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Metal Gear Solid Rising getting re-done graphics engine
Like a case of bad allergies, Metal Gear Solid 4's graphics left us rubbing our eyes. That said, when it comes to developing the recently unveiled Metal Gear Solid Rising, the latest sequel's eye candy is not nearly sweet enough. According to Kojima Productions assistant producer Sean Eyestone, the team is remaking Rising's engine "from scratch" to make it look better than MGS4. Speaking during a recent Kojima Productions podcast, Eyestone describes the multiplatform project as "a big project like Metal Gear Solid 4," adding that the team "team is serious about making it look as good as possible on every platform." Let's just hope our meager eyes can take it.[Via 1UP]
MGS4, Ratchet, others $30 as PS3 'Greatest Hits' starting June 16
Old Snake, domestic partners Ratchet & Clank, glam goth Nero and others will be offered up as PS3 "Greatest Hits" for $30 starting June 16. This will be the second round of discounted best-selling software for the console, as the first batch hit at around the same time last year. The latest additions include: Army of Two Battlefield Bad Company Devil May Cry 4 Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction With almost all those titles (maybe) prepping for sequels in the near future, if you haven't checked them out, there's some quality in the offerings.
Mega64 and special guest use CQC on Metal Gear Solid 4
No matter how many times the Mega64 guys dress as beloved video game characters and go into public, we never fail to be entertained. But their take on Metal Gear Solid 4, which debuted at the GDCAs last week, takes a turn towards the surreal and becomes something far more epic than simple spoof.We want to tell you more, but, frankly, we've said too much already. You should probably just watch the whole thing for yourself right after the break.
Joystiq live from Hideo Kojima's GDC 2009 keynote
Well, yet another Konami event without any peep of MGS4 on Xbox 360 and, if you follow Kojima's chart of Metal Gear progression, it doesn't sound like it's ever happening. Next up is a new project -- "the next MGS" -- coupling Western development techniques, with an advance in hardware and game design to hopefully create Kojima's apparently-still-unfulfilled goal of bringing us "the ultimate stealth game." Maybe then, Kojima will be able to finally leave the Metal Gear series behind. Head past the break for complete coverage of the Kojima keynote (updated from bottom to top).
Kojima receives new title at Kojima Productions
Hideo Kojima will have the fancy new title of "Executive Corporate Officer Director, Kojima Production" starting April 1. His previous job title was, um, not too different: "Corporate Officer Director, Kojima Production." Shhhh, this is total "!" stuff! We've also received the list of alternative titles Kojima could have received: Grand Executive Poobah of the Codec Slayer of writers who know the power of editing and can tell a story or tell a joke or make a tongue-in-cheek observation about something which can be considered funny Executive la-le-lu-Liason Executive in charge of making us a new Snatcher game already If you reveal this information to anyone, you've got 30 seconds to find a closet ... make sure to stay in there at least a minute.[Via Kotaku]
PSA: Metal Gear Solid Touch snuck out today
It's certainly not the experience Metal Gear Solid fans are probably expecting, but Metal Gear Solid Touch released today on the iTunes App Store for $7.99 on iPhone and iPod Touch. MGS Touch covers the events of MGS4, with players assuming the role of Solid Old Snake, in what amounts to a screen-tapping shooting gallery. The game features 20 levels and has the cloned protagonist fighting all the characters you've come to know from MGS4 -- minus the 45-minute cutscenes. We should have our review of the app up soon.
Metal Gear Online makes a SCENE (expansion) March 17
Konami has revealed -- via the PlayStation Blog -- that Metal Gear Online's latest expansion, "SCENE," will be available in North America beginning March 17. (Hold on, we'll type louder so you can hear us over the cricket sounds.) Alright. So, the pack will be available via PSN and Konami's own online shop for $9.99; with the previous "MEME" expansion for $14.99; or as part of the full add-on pack -- "MEME," "GENE" and "SCENE" -- for $17.99.The expansion, which adds MGS4 characters to the mix along with new maps and a "Solo Capture" mode, can be pre-ordered via Konami's e-store, which is offering an exclusive in-game cardboard box headgear (sure not to get you noticed) for those who make the early comittment. Of course, you get a whole bunch'a wacky stuff just for buying the pack. Clown paint, anyone? Anyone? Crickets?
GameFly members award Fallout 3 with GOTY
GameFly's sixth annual Q Awards have bestowed Fallout 3 with "Game of the Year" and "Xbox 360 Game of the Year" honors. The winners were selected by tallying over 100,000 votes by the rental service's subscribers. The winners across platforms: PS3 game of the year - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots PS2 game of the year - Kingdom Hearts: Re-Chain of Memories PSP game of the year - God of War: Chains of Olympus Xbox 360 game of the year - Fallout 3 Wii game of the year - Super Smash Bros. Brawl DS game of the year - Final Fantasy IV To see the runners-up in each category, check out the Q Awards page at GameFly. Looking at the list (and taking into account GameFly's demographic), is anyone surprised?
