NeoGAF poster Ephemeris snapped the photo above showing that Metal Gear Solid 4 auteur Hideo Kojima will be at the Virgin MegaStore in Times Square NYC on June 11, signing copies of the game for a midnight launch. We contacted the Virgin MegaStore's games department this morning just to confirm. The conversation went like this:

"Hi, I just wanted to confirm Hideo Kojima would be signing copies of Metal Gear Solid 4 at the store on June 11?"

"Who?" The clerk sounded half-asleep.

"Hi-de-o Ko-ji-ma, Metal Gear Solid 4, in store June 11?"

"Um, yeah, we're doin' that. Sure."

We're just curious to see if Kojima does a mega-signing in Japan for the opening there and then bends time backwards (by crossing the date line) to get to New York. That would be hardcore.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

So, there's this game called Metal Gear Solid 4 ... it's apparently a big deal for the PlayStation 3. Well, above is the movie-style trailer (with movie-voice guy) for those interested in watching it. No pressure. Watch it, don't watch it. We wish there was more we could do to generate hype for this indie title made in some guy named Hijeo Koshima Hideo Kojima's garage on a shoe-string budget.

After the break you'll find three ads involving MGS4. It's really nice to see Sony taking an interest in this title. It warms our cockles to see a giant corporation give support to a game featuring geriatrics at war.

We've really been enjoying Gametrailers' well-researched and engaging Star Wars retrospective, so we were happy to see this morning that they had turned their attention to everyone's favorite sneaky soldier with their Metal Gear retrospective. The first episode, seen above, covers Metal Gear, Snake's Revenge and MG2: Solid Snake.

It's a good way to refresh before Metal Gear Solid 4, but we hope the narrator is prepared for when he has to start recapping Metal Gear Solid plots. (Exploded brain washes out of microphones, right?)

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.

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.

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.

As fun as it's been to dream about the vague, but imminent peril hinted at by Metal Gear Solid 4 assistant producer Ryan Payton when he allegedly told Reuters that the game must sell over a million copies on day one (or else...?), it's time to wake up -- all bets are off! Speaking on the Bionic Commando podcast, Payton denied ever quoting the ominous figure, admitting, "I don't even know how many figures we'd need to sell to be profitable." (Figures? Aren't we talking about game sales?)

"More importantly, that's not something you really talk about in an interview," Payton continued, "I've been trying to contact Kemp Powers over at Reuters to see, I don't know, if he recorded it on tape, but I'd love to hear it. So we can set the record straight." Well Payton, consider the record straighted with us. (This whole thing never made much sense anyway ... What if it took two days to break a million -- then what?)

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

We know the news of Metal Gear Solid 4's delay has you down. Hell, you should see the bar tab we rung up after the announcement. Although we'd like to believe we're the most important people to be affected by it, that simply isn't the case. Konami's investors definitely take the cake this time, as they witnessed the company's shares fall 6.8% today, their biggest drop in four years.

You'd have to go back to a year when people still remotely cared about The Matrix Trilogy (2003) to find as large a drop for Konami. According to an analyst Bloomberg spoke with, investors "were active sellers today because of disappointment over the delay." On the bright side, at least spurned gamers aren't liquidating their pre-order portfolio.

Hello, friend. Do you have a comfortable chair? Do you have a refreshing beverage? If so, it's high time that you snuggle in and prepare yourself for an approximately 12-minute long demo of Metal Gear Solid 4 in English. Just a warning, the player of the demo occasionally blows through some of the dialog when it goes on a bit too long. Wow, it's just like you're playing at home!

Speaking of which, if you want to grab a controller and pretend like you're playing, we won't tell anyone. The demo starts with the first part above, and then continues below the jump. Enjoy.

Do you remember when your fake ID couldn't fool the bouncer, leaving you outside sober, cold, and distanced from the girl you were looking to at least play ball with? That's kind of how we're feeling right now, after learning on the latest Kojima Productions podcast that there are no plans to bring a demo of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots to the PlayStation Store prior to launch.

Host Ryan Payton stated: "I can tell you, as of right now, we don't have any plans of uploading this demo on the PlayStation Store." And definitely, he added, no plans of "uploading [on PSN] next week." His statements were echoed by Konami's new flak master, Michael Shelling, adding "[E for All] is going to be your one chance to actually play it prior to it launching next year."

Yeah, while this news is certainly a crushing blow to the Metal Gear Solid fan base (many of which help run Joystiq), there was at least a little positive news: Shelling revealed that Konami has gone gold with Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops+, and is planning to release the game on November 13. That's a little antiseptic to the wound, no?

We're not sure if you're on Metal Gear Solid 4 overload yet, but we thought some of you might find this new interview with Kojima Productions producer Ryan Payton of some interest. Sure, he talks about some of the Western influences on the game and some of the nuances of Metal Gear Online, but he also gives up the details you crave on monkey in a diaper and his buddy Sisqo/Demolition Man-era Wesley snipes.

As Payton is quick to correct, it's a monkey in pants (boo!) whose taken on a larger role in the game (yay!) as development has progressed. Also, Sisqo is actually named Drebin and is actually an arms dealer, not a fallen star of dance hall R&B. Let me see that claymore! Clay-more-more-more-more-more.

Counting nine trailers since the original at Tokyo Game Show 2005, Kojima Productions assistant producer Ryan Payton has told MTV Games' Stephen Totilo that their latest video, from this year's TGS (embedded above), "could be the last trailer [for the game]."

"The pressure is really on to finish work on the game, and we have decided not to be sidetracked by any more promotional work," he said. That doesn't rule out making more cinema once the game is completed, but don't expect that anytime soon.

The nine trailers, for those keeping track, encompass three E3 Expos, three Tokyo Game Shows, two Leipzig Games Conventions and a Metal Gear 20th Anniversary Party. It should be noted, as Totilo observes, that one of the videos wasn't a trailer so much as it was 15 minutes of Hideo Kojima playing the in-progress game.