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.

Metal Gear?! Such an exclamation will no doubt emanate from a friend's mouth as he steps into your extravagant living room and gazes upon a "Gunmetal Grey" PlayStation 3. Konami's Brandon Laurino has confirmed on the official PlayStation Blog that this "VERY, VERY Limited Edition" system will be available in North America as part of a special Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle. You may recall caressing its steel-colored curves (in your mind) back when it was unveiled as the 40GB 'Hagane' model in Japan.

Expect this Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle (not the only one) to arrive on the game's June 12th release date. Oh, and do invite us over so we can exclaim.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

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.

Which makes you but a small part in the rather large category of people who cannot obtain Sony's Metal Gear Solid 4 wireless headphones. Offered only to 30 randomly selected and considerably lucky gamers who purchase one of the MGS4 bundles on Konami's Japanese online store, the branded MDR-DS7000s offer 7.1 channels of digital neck-snapping sound. It could very well be Snake's best friend, provided it's not a con. The offer is only good until June 1st, so you'd best ring up your Japanese girlfriend and involve her (though it may cost a lot).

Our favorite mammalian, Snake, makes his PlayStation 3 debut and departure on June 12th, leaving you only a few months to assemble all the necessary, limited edition gear.

[Via Engadget]

Konami has announced (via Game Daily) that Metal Gear Solid Mobile is now available for download exclusively on Verizon phones. The game is fully 3D and has an original storyline takes place reportedly between MGS1 and 2.

MGS Mobile also includes online ranking system and VR missions, according to 1UP. While not as ridiculous and looking at the back of the game box for a codec number, the game does have you use your camera phone to take pictures of certain colors around you to alter Snake's camouflage. Metal Gear Solid 4, the one you're really waiting for, is coming June 12.

Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection might gather Solid Snake's escapades all in one place, but it's still a pain for players to get the PS1 original Metal Gear Solid to play nice on the Playstation 3. Luckily, Konami's making it a tad easier to experience Snake's classic adventure, with the game coming out on the Playstation Network in Japan March 21.

For 600 yen, Japanese gamers will be able to play the original Metal Gear Solid on both their PS3 and PSP, no doubt in preparation for Metal Gear Solid 4. No word yet if MGS1 will make its way to the other territories, but we'll certainly keep our fingers crossed.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

Actually, the headline is headlyin' just a bit. Not only is Japan's forthcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 PlayStation 3 bundle not made of steel, it's not particularly cheap either. The latest issue of Famitsu reports (translated by IGN) that a steel-colored PS3 will join a special edition of Konami's highly anticipated senile sneaker sim in a Japanese Premium Pack.

Approximately ¥51,800 ($515) will net Japanese consumers an alloyring PlayStation 3, a matching controller, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the Metal Gear Online starter pack and a special video disc no doubt packed with making-of fluff. And before you start importing, keep in mind that the US is also getting in on the bundling brouhaha this June.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Film adaptations of video games are fickle mistresses. You don't need us to tell you that most of the ones that make it into theatres are horrid, while the ones with some potential usually get canned before seeing the light of day. Most of us would probably fit the Metal Gear Solid movie into that latter category -- after all, it's been nearly two years since the initial announcement of the film, and details have been sparse at best. That is, until a recent red carpet interview with the film's producer, Michael De Luca, dropped a Metal Gear REX-sized bomb on the entertainment industry.

Okay, we're exaggerating bit -- all he did was state his interest in getting Kurt Wimmer to write and possibly direct the film. Wimmer's primary writing/directing credit is the 2002 quazi-cult classic "Equilibrium", whose 35% aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes doesn't exactly fill us with confidence -- unless compared to the works of a particularly infamous game-to-movie adapter, whose 4% career average reminds us that Columbia Pictures could do much, much worse.

It's not much of a shocker to learn the latest (and final) installment in the Metal Gear Solid series is a sizable one -- MGS games have a history of being big (and beautiful). However, a recent interview with series creator Hideo Kojima revealed a startling fact about MGS4 -- Kojima complained that a few features had to be cut from the game so it would fit on a Blu-ray disc. As format fanatics already know, that means the game takes up nearly 50 gigabytes of space.

