EGM's rumor-mongering editor amalgamation Quartermann has some info on another Capcom franchise that may get an update. Apparently Strider could be the next classic character to get a Bionic Commando upgrade, with the Q-mann saying that it could take on Devil May Cry-style gameplay.

The other tidbit is that Metal Gear Solid guru Hideo Kojima may be working on a first-person shooter. Allegedly Kojima has been to FPS studios Infinity Ward (Call of Duty 4) and Guerrilla Games (Killzone 2) for reasons unknown. Maybe he's just trying to learn how to make a proper better multiplayer experience?

You know that feeling when you're done with your local community theater troupe, but they just keep luring you back, promising that this year you'll play Henry Higgins, or complain that they simply don't have a believable Magical Mister Mistoffelees in the whole company and they don't know what they'll do without you? That's Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear Solid, and you gotta feel for the poor guy.

He so badly wants to be done with the series, he recently told 1UP: "I have three concepts for MGS5 already. What would be ideal for me with MGS5, though, is that we don't do those. If the team picks one of those concepts, I have to get involved again, which I don't want to do."

Could someone please come up with an insane enough plot for MGS5 so Kojima can hurry up and make us another Snatcher game? Who's up to the challenge? Is Ted Kaczynski still working?

Hideo Kojima wishes that the inquiries about a Metal Gear Solid 4 port for Xbox 360 would cease. The man who the La-li-lu-le-lo answer to tells Eurogamer he longs for the day that he stops being asked the notorious question during every interview and public appearance. Ironically, Eurogamer goes ahead and asks him about the possibility of an Xbox 360 port.

Kojima reiterates for the umpteenth time that MGS4 was optimized for the PS3 and a port may not be possible. He expresses, in what we're taking as a moment of frustration and spite, that he feels MGS4 should be on PC just so people stop focusing on consoles and start asking him more questions about the game itself.

Don't misinterpret that headline -- David Hayter, who has voiced the role of Solid Snake since ... well, since Solid Snake could speak, doesn't need you to submit your fan fiction to help piece together the plot of the supposedly upcoming Metal Gear Solid movie (though we're sure he would find your homemade Otacon/Sniper Wolf erotic literature wildly fascinating).

According to a recent IMDB post from Hayter himself, he needs fans of his work and of Kojima's epic series to email a certain Sony Pictures rep and politely suggest that Hayter be the one to pen the film's script. He's got the credentials to do so, having written screenplays for the first two X-Men movies and the upcoming adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen. We can also assume that he's played the game he would be adapting, giving him a significant edge over most screenwriters of ludologically-inspired films.

Update: A winner has been selected and contacted via e-mail. Congrats!

So this "Hideo Kojima" guy totally ruined our copy of Metal Gear Solid 4. He had the nerve to scribble all over it in permanent marker. It looks like he ... signed it? Yuck!

His signature has obviously tarnished our copy. It's worthless now, so we're giving it away in this latest edition of Joyswag: Garbage Edition. Go ahead, take it away from us. We don't want it! Bah!

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment expressing your earnest desire to collect our garbage. Comments must be left before 5PM EST on Monday, June 23rd. Only one comment per person per calendar day -- or else! One winner will be selected in a random drawing. Grand Prize Winner will receive a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (signed by Hideo Kojima and Yumi Kikuchi) for PS3 (MSRP: $60). Click here for complete Official Rules. Eligibility is restricted to the legal residents of the 50 United States (including DC) and Canada (excluding Quebec). You must be 18 years or older to enter.

For another chance to win an autographed copy, visit PS3 Fanboy.

Hideo Kojima stopped by New York City's Virgin Megastore in TImes Square to meet and greet fans at the Metal Gear Solid 4 launch. We got a number of signed copies ... maybe one will go to a lucky reader (if we feel generous enough!). Check out our gallery below, or some highlights, after the cut.

Well, this is certainly interesting. Though Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has been getting positively glowing reviews from many UK outlets, there seems to be an undercurrent of ... dissatisfaction among many in the reviewing community. Completely unsurprisingly, it seems that most of the high-90s/100s reviewers are hyperbolically positive. (They've been saving up their good writing all year!) Regardless, it seems that general consensus is that fans of the series are going to have a ball. Read on:

• IGN (99/100): "If you've ever loved any one of the Metal Gear games, or any moments from the series, there will come a moment when MGS 4 will send your spirits soaring. If you've loved them all, well then there'll be many, many more. It's a masterpiece."

• PSM3 UK (95/100): "Will you enjoy it? Yes, definitely, but while most hardcore fans will adore it, a tiny minority may be left slightly deflated by the weight of their expectations, despite the game's unarguable quality."

