Konami has revealed that the English release of its PlayStation 3-exclusive title Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be noticeably more difficult than its Japanese counterpart.
Speaking during an interview at the inaugural E for All expo last weekend, Assistant Producer Ryan Payton explained that Japanese gamers are more reluctant to explore the uses of the games 3D camera; an aspect that he observes is more popular among western consumers.
“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!” said Payton. “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”, he continued.
“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.”
Metal Gear Solid 4 is scheduled for simultaneous worldwide release in Q1 2008.