Monster Hunter tops Japan's 100 best-sellers list in '08, MGS4 best-selling PS3 game
The results are in for Japan's Top 100 software sellers for 2008 and the data is certainly unsurprising. Rising to claim the #1 spot is Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. The PSP phenomenon has been topping the Japanese software charts for most of last year, and is, in fact, still selling hotly in Japan. The PS3's best-selling game in Japan, Metal Gear Solid 4, barely scratched the top ten as it ranked in at #11. It was knocked out of the top ten by nine Nintendo exclusives, which include the likes of Super Smash Bros. Brawl at #5. But wait, Solid Snake is also in that title ... In a way, you could say he infiltrated the top ten. Back to your old tricks, Snake? And here we thought you had retired.
Kojima to speak at GDC for first time
Hideo Kojima will sneak into the 2009 Game Developers Conference this year and get his keynote on, according to Gamasutra. It'll be the designer's first presentation at the event, with his debut titled "Solid Game Design: Making the 'Impossible' Possible." GDC Event Director Meggan Scavio notes that the group has asked Kojima to keynote almost every year "for as long as [she] can remember." She's curious to see how the "revered and elusive" creator will inspire attendees. The presentation is scheduled for an hour, but given the designer's inability to edit, don't be surprised if it lasts 8 hours, with two 90-minute cutscenes and a couple of codec conversations included.
Konami game revenue up in Q3
Whipping up some numbers to report, Konami announced that its net income for the games division during the first three quarters of the fiscal year reached ¥13.3 billion ($148.3 million). The figure represents a 5% increase from the same time last year; however, for its full fiscal year, the company estimates to bring in ¥18 billion ($200M), a slight decrease from last year's ¥18.5 billion ($206.3M).The financial fortunes in the division were driven by (gasp!) Metal Gear Solid 4 and the Pro Evolution Soccer series. With all the negative news coming out of other publishers, Konami's ability to weather the current global financial crisis is about as good as it gets. [Image]
NPD: Console exclusives performed with mixed results in '08
According to the NPD, a good exclusive does not necessarily equal good sales. The group has collected data for 2008's exclusives on each platform and, well, there have been some under-performers. On the Xbox 360 side, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was a disappointment, selling only 140,000 units. The other exclusive on Microsoft's console, Fable 2 (Joystiq's GOTY), was more of your traditional success story with a respectable 1.2 million copies sold.And what about the industry-leading PS3? We already know MGS4 sold extremely well, but the same cannot be said (yet) for LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, both of which seemed to perform lower than expectations; LBP sold 611,000 copies in North America while R2 unloaded 600,000 units. As for Nintendo, well ... it won. It always does. Last we heard, Nintendo stopped making games and was in the process of building a Kirby-shaped Death Star to orbit the planet.
LittleBigPlanet leads in AIAS award nominations
The game industry's closest approximation of Hollywood's Academy Awards has to be the Interactive Achievement Awards. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has revealed its nominees for 2008, and LittleBigPlanet has managed to run away with ten category nominations, the most of any game this year. Ahem. And the nominees are: Overall Game of the Year: Fallout 3 Grand Theft Auto IV Left 4 Dead LittleBigPlanet Metal Gear Solid 4 Console Game of the Year: Fallout 3 Gears of War 2 Grand Theft Auto IV LittleBigPlanet Metal Gear Solid 4 See the rest, after the break.
NPD: MGS4 sells over 1 million in US, Tomb Raider left undiscovered
Now that we've seen the real list for 2008's top-selling games, Gamasutra has taken a look at some of the high-profile titles that didn't make the cut. Thanks to data from the NPD, we now know Metal Gear Solid 4 has passed the one-million threshold in the US with 1.08M in sales -- 775K in June, 301K since then. It's worth noting that the figure doesn't include copies sold in the MGS4 PlayStation 3 bundle. Globally, Old Snake has enlisted over 4 million soldiers. As for LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, they sold 611K and 598K stateside in 2008, respectively. Here's the bad news: Tomb Raider: Underworld has managed only 246K across three platforms since launching mid-November -- indeed a disappointment, but also a lowered bar for Naughty Dog's Nathan Drake vs. Lara Croft claim. To its credit, TRU has done better elsewhere, selling 1.5 million worldwide. Meanwhile, Prince of Persia did 483K in December, with at least 213K of those going to the PS3 version. While that puts it on par with Sony's first-party titles last month, it also means the Xbox 360 version saw relatively disappointing sales. Metal Gear Solid 4 and LittleBigPlanet were both "honored" (if you can call it that) in our Best of 2008 awards. See what else made the list.