• Edge Magazine (80/100): "MGS4 is not the game it could have been; nor is it the game it would have been had the series grown with the benefit of hindsight; nor is it the game it should have been if you believed that early trailer. But it is faithful to its fans, its premise and its heart, delivering an experience that is, in so many ways, without equal."

Need a refresher on Kojima's forthcoming masterpiece? Check out our game page for all things Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Seriously, this is everything we've written on the game. Bookmark the page, as we'll be constantly updating with new content in the lead-up to MGS4's worldwide launch next week.

Note: The MGS4 page also benefits from not having comments and is therefore spoiler free. That said, we will do our best to monitor the comment system, at our own risk, and delete spoilers. Still, we're human, so be careful when treading through comments, on any website, for the next few weeks.

To those who do post spoilers: Expect to see a banhammer slam into your forehead.

Metal Gear Solid mastermind Hideo Kojima was on hand at HMV Oxford Street, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe, Earth (just so we're clear), to sign sleeves for next week's MGS4 launch. Joining him was lead artist Yoji Shinkawa and Beauty and the Beast model Yumi Kikuchi.

Our friends at PS3 Fanboy were at the event and report that the first 300 pre-printed sleeves went rather quickly, although they did get their MGS Essential Collection signed instead. Check out the gallery to live vicariously through them.

Hideo Kojima, in a recent interview with Reuters, speaks about the pressure placed on him and wrapping up the Metal Gear Solid storyline. Kojima expresses that the pressure to not only sell MGS4, but to help boost PS3 sales, isn't negative pressure to him. He believes that, thanks to a mixed metaphor by the translator, the pressure helped him "push up the bar" to create a sense of "positive pressure."

Kojima also tells Reuters that MGS will always be around, noting that he feels a responsibility to fans to keep the series going, though all the plot lines introduced in the MGS series so far will be wrapped up in MGS4. He says he'll take a different role with the next game and possibly sit in as producer when the "young staff takes control of the new series."

Sure, there was plenty that we didn't like about Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, like the ol' protagonist switcheroo, and the outrageously confusing ending, and the mind blowing amount of endgame dudity (that is, dude nudity) -- but petty qualms aside, it remains one of our favorite PlayStation 2 games, just as the obligatory companion game, Substance, remains one of our favorite Xbox titles. Relive those Big Shell memories by checking out the above video, and ponder what other undiscovered pockets of nostalgia GameTrailers will drill into next week.

The second installment of the Metal Gear Retrospective from the masters of recollection over at GameTrailers recently dropped, bringing with it a flood of joyous, espionage-flavored memories from our youth. The games featured in this edition are centered around Kojima's only exploit on Sony's seminal home console, Metal Gear Solid -- that includes the GameCube remake, and the bizarre VR Missions standalone game. Pull up a chair, plug the controller into the second port, and let the warm waves of nostalgia wash over you as you relive the events that transpired at Shadow Moses.

The moment we'd been awaiting for ever since Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots was announced at E3 2005 came on Wednesday evening, when we walked up to a PS3 running the final, ready-for-retail build of the game and ever so slowly pressed "start" with quivering thumbs. We were whisked from the title screen – a real-time scene showing a suit-wearing Old Snake in the graveyard from previous trailers – to the Middle East, where after only a few minutes we realized that Kojima has done it again: he's taken MGS in a new direction, with wild ambition, while still keeping sneaking the No. 1 priority.

No spoilers here; we're just as set as you are on having as little of the game ruined for us before we get to sit down and play it, good and proper. That said, make with the clicking and read our tale of 40-odd minutes with what will surely be a system-seller for PS3 after the break!

1UP's man on the ground at the Japanese Metal Gear Solid 4 press event has translated a clip that possibly hints at Hideo Kojima's next project. In an audio clip where attendees could only hear one half of a conversation between MGS character Revolver Ocelot and an unknown person, Ocelot explains that he just finished the press conference, right before he mentions "The Project" and "the sequel."

Konami president Fumiaki Tanaka already said in March that Kojima's next project is outside the Metal Gear universe. As for "the sequel," it could point to a new Zone of Enders or Snatcher, but that's all just rumor and speculation for now.

Sometimes April Fools' jokes become a reality. Hideo Kojima revealed today that Altair's costume, from Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, will be unlockable in Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4. Kojima said that players will have to do something special to obtain the outfit, but no specifics were given.

We now can't help but imagine all the other costumes Snake could dress up in. Perhaps a collaboration with Nintendo for a Mario or Kirby costume (only fair considering Kirby has a Snake outfit)? Konami could always just sell more costumes as DLC, sort of like the Ninja Gaiden fashion line.