Metal Gear Solid 4 keeps the sound real.

Oh yes. I can imagine it. You are traversing through the jungle and you can hear the soft rustle of a crawling snake in the grass. Could it be a venomous rattle snake, or is it Solid Snake? With E3 coming soon and the anticipated buzz with MGS4, this feature on what to expect for the sounds of the coming metal gear game will definitely make those guards on alert for our favorite tactical spy.

And why shouldn’t they be on alert? The game will be played in a console that will be sporting surround sound. Yes, PS3 will be sporting a surround sound feature for its games. It means that playing a game in the PS3 will definitely be like taking you to the movies. Now, surround sound is the creation of theatre moguls. This is a technology they developed  in order to simulate real sound. What we hear from the left side of the ear can be heard from the left and not just from a strong blast of sound from the center. Now, the beauty of surround sound is its clarity. Its clarity can be best seen in movies that has sounds coming from all over, such as plane movies or space movies. With surround sound you can definitely hear (and perhaps feel, if the speakers are strong enough) the plane whizzing by you from the left to the right. So I guess you can now imagine how Ace Combat will be like in the Playstation 3. But what does this have to do with our favorite covert ops spy?

Well, knowing that this technology is supported by the Playstation 3, the lovely development team of Metal Gear has flown around the world taking sounds from the environment – from tasty frogs, to venomous snakes, and most especially from a well equipped SOCOM. Sotaro Tojima decided to record real life sounds and incorporate it in the game. Hence if you are outside a room and you hear Otacon fiddling with his keyboards, the sound will be the muted tapping of the keyboards. When you open the door and, based on this article, the sound would be clearer.

Now what does this have to do with the gameplay? Tojima puts it best by saying that you have “No place to hide.” If you think you can get away from running through corridors as long as the cameras don’t see you, well, think again. Your footsteps could already alarm the guards from afar. Not only that, crawling might even make the grass rustle making that unsuspecting guard raise a question mark over his head. This new feature may not sound good for you, but imagine being able to hear the coming of a metal gear 100kms away. Now, isn’t that helpful?

We have seen this before in the PS2, but not to the extent of clarity and precision that the PS3 engine will bring. Tojima intends to make the sound as real-time as possible that even the mutest whisper or even the cracking of fingers could place the guards on alert in an instant. I guess the old wall tapping trick is not enough to make those guards distracted. Definitely, the gameplay will be harder, but that’s all in part of playing the world’s best tactical espionage action game.

Oh yes. I can imagine it. You are traversing through the jungle and you can hear the soft rustle of a crawling snake in the grass. Could it be a venomous rattle snake, or is it Solid Snake? With E3 coming soon and the anticipated buzz with MGS4, this feature on what to expect for the sounds of the coming metal gear game will definitely make those guards on alert for our favorite tactical spy.

And why shouldn’t they be on alert? The game will be played in a console that will be sporting surround sound. Yes, PS3 will be sporting a surround sound feature for its games. It means that playing a game in the PS3 will definitely be like taking you to the movies. Now, surround sound is the creation of theatre moguls. This is a technology they developed  in order to simulate real sound. What we hear from the left side of the ear can be heard from the left and not just from a strong blast of sound from the center. Now, the beauty of surround sound is its clarity. Its clarity can be best seen in movies that has sounds coming from all over, such as plane movies or space movies. With surround sound you can definitely hear (and perhaps feel, if the speakers are strong enough) the plane whizzing by you from the left to the right. So I guess you can now imagine how Ace Combat will be like in the Playstation 3. But what does this have to do with our favorite covert ops spy?

Well, knowing that this technology is supported by the Playstation 3, the lovely development team of Metal Gear has flown around the world taking sounds from the environment – from tasty frogs, to venomous snakes, and most especially from a well equipped SOCOM. Sotaro Tojima decided to record real life sounds and incorporate it in the game. Hence if you are outside a room and you hear Otacon fiddling with his keyboards, the sound will be the muted tapping of the keyboards. When you open the door and, based on this article, the sound would be clearer.

Now what does this have to do with the gameplay? Tojima puts it best by saying that you have “No place to hide.” If you think you can get away from running through corridors as long as the cameras don’t see you, well, think again. Your footsteps could already alarm the guards from afar. Not only that, crawling might even make the grass rustle making that unsuspecting guard raise a question mark over his head. This new feature may not sound good for you, but imagine being able to hear the coming of a metal gear 100kms away. Now, isn’t that helpful?

We have seen this before in the PS2, but not to the extent of clarity and precision that the PS3 engine will bring. Tojima intends to make the sound as real-time as possible that even the mutest whisper or even the cracking of fingers could place the guards on alert in an instant. I guess the old wall tapping trick is not enough to make those guards distracted. Definitely, the gameplay will be harder, but that’s all in part of playing the world’s best tactical espionage action game.