Speaking at the GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Australia, MGS series creator Hideo Kojima spoke of some of the new features making their way into MGS4. According to the Gamespot report of the event, Kojima stated that "To make it very simple, in the past Metal Gears, Snake was going into enemy environments--so everyone apart from Snake was an enemy. This time it's a warzone, so you have country A or country B, so Snake could interfere with either of the countries. It does not necessarily mean that everyone is an enemy to Snake. This creates a new tension in playing this new hide and seek.”

Kojima added that he was going to use the PS3’s processing power for “not only what you can see, but also psychological effects, or psychological battles, where it can affect your gameplay," Could Kojima be hinting that you have to keep Snake sane, a la Sanity’s Requiem? We can only hope. Kojima also admitted at the conference that "...we've exhausted the concept of the place, so now I thought why not create a situation rather than a place?" It's refreshing to see a developer admitting that a game concept has run its course. Metal Gear Solid's core gameplay hasn't changed since the PS1 days. Could MGS4 turn it round?

The MGS series has, at its core, quite simple sneak ‘em up gameplay, with the AI often lacking the sophistication found in other games. It didn’t matter though, because Kojima took a simple sneaking formula and made it dynamic enough to give the player a decent amount of choice when it came to how they played, as well as throwing in enough imaginative quirks to keep the game fresh.

Ultimately, the series stands as a testament to what you can achieve with well-executed gameplay, a good plot and amazing production. However the gameplay works out, with Kojima behind it, we can be sure that the cinematic elements will most likely amazing to watch. It's also reassuring to know that a lot of the voice cast will be returning. If Kojima follows up on his promise to ditch some of the stealth elements that made the series famous, then there's a good chance that we'll end up with something that's great to play as well.

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