely on frequently occuring or lengthy cut scenes...

    2. Re:Hmm... by lidocaineus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Unfortunately, the MGS2 story was terrible, which made the cutscenes that much more worse. Tell a story, fine, but a good editor is in order as well!

      On top of that, the gameplay was very subpar , mainly *because* of the cutscenes that kept interrupting it. I find it ironic that you mention Soul Calibur, as the character development and backstory throughtout the series has been staggering, yet it feels nothing like a movie.

      A well done story with plenty of depth doesn't need a crapload of cinemas (though they can help if implemented correctly. Ever played Rez? Any Panzer Dragoon game?

    3. Re:Hmm... by lidocaineus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hahahaha! No offense, but if you think MGS2's story was deep, you haven't read very much literature.

      Let me explain. MGS2 attempted to take an almost nihilistic view and mix it with post-modernism (someone else mentioned that as well). For someone that doesn't know much about either, the story probably seems interesting... however anyone with a remote handling of the philosophical views Kojima was apparently trying to explore would laugh the game into oblivion (awful philosophic reference intended) at how convoluted and confused it mixed various schools of thought into a not very satisfying plot. Not only that, but the same thing us repeated over, and over, and over, AND OVER, as if we didn't get it the first 20 times.

      It only supports my opinions more when you say that you can't seem to grasp the deep storyline in Soul Calibur because it's shown through "simplistic" methods. Maybe you ARE Kojima's unintended target audience; someone who needs ideas and views pounded into their head over and over until they submit.

      And don't tell me I can't appreciate a game with a lot of cinemas. Once again, I'll point to the Panxer Dragoon series, Panzer Dragoon Saga in particular. The game was literally made up 50% of cutscenes, but it easily had one of the coolest stories ever, and one you could appreciate on a bunch of levels... everything from a love story to about 4 distinctly different philosophical schools, to a good vs. evil plot in on direction (and nothing but grey vs grey in another), to... well, it goes on. Did I mention that the gameplay did not suffer because of overly zealous and tedious banter?

      I suggest reading some books on philosophy, then playing MGS2 again - the stuff you thought was profound previously will subsequently have you gaping at the TV wondering if Kojima took an intro to philosophy class and got Kant, Sarte, and Kierkegaard mixed up.

  3. Playing? by warnerve · · Score: 4, Funny

    "after playing Metal Gear Solid 2"

    There was gameplay? I must have picked up the wrong copy of the game. I thought the whole thing was a fairly confusing movie.

  4. History lesson by MMaestro · · Score: 2, Interesting
    "By playing this game, you'll learn about what went on between the two superpowers - America and the Soviet Union."

    Wait, so we're getting a history lesson? Or will this be a revisionist history lesson?

    1. Re:History lesson by AvantLegion · · Score: 3, Funny
      >> Wait, so we're getting a history lesson? Or will this be a revisionist history lesson?

      How dare you suggest that. This is obviously going to be an accurate portrayal of Brezhnev's arsenal of Metal Gear Rexs, and one man's systematical disarmament of that entire regime's Metal Gears, leaving them only with 1,000 plain ol' ICBMs.

  5. Twin Snakes animation by hand? by BackwardEngineer · · Score: 3, Funny

    So if the characters seem really jumpy, does that mean someone was jerking off while they were animating?

  6. Twin Snakes "Versus" by ThePhin · · Score: 2, Informative

    I might just buy a Gamecube to play this, as I'd really love to see the cutscenes by Ryuhei Kitamura. In case you're not familiar with him, he is the director of Versus. Not all my friends liked it, and it is an uneven movie, but I thought it was tons of fun.