We're guessing that you missed your chance to grab an entry code for the Metal Gear Online beta, or you'd probably be too busy spending your Saturday afternoon brushing up on your CQC to read our humble gaming news site. Well, wipe away those tears of regret, little one, and we'll make you a deal -- check out this radical gameplay footage from the beta (including a very satisfying conclusion involving a dude launcher) to slake your thirst for Kojima's sneaky-creepy multiplayer outing, and we'll take you out for Chuck E. Cheese's. Sure, it won't do much to dull your regret, but you'll be too busy wondering why this restaurant elected to have a rat for a mascot to worry about all the online stealth action you're missing out on.

Are you so adamantly against the practice of video game reservation that you refused to drop the five dollars on a Metal Gear Solid 4 pre-order to secure a Metal Gear Online beta access code? Or, rather, did you place said pre-order, only to receive a hobbled, impartial code? Don't forget, there's still a chance that your kind uncle Joystiq can secure your ticket -- just drop a comment on our contest thread (don't forget to check out those legally airtight rules and regulations) by noon tomorrow, and you could be snapping, cracking, and popping stranger's necks before you know it.

Update: Locked comments in this thread. You can't win here, you'll have to go back to the old page.

Fans of Kojima's genre-defining stealth action series only have to wait two more days until Konami flings wide the floodgates of the Metal Gear Online beta, giving North Americans with a pre-order bonus access code fourteen days to hide in cardboard boxes or perform questionable chiropractic procedures to their heart's content. Unfortunately, there are a number of Snakes-in-training who dropped a Lincoln to secure an incomplete beta code, due to a printing error at Konami HQ.

Konami Support requests that those that are missing digits shoot them an email with the partial code and a return email address so that they can respond with a functioning code. With less than 48 hours until the beta launch, we suggest they step on it -- with the rising costs of torches and pitchforks, we're not sure the gaming populous could afford another Halo 3 beta delay debacle.

[Via PS3F]

Those who are truly anticipating the further adventures of the now mustachioed, raisin-wrinkled Solid Snake have no doubt hesitantly slid a five-dollar bill across the counter of their nearest brick-and-mortar, trying not to meet the crisp, judgmental eyes of Abraham Lincoln as they fulfill the reservation fee for Metal Gear Solid 4. Well, at least your shame before The Great Emancipator wasn't endured in vain -- copies of Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2, complete with beta access keys for Metal Gear Online, are currently shipping to retailers to be distributed to loyal pre-orderers.

The DVD includes backstory on the major characters in the Metal Gear franchise, as well as a few trailers for MGS4, but the real treasure in this early bird bonus is the access code which will allow you to download the MGO beta on April 17, and play the fourquel's online counterpart from April 21 until May 5 -- at which point bleary-eyed FOXHOUND fanatics will emerge from their houses to an unfamiliar world; one where cowbots don't roam the streets, and neck-snapping is almost universally frowned upon.

Those looking forward to snapping the necks of complete strangers (in a game) should be pleased to learn that a Metal Gear Online "Starter Pack" is due to launch alongside Metal Gear Solid 4 in Q2 2008. Sony has announced that a beta test for the multiplayer sneak-em-up will start in late April, with pre-orders of Metal Gear Solid 4 giving gamers "guaranteed access." It's a great incentive, though given the anticipated nature of Hideo Kojima's latest opus, we feel a bit like donkeys wandering into a vast forest of carrots.

Even if you aren't sold on this Metal Gear Online trailer after a few minutes, just hang in there. We don't know why you wouldn't be excited though, what's both on display and implied in the trailer is pretty cool. It appears you'll be able to tell the location of teammates who are in trouble or just needing backup, whether or not there are walls in the way. It looks neat, but that sort of teamwork-encouraging stuff may not be up your alley.

What will be up your alley though is that last five seconds of this trailer, which we don't even want to describe for you for fear of ruining it. Let's just say it's like a carnival ride, but at the end, there is likely death. Yeah, you should probably just go watch.

The Kojima Productions Press conference at Leipzig today ended with a Q&A session between the press and Kojima-san and his cohorts. The following is a summary of the questions and responses and covers Metal Gear Online, Metal Gear Solid 4 plans for the 360 and more.

Will Metal Gear Online be separate from MGS4 or will it be included?

Hard to explain. When you play story mode you will be able to go online and it will have extra stuff at the end.
Haven't decided whether it will be separate or not, but if you buy MGS4 you can play a portion of online at least. The worlds of MGS4 and MGO are very similar and they want consistencies between them. Final discussions haven't been made yet.

There's a difference in the way that Americans and the Japanese approach team sports. For example, a baseball player there is more likely to be revered for bunting to load the bases for the team than going for the big play and the personal glory. Perhaps somewhere in that difference is the reason that Western shooters have never fared particularly well there and why we haven't seen many great Japanese shooters on our shores. In this interview with Kojima Productions' Ryan Payton, he says that he's encouraging the team crafting Metal Gear Online to allow that emphasis on serving the team first to shine through in the game.

We're interested to see how this aspect will be integrated, as Payton promises that the game is more focused on team play than on just "killing your opponent." But we'd be lying if we didn't say we were a little bit concerned ... we will still get to kill our opponent, right? We're all for playing as a team and everything, as long as it still culminates in our good-old American thirst for blood being slaked.

From the Tokyo-based Metal Gear Solid 20th Anniversary event that spawned a new PSP graphic novel and a cell phone outing for Snake, comes word that 3,000 players will be selected to participate in a beta program for Metal Gear Online. The game, which allows up to 16 players to engage in sneaky neck-snapping shenanigans, will be tested from August 20th until September 3rd.

Players hoping to be included in the beta can apply at the Kojima Productions website as of today -- entries close on August 6th. If you find yourself quite geographically removed from the East, you'd best hope Konami announces a similar program for the rest of the world or, at the very least, a release window for Metal Gear Online.