Konami's Pre-E3 Show

Konami opted to do something a little different this year. Normally there are several publishers that hold their own personal conferences during E3. These companies are usually Ubisoft, Konami, and Electronic Arts; relative giants in the industry. Seemingly getting a leg up and kick starting E3 a few days early, Konami decided to hold their conference today. Though to be fair it wasn't so much a conference and more of an hour long infomercial on what Konami has up their sleeves for the coming year. So what did they unveil in their hour long segment? A lot of cool tidbits actually. We got brief looks at some of the games they have in development for release this year along with some information on some high-def collections that will be coming out. Lets get the rundown.

Okay lets get one thing out of the way, which I think is the most pressing thing coming out of Konami. Hideo Kojima, of Kojima Productions is not attending E3 this year. That's sort of a big deal considering the creator of Metal Gear has dished out almost yearly announcements at E3 for quite a while. More often than not these were followed up with some epic and humorous trailer offerings. This year Kojima took a more subtle approach by having some segments set up for Konami's recorded presser. Together with the guys over at Mega64 he dropped a few of the bombshells he's known for without even attending the big conference. So what did he let loose on the industry? Some pretty nifty ideas if I must say so myself. Oh and in case you're wondering about Metal Gear Solid: Rising, it will have no presence at this year's E3 but is on track for a 2012 release. Now onto the good stuff!

1. Transfarring

Don't get thrown off by the name he's come up with this new system. The basic concept behind this is taking an active saved game file on your PS3 and basically loading it onto your PSP so that you can continue playing this game on the go. Recently Sony has come out with an idea called remastering where they take old PS1 and PS2 games that people would like to see revitalized and bring them to the PS3 via emulation. What Kojima is proposing isn't done via emulation, but essentially taking the same game that you're playing on the PS3 and putting it right on your portable gaming system. This will begin with HD remakes from the Metal Gear Solid series. Coming to the Playstation 3(and surprisingly to the 360 as well) this fall will be high definition remakes of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The major point he wanted to stress was that with the transfarring enabled, you will be able to start up a game of say Snake Eater on your console. And say you are taking a trip via train or bus or what-have-you. You'll be able to plug your PSP into your PS3 and transfer your save file to the PSP. From there you will be able to continue your game and when needed you will be able to transfer the save file back onto the PS3 to continue playing on your home console set up.

2. HD Remakes

I kind of spilled the beans on that already with my write up on transfarring. Basically we'll be seeing the Metal Gear Solid games revitalized in an HD collection. Not only that but fans of the Zone of Enders series will be getting their grubby little mitts on an HD collection of Zone of Enders 1 and 2. Elsewhere in the Konami world  the franchise of Silent Hill will see a set of remakes as well. So yeah, the whole updated classics thing is really taking off. 

Snake Eater 3DS Promo Shot

3. The Fox Engine

The last thing Kojima talked about was sort of a reveal and not at the same time. The Fox Engine is something Kojima Productions has been working on since they finished Metal Gear Solid 4 in 2007 apparently. While most of the company's games have been developed with a single console in mind, the new developer tools they've created in the Fox Engine will allow for greater portability. The key concept in mind when developing the engine was multi-platform releases that could help them expand their horizons. There wasn't much to see of it now but it appears they have a very nice amount of work completed on the engine and we can expect an official announcement of Kojima's newest project at next year's E3. 

Aside from Kojima Productions info, there wasn't very much announced. We got a look at some of the new animations and motion capture that is going into the new Pro Evolution Soccer title, along with a new trailer for it over course. One of the developers of Silent Hill: Downpour talked briefly about the direction of the game and you guessed it, there was a short trailer to follow soon after. As far as announcing new titles, there was a brief tease of a possible Contra sequel and a nice look at an interesting new third person shooter called NeverDead. As pointed out before in my E3 post, video recaps from the conferences can be found over at IGN, Gamespot, and Game Trailers. Out of everything I would definitely suggest checking out the trailer for NeverDead. It's got a very interesting concept behind it and some slick looking visuals to go along with a unique art style. And if you're interested in portable titles at all, you might want to take a look Snake Eater 3DS and the freshly announced Silent Hill: Book of Memories for the NGP.

Expect much more E3 news and tidbits to come in the next couple of days!