It's official. Gaming-related cosplay has crashed the anime party. You'd think a bastion such as the New York Anime Festival would be sacred ground for pure Naruto costume play, but it certainly was not this weekend. With the three-day event at the Manhattan Jacob Javitz Center wrapping up today, we've seen hundreds of gamers strut their stuff amongst the common 'Misa Misas' and 'Sasukes.'
Who did we see at the show? Well for starters, the cool kids from The World Ends With You showed us just how awesome it is to be a Shibuya wallflower. Then, we greased up and wrestled with El Blaze from Virtua Fighter 5 -- he was tough by the way. The Persona 3 crew refrained from shooting themselves in the head to take a picture for us, which was a nice gesture. In honor of the festival's guest of honor, Yoshitaka Amano, several people dressed up as Amano-inspiredFinal Fantasy characters. Evermore intriguing, people also dressed up as characters from games that are not even out yet. Oh, and almost forgot, Pyramid Head; you can't have a convention without one of those. Anyway, there's more in the gallery below (including a spot of anime cosplay). Can you name all the characters and what games they belong to?
Spencer at Siliconera – or old Eagle Eyes as we actually call him – stumbled upon an entry for "Metal Gear Solid Existence" during his hourly stroll through the Japanese Trademark database. The trademark was apparently registered for use with a video game (surprise!) so there's a good chance we'll see the Snake saga return under this headline. Will Kojima be back at the helm? Who knows! But with TGS around the corner, this might be a good time to start speculating wildly. Well, what're you waiting for?
Is Metal Gear Solid 4 producer Ryan Payton directing Peter Jackson's Halo project? "Yes," comes the reply from Shacknews, corroborating (thanks, "reliable source!") a Kotaku rumor that places Payton in the "creative director" role on the forthcoming and exceedingly nebulous Halo project from Microsoft and the Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson.
If true, it would mark the second major franchise to be touched by Payton, who left Kojima Productions earlier this year. We've reached out to him for comment -- and for the privilege of touching someone who's a tag on our website.
Shortly before leaving Kojima Productions, Metal Gear Solid 4 producer Ryan Payton had a chat with 1UP, discussing the many highlights of working on one of the year's biggest blockbusters. As is often the case with this line of work, Payton was privy to several elaborate death threats. "When word hit that I chose Pat Zimmerman for Liquid Ocelot -- and not Cam Clarke -- I got dozens of hateful messages from fans including a 2,000 word short story depicting my execution."
Payton also expressed a belief that the development team did a sterling job with untangling Metal Gear Solid's twisted story -- with minimal plot fudging. "The stories of MGS2 and MGS3 were truly written without any backup measures if the series continued, leaving dozens of confusing and unexplained plot elements in the wake," he said." The fact that we were able to tie up all the loose ends with MGS4 was nothing short of a miracle." Miraculous acts happen to include the amazing gender bending of not only Olga's child, but MGS1's briefly mentioned Dr. Clark. In Snake's world, anything goes.
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.
He's not quite the big name that Hideo Kojima is, but the fact is that if you liked Metal Gear Solid 4, especially how its gameplay had evolved since the last entry in the series, producer Ryan Payton is a big part of the reason. Now, Payton has left the team to spend more time with his family in North America after, he says, receiving some "pretty heavy news concerning my mom."
We knew the guy was good at making games, but it turns out he's also got a heart as big as all outdoors. Let's hope he ends up somewhere nice.
(P.S.: Metal Gear Solid 5 will be completely inscrutable, with Reagan-era gameplay. Confirmed.)
Oh, Japanese television, how we love thee so. If you need a reason to share in our affection, look no further than this spot for Konami's forthcoming cell phone title, Metal Gear Ac!d Mobile. It's four minutes of sheer digital – as in fingers – brilliance, with action from MGS4 re-created using ... thumbs. Thumbs with mustaches and bandanas. Thumbs with OctoCamo. Thumbs.
Konami announced that Solid Snake's final (?) adventure gave the company a nice macro-injection of cash. GameDaily reports the publisher saw revenues jump 116% to $656 million in the first quarter, with net income rising 47% to $52 million. Although Konami isn't just in the video game business, the company states sales of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots are "steadily increasing," noting that the games division contributed the most to its revenues.
