Some cool 1.5 exclusive screenshots ;)

[Enigmatism415]

That L is a key... you also find an M key, both only accessible by hacking.

True, but the fact that the chosen letters are L and M seems too specific to be a coincidence... I think the progression may have been:
L and M cards (BH1.5) -> L and M keys (BH2_beta) -> Spade, Diamond, Heart, and Club keys (BH2_retail)

Well then I'd say it was intended for journalists, not reviewers, since it's not review material. Am I right?

Anyway, it's never been sent to any reviewer, right? So I don't think it was meant for them. The only place where that version was played was during the TGS if I remember correctly, and that's probably the source of the leak.

I'm sorry, I think I just used the wrong word. What I really meant was previewers, as Borman defined. The point is that I seriously doubt that the 40% build was an inside-leak from Capcom (as the 80% build likely was), but rather something that they may have sent out and requested the return of. During this time, a third party could have just burned a copy of the disc before returning it...

Do you know if this photo was taken at TGS? If so, then at least part of 2F or 3F is textured on the 40% build.

[Rick Hunter]

It was never intended for reviewers, for the simple fact that dialog strings have most kanji mixed up, making everything impossible to understand unless you only listen to the voice acting. You would never send such mess to anybody outside CAPCOM.

You don't read messages, do you? This version was sent for previews, should you like it or not.

[Rombie]

Really digging that cover of that mag for Leon. Hell, even made it my avatar for now Pretty sweeeeet.

Almost every cover was done in that style, where they would draw a take on the cover story. My issue probably still has the poster in it. One side was Leon, the other was Claire IIRC.

[chrisliam2]

Almost every cover was done in that style, where they would draw a take on the cover story. My issue probably still has the poster in it. One side was Leon, the other was Claire IIRC.

I loved that magazine was always such fun to read .

[Carnivol]

You don't have any idea about what you're talking about. Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2's cast was brought over for Metal Gear Solid 4, completely unchanged. Only character whose voice was changed was Johnny Sasaki's. There's been no replacement of the voice cast of the Metal Gear Solid series in any of its versions (except Revolver Ocelot's JAP VA, but this was because the VA had passed away; even then, they brought back Liquid Snake's VA to do the role.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Metal_Gear_Solid_characters

I see many names changing on the English cast.
(and bringing back Cam Clarke as Liquid's hardly mention worthy, as he, like Nolan North, pretty much seem to live in studios fulltime. Conveniant, sure, but annoying for those who might get tired of hearing his voice in everything.)

And even with SOME consistency in its cast, the MGS franchise is still a larger inconsistant mess than RE and the only "consistency" related detail worth truly applauding it for is how TwinSbakes reunited things for rerecording of speech Konami only had in shitty, low-nitrate PS1 audio quality ('cause along with writing proper contracts, the one thing Konami of yesterday can't handle for shit is proper archival of their assets)

[Rombie]

As I recall the original recording wasn't done in a proper studio but in some offices. Supposedly the original recording was looked at first because the budget for Twin Snakes was so low but the problem was providing it at higher quality proved problematic both on the form which the recording was done but also background noise that included traffic outside the building.

Supposedly even with the rerecording due to the budget, David Hayter took less money than originally offered in order to bring everyone back.

[chrisliam2]

I wonder if the woman that did elza walkers voice did any other voice over work , I know id be mad if all the lines I read were never going to be heard, But as long as she got paid I bet she wouldn't care lol.

Are there any spiders in the 40% build ?

anyone have a list of known B.O.W.s in the 40% build ?

[RMandel]

I used to review Dreamcast games in another life and personna. So-called preview or review copies were just as has been said - sometimes quite playable, more often than not quite glitchy and buggy. Good enough for a few screen grabs and a few minutes of video before something glitched or the game crashed, and that was that. Plus - and this is important - if I wasn't told about certain functions, like a debug menu, I didn't know about them. Occasionally somebody would say, "Hey, there's this special function you can do that's not documented," but that was RARE. All I did was play the preview/review copy, as much of it as I could or had been made accessible, took my snaps and vids, wrote my review, and that was that. Done with that particular review copy, move on to the next one. It really is that simple and straightforward, folks. Listen to what the pros are telling you.

And no, I don't have anything remaining that's special or unique. I didn't keep any of it. That's quite common, too.

[News Bot]

You don't have any idea about what you're talking about. Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2's cast was brought over for Metal Gear Solid 4, completely unchanged. Only character whose voice was changed was Johnny Sasaki's. There's been no replacement of the voice cast of the Metal Gear Solid series in any of its versions (except Revolver Ocelot's JAP VA, but this was because the VA had passed away; even then, they brought back Liquid Snake's VA to do the role).