Kojima picks 15 films that influenced Metal Gear Solid
Though you could never tell from his numerous games, Hideo Kojima is quite fond of movies. In fact, the Metal Gear auteur considers 15 films in particular as inspirational components of his epic stealth series. According to Siliconera, Japanese media store Tsutaya is running a new promotion highlighting all 15 flicks (seen above), complete with trivia (Hal and David? Those names come from 2001: A Space Odyssey!) and easily clickable purchase links. But ... wait a minute. Where's Escape from New York?[Via Siliconera]
David Jaffe is most jealous of Metal Gear Solid 4
During an interview with The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, God of War creator David Jaffe said the game he was "most jealous" of was Metal Gear Solid 4. "To make a game of that scale and at that level of quality clearly took a whole hell of a lot of tenacity and vision," he explained.We've hit some choppy waters with Mr. Jaffe in the past, so as part of our continuing efforts to smooth things over, we'd like to remind him of what he has that Kojima doesn't. For one, though the story in Jaffe's may be more limited in scope, it makes sense. Also? Swords on chains. Oh, and no monkeys crapping themselves. Big plus.
The best thing you'll see today: Metal Gear voice cast improv
A mere five days into the new year and our sanity is being brought into question. Is this video after the break really what it seems to be? The principal voice cast of Metal Gear Solid 4 improvising a group therapy session during which the lines between their real selves and the characters they portray break down with high-larious results? Yep, it is.UltraNeko, host of the YouTube series Sadie's Gaming Infection, somehow managed to get David Hayter (Solid Snake), Jennifer Hale (Naomi Hunter), Paul Eiding (Col. Campbell), Christopher Randolph (Otacon), and Quinton Flynn (Raiden) into one room for one of the most bizarre -- yet entertaining -- gaming-related videos we've ever seen.Things we learned from watching the video: David Hayter likes to CQC random people on the street; Christopher Randolph thinks his cat is a real Metal Gear Mk. II; oh, and Quinton Flynn seems to really want to be the star of the next MGS. Raiden starring in MGS5 -- surely a joke, right? What's next? Area 51 is actually a secret stronghold of The Patriots? Sure. Hit the break and prepare to leave reality behind.
Joystiq's Top 10 of 2008: Metal Gear Solid 4
<< BACK (3) COMMENT NEXT (1) >> Is it a cliché to call Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots the gamer's game? Of course it is. But that's the thing with clichés, they're just so perfect at explaining what we're too unimaginative to express in fantastic detail. Fitting then, that MGS4 is a near-impossible amalgamation of cliché and creativeness. A spawn of convoluted histories and a bold vision of gaming's future.If it was up to creator Hideo Kojima to expound the merits of his masterpiece you'd be in for a verbose, probably boring -- and most certainly unplayable -- account. Thankfully, we will do our best to provide a terse study of Joystiq's runner-up to Game of the Year 2008. So then, what makes MGS4 so darn special?
Metal Gear Solid 4's in-game podcast returns in January
Kojima Productions will resume transmissions of its Metal Gear Solid Integral podcast to MGS4's in-game iPod beginning next month. The first post-hiatus episode will appear on the game's downloadable content menu January 8, and new episodes will debut every two weeks thereafter.The podcast will be hosted by MGS4 producer, Ken Imaizumi, sans his long-time podcasting partner – and MGS4 assistant producer – Ryan Payton, who left Kojima Productions in August to work on the Halo franchise at Microsoft. Imaizumi will be joined by Kojima Productions Report podcast regular, Aki Saito, and MGS4 script unit member Sean Eyestone.[Via PS3 Fanboy]
Metal Gear DLC packs coming to LittleBigPlanet Dec. 23
The PlayStation Blog has dropped all the details about the upcoming Metal Gear character and level pack for LittleBigPlanet, due for release on Dec. 23. The character pack will cost $6 and contain four outfits, including Snake, Meryl, Screaming Mantis and Raiden. The costumes can also be purchased for $2 individually, with the exception of Raiden.The $6 MGS level pack is the real seller here. It features a Gurlukovich soldier costume, 72 stickers, 12 materials, 10 decorations, 18 objects and more. Most importantly, it includes the Paintinator, a paint ball gun which adds some much-needed violence to LBP's happy world of lollipops and imagination. Check out the adorable promotional video after the break.[Via PS3 Fanboy]
