Kojima Disappointed With Metal Gear Solid 4

By DirtyLarry
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Grand Master

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Looks like Kojima Jr. isn't the only one disappointed with Metal Gear Solid. The latest issue of the UK's Edge magazine contains an interview with Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, who expresses disappointment with the latest game in the series, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. It isn't so much the gameplay itself as it is the graphics.

"Game-wise, it's pretty close to the original vision: you sneak into the battlefield and can choose whether to do a stealth game or interfere with the battle more directly. But the graphic, side things like motion-blending and the size of the map, totally was not accomplished to my original vision - to my satisfaction.

Now Kojima is a well-known perfectionist, but it is a bit disturbing to see him voice his dissatisfaction with what is supposed to be the masterpiece of the franchise. So where does he lay the blame for not fully realizing his vision?

"When we first showed the game engine at TGS, the staff were really proud and happy. PS3 was a dream machine, y'know, and we were going to work on this and that - and we had so many ideas. But when we actually started developing the game, we realized there were a lot of restrictions and so it turned out how you see it today. The original vision was to go ten steps further, the reality was just one step, which isn't to say we didn't progress.

So there was certainly progress made, but not enough progress...or more specifically, not enough power for progress. Apparently the team overestimated what the PlayStation 3 was capable of.

I remember saying three years ago that we wanted to create something revolutionary, but in reality we couldn't really do that because of the CPU. We're using the Cell engine to its limit., actually. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the PS3 machine, it's just that we weren't really aware of what the full-spec PS3 offered - we were creating something we couldn't entirely see.

Well there you have it, straight from the man himself. Metal Gear Solid 4 is not revolutionary. Personally I think the man is being a bit hard on himself, but that's what great minds do.

Source: Kotaku

Not sure how to take this. I personally have thought it looks amazing, and am chalking this up more to unreal expectations and the perfectionist nature of Kojima more than anything else.

Still, it is interesting that he basically says it is only 1/10th of his original vision.

Grand Master

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Kojima is a nutcase at times, he's never "happy" with anything :laugh:

Between him and the guys at PD always chasing perfection.

I hope this might mean more MGS though? :shifty: Doubt it though.

I'm just happy I've heard from the 1UP guys, MGS4 answers EVERYTHING we have questions about (Y) That's pretty much why I don't see another MGS happening. No questions, no need for more answers?

Grand Master

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Based on the article it seems like they thought the PS3 was much more powerful than it is...

He wanted bigger worlds keeping the same graphics...

Still, im pretty sure MGS 4 will be awesome, Kojima sets his standard way too high.

Well with Sony's original hype of 2 HDMI ports and all the other jazz, the PS3 sounded like a super computer :laugh: (an actual super computer).

Not that it isn't powerful, it's a piece of kit that does do a lot, and there is no way it's "maxed out" yet.

MGS4 looks great anyway, I've seen no frame rate hickups or anything from the videos we've seen - And all the previews from the group of folk that got to play it from start to finish say it looks amazing.

Guess Kojima just wanted to do more. Maybe with your next game Kojima ;)

Grand Master

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or maybe with the ps4? seems like the cell didn't provide them with enough power.

Well maybe his visions will need to make him wait to the next generation?

However I wouldn't look at this as an overall view of we won't see great looking games this generation, just that maybe whatever Kojima wanted to do, wasn't feasible with the current hardware.

In one way it's a bit of marketing PR, everyone knows MGS4 looks good by any standards of today, so for the man behind the game to come out and say he's "disappointed" with it, makes some think "what on earth was this dude planning?!".

Where other developers would say it's one of the best games they've ever made/seen, Kojima says he's not happy with it :p

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CY:G

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Well with Sony's original hype of 2 HDMI ports and all the other jazz, the PS3 sounded like a super computer :laugh: (an actual super computer).

Not that it isn't powerful, it's a piece of kit that does do a lot, and there is no way it's "maxed out" yet.

MGS4 looks great anyway, I've seen no frame rate hickups or anything from the videos we've seen - And all the previews from the group of folk that got to play it from start to finish say it looks amazing.

Guess Kojima just wanted to do more. Maybe with your next game Kojima ;)

Actually on the Edge article this interview was extracted from, they say some textures are low resolution or something, someone with the magazine mentioned it on the Kotaku comments.

Im still trying to find scans of that magazine as they have a preview on it.

Grand Master

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Actually on the Edge article this interview was extracted from, they say some textures are low resolution or something, someone with the magazine mentioned it on the Kotaku comments.

Im still trying to find scans of that magazine as they have a preview on it.

Ah well I guess there's always going to be critics, but from what I've seen it is one of the better looking games out there.

I seriously doubt anyone is going to turn around and say the graphics are poor. If you need to check them out, watch the april fools Assassins Creed/MGS4 mashup in HD.

That is infact the latest build footage we've got to see!

edit: infact, here's a link - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/32472.html

Grand Master

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Good. The worst thing that could happen is that he thinks his work is perfection, because then he's just being arrogant, and if he thinks it's perfect during development, why would he try harder? He would slack off and then we might end up with a mediocre game.

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Probably he is just trying to dampen the hype/expectations a bit?

*hides since he knows nothing about MGS*

Run to the hills and never come back! Muhahahaha :devil:

The game is getting huge hype for this early mind you. Amongst the SE, PS3 Console standard bundle, PS3 Console LE bundle and the MGO Beta... Phew.

By the way, there will be a review in official playstation magazine next month! 1 month early :D

Grand Master

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Best to shoot for the stars and land on the moon.

So it's 1/10th of his vision, it probably will turn out to be a better game then if he had a small vision and was able to reach it. I probably didn't word that the best but you know what I mean.

Grand Master

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I wonder if he would have been able to get more out of it if it was developed for the 360. It`s supposed to be a hell of a lot easier to develop for.

Well if he used near enough 50GB.... :p

The statement was never the PS3 was hard to develop for for him, it was that he couldn't create his vision. The lack of space is probably one of his drawbacks (he said so himself), along with the apparent notion that he started "creating" the game before knowing/getting ahold of a PS3 to see what it can do.

As he did say a while back he supposedly cut things from the game to fit it on the disc.

Now we don't need another argument on that, it came from his mouth. We all know how some of you feel about it :rofl:

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dewaaz

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i doubt they are using the PS3 to its limits

perhaps they are using a substantial amount of its processing power, but considering the PS3 is still relatively new and programmers haven't REALLY gotten used to optimising EVERY bit of code to run well on it, i'd dare say there's a fair bit of punch left in cell yet

surely as the platform matures there'll be a reasonable amount of grunt they can squeeze out of cell through code optimisations, learning curve experience, etc.

it's always the case

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