Some New Metal Gear Solid Collection Games Are Barely HD

The Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1 is just around the corner and publisher Konami’s dumped a bunch of additional information about the ports and remasters ahead of their October 24 release date. One of the big reveals is that Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater will still only run at 720p, the same as their previous HD versions on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

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Update 8/22/2023 9:33 a.m. ET: Konami now says that only the Switch versions run at the lower resolution, with Konami telling IGN that the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC versions all having a “target” of 1080p resolution and 60fps. It’s still not clear if that “target” is a hard committement or simply the maximum performance the games will reach on those platforms.

Original story follows.

It’s not a massive shock but still may come as a surprise to fans who hoped the upcoming five-game Metal Gear collection would add a few new graphical twists to make it a definitive one-stop-shop for the first half of the series. As NintendoLife, IGN, and others report in their previews, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Snake Eater are capped at 30fps on the Nintendo Switch and also appeared to exhibit some slowdown during cutscenes (a Konami rep told IGN the game was still being tweaked). The original HD remasters, which are still available on Xbox Series X/S through backwards compatibility, ran at 60fps.

The games are so unchanged that Konami even provides a content warning about some references that might seem out of place in 2023. “This game contains expressions and themes which may be considered outdated,” it reads, according to GamesRadar. “However, these elements have been included without alteration to preserve the historical context in which the game was made and the creator’s original vision. Player discretion is advised.”

While not mentioning him explicitly, the disclaimer appears to be alluding to original Metal Gear writer and director Hideo Kojima. It’s not immediately clear which content Konami might be referring to, although VGC speculates it could be things like Snake smoking cigarettes to get a buff or Dr. Naomi telling him he can do a “strip search” of her after he completes his next mission.

The collection will, however, include some additional bonus content. In addition to the original MSX versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, there are game manuals, scripts and graphic novels. There’s also Metal Gear Solid: Integral, an expanded version of the PS1 classic that includes a series of VR training missions as well as an alternate tuxedo outfit for Snake.

Originally just set to come to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch and PC, Konami announced the $60 collection will actually come to the PS4 too due to popular demand (and the over 100 million console install base). While not officially revealed yet, the second volume in the collection will reportedly include Metal Gear Solid 4, 5, and Peace Walker when it arrives.

         

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Metal Gear Solid Locked At 30FPS In Master Collection

The Metal Gear Solid Master Collection website shows box art of the first three games.

Screenshot: Konami / Kotaku

Part of the appeal of video game remasters and remakes is the prospect of playing an old game on better hardware that can, ostensibly, run it better than your old console did back in the day. That is the hope, at least. Unfortunately, not every “remaster” is an improvement over its source material—just ask the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy collection. Now, eyes are turning toward Konami’s upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1., with fans hoping it doesn’t run into those same issues. On that front, today saw the emergence of one new slightly disappointing tidbit.

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The original 1998 PlayStation Metal Gear Solid ran at 30 frames per second, and Konami has now confirmed that will still be the case for the newly remastered edition launching in the Collection on October 24. News of this comes from a graph on the compilation’s official website, which says the first MGS adventure will run at 30fps on all platforms, while Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater will run at 60fps on all systems except for the Nintendo Switch.

To be clear, the original Metal Gear Solid ran at 30fps when it launched in 1998, but it being locked to that lower framerate across the board seems odd in 2023, especially when its sequels will apparently have some scaling depending on which platform you buy them on. (For reference, MGS2 originally ran at 60fps, while MGS3 was originally a 30fps game.)

Here’s the full rundown:

A graph shows the resolution and framerate breakdown for the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection.

Screenshot: Konami / Kotaku

There’s been chatter about the games’ graphical resolutions as well. It’s a bummer to see that none of these games will run at 4K resolution, even on PC, PlayStation 5, or Xbox Series X/S. This lack of 4K support was confirmed back in August.

