• Light/Dark

What's up with Snake in this weird MGS1 screenshot?

Tenrius

Tenrius

For the Snark was a Boojum, you see
Member
Oct 25, 2017
456
The latest issue of the games™ magazine came with a supplement featuring their top 200 games of all time. The second place is, in fact, occupied by Metal Gear Solid 1. And there's something wrong about the way Solid Snake looks in the screenshot:
DeUeCPrWAAAnQzt.jpg

It's like the photoshopped Sylvester Stallone's face onto Snake! This is how proper MGS1 Snake looks like:

MGS1-Snake-Cheating-Death.jpg


And it's not Twin Snakes, either. That version of Snake looked like that:

mgs_tts___solid_snake_face.png


So what happened? Where did they get that apparent bullshot from and why?
 
Sub Level

Sub Level

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,517
Texas
Just a different face texture, likely from an early build. A LOT of stuff changed from the game's release to the final version.

Notice that the radar in the screenshot is not functioning correctly either.
 
GMM

GMM

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,532
Could be a screenshot released while the game was in development and they made changes to Snake before it came out?
 
StreamedHams

StreamedHams

Member
Nov 21, 2017
4,435
That looks like the EGM? I read an issue in 96 or 97 that had some previews. Some of the cut scenes appeared to be CGI, too.
 
KingOfDyslexics

KingOfDyslexics

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
696
Vienna
Possibly on the DEV kit they had more ram and tried out such a detailed face texture before they realized that they cant animate the lips when talking. Looks a lot like perfect dark to be honest.
 
Dreamboum

Dreamboum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
23,255
I have never seen a screen like this, and it is waayyyyyyyyyy too high quality to be any early footage, I don't think any known build had Snake with distinct eyes
 
Burrman

Burrman

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,633
Kojima originally wanted Sylvester stallone for the role but had to wait 20 years to settle with Jack Bauer.
That's what I heard?
 
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
41,078
Wonder if they ever tried a Shinkawa art style model for MGS1 like they did in those unused MGS2 models.
 
Dreamboum

Dreamboum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
23,255
I took a look at this. Here's the actual picture.

The only known source for it is the MGS1 Integral (PC version) Amazon page. But MGS1 Integral doesn't look like that at all. Gameinformer seems to have nabbed it from Amazon in their article about MGS1 PC too, because the reddit source doesn't have any screenshot like this.

41WVZHME9BL.jpg


I'm stumped
 
OP
OP
Tenrius

Tenrius

For the Snark was a Boojum, you see
Member
Oct 25, 2017
456
Dreamboum said:
I took a look at this. Here's the actual picture.

The only known source for it is the MGS1 Integral (PC version) Amazon page. But MGS1 Integral doesn't look like that at all. Gameinformer seems to have nabbed it from Amazon in their article about MGS1 PC too, because the reddit source doesn't have any screenshot like this.

41WVZHME9BL.jpg


I'm stumped
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Maybe it's a promo shot made specifically for the PC version? Sounds kinda unlikely, but I don't see another explanation
 
JahIthBer

JahIthBer

Member
Jan 27, 2018
10,642
Downgrade gate for MGS1, 20 years later
Would have been amazing if Snake's face looked that good though
 
Dreamboum

Dreamboum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
23,255
mgs12-1366657377.jpg


Ok this is wack

My only theory is that there is a fanmade retexturing for the PC version that was lost to the void and someone drew the textures to put a new face for Solid Snake. Maybe some obscure russian mod.
 

Chakoo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,987
Toronto, Canada
I did a google search of MSG Pc and found the exact shot. Maybe a shot from the old PC build or a modded version of it.

41WVZHME9BL.jpg


-edit-
I guess people forgot it had a PC port?
 
Earthboundstarman

Earthboundstarman

Member
Dec 15, 2017
712
I kinda like it, was probably too detailed for PS1, so thats why we got the iconic Snake face we did that looks like he has a mask on.
 

Deleted member 11976

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,585
This is on the level of the Berenstein/Berenstain Bears Alternate Reality Theory, folks.

I mean, I know Snake never had eyes on his MGS1 character model but it's so bizarre that this was ever a thing.
 

Chakoo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,987
Toronto, Canada
Dreamboum said:
The PC port doesn't look like that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah my post went up before I saw yours and I made that edit not seeing that you already found the photo. I was more making reference to the early post not noting a PC release of the game and I really could not recall what he looked like in the game (I just remember some changes to a few scenes and textures were made to the pc port).
 
