[Vic Viper]

Konami's legendary games designer speaks in-depth about his latest masterwork, Snake Eater - full unmissable interview inside!

19:29 The undoubted highlight of an otherwise largely disappointing ECTS 2003 was a brand new Metal Gear Solid 3 trailer, exclusive to London Games Week, and hand delivered to the event by none other than series creator, vice president of KCET, and gaming celebrity, Hideo Kojima.

While the first crowds gathered to be wowed by Snake Eater footage on the first day of the show, Kojima-san and his young son Roman, went into stealth-tourist mode, infiltrating the capital city in a camouflaged open-top tour bus.

But on the following day, the man voted by Newsweek as one of the ten people most likely to influence American culture was very much on the showfloor, mingling quietly with the crowds and checking out his new trailer from a distance. Despite all this, he still found time to sit down with us in a secret chamber deep within Konami's stand (which was shaking thanks to over-enthusiastic Dancing Stage action along the perimeter) to talk in-depth about the latest addition to the massive, hugely influential Metal Gear series.

Without further ado, here's the full, revealing transcript, with translation assistance provided by Konami's mighty international PR manager, Scott Dolph:

You've personally brought over a brand new MGS3 trailer to show at ECTS and the PlayStation Experience, which is a real coup for Europe - why was it important for you to reveal this here?

Kojima: First of all, this is the first ECTS I've attended, and because it's my first time here I thought I'd bring a new trailer. And another reason is that all my European fans have to wait because of the localisation - it's always the US version that comes out first - so I decided to bring this new footage here with me.

Obviously we've seen a lot of new things in the trailer - since the game's last showing at E3, what have you've been focusing your efforts on in terms of development?

Kojima: I cannot really give you details, but as I said last time, we've changed the game engine and at the same time we're working on a totally new game system. I cannot give you details, but that's something I look after daily - to make sure this new, improved game system works in the game.

For example, in the trailer you see alligators, birds, fish and all of these animals. Yes, Metal Gear is a stealth game, but this time it's also a survival game. You're going to have to hunt these animals down and eat them, so I'm trying to figure out how this eating system works and blends into the whole game system. It's a trial and error process to make sure that it works.

The trailer seems very much geared towards teasing the player and dropping subtle hints, as has been the case previously, and you seem to enjoy playing these mind games with fans, keeping us all guessing. Do you pay particular attention to the press and are you amused by the endless speculation?

Kojima: Yes, I do pay attention - I enjoy that. But when people speculate I try to make sure we don't go in the direction of the speculation, because if we simple meet what people expect, it won't be fun. So what I do is create a trailer based on what people think, then based on people's responses I start adjusting/shifting the game again.

We do have to betray people's expectations in a certain way. The games industry is a unique industry in that it takes two or three years to create a game and you also start showing trailers from the very beginning of the process, which you don't see in other industries. In a way, us showing trailers at E3 and ECTS, all these trailers are part of the Metal Gear Solid 3 game experience.

For example, we showed the E3 trailer in May with the jungle - if we felt that people did not like the theme of the jungle, then maybe the game would have changed into something else. We could have dropped the jungle concept.

The credit sequence in the trailer also seems to reveal an emphasis on close-quarter combat. Is this part of the new game system? Will it be part of the in-game engine or as part of cut-scenes?

Kojima: Till now, Metal Gear games have focused on a dependence on firepower. Although everything's done using stealth, it wasn't really focused on close-quarter combat until now.

With this game, it's set in the jungle and the mountains and you won't be depending on firepower - you'll be close to these guys and you won't know if they're friends or enemies - that's where the close-quarter combat comes in. We've also had our military advisor train us. He actually took us to mountains and showed us how to get around and fight in the mountains when there are people right near you.

The previous Metal Gear Solid titles have always been the most impressive-looking games on their respective systems, really pushing the boundaries of what could be done. With MGS3 being developed on the same hardware as before, have you found this frustrating in anyway, or do you simply relish the challenge of raising the bar still further on what you achieved last time?

Kojima: MGS2 was the first Metal Gear for PS2 so in a way it was easy for us to stun people. This time we have to go even further, but now we have the experience and the know-how, and we have a lot of ideas to use for an MGS3 so we can still push it further.

But it's still the same platform, so you cannot expect a giant leap, graphics-wise. That's why we're changing the game engine and the game system, so we can give the game a giant leap not graphically, but in a different way.

The answer to trying to give this new Metal Gear a giant leap is a new setting, new era and new gameplay.

To what extent is Snake able to interact with animals? We've seen him eat them; will animals also injure him? Is this element mainly scripted?

Kojima: This time not only are soldiers your enemy, the natural environment is also fighting against you, which includes the animals. You can eliminate them, they can hurt you - but at the same time you can make use of them by hunting them and eating them. There are fruits, poisonous snakes, rats - if it's a poisonous snake you might be able to throw it at someone.