(scratches head)
Well, that depends. It comes back to what I was saying about "engines" earlier. Could they have updated the MGS4 render engine to be what we now call the Fox Engine? I don't think so, purely because of the fundamental difference in the way you program a multi-platform renderer compared to one where you can guarantee what hardware you're using. With the PS3 you know you're using their RSX Reality Synthesiser chip so you can count on certain thing; the cycle speed, the available RAM, shader fill rate, etc. However if I took a game with the same engine and plopped it on a PC, say running a modern Radeon HD9860 card, it's performance would be at best sub-par and at worst completely useless.

Since they pointed out that it was going to be a multi-platform engine I assume that means it's a new piece of work, as updating an engine fundamentally designed to run on certain hardware to be able to intelligently scale based on the hardware it's running on would probably result in something much less streamlined than the Fox engine seemed to be. On a side note...it would be an absolute bitch of a system to maintain as well if they just ported MGS4's render engine, cleaning up old code is often more work than writing new code that's better strangely enough.

All that being said, my major was in A.I. not in graphics rendering...so someone with current industry experience would have a better handle on it.

Well, all this talk about game engines, rendering tools and the such is making my brain hurt (I never went to college and I specialize in writing fiction), but I do think that the HD Collection is just the worm on the hook, and if enough fish catch on, we'll get a ZOE3. If not, well, I won't be that disappointed. We've survived this long without a new ZOE, and all of the storylines have been finished. The Idolo story finished with Dolores, i; the Jehuty story finished with ZOE2; the FoM story finished in... FoM. ... ...

I'm not saying I don't want a new ZOE, nor that we don't NEED a new ZOE (this could have easily been the next big mecha franchise, and it got cut off before it could flourish), just that we should be ready to accept that no new games may come.

Yeah, I guess the conversation has got a little side tracked.
Whether the HD collection is a focus test to see if ZOE3 is viable I'm not sure. but it's sure gonna be nice to be able to play ZOE 1 & 2 with a wireless controller and trophy support.
What's everyone else looking forward to in the HD Collection?

There's supposed to be some extra cutscenes in Zone of the Enders 2, right? If my PlayStation 3 was working, I'd be looking forward to that!

What if the graphics get improved/remastered?

Like, for example , the game having a higher level of shaders or enhanced textures?

I'm still betting those cutscenes will have something like a cliffhanger of sorts.

Right, I would be looking forward to that, too. But, I'm generally not someone who cares much in the way of graphics, but I do think they can add to an experience. It'll benefit the game.

Though let's be honest, the ps3 is going to take away all of the graphic lag in the game.


For some reason, i like it when the consoles are overwhelmed with the graphic intensity and slow down. It lets me appreciate the beauty of the game, and the machine's struggle helps me understand how grand and powerful the video on screen is.

For example the big war in ZOE 2 had TONS OF LAG! This helped me appreciate how the enemy count was enough to bring the mighty ps2 down to its knees and allowed me to experience the beauty of combat in gorgeous slow motion.

I hope not. I hated the cliffhanger at the end of ZOE1, and if they put one in 2, I'll probably hate it even more. 2 had a nice resolution, and we don't need a cliffhanger to advertize "Sequel coming!".

This is true, that battle did have a lot of lag. This is evident of Kojima wanting his games to push the boundaries of what a console is capable of, and he saw that he failed that in ZOE1 (the game has no slowdown and runs pretty smoothly throughout), so he up-ed the ante in ZOE2 with that battle. I doubt, however, that the HD Collection will have lag there.