If true, this is bad news for anyone who hoped to see anthropomorphic cow-bots on the 360 (unless that data was divided between about five dual-layer DVDs), but it could also mean a painfully long installation time for PS3 owners as well. We can only imagine that 49 of those gigabytes are taken up by thousands of variations on just three lines of dialogue -- "Snake? SNAKE? SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!?"

[Thanks, Beau Kebodeaux]

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.

The official announcement of Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection, a compilation of Hideo Kojima's cinematic stealth triology trilogy for PlayStation 2, marks the second time a recent Konami rumor has become reality. Given the consistently fortuitous circumstances, we thought you should know that it's been rumored that Konami has mailed us a check for a million billion dollars.

While we await the confirmation cha-ching, we'll remind you that in exchange for $29.99, The Essential Collection offers the PlayStation classic, Metal Gear Solid, the "director's cut" of infamous rug puller, Metal Gear Solid 2, and finally, the culinary delight that is Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. It'll keep you out of trouble until Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots arrives later this year.

Update: We've confirmed a March 18th release date with Konami. Also noteworthy is that while the collection will include the Substance and Subsistence games, they will be without their respective bonus discs.

[After the NSFW break: Metal Gear Awesome]

Metal Gear Solid 4 is turning into a third-party anomaly on the PS3. For Sony's sake it continues to be an officially non-timed PS3 exclusive even when others have left for greener pastures, but on the other hand its production costs are extreme for publisher Konami, and the big question is: How are they going to make that money back? Ryan Payton, assistant producer for MGS4, told Reuters that the game needs to sell one million units on its first day due to its production costs. We don't know if Payton is expecting a global launch, but just for a point of reference, in the US that would require 50% of PS3 owners to buy the game on the first day.

One million units on day one is a Reed Richards stretch; we're certainly curious to know how Konami is going to justify the exclusivity of MGS4 financially. If an efficiently produced game like Uncharted: Drake's Fortune cost $20 million, we can only wonder what a game with the production levels of MGS4 cost. There's a much deeper story here about the cost of MGS4 and Konami, but those answers probably won't shake out until long after MGS4 releases.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

What better way to spend Thanksgiving than talking about turkeys? And by turkeys, of course, 1UP's referring to those massively-hyped titles that ultimately fizzled.

We can't say we agree with all of the choices presented, though 1UP's criteria suggests that the games featured aren't necessarily "bad," but that all of them "fell short of expectations."

Still, given the sheer number of games out there, there are bound to be bigger, badder turkeys hiding in the bushes. Any more main-course nominees?

Got a crazy craving for that sweet ADAM flavor that all the kids are talking about, but only own a PS3? According to 1UP's Quartermann's Nostradamian prediction you might be able to get your BioShock fix soon. In the latest rotation of EGM's rumor mill, the exclusivity of the underseas fiasco has been brought into question, and PS3 owners could find themselves frolicking through Rapture sometime in 2008. However, this report contradicts the statement of BioShock's lead designer Ken Levine that the game is not PS3 bound. 2K Games, would you kindly confirm or deny this rumor?

Quartermann also has great news for the feverish fans of FOXHOUND who were upset by the recent MGS4 delay - a new Metal Gear game for the PSP is on it's way, ready to heal those wounds. Reportedly, Kojima Productions is working on the title right now, which will "take Snake back to the early days of his career." Not his career as a master of espionage, mind you, but his first career as a pastry chef in a small Rhode Island bistro.

Also rumored: Sega isn't letting the lukewarm reception of their two first next-gen Sonic games break their stride, as they're apparently hard at work on a new, "real" Sonic game. We don't know whether "real" means a return to the game's classic platforming roots, or if we can expect more creepy interspecies make-out sessions.

When Solid Snake brings his gravelly verbosity to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it seems he won't be the only Metal Gear Solid character doing battle with Mario and Sonic. The game's official blog revealed today that the OCN (Original Cyborg Ninja) "Gray Fox" will be appearing in the game as an assist trophy.

While we're disappointed he's not playable, we love the way his contribution is described on the blog, which could go down in history as the most straight-forward ninja explanation ever: "He approaches stealthily with lithe jumps, coming right in then slicing repeatedly." ... Yep, that sounds about right.