Konami’s Pre-E3 Event: The Things That Matter

Today Konami had its yearly pre-E3 event. In the past Konami has used this to make announcements and reveals, but this year it was fairly light on the big news. I’ve taken it upon myself, as the great guy that I am, to put all of the juiciest information in one place (right here, guys and gals).

**Wait, THIS is the guy play Big Boss?!**

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

After much speculation video game mad scientist Hideo Kojima has revealed that Kiefer Sutherland, of 24 fame, will be taking the reins of the voice of Big Boss from the capable hands of David Hayter. As I speculated in a previous article, I think Sutherland is here just for Big Boss, and Kojima will once again troll the universe when the gravely voice of Snake is done by Hayter in the future.

That being said, I can’t really think of a better actor to do the roll aside from maybe Vin Diesel… Joking, he’s the worst. Sutherland has a inherently raspy tone to his voice, that with the proper care could easily be tailored to portray the grizzled legend Big Boss.

On a side note, Hayter has been teasing something on Twitter for the past few days.

First he said he was excited for E3 – that’s fine, we all are.

Uh oh,I think I feel laryngitis coming on…

— David Hayter (@DavidBHayter) June 5, 2013

Then he said he hopes he doesn’t get laryngitis – random, but also okay.

I’m so excited for E3!I just hope I don’t lose my voice.;-)

— David Hayter (@DavidBHayter) May 29, 2013

But the bit about “losing his voice,” which can be seen as a metaphor for losing the voice of Snake, is what really has me on the edge of my seat. At the end of the day I’m sure Hayter and Kojima will get the last laugh when Snake pops up somewhere or other; either Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, or a future installment of the franchise. Or maybe I’m just a big baby and can’t bring myself to say goodbye to Hayter as Snake.

**Insight into the mind of a genius?**

While the reveal of Sutherland was significant, I’m a little upset that we didn’t get a release window or a new trailer. In the past, the pre-E3 events have been a lot more MGS reveal heavy. I guess they want to save some of the revelations for E3 proper or perhaps even the Tokyo Game Show later this year.

**That “2” on the end there looks awfully menacing…**

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

I was a pretty big fan of the first Lords of Shadow despite its missteps. I thought the gameplay was really solid and the light and shadow varieties of magic made for a compelling combat twist. Based on the information given at the event it looks to me like this game may improve upon the formula in a meaningful way.

David Cox, studio head at Konami Digital Entertainment, said that there will be a significant game world to explore – an entire city in his words. This deviated from the first Lords of Shadow in that it was pretty much on rails. Sure you could explore within a “dungeon” but there was no overworld, per se. Now the words “open world” were never uttered, but I’m getting the picture that it’s going to be something in the vein of Batman: Arkham City, which itself is inspired by the classic Metroidvania style of design.

The trailer itself was pretty light on the gameplay, but the presentation was phenomenal, and the reworked Mercury Engine looks like it’s going to be pushing the limit of the current generation consoles. Beyond that the only real notable addition is the return of Patrick Stewart (who is simply awesome in every possible way) as Gabriel’s (former?) mentor, Zobek.

**SOCCER!**

Aside from those, Konami also revealed a handful of mobile and social games, in addition to Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 for consoles. Being that I’ll rarely invest legitimate time into mobile and social games I’m not the authority to be covering them. On top of that I’m not a huge fan of sports games… Or sports for that matter (yeah, high school was rough), so I’ll leave the analysis of that in more capable hands.

The event as a whole was mostly underwhelming, and void of any major announcements seeing as we kind of knew about Sutherland as Big Boss since GDC. What did you enjoy most about the conference? Were you hoping for a few more juicy bits of information? Sound off in the comments down below and maybe I’ll bake you a cake (but not an ice cream cake)!