Psychological battles in MGS4

By Robert Purchese Published 2 April, 2007

Kojima waffles at GO3.

Metal Gear Solid 4 will feature psychological effects and battles, according to creator Hideo Kojima, who was waxing lyrical at last weekend's GO3 Entertainment Expo in Australia.

His speech proved to be amongst the most popular, and saw him talk about the history of the Metal Gear series and what he wanted to do differently in the upcoming PlayStation 3 title.

"To make it very simple, in the past Metal Gears, Snake was going into enemy environments--so everyone apart from Snake was an enemy," Gamespot reported that Kojima said. "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."

"I would also like to challenge the PS3's CPU power for not only what you can see, but also psychological effects, or psychological battles, where it can affect your gameplay."

Unfortunately he had no new assets or footage to show, and didn't touch on any new gameplay specifics.

Earlier this year Kojima revealed he had a "strong interest" in working on Xbox 360 and particularly PC. However, Konami remained insistent this morning to Eurogamer that MGS 4 was a PS3 title, though a release date and any other specifics were still to be confirmed.

Head over to our Metal Gear Solid 4 gamepage for the latest trailers and screenshots.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • agparrot #1 5 years ago

    You have to love Kojima's quotes - I mean, "I would also like to challenge the PS3's CPU power for not only what you can see, but also psychological effects, or psychological battles, where it can affect your gameplay." how the hell can you do that with CPU power?

    To this day, Psycho Mantis moving my controller with mind powers remains one of the scariest psychological battles I've fought with my 'station.

    Proper Scary ;)

  • The-Bodybuilder #2 5 years ago

    That Kojima, he's so crazzzay.

  • Vin #3 5 years ago

    Man, this thang is gonna blow my fuckin' face off on the 360.

  • Dizzy #4 5 years ago

    Was he drunk?

  • Darkuss #5 5 years ago

    Kojima is a gaming guru after all! MGS4 is gonna be really HUGE...can't wait!

  • The-Bodybuilder #6 5 years ago

    LOL @ Vin.

  • NthSimulachum #7 5 years ago

    Maybe...there'll be like, a dog or something...which affects you psychometrically...

  • Mindstorm #8 5 years ago

    @agparrot

    Agree! For me the psychomantis battle defines one the highest moments in recent gaming history. If Kojima manages to pull off something similar, but enhanced by the Ps3 processing power, that would be revolutionary. I haven't got a clue how that can be done, but this is what creativity is about, right?

  • AcidSnake #9 5 years ago

    Eternal Darkness was great at messing with your mind...
    Breaking the fourth wall a lot...
    He might mean stuff like that...

  • Steroyd #10 5 years ago

    As crazy as it sounds he did touch up on psychologial warfare on MGS3.

    Like wearing the Croc hat to scare people and destroying weapon and food depots so they get knocked out easier and run out of bullets quickly.

    Hell it all started on the MGS2 where you tell them to freeze point the gun at their balls and they give you ammo.
    I think they piss themselves if you point a grenade launcher at them never tried that TBH.

    Would love to see an evolved system to what was started on the PS2 versions. :)

  • dirigiblebill #11 5 years ago

    "...but also psychological effects, or psychological battles, where it can affect your gameplay."

    i.e. the psychological struggle to stay awake as Kojima launches into yet another cutscene, rife with sanctimonious moralising and obscure pop cult references and OOH LOOK- gratuitous cleavage opportunity! Quick, where's that first person view? Ahhhhhhhhhh. Witness da powah of psfwee.

    /dies

  • space_ace #12 5 years ago

    2008 then

  • Nova5lag #13 5 years ago

    I personally think that MGS4 will be a movie-esq masterpiece with occassional button presses to start the next cut scene... oh wait that was MGS2.

  • morriss #14 5 years ago

    I want I want I want!

  • lennon #15 5 years ago

    Will these psycological battles occur during the cut scenses? If they do I will probably miss them due to being fast asleep. :)

  • Mageme #16 5 years ago

    @DAMAGE INC.

    Riight, and you're telling me Itagaki isn't exactly the same for Micro$oft?

    Sony have Kojima, MS have Itagaki. So what?

  • bdc #17 5 years ago

    LOL @ people being so fascinated by Psycho Mantis controller rumble trick.

    IT WAS SO INNOVATIVE OMG

  • the_dudefather #18 5 years ago

    MGS is great for 'forth wall breaking', when I was playing MGS3 I got the alternative way to beat 'the end' (saving the game then waiting a few weeks) by accident, which was very WTF to my mind

    hope the psychological battles are not incredibly 2D like some of the stuff in MGS3 was:

    -find storehouse
    -blow up
    -5 seconds later everyone is starving

  • lambtron #19 5 years ago

    hmm psychological battles eh?

    As for there being different factions in the battlefield I hope this means:

    By killing different people you can alter the ending of the game.

