Kojima interacts in real-time with MGS4 trailer at TGS

Hideo Kojima made a guest appearance at Konami's booth at TGS today to interact in real-time with Solid Snake's character model from the Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer via a PS3 test system (apparently on-stage looking "like a slightly oversized PC").

Watching any kind of trailer can cause us to raise both our pre-rendered defenses and even our hopes (for MGS/Sony fans, at least) that the footage we just saw will be possible with the eventually released software. This demonstration from Kojima (and MGS character designer Yoji Shinkawa) shows us that the scenes from the vaunted TGS trailer can run in real-time, though 1UP's videos don't show much beyond changing the lighting, colors, zoom, and camera angles while paused. (A video message from a grateful Ken Kutaragi was also reported—though not shown—where he "thanked Kojima for making such a great showcase for his new hardware." If learning Japanese isn't quite your thing, just keep in mind that the female commentator repeatedly exclaims sugoi throughout the video, which means "amazing" or "awesome" in English.)

[UPDATE: The direct-feed trailer is now up for streaming and downloading off GameTrailers. Thanks for the tip, Ruari. This copy appears to have been cached off of the official Kojima Productions MGS4 site, which has finally gone live with the real thing, if only at a single relatively low resolution or bit-rate. To alleviate technical difficulties, however, we recommend using IE over Firefox for streaming off the official site, despite the use of a fox for Kojima's studio symbol. We're sure that Snake would appreciate the irony.]

[Further UPDATE: 1UP has taken down its bootleg videos because Konami asked 'em to. Thanks, brake, but… aw, shucks. At least the audio on the direct feed's a lot better. See the GT link here for a smaller version of a bootleg with some audio. Try the official site to stay on Kojima's good side.]

So if you haven?t downloaded one of those bootleg show-floor trailers yet, now?s (nearly? See mix below) the best time to do it. But a word to the wise: those streaming 56K versions really don?t cut it; at least go for the streaming broadband versions or wait patiently for the High Quality WMV or QuickTime versions to finish downloading. The High Quality versions will only take 5-10 minutes to download on a DSL, cable-modem, or T-1(!) connection at a low-traffic time, but the server-buffering at 1UP is a lot better than that of our prior trailer connection over at GameTrailers.com. Now if they could add the audio from the GameMeca/GameTrailers version of the trailer to the 640x480 (1500kbps?) video from 1UP, then we?d have a real winner. It is interesting?due to the E3-like audio extravaganzas going on all around the show?to see Snake sneaking to techno music, however.