Another great example is the Fallout series. New Vegas, a game released more than 10 years after Fallout 2 managed to bring back the VA of a character that had been voiced by said VA back in Fallout 2. This is how important consistency was to Obsidian, the creators of the Fallout series (or the people who contributed greatly to it).

Resident Evil had like, one fucking character being voiced consistently by the same person. Pardon my blunt honest, but you're either completely blinded by your fanaticism or you're completely clueless about the professionalism that some companies have achieved in the game industry's VA. Resident Evil is a turd in this department.

Most of the voice work in the BH series between 1996-2001 was shit. Outside of Claire and Ada, there was no reason to bring any of the rest back, and even then, Sally Cahill was replaced after BHDC because she simply didn't sound a lot like Ada anymore. They tried bringing back Sherry's VA from BH2 for BHDC, but she had also aged too much. Factors like this need to be considered. Other games get lucky and manage to hire actors with no contractual conflicts, or a personal vested interest that makes them go the extra mile to return. BH has never really had that until voice recording started being handled by Just Cause Productions.

[Gemini]

You don't read messages, do you? This version was sent for previews, should you like it or not.

PSM has quite a story about doing crap on stuff that they don't even physically have in their offices. I can give you a clear example of that: back in the days when Soul Reaver was going to have a lot more content, PSM even started making a walkthrough based on fried air. Yes, they published that useless guide based on rumors, hints, and guessed features (probably gathered from Crystal Dynamics), even if the game was being reworked and butchered in those very days. In the next issue there was no trace of part 2 of said walkthrough and all they said much later was "game's postponed, back to waiting". Anyways, the fact that PSM shots show a few debugging messages is a very different thing than CAPCOM sending BETAs. The point of this is that BETA 2 was never sent for preview or review because it lacks the content to do so.

Preview disks are beta versions, and depending on the company, that could entail any number of things.

Technically yes, because they do belong to the post-alpha development span, but practically not. Internal game builds are all compiled using debug flags and features ("Debug" builds), while what is sent out for previews, even if coming from BETA stages, is most than likely compiled as a "Release" build, which locks away most debug code and, usually, other stuff that is still work in progress and extremely broken or simply looks ugly. There could still be a few debugging features if they are only meant for private tests, but that's a different story and as a developer I wouldn't count that as a true BETA, but more like something intended for a specific group of people who are not from the development team.

[Guest]

Most of the voice work in the BH series between 1996-2001 was shit. Outside of Claire and Ada, there was no reason to bring any of the rest back.

Catherine Disher did an excellent job voice-acting Jill.

[Rick Hunter]

PSM has quite a story about doing crap on stuff that they don't even physically have in their offices. I can give you a clear example of that: back in the days when Soul Reaver was going to have a lot more content, PSM even started making a walkthrough based on fried air. Yes, they published that useless guide based on rumors, hints, and guessed features (probably gathered from Crystal Dynamics), even if the game was being reworked and butchered in those very days. In the next issue there was no trace of part 2 of said walkthrough and all they said much later was "game's postponed, back to waiting". Anyways, the fact that PSM shots show a few debugging messages is a very different thing than CAPCOM sending BETAs. The point of this is that BETA 2 was never sent for preview or review because it lacks the content to do so.

Just check the old Joypad magazines. They released those beta screens. And don't tell me Capcom sent them these screens, they would NEVER do that, it clearly looked unfinished. They had to have access to the beta themselves to take such shots. If you want to prove me wrong, try to find a proof that nothing was sent to journalists. Hell, we could even ask them ourselves.

[Gemini]

There is a simpler solution: how many magazines had screens like those? I mean different screens, but with the same debug messages. If there were a lot more than just PSM, then they actually sent builds, otherwise it's probably something different entirely. Also, if you wanna find out if they really had a build of a game, make sure to check their previews for exclusive information (most magazines tend to write more or less the same stuff, reworded). I would have done that myself, but I have no PSM issues here with me, so there's no way I can check again something I read over 10 years ago.

[Rick Hunter]

I am not talking about PSM, I'm talking about joypad, and there were no debug messages. The backgrounds clearly came from the beta.

edit: http://www.abandonware-magazines.org/

edit 2: Here: http://download.abandonware.org/maga...Page%20010.jpg

edit3: And I haven't seen the same screenshots in other magazines, they are different.

[Darkness]

I'm sure magazines had more freedom and leverage back then, hard to believe its been 15 years....nowadays it seems like its all gameinformer.

I wonder if the woman that did elza walkers voice did any other voice over work , I know id be mad if all the lines I read were never going to be heard, But as long as she got paid I bet she wouldn't care lol.

Are there any spiders in the 40% build ?

anyone have a list of known B.O.W.s in the 40% build ?

Let's see for normal? Zombies crows gorrilas dogs..... Birkin 1......Man-Spider.... I'm sure spiders are in the game, too. Does anyone know what the point of the freezer room in 1.5 is? Is it still the main fuse?