Denis: Well the graphics, actually, the graphics we’ve done a little bit more with… we’ve got a unified pipeline, we’ve got all different textures, bump-mapping, shine-mapping, all that stuff’s in there too. It’s not the “same†graphics as Metal Gear Solid 2 so much, but they’re upgraded graphics.
Jonny: What is the engine that it’s running on? Is this something that you guys made yourselves?
Denis: It’s a combination of some of our technology, and some of Konami’s technology.
Jonny: OK, so it’s not like a port of the PS2 engine, or something like that?
Denis: Uh, no… not really.
Rick: *jokingly* Is it running on a subset of the Too Human engine? *laughing*
Denis: No, no… No. *smiling*
Jonny: All right, well… What are the main things that you’re changing? I guess that’s what we’re most interested in.
Denis: Well, hopefully it was clear from the presentation that the cinematics are all being redone.
Jonny: Are they being redirected?
Rick: Yeah, because some of the storyline elements that we’ve seen look different from what I remember of Metal Gear Solid.
Denis: I think the story itself is going to stay true to itself. However, with the power of the GameCube and the advancements in the technology that we have… we’re going to be able to take it a lot further. That’s definitely a change. The gameplay itself, all the stuff that you can do (I don’t know if you guys have played Metal Gear Solid 2), you can definitely do in this. If you think about the first game and how it’s all setup, and then think about the dynamics of the second game, it should be a completely new experience.
Jonny: Would you say it changes the way you play the game, the strategies, the way you beat certain missions?
Denis: Yeah, I definitely think so. Certainly there’s a lot of things going on that I don’t want to talk about, but there’s going to be significant change beyond anything you’ve seen here. Obviously it’s a very short demo. There’ll be enhancements across the board. It’s exciting because with the collaboration that’s going on, we’ll really have a chance to take what I consider to be one of my favorite games of all time, and really bring it to the GameCube. A lot of GameCube fans have not played the Metal Gear Solid series, so it’ll be a great experience for them. And for those people who did play the first one, it’s going to be a new experience too, because we’ve changed so much of it.
Rick: If there’s one thing that I’d say Silicon Knights is most recognized for, it’s probably the “Insanity Effects†that were in Eternal Darkness. I know talking with you at one point, you had mentioned that one of the inspirations for those sort of effects was the Psycho Mantis battle from the original Metal Gear Solid, and some of the tricks it tries to play on the player. Is there any plan to expand on that in the new Metal Gear Solid game?
Denis: Well, I think it’s safe to say that all of the major boss fights and, you know, all those sorts of exciting things are all being looked at and are being improved as much as possible and enhanced, so… without giving away specifics… you guys know what I’m like, I don’t like to spill the beans on that stuff. Even from the video you can see that obviously some things have changes already. You have Psycho Mantis talking about Miyamoto-san, that definitely was not in the first one.
Rick: It seems like in the video that was shown there were definitely elements there that don’t look like they would necessarily make it into the final game.
Denis: Everything you’re looking at there is… probably going to be much improved by the time the final game is done.
Rick: Well, the reason why we’re asking is that when you were first showing Eternal Darkness a couple years ago, a lot of the elements you had in that game were things that never made it into the final version.
Denis: Right. But this development path and because it is a remake, what’s set is set. You’re probably not going to see a lot of that this time. Don’t forget, it’s coming out fairly shortly. One of the things that I’m really happy about with this project, amongst many, many things which I’ve already talked about… you know, last year there was Eternal Darkness, this year there’s going to be MGS, and in the future, next year, which I can’t talk about… hopefully there will be others. If things go well, and they seem to be.
