Ever since Sony introduced Trophies on the PS3, gamers have been begging Konami to patch Metal Gear Solid 4 to include Trophies. They’ve been pretty hush on the subject… until now. In the latest Kojima Productions podcast, Sean Eyestone dropped some wisdom.
I just wanna tell everybody out there right now that your voices are being heard and that we’re not ignoring you. We hear everything that you are saying. It’s just that we can’t say anything just yet.
So, yeah, that’s a big “no comment”. Metal Gear Solid released over a year ago (June 12, 2008 to be exact). At this point, do you really see yourself going back and playing the game again? Sure, it’s an amazing single player experience and I’ve played through it twice, but I can’t see myself playing again just to boost my Trophy level. I know there are Trophy Whores and Achievement Whores out there, but for everyone else, do you even care anymore? Will you go back to Metal Gear Solid 4 if Konami adds Trophies?
The man behind Metal Gear, Hideo Kojima is apparently very ready to announce his latest project. Despite the amazing early sales on MGS4, the game was all the rave then fizzled away as a very lackluster multiplayer made the game almost unplayable. There are speculations on what the announcement might be, but many gamers will want to continue the saga of Solid Snake. The probability of MGS5 being announced is almost impossible which will lead to some disappointment. Most gamers only know him from his work in that series and though I fully believe he will make a stellar game, it is akin to Bungie announcing something not Halo-centric. People turn their head, but shrug and walk away.
To say people were upset about Six Days in Fallujah would be an enormous understatement. Konami announced the war simulator to swarms of controversy. The pressure proved too much, as the company announced today they won’t be publishing the title. In a statement to Japanese outlet Asahi, a Konami rep had this to say:
After seeing the reaction to the videogame in the United States and hearing opinions sent through phone calls and e-mail, we decided several days ago not to sell it [...] We had intended to convey the reality of the battles to players so that they could feel what it was like to be there.
The game just sounded too off-the-wall anyway, so this isn’t surprising. Konami said it wasn’t developed to be fun, but moreso to give you a feel of what it’s like to be a soldier. Don’t think that’s exactly what we’re all looking for.
How soon is too soon for a game based on actual events in the Iraq War? This is what some people are contesting. This game is based on actual events of Marines fighting in the recent conflict and some families of soldiers, dead and alive, are none too thrilled. I have never served in the military so I cannot say I agree or disagree. There have been countless WWII games, but very few Vietnam games, none of which were any good. Is it our choice to only glamorize the popular wars? Hear is what the developer had to say.
Konami sent over a nice little swag package for Castlevania. Some cool stuff here, all autographed by the series producer, Koji Igarashi.
In the package, there was a really nice black hard-bound Castlevania: Order of Ecclessia notebook, a Castlevania: Order of Ecclessia strategy guide, and a Castlevania: Order of Ecclessia art print. All of them autographed by one of the great minds of game design.
Now, what am I do with such cool swag? Of course, I’m giving it away. We’ll be running contests soon so that you can own some nice autographed material. Stay tuned for details over the next couple days. While you’re at it, check out more pics of the swag after the jump.
Konami took the proverbial sheet off the big Metal Gear reveal this morning; the series is coming to the iPhone/iPod Touch in the Spring of 2009. Steve definitely didn’t see that one coming.
Metal Gear Solid Touch will be eight stages based on the MGS4 world and characters. More stages will come as downloads later, most likely for a hefty price.
You can stop speculating about MGS4 to the Xbox 360; it looks like that still won’t happen, at least any time soon.
Other games announced today for the iPhone/iPod Touch from Konami include DanceDanceRevolution S Lite, Frogger, and SILENT HILL The Escape, all of which are targeted for release later in December. Looks like more and more developers are hopping on the platform.
A new iteration of Guitar Hero is coming to an arcade, bar or movie theater near you. Activision is working closely with Raw Thrills, creators of Big Buck Hunter and Konami, yes that Konami. Even though they are competing, if you want to call it that, in the rhythm game genre they have joined forces to bring you an arcade version of Guitar Hero. Konami actually approached Activision with the idea.
“Basically, Konami approached us with the deal,” said Eloff. “It shocked the hell out of me. [laughs] I was thrilled. The thing with ‘Guitar Hero’ that’s so frightening is there’s so much licensing [music, patents] associated with it. We’re not set up to do all that. When Konami came to us, asking us if we wanted to develop ‘Guitar Hero,’ we felt like this was a perfect symbiotic relationship.”
Guitar Hero Arcade will be based on Guitar Hero III with a few tweaks. There will be less character customization to streamline the game. Owners of the arcade machines will be able to download tracks just like their console counterpart, so the next time you see one of these machines and you want some DLC to play, just tell your bartender to download it for you. The machines will have a pre-production run by the end of the year and will be in full production beginning in January. The demand has been very high, they have seen more pre-orders of this machine than any other.
In the turbulent times we are living globally, I thought it would be relevant to highlight some of the industry happenings as there are potential impacts to the gaming public. Hopefully this will continue as semi-regular Loot-Ninja feature. The following have been the recent headlines in no particular order. Hit the links for the Loot-Ninja articles.
EA restructuring Casual Label, merges with Sims, now a broad audience gaming section.
Lots of grim news financially and lots of studios shutting down, downsizing, rightsizing, etc. The global recession taking a toll on the gaming industry, probably. The above news updates are pretty similar to latest news in the banking industry. In case you’ve been living in a cave for the past year that means things are not very good.
If you’re still playing Metal Gear Online after all the debacles it’s faced (I’m not), you may be excited to know that Konami has done some server updates. The updates were made in conjunction with the PlayStation Network downtime from the other day. Here’s what’s new:
1)Players will gain 5 reward points when they have finished a round in the automatching lobbies “SNAKE:EX”, “LIQUID:EX” and “SOLIDUS:EX”.
*The lobbies “SNAKE:EX”, “LIQUID:EX” and “SOLIDUS:EX” are only available for users who have bought the “MGO GENE EXPANSION”.
2)A new Survival Lobby “MK2″ has been added.
There you have it. Most of the changes only apply if you bought the MGO Gene Expansion. After all the problems surrounding the Gene Expansion pack, I haven’t felt like putting in a bunch of time with the game. There’s plenty other great online titles to play. What about you, our dear readers? Are you happy about the updates Konami is doing to their servers?
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