ECTS 2003: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Preview

By Tom Bramwell Published 27 August, 2003

Our impressions from the show.

Although it didn't quite "steal the show" at E3 this year as some PS2 magazines claimed, Konami's Metal Gear Solid 3 trailer certainly brought a section of the show floor to a standstill at regular intervals. We were amongst the gawping masses paying close attention and although the trailer is now readily available on the web, we still made the "Director's Cut" version on show at ECTS one of our first ports of call this morning.

Good thing, too, because obviously Konami has developed some new and innovative definition of the term "Director's Cut". The trailer on display every hour here at ECTS is brand and indeed spanking new. With bigger explosions and bigger hints on the gameplay we can expect.

"How do you like your snake? Rare? Well done? We recommend 'Solid'"

'ECTS 2003: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater' Screenshot 1

Just to recap, the E3 trailer (also appearing regularly on Konami's ECTS showreel) showed a now radar-free Snake navigating a jungle area and shooting camouflaged assailants to the peels of Harry Gregson-Williams' Bond-esque score. Our hero (or not, as Hideo Kojima teased) was seen chomping on actual snake, taking on a riverside outpost from underwater and was even on the receiving end of an elaborate (and actually rather unfunny) Vice City joke as he tried to jack a motorbike patrol. Feel free to check out Rob's E3 impressions (including a take on MGS: Twin Snakes for the Cube) if you missed out - otherwise, we've been analysing the new revised version for you...

"New setting, new era, new gameplay," the ECTS strapline proudly proclaimed as we staggered towards it this morning. "New trailer," we thought, giggling like excited schoolgirls. And unlike the rather ambiguous E3 offering, this trailer emphasises the new gameplay aspects with more definition - this one's about survival, and close quarters combat. At one point, to the sound of Gregson-Williams' endearing 007 tribute, we were treated to a silhouette of Snake taking down various enemies, both armed and unarmed, using a mixture of martial arts, brute force and even the odd knife - imagine a game of the final scene from Under Siege and you probably won't be too far away.

Snake has developed some new and ingenious methods of evading detection, too. After parachuting into the jungle in the first scene, he takes on an unwary alligator, whose head is later seen drifting nonchalantly downstream past a river patrol. Guess who!

This is no vice city

'ECTS 2003: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater' Screenshot 3

Furthermore we finally caught sight of some of those non-jungle locations, including an underground cavern full of bats illuminated by Snake's flamey torch (which flutters regularly), and a subterranean lagoon overseen by a gaggle of gormless-looking guards up on a ledge.

But as with the E3 trailer, Snake gets up to most of his tricks in the jungle, dodging Tomb Raider-style spiky swinging tree trunks and getting caught in a rope trap and suspended high in the air - probably a good thing, given the pack of wild dogs prowling around beneath him. But then it starts to rain. Fortunately Snake doesn't let things bother him, and slices his tether, flips and lands on his feet. However, rain affects his ability to spot adversaries, because to a certain extent he's relying on the crunch of leaves and twigs underfoot to identify enemies - as Konami points out in answer to criticisms of a lack of radar.

It seems clear with the two trailers now thoroughly in mind that MGS3 varies hugely from its predecessor. We haven't seen hide nor hair of a cut-scene or codec - instead it has the abandoned-and-alone feeling of Predator, and Snake seemingly has more rounded stealth and combat abilities, potentially allowing players to take enemies on in any situation, whether it's hanging one-handed from a branch with a handgun, upside down from a rope trap, wading downriver with an assault rifle or hand to hand. We just hope that when we see those lethal takedowns in-engine, we're still expected to waggle the analogue stick.

Go eat snake!

Although Konami hasn't changed its footing on the release date (a tentative "2004" on PS2 - and we all know what happened to its predictions last time), we're slipping slowly back into the trap of being excited about MGS3. And with no new Half-Life 2 footage and not a great deal of anything new and exciting lurking on the show floor, single-format mags might have an easier time justifying its significance here in London.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 8 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Singularity #1 9 years ago

    Yummy.

