Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes - Page 2

"Video games as a medium haven't matured very much at all in the last 25 years," explained Kojima at a round table interview conducted today. "It's always about killing aliens and zombies. Not that I don't like those kinds of games... they are fun, but I think games have a long way to go before they can mature.

"Over the past 25 year I have tried to work with the Metal Gear series to introduce more mature themes, but really it hasn't gotten there yet. Compared to movies and books it still has a long way to go.

"That's precisely what I want to try to tackle with Ground Zeroes. Honestly I'm going to be targeting a lot of taboos, a lot of mature themes that really are quite risky. I'm not even sure if I'm going to be able to release the game, and even if I did release the game then maybe it wouldn't sell because it's too much. As a creator I want to take that risk."

Making games is difficult, but I have an idea: Game developers should, like, get together and confer. They could give talks and demonstrations about how they make their games to help others do the same. It could be a lot like the Game Developers Conference (GDC) happening in San Francisco from March 25–29.

Speaking of GDC, the overseers of that event announced today that Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima will give a talk at this year’s conference. The developer will speak about using his studio’s Fox Engine graphics suite to create detailed visuals in a talk titled “Photorealism through the eyes of a ‘Fox’ — The core of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.”

During this presentation, Kojima will give the first-ever live demonstration of the Fox Engine. I also think it’s safe to assume that the famed developer will trot out the new Metal Gear game a few times.

This is Kojima’s first talk at GDC since he gave the keynote address in 2009. That’s the same year that the Game Developer Choice Awards, held in conjunction with GDC, presented him the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is the latest entry in the long-running espionage-action series. Ground Zeroes will feature open-world gameplay, and it takes place after the events of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PlayStation Portable.

In Ground Zeroes for example, you are free, it really happens in real time. You are free to choose your own equipment, choose the route you want to take. All of this happens at the same pace as it would in reality. The stress is important in a game of this genre. We ourselves, when we play it for 2 or 3 hours, we are exhausted.

Certain players will be able to discover passages, in which they will find no enemies in their path. On the other hand, others will find less ideal solutions, and they will be forced to engage in action scenes. This is how we are working, asking ourselves questions, to find out whether it’s playable or not.

As far as stealth is concerned, you don’t normally just start in a building. If you look at spy and action movies, how the hero gets to that point is a very important part of the story and part of the action. Do they get there by plane or by some sort of disguise? There are so many different ways they can approach that element of infiltration. That’s something that we couldn’t really accomplish on the MSX or the first PlayStation due to technical limitations.

But now that we finally had the power of the PS2, that’s something that became possible. It’s something that I wanted to do very early on in the series so when it became possible I decided to try and implement that into gameplay. But my ultimate goal really is to give players even more freedom, not only to figure out how they’re going to get there but really have everything factor into it. So, do you want to get there by helicopter, do you want to get there by plane, are you going to ride in a vehicle or are you going to take a bike? Basically to have all of these options available to the player.

Up until now Metal Gear has more or less been set on one path like you’re on a set rail to get from point A to point B with a certain amount of freedom between. What I want to do is create a true open world experience where the player has all these options available to them and really limitless gameplay. That’s what I’m trying to accomplish with my next project, Ground Zeroes.

As far as the next generation goes, we can already be sure that in terms of visuals, sound and the processing speed, the framerate, all will be improved. So we will be able to express ourselves more easily. But at this moment, while working I say to myself that the next machines are also about the cloud, social, the ability to use different devices like the tablets, and it is with this in mind that I develop my projects.