Portable Ops was less linear (not completely though) which shows a trend of possibilities that the game might not necessarilly be linear. Some "complains' about MGS was the extreme linear nature. San Andreas has a free roaming enviroment in DVD because the game was developed with DVD in mind (highest storage available ), and all platforms in mind. On the other hand Fable was chosen for XBOX because Molyneux wanted to use the XBOX's HDD for other reasons. One of the things he envisioned was the ability to plant a seed wherever you wanted, or alter an enviroment which will remain altered. That seed would eventually become a tree and you will always be able to find it there and observe it as it grows. You would even curve something on it while its still small and still see the curved words on it when it is a full frown tree. Things didnt make it at the end to Fable but you get the picture.
Hideo Kojima does listen to feedback thats why he added the new camera system, and in some of his interviews he did made a few references to SC. Btw he didnt like the idea of implementingcamera system because he said it caused him motion sickness.
But he did implement it due to the fact that more open enviroments made many gamers complain. The old camera system wasnt practical. It has nothing to do with trying "not to stray too far"
Maybe you should refresh your memory.
http://www.omgili.com/preview/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5nYW1ldmlsbGFnZS5ubC9zaG93dGhyZWFkLnBocD90PTY2NDYx
We had experimented with 3D camera when we were creating MGS3. Of course we heard many voices from fans that they want a 3D camera in there. However if we created a MGS3 with a 3D camera point of view of course the users that were used to MGS1 und 2 would feel a little odd. Also, I have my weakness, I get 3D sickness, so when I was creating MGS3, I wasn't really into the 3D camera experiment. However we kept continuing to experiment with the 3D camera but I decided not to implement this in MGS3 because I thought 1, 2 and 3 are like a trilogy, I wanted to keep the same kind of flow or the game feel that the user had for 1 and 2. But I understand that the trend in the games today is this camera. Therefore at the end of creating MGS3 I really thought that we need to put this trend camera into MGS4.
This isn't new, its a refinement of the camo system in MGS3 where you could lay in low level grass and with the right camo could hide even with the guard standing no farther than a few feet from you.
The problem with that is the PS3 version has been in development for quite some time without any notion of a 360 port. Meaning that the PS3 version was conceptualized and developed trying to maximize the Cell, RSX and BluRay within the MGS4 experience Kojima is trying to create. However, that doesn't inherently mean that porting to the 360 is impossible or so costly that it isn't worth it.