    NOT

    There are lots of people you are not allowed to kill.

    Sadly my money is on the second option...

  • dirigiblebill #20 5 years ago

    It could be something along the lines of the insanity system in Eternal Darkness.

  • TONYgr #21 5 years ago

    go kojima!!!!!!!!!!!YOU WILL CHANGE HUMAN HISTORY WITH MGS 4!GO KOJIMA GO!

  • Xerx3s #22 5 years ago

    So what was the standard comment again? "Drip, drip, drip"?

  • AcidSnake #23 5 years ago

    @the_dudefather:
    One of the alternative methods of killing the end...Remember you can also kill him by getting the sniper rifle at the end of the marsh area and then simply plugging him while he's asleep...
    You only have a few seconds to zoom and kill him...

  • SBfistfun #24 5 years ago

    bulllshhhhhhhhhhhhhit

  • space_ace #25 5 years ago

    infidels! ;-P

  • earl_roberts #26 5 years ago

    Mantis telling me I enjoyed playing International Track & Field when I did infact rather quite enjoy playing International Track & Field was where the AMAZEMENT was at for me!

  • MrFlintBlackman #27 5 years ago

    I played Metal Gear Soild the other day, and Psycho Mantis told me he wanted my copy of Suikoden, cus it's da RARE!

  • GitSomE_UK #28 5 years ago

    I didn't play MGS and Psycho Mantis told me to get a copy of Sudoko by the mistress of milf Carol Vorderman.

    When I did this it made my pants rumble.

  • Zane #29 5 years ago

    I want to see more innovation similar to the "switch control ports to fool the boss"

  • BartonFink #30 5 years ago

    I envisage more of the same ... oh goddamnit let me pay the fucking game already!! ... antics fo this one. He's waffling again.

  • romelpotter #31 5 years ago

    random teen in crazy ape murder death kill shocker says kojima made me do it!!!!!

    i can see it now!

  • kangarootoo #32 5 years ago

    @Zane

    That wasn't design innovation, it was bloody FAQ material.

    Well, I say that but I can't recall, was there anything to actually suggest to the player what to do? It just seemed to me like one of those "yeah it would be really cool if the player had to..." type descisions, that seems great in the mind of the designer but only because they already know the solution.

  • old_skool #33 5 years ago

    I want to see more innovation similar to the "switch control ports to fool the boss"

    Ha ! Fond memories , I remember i was in da shits because my player 2 port was buggered and couldn't beat the boss !

  • Dude_90 #34 5 years ago

    Cant wait for this

  • bdc #35 5 years ago

    Well you're gonna do a lot of waiting through the codec conversations, better start practicising

  • Pulsar_t #36 5 years ago

    Penguin Adventure
    Metal Gear
    Snatcher
    Policenauts
    Metal Gear Solid
    Zone of the Enders

    Yes I am still a big fan of Kojima san.. Now if only we can get MGS4 for other platforms seeing the PS3 will take a long time before we see a price drop.
    Edited by Pulsar_t at 02/04/07 @ 23:20

  • Xerx3s #37 5 years ago

    MGS2 pissed off a few people with its moebius loop of metaphysical trickery, but then again most dimwits don't like to be reminded of their intellectual limitations.

    Statements like this testify of sheer ignorance and a false sense of superiority. What was the saying again? "A fool marvels at his own intellect..."?

    Its still a fine game, with more original ideas and neat touches than a dozen western blockbuster titles.

    A rather hollow statement. OMG! Baldurs Gate had more originality and neat touches than a dozen japanese blockbuster titles.

    ...
    Edited by Xerx3s at 03/04/07 @ 00:31

  • dirigiblebill #38 5 years ago

    /marvels at his own intellect

  • agparrot #39 5 years ago

    @bdc "LOL @ people being so fascinated by Psycho Mantis controller rumble trick.

    IT WAS SO INNOVATIVE OMG"

    Well... nobody had really thought of doing it before, and it was a really good used of the technology to hand - I grinned at the love that had gone into the game for the Kojima to put it in there. It certainly wasn't a technical marvel to make a controller rumble, but it was an innovative context to put it in, on a console where some people still had old rumbleless controllers.

    I am looking forward to MGS4, of course, I enjoyed the other 'station incarnations and I'm hoping this game will have a similar vein of quality.

    Hmm, perhaps we will have to perform some ninja-attack SIXAXIS moves without being able to see what is actually on screen, striking left or right based on the sound from our 7.1 HDTVs?

    /writes list of relatives near to death to suck up to

  • TRUTH #40 5 years ago

    MGS vs Splinter Cell - MGS wins on story, but SC wins on gameplay - which personally
    i prefer.

  • TRUTH #41 5 years ago

    Eternal Darkness (Gamecube) was the best ever creation for messing with your head. I heard the sequel is coming to the 360 - just imagine!