  • Zero Beat #2 9 years ago

    Chriii-iii-istopher. Dana-nana. The crocodile/alligator!

  • Killerbee #3 9 years ago

    I think I'm quite looking forward to this - a bit more action and a bit less convoluted plot and codec sounds good to me.

  • Dizzy #4 9 years ago

    Excited about a MGS game? Not me....
    This one looks even more rubbish as the previous one... with some kind of Rambo plot probably. MGS? No thank you... maybe the GC version will be worth it.

  • Chris Gardiner #5 9 years ago

    I wants it, precious.

  • CyberClaw #6 9 years ago

    Dizzy, you sound like a fanboy... "Maybe the GC version will be worth it"
    Why? Will the gmae change just because the game CD has a GC logo? WOW.
    As for the game, it sounds very interesting. I might need to invest on one of those old dust removers.... I mean, PS2s sooner than I was expecting (4 games so far...)

  • Nemesis #7 9 years ago

    Why? Will the gmae change just because the game CD has a GC logo?

    Nooooo, because it's a different game innit.

  • krudster #8 9 years ago

    Chaps, this trailer even has me, the least interested MGS 'fan' in the world quite excited.

  • CyberClaw #9 9 years ago

    Oh, he is talking about Twin Snakes... The remake of the old MGS. Right...
    I thought he was referring to a Snake Eater possibily to come in other platforms, similar to what happened to Sons of Liberty 1 year later.
    I mean, I'd like to play the remake, I wouldn't mind, but he says he dislikes the MGS games. I think that includes the original MGS1 for the PSX, which is being remaked for the GC. So, even if I failed to understand what he meant, my reason still holds. He can't get excited with a MGS game. Means he didn't get excited with MGS1 nor 2. So, when MGS1 is remade for GC, he probably won't like it either now is he?

  • Dizzy #10 9 years ago

    Yes I mean Twin Snakes. At least that one was a game with a reasobale story. I am sorry but Hideo Kojima has complete lost it with his stupid ideas and his urge to somehow prove to himself he knows how to make gripping stories and move his game(s) beyond the normal "gameplay". MGS even makes Evangelion's plot sound easy. He is a classic example of a Japanese (games) designer who thinks he is a modern games Shakespeare.

  • CyberClaw #11 9 years ago

    Oh. You don't like complicated and intriguing plots. May I sugest Super Mario Sunshine then?

    I mean, when I hear people talking about MGS2 story, they say it's something fantastic, something mind blowing. You sound like some friends I had, I decided to show Memento to. One fell asleep during the middle, the other 2 said the movie was boring and asked too much of their brain to understand. Quoting Moonleaf "they be blowjobs"

  • Killerbee #12 9 years ago

    Memento - top film. I loved it; my wife hated it and spent half the time asking me what was going on. She won't accept that she didn't "get" it though. :/

  • Dizzy #13 9 years ago

    Memento rules! Your point?

    "complicated and intriguing plots" ROFL!!!!! That must be the greatest description of MGS ever! What about "convulted and artificial"? Does that sound better? I can give you 50 movies that nobody understands and are complete shite. It is not because something is hard to understand (Memento, Donnie Darco) that it is good (like those two movies). I guess you have found out exactly why MGS is shite... they wanted it to be complicated because then people would think it is "good".
    Edited by 1 at 27/08/03 @ 18:40

  • CyberClaw #14 9 years ago

    Wow. I liked MGS 1 and MGS 2 plot. Maybe I simply didn't get it because it was too hard for me to grasp, and then I thought it ruled because it was so crazy not even ME could understand it... Or maybe I simply liked it :D

  • inpHilltr8r #15 9 years ago

    "when I hear people talking about MGS2 story, they say it's something fantastic, something mind blowing"

    MSG2's storyline reached new lows of bad paranoid conspiracy thriller. Like the worst bits of Robert Anton Wilson, and Tom Clancy. The game itself had moments of genius, but they'd last all of 10 minutes before you were confronted with another half hour of bollocks.

