Konami held a "Production Hotline" event with key creators of the "Metal Gear Solid Master Collection" and the "Metal Gear Solid Delta" remake of MGS3: Snake Eater Hey, call these things "Hotline Konami". Hey, call these things "Hotline Konami. This one's free.

The key person here is Noriaki Okamura, the producer in charge of Konami's attempts to revitalize the series, and a genuine veteran of Konami who was also involved in the heyday of the old Kojima Productions. Okamura's resume is truly impressive, especially with his pivotal role in "Polisenotes" and his senior roles in several "Metal Gear" games. In the credits of "Metal Gear Solid," he was even given a "special thanks" by Kojima.

Okamura spoke about what Konami wants to do with Delta, and the following is a machine translation of some of his remarks (to be updated when Konami releases an official English transcript). The full event can be found on Youtube.

"We need to release a modern-style Metal Gear for the modern gamer, not a master collection," Okamura said of Metal Gear Delta: Snake Eater. But MGS should remain MGS, so we will change the graphics and controls, but not the rest of the scenario, sound, or game design."

When a slide about Delta's development progress came out, there was a sweet moment when Okamura said, "We are making good progress," before interjecting: "We are doing our best."

The moderator asked how many of the original MGS3 team were working on the delta. 'Not all, but many are still involved,' Okamura said. Some are taking new paths, and we want to do something about the fact that more and more people don't know about MGS."

"I believe that preserving Metal Gear for future generations is the mission of those of us who remain at Konami.

Meanwhile, David Hayter (who voiced Solid Snake and Big Boss in MGS 1-4) and others are proud to play the game itself." I don't want you to tell anyone about this... I played the opening of MGS Delta to the bridge scene the other night."

Hayter said in X.

You wouldn't expect Hayter to say otherwise, especially with Konami clearly using him as the publicity face for their various Metal Gear projects. This is a very wise decision, not only because of the obvious fan nostalgia, but also because Hayter was undoubtedly treated shoddily by Kojima (he eventually recast Kiefer Sutherland as Big Boss in "MGSV: GZ" and "MGSV: TPP"). In other words, there is a bit of a redemption arc to this new relationship, and for fans of the series, it is an implicit reminder that Kojima may not have been perfect in everything he did.

The event concluded with a first look at the Delta title screen. The original MGS3 title screen superimposed the titles over the zoom-in and slow-motion animations of the game's close combat system, filtered them with flashy colors, and overlaid camouflage patterns, which not only looked great, but also allowed players to manipulate elements of the can manipulate them. This, on the other hand, appears to be a bit more generic.

But wait. This title screen is not inspired by the PlayStation 2 version of Metal Gear Solid 3, but by the Nintendo 3DS remake. The latter was an excellent version by Kojima Productions, which added certain features like crouch walking (it was also one of the few 3DS titles that really took advantage of the 3D effects, gorgeous grass, but I digress).

More interestingly, the game itself was based on a pre-release demo version called MGS3 Trial Edition (title screen can be seen here). Of course, one could take this as a hint that Konami intends to drop a demo of Delta before release, but I'll leave La Li Lu Le Lo's speculation to fellow gearheads. Here's an article that lays out the three title screens:

One final note: the "Metal Gear" games have a habit of changing the title screen in some way after you complete the game; in the 3DS version, it has been replaced with a screen showing the location of the final battle. So perhaps the garish colors and CQC we saw are still there somewhere.

No news on a release date for Delta, but Okamura added that more information on the game will be announced soon at another "hotline" event.