Ryan Payton: MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots’ NA version tougher than JP version

For those of us who are eagerly crossing off the days before the second coming highly-anticipated release of Konami Digital’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, an exclusive on the Sony PlayStation 3, we’ve got a bit of information that should have us all fidgeting in our sneaking suits. The English version of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be more difficult than its native version, that being the Japanese version.

So sayeth Ryan Payton, one of the prophets assistant producers working on Metal Gear Solid 4, in an interview during this year’s E for All.

Why the difficulty ramp, though? Ryan Payton, charismatic devil with the awesome name that he is, explains that Japanese gamers don’t seem to take advantage of the game’s full 3D camera like westerners do, and that they’re more used to games having a fixed perspective. His statement, verbatim:

It’s going to be harder than the Japanese version, I can say that right now. That over the shoulder view is going to be, I hope, the focal point. I want to make that the default setting, and then people can turn on auto-aim later if they want to. I think that auto-aim takes away from the intimacy of the battle.

The reason we put that in there was because at TGS I noticed that when Japanese gamers would play, they would pick up the PS3 controller, and their right thumb would never go even go close to the right stick. They would never manipulate the camera. It’s still something that they need to learn about this full 3D camera system. Games like Onimusha and Resident Evil have always kind of held their hands through games with fixed cameras and things like that.

Auto-aim, eh? Definitely a good decision for Konami to make it an option you can toggle on and off, as there’s nothing quite like drawing a bead on an opponent before righteously smiting him with high-caliber thunderbolts called bullets. It’s also good that the challenge of the game has been upped, considering that the sense of accomplishment of completing a Metal Gear Solid game is priceless in its own right.

In the meantime, however, let’s hope that Metal Gear Solid 4 gets here without any delays – the sort that has been plaguing highly-anticipated titles this holiday season. Updates as we get them, and you can check out more Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots info at the full interview by following the Read link below.

For those of us who are eagerly crossing off the days before the second coming highly-anticipated release of Konami Digital’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, an exclusive on the Sony PlayStation 3, we’ve got a bit of information that should have us all fidgeting in our sneaking suits. The English version of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be more difficult than its native version, that being the Japanese version.

So sayeth Ryan Payton, one of the prophets assistant producers working on Metal Gear Solid 4, in an interview during this year’s E for All.

Why the difficulty ramp, though? Ryan Payton, charismatic devil with the awesome name that he is, explains that Japanese gamers don’t seem to take advantage of the game’s full 3D camera like westerners do, and that they’re more used to games having a fixed perspective. His statement, verbatim:

It’s going to be harder than the Japanese version, I can say that right now. That over the shoulder view is going to be, I hope, the focal point. I want to make that the default setting, and then people can turn on auto-aim later if they want to. I think that auto-aim takes away from the intimacy of the battle.

The reason we put that in there was because at TGS I noticed that when Japanese gamers would play, they would pick up the PS3 controller, and their right thumb would never go even go close to the right stick. They would never manipulate the camera. It’s still something that they need to learn about this full 3D camera system. Games like Onimusha and Resident Evil have always kind of held their hands through games with fixed cameras and things like that.

Auto-aim, eh? Definitely a good decision for Konami to make it an option you can toggle on and off, as there’s nothing quite like drawing a bead on an opponent before righteously smiting him with high-caliber thunderbolts called bullets. It’s also good that the challenge of the game has been upped, considering that the sense of accomplishment of completing a Metal Gear Solid game is priceless in its own right.

In the meantime, however, let’s hope that Metal Gear Solid 4 gets here without any delays – the sort that has been plaguing highly-anticipated titles this holiday season. Updates as we get them, and you can check out more Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots info at the full interview by following the Read link below.