ho’s that hiding in the shadows? Aw, it’s Solid Snake! We’ve got new news about Konami’s upcoming game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater that may change what you think a Metal Gear title may be.

First of all, a few weeks back we were fortunate enough to take part in a roundtable presentation with legendary series creator Hideo Kojima, who announced that he had come out of “stealth mode” to attend the event. All in attendance were abuzz as to what new details the creator was going to unveil and everyone was nearly on the edge of their seat. Without a wasted moment, Kojima-san began his presentation and immediately jumped right into the nitty gritty. The big news of the day: camouflage. That’s right, you heard us. New to the series will be the ability to outfit Solid Snake in a number of different camouflage outfits. You see, during outdoor portions of the game Snake will have a handy little camouflage index meter that will be located at the top right hand of the screen. The meter goes from zero to 100, with zero indicating that you’re completely perceptible and visible to enemy soldiers, and 100 indicating that you’re virtually invisible. Wearing different outfits will affect this meter, but there’s a catch. Since Snake will be running through all manner of environments, including areas with grass, trees, water, and even snow and fire, he’ll need to wear an appropriate outfit for his surroundings. For example, wearing the woodlands outfit while hiding in the snow is more than just a fashion faux pas as it will make Snake easier to detect by enemy soldiers. But, outfits will only get you so far. To go along with your camouflage, you’ll also come across face paints that can compliment your current outfit setup and render you even more invisible. Wearing an outfit in conjunction with being in the right environment will only get your meter up to about 95 percent. Wearing an appropriate face paint get up will bump that up to 100.

With all the dress up going on, there’s also another interesting feature that plays into the whole stealth idea of the game. Movement, for one thing, has a heavy bearing on your index and visibility. Walking, running, crouching, crawling, and even the new stalking move (a la Splinter Cell), all affect your overall visibility and your meter will display this fact. Even things like lighting and shadows will come into play, as a short gameplay video Kojima-san showed Snake going into and out of the shadows into some sunlight, all the while with his Stealth meter reacting accordingly by increasing and decreasing.

So far we’ve only seen a handful of outfits, but Konami promises that there will be quite a few to don throughout the course of the game. While some of the inclusions were pretty expectable, such as the woodlands, grass, tree bark, and snow outfits, others were a bit more quirky, like the fire outfit. Kojima-san explained the fire outfit in few details, but did hint that during a particular boss fights you’ll be surrounded by walls of flames or even able to start up your own blazes. Donning the flame outfit will make you harder to pick out amongst the burning flames and will also make it easier to attack your enemy in such a state.

Interestingly enough, the whole outfit feature opens up some pretty creative and wacky doors for Metal Gear. Kojima-san announced that the company is planning to hold a special “create a costume” contest wherein gamers can design their own outfits and submit them to Konami as well as the ability to actually download new outfits from the Internet using the PS2’s online capabilities. The winners will then have their outfits featured in the game. When queried to how helpful the bonus outfits would actually be in the game, Kojima-san did say that the company would probably break down submissions and winners into a number of different categories, including things like “helpful,” “cool,” and “funny.” And, he also announced that Konami is particularly interested in getting companies and corporations to submit their out outfit ideas, so my sick and twisted dream of seeing Snake sneak around in a White Castle employee uniform could very well become reality soon.

Aside from the camouflage presentation, Kojima-san was tight-lipped to the many questions that attendees threw at him regarding more details about the game. Still up in the air is the whole controversy surrounding Snake’s identity. Kojima-san did say that the game takes place in the 1960’s, which would conceivably have Snake being in his late 60’s during his adventures in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty. Putting two and two together, it’s not tough to figure out that Snake may actually be Big Boss, although Kojima-san didn’t officially confirm nor deny that. Also, mum was the word as to the game’s other environments. While everything shown during the event took place outdoors and Kojima-san added that environments like caves, rivers, and mountains will be present, it was still unaddressed whether or not you’ll be spending any time indoors and what sort of effect that will have on the entire camouflage index system of staying hidden. And lastly, the most heated topic at the event surrounded the whole system of actually switching outfits. While the short gameplay videos that were show included a nifty little screen that popped up and displayed what outfit Snake was changing into, Kojima-san didn’t elaborate on as to how the system will actually work, only commenting that it will be done in real time.

While much of the event was taken up by Kojima-san’s presentation, he did manage some time to answer some questions by those in attendance. Here’s the complete transcript from the Q & A session:

Question: You mentioned that the game will feature downloadable camouflage outfits. Are there any further thoughts on any additional online features for the game?

Hideo Kojima: As for this game, the downloadable outfits are pretty much all that will be geared towards online capability.

Question: It looked like the camouflage index has replaced the radar, is this is case?

HK: There are several types of radars in the game. When you start off the game you will have a radar, but throughout the course of playing you’ll basically switch between the radar and the stealth index. It’s your choice to use either one.

Question: You mentioned that Snake loses stamina while he’s in stalking mode. Could you talk more about the stamina system and how it works?

HK: That will be something that we reveal at E3. Basically when you walk around the mountains and need to climb, you’ll lose stamina which you’ll need to recover by feeding yourself. One thing that you can do is take off your shirt and wear no outfit, but you’re more likely to lose stamina doing that.

Question:  AT E3 you said that Snake parachutes into the jungle environment and loses all his items, and it appears that you seem to start off the game with very little. When Snake goes about playing the game, where does he get these outfits and does he change them in real time?

HK: I don’t know if I should be talking about this, my guys back home will probably kill me. But, you lose your backpack in the beginning and try to find it first and that’s how it begins. And initially, you don’t have many camo patterns to use, so throughout the course of the game you’ll be acquiring them. And, you can switch through them at any time.

Question: Is there a consideration for when you’re seen say through the camouflage index or when you’re seen through your distance to the enemy?