Konami continues its positive outlook for the rest of the fiscal year (ending March '09) with $3 billion in revenue and a net income of $240 million. Imagine how much more the company can make if giggle-inducing rhythm-game Rock Revolution is a hit and it wins the Rock Band lawsuit?
A brief interview with Hideo Kojima at Variety isn't so much full of megatons – he hasn't read much Haruki Murakami but he does enjoy Phillip Dick and Kurt Vonnegut – as it is with some insights into the supposed "end" of his Metal Gear Solid series.
Kojima shares some of his thought process on the creation of "Old Snake" – "I made him this way because of the unique characteristics of the game medium ... he represents the players themselves because of the interactive nature of games" – as well as teasing what we may be able to expect from "a new Snake." Kojima says, "If there ever were to be a new Snake (might have a different name), he will be a Snake for a new era." No, we're not sure what that means either, but it gives us great satisfaction in knowing that Kojima probably does.
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.
We think it goes without saying that the above video is spoilerific, but just to be clear, we're putting that word in bold so your eyes quickly dart to it. Clocking in at just over 152 minutes, here's a video demonstration of how you earn the Big Boss emblem in Metal Gear Solid 4, which involves beating the game on the highest difficulty with no deaths, no alerts, no kills, no recovery items, no stealth suit and no special items ... all in under 5 hours. Prepare your mind to be utterly blown.
Solid Snake's swan song seems destined to be heard by many a PlayStation 3 owner, with Famitsu (translated by IGN) confirming that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has shipped three million copies to various destinations worldwide. Speaking at a recent Sony investor meeting in Tokyo, SCE president Kaz Hirai reportedly noted that Hideo Kojima's opus has had a beneficial effect on PS3 hardware sales.
Though its effects have been quite clear in Japan, the UK's Chart-Track group has previously stated that MGS4, despite being a top seller, only managed to have "minimal impact" on the PS3's selling rate. Konami has made no announcement regarding US sales yet, though we expect to see plenty of Metal Gear sold action on next month's NPD report.
Senior stealth citizen news now, with European Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots sales exceeding one million units in its first week. Konami has called the demand for the game "exceptional," noting that the final chapter in Solid Snake's spiraling saga has seen high sales in all European territories. The 25,000 Limited Edition copies made available to the continent were "almost immediately" sold out. Figures.
The PlayStation 3 sneak-em-up has seen similar success in Japan, outselling its closest competitor by a factor of 12. If you're among the million Metal Gears Sold and don't know your Gekkos from your Frogs, be sure to download the free MGS4 Database from the Euro PlayStation Network this Thursday.
The above video doesn't spoil anything story-wise, but it does show some of the weapons you can unlock in Metal Gear Solid 4. If that's going to bother you, don't press play. Otherwise, feel free to check out some of the incredible guns (which may or may not belong to The Patriots). We can't figure out if any of these would benefit or hurt our ability to sneak -- we'd probably just lose interest and jump in, guns blazing.
So, here's the thing about a metareview for Metal Gear Solid 4: You probably don't give a crap. Well, let us rephrase that. It's not that you don't want to hear what people are saying about the game, it's that it's probably not going to effect your purchasing decision one way or the other. But it's rare, seeing a game that garners so many 10s while scoring as low as 8 with some outlets, so we figured it was worth taking a look at. Polarization ahoy!
Game Informer(100/100): "For a game as ambitious and groundbreaking as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, sticking to the formula simply isn't good enough.As the crowning achievement of the series' 20-year history, Hideo Kojima's final Metal Gear Solid title may not be what you expect, but it is everything you could hope for in a video game."
1UP(91/100): "The MGS4 conundrum is this: The further you play into the game, the less you actually play. Surrendering so much control to make way for movie sequences is galling, especially when the dialogue makes such a big deal about freedom and free will. And it's frustrating that this final chapter of the series begins so well, but ultimately fades -- because once the shock of the nonstop plot revelations wears off, the vanished gameplay leaves a nagging sense of disappointment. Despite this gradual decay, though, MGS4 is absolutely a great game."
GameDaily(80/100): "Snake's epic, final act just isn't the triple A extravaganza we expected, and it's clear that if Konami intends to continue this franchise or spin off into something new, it needs to study its competition and evolve, delivering shorter cut scenes and superior shooting. But for now, this is one of the most important games in history and you'll dig its cool boss battles, at times witty dialogue and unrivaled sneaking mechanics."
