Kojima Speaks out on PS2

Metal Gear Solid 2, which made its worldwide debut at the E3 show, was one of the most talked-about aspects of the show. Patron's flocked to Konami's booth to get a glimpse of the MGS sequel on Sony's next-generation PlayStation 2 hardware, and most came away impressed. The game's creator, Hideo Kojima, however has his reservations about the capabilities of the PlayStation 2. In an interview with MSNBC, Kojima-san talked about the difficulties of creating truly extraordinary content for the PS2 to match his creative and broad vision.

"When the PlayStation 2 was first announced, Sony said you could get Hollywood-movie graphics quality, and that is true," Kojima said. "But if we tried to create Metal Gear Solid 2 trying to maintain that quality of graphics throughout the game ...we cannot do it."

When asked if he expected such graphical quality from the PS2, Kojima-san said, "I was actually expecting something much better, and we were not getting what we expected. In the early days I really dreaded going to work because I knew we were not going to get what we expected." However, he was quick to point out that the video shown at E3 is in the very early stages of development. The final version, in his words, will be " ...improved in all aspects."

Kojima went on to explain that with MGS 2, the idea was to disperse the polygon counts throughout the environments. Instead of creating a highly detailed model of Solid Snake, the game's hero, he was more concerned with adding waves, rain effects, reflections, interactive objects, and realistic shadows to the fully 3D environments.

Another interesting feature Kojima-san talked about was the game's adaptive nature. According to Kojima, Metal Gear Solid's difficulty level will increase and decrease depending on the player's actions through the first portions of the game. Depending on choices made by the player, the game will decide to show or withhold some of the gorier, or more mature, aspects.

For more of the interview, including some interesting story and gameplay details, check out MSNBC Online.