    More like a bad John Travolta film (think Basic, or Swordfish) than Memento.
    Edited by 1 at 27/08/03 @ 19:13

  • Zero Beat #16 9 years ago

    Gamespot have the full new trailer for download. Not got it yet so I'm not sure if it's direct feed...

    edit: It's shaky-cam footage unfortunately, but without the shake. The sound's difficult to make out apart from the Bond-esque theme and the projected screen comes across as having a cross-hatch like appearance.

    Definitely worth downloading though, if only for the very final scene ;)
    Edited by 2 at 27/08/03 @ 20:35

  • Lutz #17 9 years ago

    Not another MG game... the PSOne and PS2 games were bad enough enough... now we all have to endure this one...

    /cries

  • #18 9 years ago

    die lutz!

  • Whizzo #19 9 years ago

    Great trailer, world's worst display screen ever. FACT! :-)

  • Dizzy #20 9 years ago

    "He just IS that good"

    Just say that 50 times very fast and you might believe it yourself. That's it... I am not getting involved in this article any more :)

  • renzo #21 9 years ago

    Some of you make it sound like you're going to be playing this game for the story. Really now, if you want a good story, watch a movie. If you want to play a good 'stealth-action' title, then you should give this a look.

    And Dizzy, you'd rather play MGS1 again, rather than play MGS3, of which you have no idea whether it's good or bad?

  • mrharvest #22 9 years ago

    I feel so much like whining about the previous not having been 'good stealth-action' but I'll not.

  • renzo #23 9 years ago

    Well, I meant those little bits of stealth-action in between the ridiculously long codecs.

  • Blerk #24 9 years ago

    Hey! Get out of here. Back to the RAW 2 thread with you. Go on! Shoo.

    Edit: Blimey, looks like he went too! He's gone! :-D
    Edited by 1 at 29/08/03 @ 09:32

  • Zero Beat #25 9 years ago

    I put my arm round Hideo Kojima yesterday...

    errr - there's a lovely high quality version of the E3 MGS3 Snaker Eater trailer on the free PSExperience DVD you get in the leaving goody-bag.

  • Zero Beat #26 9 years ago

    He's got absolutely fantastic transparent framed spectacles by the way, I be needing some for myself. Nice suit too... so soft to the touch *goes off laughing hysterically* PHOTO PROOF!

  • Blerk #27 9 years ago

    I put my arm round Hideo Kojima yesterday...

    You cheap tart, you. ;-)

  • Zero Beat #28 9 years ago

    I'm scared that his brilliance might wash off if I have a bath now... oh well, at least I've got my signed OST and possibly a photo of my sexy ordeal to drool over ;o

  • BLACKSHEEP #29 9 years ago

    Can the PS2 really look this good? I heard even there's gonna be DD5.1 in-game WTF, has Kojima-san tapped a secret chip, Sony hid until Xbox started to worry it's market share? :D

  • valli #30 9 years ago

    > I heard even there's gonna be DD5.1 in-game WTF, has Kojima-san
    > tapped a secret chip

    It would be something. It seems those vector CPUs still have a few secrets up their sleeves... are you sure they didn't say "5.1 discrete channel sound"? Cause in that case it could be DTS.

  • BLACKSHEEP #31 9 years ago

    are you sure they didn't say "5.1 discrete channel sound"? Cause in that case it could be DTS.

    I read DD 5.1 which is what Xbox does in hardware but DTS is actually better quality so I wouldn't mind that. GTA:Vice City uses DTS but it don't sound much like what movies give you, I think as there is no radar, sound positioning is gonna be critical to your missions.

  • WoodenSpoon #32 8 years ago

    Surely if you had such a great life you wouldn't care so much about what other people thought of a video game's storyline?