HK: Yes. Although your index may be 100 percent, enemies do have vision so if they’re really close to you they’re going to notice that something is wrong and will come closer and spot you.

Question: I guess it’s safe to assume that enemies, human or animal, will perceive your camo index in different ways. Will the number be more perceptible to other enemies or will there be a strong bond between how all enemies perceive you?

HK: The number really applies to human enemies and there are no camo indexes shown on screen for animals. For example, if you want to capture a bird, it’s better to be at a higher camo index so you can blend into the natural environment and so the bird won’t see you.

Question: At TGS you weren’t ready to address how Snake could be in the 1960’s. Could we get anymore information on that?

HK: I’m sure your imagination is correct, but I’m sure we’ll be able to talk about it more at E3. One thing I can say for sure is that he hasn’t hopped onto a time machine and traveled back in time.

Question: Will the downloadable camo outfits submitted by fans be judged on their overall effectiveness in the game? Or will that not matter?

HK: I think we’ll be accepting three kinds of outfits. One of them is effectiveness in the game, the second will be the funny ones. Third will be the “cool” looking ones, regardless of whether or not they’re effective. What we want is very interesting ideas. One idea we had that we dropped from the game was the “bloody” camo, which was an outfit with fake blood and sword wounds. When you wore it made you look like a corpse and would fool enemies into leaving you alone.

Question: In the first two games, if you were spotted you could always run away and hide. But here, the environments seem so big. If you’re spotted, what can you do?

HK: It really depends on where you are, that’s all I can say now.

Question: What were some of the key design challenges you faced when implementing the camouflage feature?

HK: It’s not a technical challenge. The thing was when you try to be true to the whole mechanism of camouflage, you end up not being able to see the enemy at all or able to see yourself on the screen. It’s very hard to play when you can’t see yourself, but we don’t want to place a little cursor over your head. So, we’re still trying to tweak the whole system so that you can see yourself but the camo also still works.

Question: Are there elements in the environment where you have to worry about the signs of your passage, such as footprints or the shrubbery showing that you’ve been there?

HK: If you’re walking on solid spots, there will be no footprints. But if you’re walking in damp areas like mud, there will be footprints so you’ll need to be careful. As for the grass, it does split when you walk through it but it will go back. What you need to be careful about is the sound of walking through it. And grass spots are the easiest spots to hide yourself, but you can find snakes in there so you’ll need to be careful.

Question: Can you talk about any plans for a pre-release playable demo for the game, or if there are plans for that?

HK: I really don’t know, but there probably will be a time for us to do that.

Question: Intro’s are getting more and more sophisticated. Kyle Cooper did the intro in MGS. Can you tell us anything about the game’s introductory sequences?

HK: First of all yes, we’re working with Mr. Cooper again. Again, if I start talking about this my guys will kill me again. But I’ll mention it anyways. When I worked with him last time, the original plan was for him to come up with something that was not non-interactive, something where you could actually move and place things while you were watching the intro. That’s something that we are working on for this one. If you choose not to push any buttons and do anything the introduction will be a piece of art. But if you do want to play around with it, you can use the PS2 controller and press buttons to actually change stuff on the screen during the introduction.

Question: The stealth part of the game seems to extend to Snake. Are there any considerations for hiding bodies or using camo on bodies? Also, what about the noise of your weapons?

HK: As for bodies, you can hide them in the grass and holes in tree trunks, as well as carry them into streams and rivers. And as for cutting down on noise, not necessarily weapons, we want you to make good use of your stalking move to not make a lot of noise. We’ll probably be able to show you more of that at E3. One thing about the camo uniforms is that when you’re shot, it will get blood stains. So, as a result, your camo index will go down.

Question: In the videos we saw, Snake obviously uses his camo to hide. Will there be any enemies that will also take advantage of their own camouflage?

HK: Not the typical enemies. But bosses will be using a lot of unique techniques to fight and hide themselves. That’s all I can say at this point.

Question: In the newest version of MGS1 for the GameCube, the cutscenes were very stylized and you seemed to take a lot of liberties with making it more sensational. Are you taking the same approach with MGS3?

HK: Let’s just say that I’ll be working on these cutscenes for MGS3, so they’ll be very Kojima-esque.

Question: How much of a random element is there to the camo index? Say you’re in a situation at 55 percent is it possible that one time an enemy will pass by and see you, while another time they may just pass you by?

HK: That number is just where you are, what you’re wearing, and what posture you in. I guess then that it’s not a random thing. But if an enemy is close by he’ll see you. Let’s say my camo index is 55 percent. A guy right here (points to an attendee) is one enemy and the camera back in the back of the room is another enemy. I’ll probably see Snake when I’m the close enemy, but not as the far away one. But, if my index is at 100 percent, both enemies will not see him.

Question: On the official website, you mention that the game will have mountains, caves, and streams, but also deserts. If there are deserts in the game, what can we expect? Also, you didn’t mention animals or eating them. How will that affect your health?

HK: It might not be a sand desert, but more like rocky places with no grass. Gameplay wise, we can’t talk about it yet. We might be showing some scenes from that at E3. Birds, frogs, snakes, scorpions, alligators, you can eat all of those. And as you know, I respect Mr. Shigeru Miayamoto, so they’ll be a lot of mushrooms in the game. You cannot eat turtles, though (laughs).

Question: Could you explain the fire patterns for outfits?

HK: There will be scenes in the game where there will be fire in the background or where you can actually light and start your own fires. So, if you wear the fire outfit, you can blend into the fire background. And, there will be a snow pattern for snowy areas in the game. Basically, camouflage is the key part of the stealth gameplay, but it’s also a fashion thing, too. If you want to be a macho guy and not wear anything, you can do that and play the game your way.