I might have pounced a bit early on Kazumi Kitaue (head of Konami's North American and European operations) for suggesting he was contemplating adding its hallmark franchise to the growing list of Sony-exclusive defectors. Still, I read "exclusivity" here same as I might Grand Theft Auto 3 for the PS2, since the latter game eventually crossed party lines to grace the original Xbox. But if PS3 sales pick up over the next six months, the franchise is probably safe and sound.
As for the game itself, judging from the trailer, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is shaping up to be quite a tangled political tale (it certainly looks nice, too). Plot-wise, war is the new oil according to your ops director (sounds like Roy Campbell), which -- thank you Konami -- is part of what I love about these games. Touchy political issues? Bring 'em on, says series creator Hideo Kojima. Imagine a global market subsidized by a "war economy" that's in turn funded by PMCs (private military companies) that merc for fun and profit. Snake's reaction to that in the E3 trailer? "Sounds pretty self-serving to me." Not exactly the stuff of John "If everything is black and white, I say why the hell not?" Wayne.
As "Grampy" Snake--err, I mean an older, grayer version of our stealthy bandana-toting hero, your job is to infiltrate several global locations from the Middle East to South America and, well, take out the bad guys. Previous MGS series characters returning include: Meryl Silverburgh (MGS, Roy Campbell's niece), Raiden (not the Mortal Kombat dude or the god of thunder and lightning, but the protagonist in portions of MGS2), and Vamp, a vampiric boss also in MGS2. Now if Konami would just employ the two guys who did the Final Fantasy 12 English translation to step in and fix this franchise's unintentionally hilarious dialogue, we'll be set.
Hideo Kojima moves on.
Before he presented the impressive, all in-engine trailer below, Hideo Kojima, announced next year's release of MGS4 will conclude his participation with the series. Though that almost sounds as if the series may go on without its creator, Kojima used his translator to explain that "all the story plot lines, all the characters, the mystery, all the Metal Gear saga will be revealed...I promise you I'm putting all my effort, all my skills, all my experience from the past 20 years into MGS4."
For more up-to-the-minute blogs, stories, photos, and video from the show, visit our E3 2007 Infocenter.
