Konami Pre-E3 Press Conference Announcements

Details: Parent Category: Gadgets; Category: Video Games; Published on Friday, 03 June 2011 21:00; Written by Ryan Vest and Christopher Lai

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Konami is striking first with its own Pre-E3 Press Conference streamed live over the Internet. While their website initially crashed due to the high demand, followers were still able to catch the show via other sites like GameTrailers.com.

The early showing is a step in the right direction for Konami as last year’s press conference during E3 2010 was best known for its cheesy dance numbers including a live performance from a local glee club. Don’t be fooled, the Pre-E3 announcement was still full of awkward moments but were not centerpiece to the overall show.

The first Konami feature was Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (Snake Eater) for the Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D Nintendo 3DS, developed by Kojima Productions. The game will utilize numerous 3DS features including touch screen and gyroscopic controls along with 3D camera functionality. Overall, the game is a remake of the original Snake Eater game on the PlayStation 2 (PS2). The featured trailer for the 3DS title followed the style of the original Snake Eater trailer shown back at E3 in 2003.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 (PES), is a continuation of the popular soccer series. The main gameplay featured in this year’s announced title will be off the ball player movement. In PES 2011, the gameplay was concentrated on the player with the ball. The new game will still include the same player mechanics but will add in the ability to control your teammate movements allowing for a more realistic gaming experience.

NeverDead made its return to the spotlight at the conference where game producer Shinto Tageri cleared the air of confusion about NeverDead’s new gameplay mechanics. The main feature in this game concentrates on main character, Brice, who can never die. Instead of losing his life, the character’s limbs will fall off. Brice will then have to track down his missing limbs after taking heavy damage. Wrapping up the NeverDead feature was an extensive trailer showing the game in action and the story behind it.

Konami, the king of the horror genre, Silent Hill also makes a return with a new motion picture entitled Silent Hill Revelation 3D directed by Michael J. Bassett. The movie follows the storyline laid out by its video game counter-parts with special consideration taken to not stray from its storied foundation. The director worked closely with game developers on this project.

In addition to the Silent Hill movie, Silent Hill Down Pour made its debut for the HD consoles which appears to continue the tradition of small towns and psychologically terrifying elements the series is known for. Rounding the Silent Hill segment out was the Silent Hill HD Collection, which includes HD versions of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 all playable on the PlayStation 3 (PS3). The Sony NGP, the new hand held, will also receive an exclusive title in Silent Hill Book of Memories.

The keynote announcement came from Kojima Productions, a developer for Konami. The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Kojima Production segment opened up with Hideo Kojima, lead producer, leading a tour of the development studios using strange camera angles and poor voice over work. The introduction was highly contrasted by a more experienced Mega64 segment announcing Transfarring. Transfarring allows the player to transfer game saves between the home console (like the PS3) and a portable console (like the Sony PSP). The new feature gives players the ability to continue their gaming experience regardless of their location.
Zone of Enders HD

Games initially featuring the Transfarring system include the announced Metal Gear Solid HD Collection which is a bundle for the PS3 and 360 and includes HD remakes of Metal Gear Solid 2, 3 and Snake Eater. Zone of the Enders 1 and 2 are getting the same treatment in a collection of their own. Strangely missing from the Transfarring announcement was information as to how these collections will be played on a PSP or NGP. It is still even unknown if you will need to purchase the same game twice in order to take advantage of it. Silent Hill HD Collection remained absent throughout the segment as well.

The grand finale ended with a fissile instead of a bang with numerous half announcements and apologies about the lack of information on key Konami franchises. This started with a character designer for Kojima Production reiterating what was already known about Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Kojima continued with the disappointing lack of information by saying he is not ready to talk about his new game. He did however say that he is working on a new multiplatform engine called Fox which appears to be able to be run on the 360, PS3, and PC platforms. A small Contra teaser ended the show, but like Rising and the Kojima Project no substantial information was shared.

Konami knew they had to bring their conference up to standards after all of the negative attention they received last year and overall they achieved it. The Konami press conference was entertaining and educational at the same time. Their game announcements will hold off Konami fans long enough for the games to be released, and the lineup displayed by Konami is interesting. It might not quite be worth the viewing parties they suggested for it, but there is always next year.

For more E3 coverage follow Christopher Lai and Ryan Vest on their podcast iTunes: Leet vs Noob.