Grave Gamer News & Views — mgs

I’ve stared into the abyss, and the abyss said, “I want an exceptionally beautiful young man.”

MGS: Ground Zeroes Lands a Date

Today, I have the privilege of announcing that Metal Gear Solid V… is nowhere near coming out. Them’s the breaks.

But! That’s precisely where Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes comes in. Kojima Productions, knowing full well that MGSV is not even a little close over the horizon, decided to put together a playable prologue that both sets up the events of The Phantom Pain as well as indoctrinating players to Snake’s new brand of tactical espionage action.

Airdropping to both current and next-gen PlayStation and Microsoft consoles, Ground Zeroes releases March 18th, 2014. Fun bonus: PS consoles will be privy to exclusive content by way of the “Deja Vu” mission – in which you play as Classic Snake (lookit him)  – while MS systems get a dosage of everybody’s favorite cyborg ninja (not named  Gray Fox), Raiden, in the “Jamais Vu” bonus mission.

The Ground Zeroes precursor doesn’t feature a full blown retail price tag, but there is a generational pricing discrepancy: current-gen copies will run you $29.99 whereas the spiffy next-gen editions cost $39.99.

Got fifteen minutes? Set your eyes upon this gameplay trailer, friends.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes Deploys in the Spring

Konami has announced it expects Ground Zeroes, the playable precursor to Metal Gear Solid V, out by Spring 2014.

Kojima Productions has been pretty damn coy about Ground Zeroes, Hideo himself only offering up that it’s a prologue, and keeping quiet on how it’d be delivered to fans. Officially, the game is a separate, and smaller, installment being released ahead of MGS V.

Set nine years before The Phantom Pain, Ground Zeroes centers around a lone mission – a Cuban rescue operation. The title contains all of the new features found within the upcoming sequel, namely open-world action, but demonstrated in a environment meant to ease the transition between old Metal Gear and this new era.

“There will be a significant difference in what The Phantom Pain brings to the series,” said Kojima, “so we want to ease players into the new open world environment and its potential. As such, Ground Zeroes has been designed to introduce key elements, allowing them to fully benefit from all that the new game will offer.”

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes will release for the PS3 and Xbox 360 at $19.99. Next-gen versions, for the PS4 and Xbox One, come in at $29.99 (I guess 60-fps ain’t cheap).

“I’m already exhausted from being involved in the console war (laughs). Metal Gear Solid V is being basically developed on PC. That’s the meaning of multi-platform, multi-generation, multi-device. It was originally planned to be made for the current machines.”

– Hideo Kojima, translated from Dengeki Online

This early out, more than several third-party titles slated for both the PS4 and Xbox One are being developed on high-end PC’s first. Some publishers, like Ubisoft, say the PC counterparts of PS4/Xbox One games will undoubtedly house “next-gen features.”

In Metal Gear Solid V’s case, Kojima admitted the game’s presence on both current and next generation systems may cause the game to look somewhat…dated. “Fox Engine was created with the current generation in mind,” said Kojima. “Maybe with other games that are being created exclusively for next-gen it might look a little behind.”

Kojima Productions still managed to squeeze out 60fps for MGSV on next-gen, so high fives all around.

Kojima Seeking Studio to Remake Metal Gear Solid (Again)

The ever mischievous and happily cryptic Hideo Kojima participated in a roundtable discussion at this year’s E3 and, par for the friggin’ course, all things Metal Gear highlighted the conversation.

GameReacter had the inside scoop on the renown developer’s musings – be sure to chow down on the full article here – including his thoughts on the controversy surrounding David Hayter’s replacement as Snake – Keifer Sutherland can pull off the physicality of the performance as well as the signature rasp, apparently – and his vote for favored next-gen console – “I think I’ll buy both,” said Kojima.  “But at the same time, they’ll probably send them to me."  Though, he jokingly admitted the PS4’s price sways his vote (Konami’s PR team made sure every journalist in a fifteen mile radius understood completely that Kojima was joking).

The mini-conference took a turn for the noteworthy when Hideo had to field a question regarding the MGS motion picture and another concerning potential Fox Engine remakes of classic series titles.  The wheels on MGS: The Movie are still turning with Kojima reaffirming his involvement on the project (moviegoers, prepare to have your definition of "convoluted” redefined).

Getting to the goddamn headline, he also revealed intentions to seek out a studio willing to adapt the original Metal Gear Solid to the Fox Engine.  It’s a surprising move considering a remake of the first game already exists in the form of The Twin Snakes – a Gamecube only affair developed by Silicon Knights (Eternal Darkness, Too Human, X-Men: Fuckery).  Though, a newer remake seems to land within reason given that Nintendo’s exclusivity rights over Twin Snakes have held it back from two separate HD collections.

Stay your excitement, most Solid ones.  A Fox Engine remake of the seminal classic is merely in the “Twinkle in His Eye” phase for Kojima.  Don’t forget he has a full on sequel in The Phantom Pain to release unto the world; delighting, exciting, and confusing the living hell out of us in the near future.