A Few More Details on Metal Gear Solid 3

Rotting food? Bone fractures? An online version?!

So what did you think of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater back at E3? Weird stuff, eh? If you're like any of us, chances are you were more befuddled than intrigued by the latest in designer Hideo Kojima's increasingly trippy stealth-action series. However, in the newest edition of Weekly Famitsu magazine, the director was a bit?just a bit?more forthright, revealing some new details and divulging plans for some very interesting expansions to the MGS series in the future.

Metal Gear Solid 3, as you likely know by now, is a very different game from its predecessors?much of it (about two thirds, by Kojima's estimation) takes place in the natural environment. In other words, Solid Snake will be all by his lonesome in the jungle, and by the sound of things he'll have a very difficult few days ahead of him. For one, being sneaky in a forest is much harder than concealing yourself in a manmade structure?in this game, if Snake's not careful, he can get detected by enemies if he so much as steps on a bunch of dead leaves. One solution to this problem is MGS3's "stalking mode"?you'll have the option to sneak up on an enemy without making a sound, assuming you're able to keep yourself hidden for the time it'll take. (There isn't any radar in the forest, either, although a radar option will be available for beginners.)

The jungle may be the harshest environment Snake's ever slithered about in. Rations don't grow on trees, of course, so he'll need to capture and consume the local fauna for sustenance. Most gamers know about that by now, of course, but when they actually play the game, they'll need to be on their toes about it?food can rot on you, you see, and some of the plants and animals Snake will encounter will be (in Kojima's words) "twisted." Speaking of twisting, bone fracturing is possible in this game?if Snake or an enemy soldier falls from a high location, it's possible he'll break his leg on impact, which could make stealth even more of a bother than before.

All this is part of a fully revised game system which Kojima calls "a dramatic change" for the series. One of these changes (skip to the next paragragh now to avoid MGS2 spoilers): although you won't switch characters midway through the game, "there will be something to replace that this time around... I want to surprise you all while playing." (In response to comments that the E3 movie they showed was "boring," Kojima said that the overall game will be flashier than the parts they showed at the expo. Good to hear.)

So where will MGS go next? Online, apparently, judging from Kojima's comments. The director confirmed that MGS3 will have some kind of online support, with monthly downloads (new camouflage patterns and such) available at the very least. On the subject of a full Metal Gear Online, though, Kojima was a little more vague: "I bet it'll probably come out. With the rules [of online gaming] we have now I don't think it'd be very fun, but lots of people are okay with that, so perhaps I'd be fine with it as well... so it may become a reality sometime, but I don't really know when. I guess it depends on whether we can make it a full product or not."

Konami and Kojima will likely continue to leak little details on the new Metal Gear Solid all the way through to the game's early-2004 release. Stay tuned to GamePro.com for more details soon.

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