All of this comes ahead of Konami’s separate, upcoming Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake. That’s titled Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, presumably so the number doesn’t scare anyone off from playing the game. MGS3 was a prequel in any case, so you didn’t need to know everything going in to understand it.

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Metal Gear Solid Paid Voice Actor Jennifer Hale Only $1,200

Voice actor Jennifer Hale needs little introduction, having gained fame playing characters like Metroid Prime’s Samus Aran, Bastila Shan from Knights of the Old Republic, and of course Mass Effect’s one true Commander Shepard. She’s also known for Konami’s Metal Gear Solid series, in which she’s played the shifty geneticist Naomi Hunter since the series’ inception in 1998. But in a recent podcast appearance, Hale revealed that her first MGS gig voicing that important character paid only $1,200.

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Previously, Hale avoided naming Metal Gear Solid directly in interviews, only saying in September that a “game made $176 million” and paid her an hourly wage that was “way less than [what] I wanted it to be.” But in this week’s episode of the My Perfect Console podcast, currently available in early access, Hale responded quickly to host and critic Simon Parkin’s question as to what that $176 million game was: It was Metal Gear Solid.

She agreed with Parkin that her original MGS pay, $1,200, is at a “grotesque disparity” with $176 million, saying “it’s indicative of what’s happening in modern culture. […] For every dollar that the workaday person makes—and [voice actors] are workaday people; all actors, on-camera, voice-over, who are not celebrities are workaday people—we make a dollar for every $399 [executives] make.”

Read More: Video Game Voice Actors Are Ready To Strike Over AI. Here’s Why
Buy Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop

Still, “I love [Metal Gear],” Hale said. “It was such a crazy departure from anything I’d done before. I loved it because it was brilliant, and because it was just so unique. […] And it’s dark, and it’s mysterious, and it’s intense, and […] I loved everything about it.”

Currently, Hale is one of many video game voice actors prepared to strike over what they tell Kotaku is “an existential fight to make sure that they hang on to the rights to their own voices, their own images, because that is what they make their living with, as well as achieve wages that will keep up with inflation so that they can continue to be professionals in this space economically.”

During her podcast appearance, Hale reinforced this last point and said she wants voice actors to receive residuals for game work “on a flexible structure that honors the indie developers, that honors the budgets and capacities of teams. I would like to see that.”

SAG-AFTRA members authorized a video game strike with a 98 percent “yes” vote on September 25.

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5 Disappointing Things About Metal Gear Solid Master Collection

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 gathers some of the best games ever made and puts them all on modern platforms in one convenient package. Unfortunately, a laundry list of weird caveats and shortcomings at launch make the new anthology hard to celebrate. Why is one of the best franchises in gaming history not pulling out all the stops?

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Out October 24 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and Windows PC, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 has been stalked by controversy for months now, with questions about subpar performance on Nintendo Switch and a lack of bells and whistles on “next-gen” platforms like PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The anthology features five main games—Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater—and includes the oddball Snake’s Revenge and the NES and Famicom ports of Metal Gear as bonuses. But now that it’s finally here, it’s hard not to be disappointed by how publisher Konami has gone about assembling it.

An operator badgers Snake about missing features.

First up is the lack of a visual upgrade on new platforms, or parity with the original versions on Switch. As shared prior to release, Metal Gear Solid still only plays at 30fps across all versions (it was never remastered for 2011’s Metal Gear Solid HD Collection by Bluepoint Games). The Switch version of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 are also locked at 30fps (MGS2 originally ran at 60fps on PlayStation 2). All three games max out at 1080p as well, with no 4K resolution options for the stronger hardware versions.

Read More: Kotaku’s Metal Gear Retrospective Series

Even without any big improvements, Konami notes that the launch versions still suffer from various bugs and performance issues it plans to patch sometime in the future. A full list of the shortcomings was provided to IGN. “Across Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, and 3, bug fixes are also planned, specifically on MGS2,” the site noted. “Konami warned the game may significantly slow down in certain cutscenes, which sounds worrying. A patch to reduce processing load is planned.” Visual options like CRT scanlines and the ability to switch between windowed and full-screen mode in the options menu in the two MSX games are also MIA at the moment.

