Hideo Kojima On Life

Joystiq has a great recap of a presentation Hideo Kojima (he of Metal Gear Solid fame) made at the University of Southern California last week. I like it for 3 reasons:

1.) Kojima says his philosophy towards creating games is that he must do everything, from script development to the game play, and says that this is "true game design." I've always considered the man one of the only auteurs of the video game industry, and it is great to see him acknolowedging the same here.

2.) The fact that he uses Lego pieces to design the different levels in his games

3.) His comments on the differences between game design in the East and the West:

"...in Japan, players are often placed in a room with one door at the beginning of a game, which opens up into a room with two doors, and so on. The game has to open up gradually, piece by piece. But in the West, gamers can be placed in a jungle early on, and they often value, said Kojima, that freedom, enjoying the exploration offered to them."

Read the whole article here. 

Should I buy a PlayStation 3 or an Elite X-Box 360?

Last Christmas, my roommate Claudio's brother gave him an X-Box 360. I subsequently spent most of January and April playing Halo 3 online. (I was away for most of February and March.) While we bought a few other games, they were pretty much shelved permanently, and I never even tried the campaign mode of Halo. Multi-player was our entertainment ticket for those snowy nights. It is also probably the reason why there were so few posts from me on BlogCampaigning then.

Just in time for summer weather, Claudio moved out and took the X-Box with him. I've spent a good few months enjoying the fresh Toronto air.  When I go to sleep these days I dream of soccer, not Master Chief.

But now the combination of a crispness in the air and price drops from both Sony and Microsoft for their respective consoles has me thinking that I should once again work on my gaming skills.

The question: Which system should I buy?

Readers of this blog and friends of mine will know that I am a huge fan of the Metal Gear Solid series of games, and that Jens and I can spend hours talking about the creator of those games, Hideo Kojima. He is to video games and cyberpunk what Hitchcock was to film.

Metal Gear Solid 2 for PlayStation 2 was definitely one of my favorite games of all time. Not only is the gameplay amazing, but the actual story line is worthy of a movie itself.

Metal Gear Solid 4 for PlayStation 3 has received rave reviews. Gamespot gave it 10/10 and described it as "an awe-inspiring synthesis of dramatic story telling and entertaining gameplay."  IGN also gave it a 10/10 with similarly glowing comments.

Unfortunately, it's an exclusive title for PS3.

Similarly, the Halo series are also exclusive for Microsoft's X-Box. As I mentioned above, I love Halo 3—the multi-player mode in that game is almost perfect, and from what I've heard, Microsoft essentially changed the face of game-testing when it was first developed. And Halo ODST also looks amazing.

The Microsoft X-Box Elite Bundle (which includes a copy of Halo 3 and a Gold Membership to Microsoft Live for online playing) is currently selling on BestBuy.ca for $329.

The PlayStation 3 is selling for $299, but doesn't include Metal Gear Solid 4. But that's only another $29.99.

So, dear gamers: Which one should I chose? Is Metal Gear Solid 4 that good? Is the online play good?

-Parker

Solid Snake Teams Up With Verizon

This would definitely make me sing up with Verizon Wireless if they had it in Canada. Apparently, the mobile provider is offering a version of Metal Gear Solid on their new handsets. Its been created by the same team that did the original, and has a story line that takes place between the first and second games.

I don't know if its been endorsed by Hideo Kojima (BlogCampaigning's favourite video game auteur), but it could still be pretty hot. Some of the screen shots show that it is fairly similiar to the earlier games, and that's good news for fans.

It will also certainly add value to Verizon's offerings. With the game industry soaring I'll be there are plenty of Solid Snake fans that would make the switch for something like this.