Grave Gamer News & Views — kojima productions

You Called It, Internet - The Phantom Pain is Metal Gear Solid V

Before you do anything else, watch the eye popping, spine tingling, FOX engined debut of Metal Gear Solid V right here.

It was a poor kept secret that The Phantom Pain, a new title from complete unknowns, Moby Dick Studios, was somehow related to the next installment of Metal Gear Solid.  The announcement of Ground Zeroes, an open-world continuation seemingly starring Big Boss, only served to cast confusion on matters, though, making certain no one but Hideo Kojima and company knew what the hell was going on (as per usual, that sly bastard).

That’s not to say there isn’t a huge cloud of “What the hell?” hovering above today’s news, but at least I can tell you this: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain debuted today and it looks crazy good.  MGSV is slated for current gen consoles (yes, both the PS3 and Xbox 360 – the first time a title in the main series has launched simultaneously on different systems) and runs off of Kojima Productions’ newly created FOX Engine – a foundation capable of some…well, put plainly, really goddamn gorgeous visual effects.

After debuting the trailer and some gameplay at GDC, Hideo threw some vagueness in the form of answers our way, confirming that the game is definitely open-world, another first for the series, and that both Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain make up the whole of Metal Gear Solid V.  Ground Zeroes was described as a prologue to MGSV to begin with, but how fans experience it – whether digitally, a full retail release, or packaged with The Phantom Pain – is still frustratingly not known.

Also, a bit of a downer for fans (though we were warned this might happen): David Hayter won’t be reprising his role as Snake, a part the actor has voiced since 1998.  And, you guessed it, his replacement is as of yet unnamed.

But we’ll end on a high note today, kids.  Enjoy some Phantom Pain gameplay hereabouts.  That should de-salt the wound nicely.

Metal Gear 25th Anniversary Event Brings Us Two New Games and a Movie (!)

It’s a damn good day to be a fan of Metal Gear.  During the series’ 25th Anniversary event (yeah, video games aren’t so young anymore), Kojima Productions detailed three new projects sure to buckle the knees of diehard tactical espionage action fans the world over.

“For many years I fought to bring comics to theaters - and video games are the comics of today."  What does that mean?  Don’t know.  Who said it?  Mr. Avi Arad, the producer behind a bevy of Marvel comics brought to the screen, who is working diligently (in association with Columbia Pictures) to now bring Metal Gear into theaters.  The project’s still a newborn, practically, so we’re a little ways off from finding out who might be crazy enough to direct it and who would be filling in Snake’s live-action five o’ clock shadow.

For those sneaking on the go, Metal Gear Social Ops was announced for mobile devices, expected out somewhere between the Fall and Winter.  That’s well and good, but of course all other news was steamrolled by the official unveiling of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, the fabled main series sequel running on the studios’ brand spanking new FOX Engine.

The bulk of our knowledge on Ground Zeroes comes from a flurry of excited Tweets attendees were asked not to post, so details are muddy at best.  But Ground Zeroes is said to trade up metal corridors for a vivid, open world where your discretion drives the action – from riding jeeps, dispatching foes, to avoiding capture.  The battlefield is your playground, and evidently it all looks friggin’ fantastic.  Stay tuned as harder details surface.

Kojima Only Serving in a Supporting Role on Enders Project

Anticipation is swelling over the newly announced Zone of the Enders sequel, but swept under the current of fangasms is the fact that famed game designer Hideo Kojima, who worked extensively on the first two entries into the mecha series, is taking a backseat on the third game, leaving development duties such as scripting, direction, and both game and level design to his Kojima Productions staff.

Due to his commitment to the mysterious Project Ogre, Kojima specified his role would limit him to producer status on Enders, and that his biggest contribution would be overall direction and pre-production planning.  Hideo has commented in the past that this is exactly the amount of input he wanted to have on future titles, reasoning that pouring years of his life into a single project had become  horribly draining.  Hideo wanted to take this approach during Metal Gear Solid 4 before his team egged him onto a more hands-on capacity, so perhaps we’ll see his meddling despite himself when it comes to Enders Project (if someone’s willing to duct tape him to a computer).

As for the newborn Enders Project, what direction might it be taking?  Kojima assures fans Z.O.E. definitely won’t feel any different but the artistic style may end up being a far cry away from the first two games’ Japanimation vibe in favor of a more “global, high-end” styling (i.e. marketable outside Japan).  Kojima says the team isn’t striving for photorealism (even though their Fox Engine could probably handle it) but they are rendering models like the one seen above into the game, which may be indicative of the style shift.

Updated Fox Engine Produces Renderings Straight from the Uncanny Valley

Kojima Productions wants you to figure out which column is a picture and which is the rendering created with their beefed up Fox Engine.  Yeah, take a moment to soak in the fact one of these columns is completely fake, then decide which passes as reality.

I’ll give you a hint: column B would be real, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s not.

Forgoing the standard utilization of light maps, the Fox Engine relies on realistic physics to help objects – even movable ones like the white collar horse seen here – blend in with their surroundings.  I always held that the lighting problem had been cracked this generation, but Kojima and his team have proved me stupidly wrong.