There’s also the laggy pause button. Konami added the option to pause during cutscenes, a long-requested feature for the story-heavy stealth series. Footage from copies of the game that leaked early, however, showed that it can take up to 10 seconds for the game to register the pause after the button’s pressed, taking some of the shine off the new option. It’s still unclear if that’s intentional or will be patched down the road.

The Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is, perhaps less surprisingly, encountering issues on PC as well. Initial Steam reviews are very mixed, with players complaining about unintuitive keybindings, poor UI, and a lack of aspect ratio options. “Take this with a grain of salt, the game literally just launched, but damn the video settings, button mapping, and poor UI/UX for the collection is pretty sour,” wrote one player. “I am sure it will improve over time, but yikes.”

Most galling for me personally are the games altogether missing from the physical Switch version of the collection. In North America at least, only Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, and Snake’s Revenge are actually on the game card. The three Metal Gear Solid games, which are the main ones advertised on the front of the box, must be downloaded separately. As someone who treats their Switch like a physical repository for retro remasters and re-issues, it’s frustrating to have to rely on an internet connection and a temporary online storefront to have access to all-time classics. It sounds like the Japanese physical release at least also includes the first Metal Gear Solid on the game card.

Many of the initial reviews for Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 have noted these shortcomings while still pointing out that at the end of the day these games still play great and remain some of the most profound meditations on geopolitics, war, and the military industrial complex the medium has ever produced. “I think it’s great that such a huge swathe of Metal Gear history is now readily available and easily playable on modern systems,” writes The Verge’s Jon Porter. “But there’s also a part of me that thinks Konami missed an opportunity to give Metal Gear Solid in particular a fresh coat of paint and update it for a modern audience.”

The video game industry is generally so bad at preserving its past I wish it would go all out when it decides to finally take the opportunity to repackage old games and sell them again. If that means charging more so be it. I’d gladly pay $100 for the definitive edition of all of these games. Maybe we’ll eventually get that one day. In the meantime I hope Konami’s planned post-launch updates give the collection some of the additional love it deserves.

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Metal Gear Solid 3 Gets Unreal Glow-Up In New Remake Trailer

Naked Snake crouches next to a brick wall.

Screenshot: Konami / Kotaku

When the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake was revealed back in May, all we got were some shots of a swamp and Naked Snake coming out of the water. A new trailer that debuted today during the latest Xbox mini-showcase finally gives us a look at the game in action, if only briefly. And you know what? It looks really good.

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The remake will take the 2004 PlayStation 2 game and overhaul it in Unreal Engine 5. While that could run the risk of drastically changing the style and feel of the original Fox Engine version of the stealth action game, Snake’s environmental sneaking and silent takedowns look as characteristically Metal Gear as ever, and the graphics look way better.

Here’s the new trailer:

The “first in-engine look” begins with Naked Snake trudging through a muddy river next to a crocodile. Later we see him crouching near some tall grass as the mud flicks off his clothes and boots. From there we see him aiming a pistol, climbing across a cliff, grabbing a guy from behind, and lots and lots of glimpses of wildlife. As some fans noted, the new footage appears to confirm that Snake can finally move while crouching, unlike in the original game.

The earlier reveal trailer had the potential to be mostly smoke and mirrors, but now this whole project is looking a lot more promising and real. We still don’t have a firm release date yet, or a clear idea of exactly who at Konami is working on it. Singaore-based art and outsource development studio Virtuos is helping with production. Konami also confirmed the remake will use the original voice performances, but that original director Hideo Kojima and original artist Yoji Shinkawa are not involved in any way.

The company said it wanted to start with remaking Metal Gear Solid 3 since it’s the origin story for Big Boss. If all goes will, it could mean we’ll eventually get Unreal Engine remakes of Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2 as well. All three games can currently be played on the new Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection, though the remaster anthology leaves plenty to be desired.

             

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