Dreamboum

Dreamboum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
23,255
Chakoo said:
Yeah my post went up before I saw yours and I made that edit not seeing that you already found the photo. I was more making reference to the early post not noting a PC release of the game and I really could not recall what he looked like in the game (I just remember some changes to a few scenes and textures were made to the pc port).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah, my first thought was that it was maybe Bleem!, the dreamcast emulator. That or I stepped into an alternate reality, lol
 
Teeth

Teeth

Member
Nov 4, 2017
4,119
I've always loved the darkened out eyes art style of MGS1. It neatly side-steps the vacant doll eyes that "realistic" looking games from that era had.
 

FormatCompatible

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,071
Shiiiit, a whole new mystery for MGS1 so many years later. Even though I have a huge soft spot for the normal faces that detailed face model actually looks quite good imo.
 
Bakercat

Bakercat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,173
'merica
Looks like early concept screenshot the magazine grabbed. I would assume Kojima wanted full detailed faces on the models, but in the end left them less detailed. It does look weird when you first boot the game, but after a couple of cutscenes you don't even think about it honestly.
 
Poimandres

Poimandres

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,178
Chakoo said:
I did a google search of MSG Pc and found the exact shot. Maybe a shot from the old PC build or a modded version of it.

41WVZHME9BL.jpg


-edit-
I guess people forgot it had a PC port?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It seems unlikely that an OLD PC build would have better face textures? Could be modded, or maybe they ran into issues with higher quality textures running smoothly.
 
IDreamOfHime

IDreamOfHime

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,360
He wanted Stallone for Snake and Kurt Russell for Big Boss?
MGS4 could have been the Tango and Cash sequel we always dreamed of.
 
Dreamboum

Dreamboum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
23,255
Poimandres said:
It seems unlikely that an OLD PC build would have better face textures? Could be modded, or maybe they ran into issues with higher quality textures running smoothly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I can explain this, I think. Look at this reddit post https://www.reddit.com/r/metalgears...teresting_details_on_how_the_mgs_pc_port_was/

  • Two lessons learned from it - We've put much better high-res textures for the eyes (hired someone from Texas to do it for us), when we got the idea rejected by Hideo himself (by the phone), he told us (through the interpretter) that the game during normal game-play did not have any eye-movement, so higher-res textures would look like crap, while with a blurry texture your own eyes won't see it as a problem - it's really sometimes LESS is better.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Opa-Pa

Opa-Pa

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,812
I knew it was gonna be that screenshot before even clicking on the thread lol. Solid Stallone is the Mystery Kong of Metal Gear.
 
azeke

azeke

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,220
Astana, Kazakhstan
I thought OP was gonna post that screenshot one where Snake was blonde before he dyed his hair so that people wouldn't confuse him with Liquid Snake.
 
Jangowuzhere

Jangowuzhere

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,505
It wouldn't surprise me if KojiPro made more realistic faces with eyes for the characters at some point but then decided to scrap it. Having these realistic looking faces without any sort of facial animation would look pretty wonky, so they opted for a more stylistic approach.
 

Seeya

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,984
Very early version from when it was some kind of behind the should on rails game.
 
Vlaphor

Vlaphor

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,202
Topeka, KS
It might actually have been physically drawn on, as a kind of "This is what we anticipate the game will look like" pre-release shot.
 
MrCunningham

MrCunningham

Banned
Nov 15, 2017
1,372
Dreamboum said:
This article is dated 2000 and has the same picture (can't vouch for the safety of your browser) http://gamesurf.tiscali.it/anteprima/metal-gear-solid-c5445.html?p=4

Yeah, I might be wrong about my theory. This might be some beta pictures of Metal Gear Solid Integral on PC. Why no one knew about them before eludes me
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Using Google translate, that article is a preview for the PC port. I think this paragraph pretty much confirms that this image is from preview build screenshots:

English Translation from: https://translate.google.ca/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://gamesurf.tiscali.it/anteprima/metal-gear-solid-c5445.html&edit-text=

The porting is about Metal Gear Solid Integral, a posthumous reissue of the game released in Japan and, although "dismembered", in the rest of the world. This means that all options will be available immediately, including the possibility to play in person, and the 300 training missions. In addition to this, certain data do not have any. The software house, of course, speaks of high resolution, better textures and greatly improved graphics. Only the final version can, however, remove the doubt of finding ourselves faced with a simple re-adaptation of a graphics engine that on PSX was a small masterpiece, but that on pc would not be definitely in step with the times
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The team responsible for the PC port did say that this version would have better textures. But as you posted in your last post, Hideo didn't like the changes and told them to keep the assets from the original game. This preview is from September 2000, the game was released in October 2000.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.