Solid Snake (Not pictured: Hideo Kojima)

I'm now home from GO3 Electronic and Entertainment Expo, but I've still got some writeups for you.
Day 2 2.20pm - Hideo Kojima, Konami – "Evolution in Technology and Changes in Game Design"

The title for today's conference certainly sounded grand, but there was certainly nothing grand about Hideo's presentation as he gave out a rather flat performance to the biggest crowd I've yet seen at any conference attended these past few days.

With a large delegation of Hideo's fan base veritably hanging off his very words, Hideo ran the crowd across the broad expanse of his plainly impressive career.

In the 80's, according to Hideo, we had games that were focused primarily on shooting. His attempt at something different was fuelled by a game people of all ages love to play, hide and seek. This was finally realised in 1986 when the MSX 2 platform was released. Initial plans to make a combat game revolved around a game based on running away. That quickly changed into a sneaking game, which finally transformed into the very first stealth game ever made, Metal Gear. Released in Japan in 1987, it was also the first time an action game was implemented with a storyline.

With the great success of the game locally and in other parts of the world, the decision to make a sequel was an obvious one. On the same platform, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was release in 1990, carrying with it a deeper focus on storyline as well as a greater AI system.

Moving on to 1992 we see the release of the CD-Rom based 3DO console. With its broad palette of colours and the ability to implement voice and music in-game, the foundation for some great games was finally realised, with the release of Snatcher, followed later on by Policenauts.

1994 saw the release of the Sega Saturn and the Sony Playstation. The introduction of 3D brings a name change to the franchise, with the addition of 'Solid' suggesting the changing face of gaming within the 3D world. Taking advantage of the Playstation's remarkable 3D capabilities, Metal Gear Solid was released 4 years later in 1998. Introducing enormous potential for complexity, different camera views were added, allowing greater flexibility in the stealth genre. Adding cinematic qualities to the gameplay, which no doubt millions of players recall during the beginning stages of the game with guards approaching but stopping just before the heart would burst in wretched anxiety, the game propelled Hideo to the legendary figure he is today.




The evolution of a Snake - Metal Gear Solid, 2, 3, Portable Ops, 4
2000 brings in the DVD-ROM to appear in hardware, particularly the Playstation 2.
Hideo decided to place emphasis on immersion over reality, but still managed to express the environment in greater detail such as using heat, wind and rain effects to affect gameplay. Using motion-capture for realistic characterisation and on the back of both a massive increase in CPU usage and 20 million polygons per second, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was released in 2001.

MGS4: Guns of the Patriots

Emphasising that every Metal Gear release to this date had a different stage, or setting where the action was taking place, Hideo decided to go back to the drawing board and cast Snake in a different light. Rather than the artificial, it was decided to use the natural and what better natural locale for a stealth game than within the confines of a jungle. Surprisingly critical of how badly the jungle actually looked when shown on a big screen (much to the amusement of the crowd), a few of the central concepts with the next game were survival and capture, cure (healing via the acquirement of food from the jungle) and camouflage. As if to emphasis the name of the title by showing off a video of Snake tucking into his namesake, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was released in 2004 to much critical acclaim.

Moving past the PSP incarnation of the franchise, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, we arrive at 2007, where we enter the world of high definition, 5.1 surround sound and the capacity for network play, with the release of the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. With all possible locations, or as Hideo put it, all possible 'stages' already used, there was no choice but to throw away the concept of 'place' and replace it with a 'situation'. At that moment, an impressive trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots fired up, showing exactly what situation we can expect to find the ageing Snake, in the midst of a war.

In his closing remarks, Hideo emphasised that with the continuous changes in technology, collaborations will be necessary between expects in a wide selection of fields to deliver a greater experience in future titles. Game design needs to evolve with the technology and really, there is no end in sight to technological evolution.

In summary, there's no doubt whatsoever that the man standing before us knows his stuff and should rightly be considered a legend within the industry. But at the risk of foregoing any future membership into the Hideo Kojima fan club, he should have stayed home and sent all of us that bothered to attend the speech the URL to his Wikipedia entry. The entire speech was more flat and much less tasty than the pancake I had for breakfast that morning. Mind you, the pancakes were a bit burnt, which if I had taken more notice was a precursor to how I and some of my media colleagues felt as we walked out – burnt and hungry for more.

4.35 pm Deep in the bowels of the convention centre. Can't say anything due to NDA, but get ready for something special folks. More information when I'm allowed.