Pictured above is the Metal Gear Solid 4 box art you’ll be seeing on store shelves if you reside in Europe. Once again, I feel like North America is getting the short end of the stick, as both the European and Japanese boxes look way cooler, in my humble opinion. They’re very similar, so it’s hard to say which is better, but I most certainly would take either one of them in a heartbeat over what we’re getting in the US.

Surely it isn’t just me?

via PS3 Fanboy

Rarely do I ever post about a game’s box art, but back in February I simply had to when I saw Japan’s Metal Gear Solid 4 box. It was simply awesome. Like, so awesome that even though I’m not a huge MGS fan I’d totally buy a poster of it awesome. PS3 Fanboy is pointing to Amazon, which has posted what appears to be the final US box art for MGS4, and well… it’s not nearly as good.

Sure, it’s still better than most of the garbage out on store shelves, but it’s hard to not complain when Japan is getting something that is order of magnitudes better.

The director of Metal Gear Solid has claimed that he’s done with MGS, although we’ve heard that any number of times before. But he is actually talking about a new outlook on things for once, and is the so-called middle school PSP audience.

In an interview, Kojima talked about how he sees the PSP’s audience as heavily comprised of teens in Japan. “[M]iddle school students, from 13 to 15, are really fanatical with the machine itself — look at Monster Hunter Portable, for instance.”

Kojima also sees MGS: Portable Ops as appealing to a different market that he was unable to access with the main MGS entries. Speaking about his son, he said, “He has always criticized it: ‘Oh, Metal Gear is such a s****y game.’ Until the point I released Portable Ops.”

“My son is really into Portable Ops as well: the use of the WiFi, the ability to play anywhere, bring it to school, etc … It might not be the Metal Gear series, but I would like to consider this audience because it’s very important and new,” he continued.

While there’s no denying the success of certain PSP titles, overall the market for games on PSP seems to be fairly small. It’s extremely rare to ever see a PSP game sell as much as the top games on any other platform, but it sounds like Kojima is fixated on working on Sony’s handheld.

via PSP Fanboy

Breaking news! It has just been revealed that the big secret from Assassin’s Creed wasn’t just the whole time-bending thing. It turns out that Altair is really Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series! Okay, so obviously this is one really elaborate April Fools joke. It looks like Ubisoft and Konami collaborated to bring us the coolest five-minute gaming video ever. Either that or some game enthusiast out there went to an insane amount of time and effort to mod a game that hasn’t even been released yet. Still, Altair fighting Metal Gears with an Assault rifle? So…awesome. And oddly this gets me even more excited about MGS4.

Odds are you’ve seen this video that’s been blowing up the internet the past couple of days. It features a robot created by Boston Dynamics — dubbed “Big Dog — walking around easily on ice and snow and even recovering quickly after getting side kicked by someone. At first, I thought it was a hoax involving two coordinated guys in an elaborate costume. Then I realized no human alive could simply stumble and then get back up after being kicked around on a patch of ice. I just have one question though: did anyone else see the resemblance between this and Metal Gear Ray from the second Metal Gear Solid game? Seriously, “Big Dog” looks like what you’d get if you attached the lower halves of two Rays to a huge cardboard box.Now all they need is to add a nuclear payload, and then we’re truly screwed.

Sure, he’s said it many times in the past, but according to Konami president Fumiaki Tanaka, Hideo Kojima is finally moving on from Metal Gear franchise and is working on the concept for something involving neither metal nor gear. (I don’t know if that’s actually true, but it ain’t Metal Gear related.) Tanaka couldn’t go into any real detail and said that we shouldn’t be waiting on an announcement anytime this year.

It’ll be until after Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Online both have had their time in the spotlight before Kojima’s intentions are revealed. It’s hard to really take a guess at what sort of game Kojima might be doing, because between Metal Gear, Zone of the Enders and Boktai/Lunar Knights, he has quite a varied resume.

via Evil Avatar

Now that the writers strike is over, Hollywood can start focusing on its important projects again, like getting that Metal Gear Solid movie rolling. At the Las Vegas premiere for 21, the film’s producer, Michael De Luca, mentioned that he and Columbia Pictures were now looking at moving forward with the video game adaptation by first selecting someone to adapt it. They’re expecting to meet with Kurt Wimmer in the next few weeks to discuss him writing a screenplay and possibly directing the movie. Wimmer is known for directing Equilibrium (good movie) and Ultraviolet (terrible movie). He’s also done script adaptations for The Thomas Crown Affair and Sphere. Does anyone else smell that? *sniff sniff* God, it smells like doom all of a sudden. Still, this could lend a bit more credence to the rumors of Christian Bale starring as Solid Snake, since he was also in Equilibrium.

Via ComingSoon.net

April is set to be a huge month for gamers; especially PlayStation 3 owners. Not only is the PlayStation Store being updated, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and and Grand Theft Auto IV are both releasing, the DualShock 3 will finally make its way to the United States, the Metal Gear Online beta is starting… it’s going to be incredible, to say the least. Adding to that lineup will be the next expansion for Warhawk, as confirmed by John Hight.

He didn’t go into any specifics on what the expansion is, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the v1.3 patch that Dylan Jobe talked about last month. It’s adding several new items, new VoIP options, Home integration, and new paint schemes – that’s certainly a substantial amount of content for a free download.

Or the expansion might be something altogether different and unrelated; either way, Warhawk fans have plenty to look forward to.

With Metal Gear Solid 4’s release date now set for June 12 in North America, gamers are ready to get it on with some new Metal Gear action. But if an interview with Hideo Kojima is correct, the game’s quality isn’t quite what it could have been thanks to a lack of storage on Blu-ray discs.

You read that right – a lack of storage on Blu-ray discs. I never actually thought I’d have to type that – at least not this soon in the PS3’s life cycle – but Kojima apparently wasn’t satisfied. Perhaps you should try better compressing your game, Mr. Kojima?

Makes me wonder how they managed to fit Oblivion on a single DVD.

via Evil Avatar

Up until now, we’ve only had a promise of a “Q2 2008” release for Metal Gear Solid 4, which is easily one of the system’s most highly anticipated games. An FAQ posted on PlayStation.Blog has not only provided us with the game’s release date in North America – June 12 – but also information on what’s in the Metal Gear Online Starter Pack, when the MGO beta test begins, and more.

Here are a few select Q&As from the FAQ:

Q: What’s in the Metal Gear Online Starter Pack?
A: The Metal Gear Online Starter Pack, included with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, is a squad-based, online multiplayer tactical shooter that supports up to 16 players and takes place in the Metal Gear Solid universe.

Q: When is the Metal Gear Online multiplayer beta test?
A: The Metal Gear Online multiplayer beta test is scheduled to begin on April 21, 2008.

Q: How long will the Metal Gear Online beta test run?
A: The Metal Gear Online multiplayer beta test will run for approximately 2 weeks

Q: Is there a time frame for the pre-order to gain access to the beta? When does the pre-order period begin?
A: The pre-order will begin April 2008. Check with your local retailer on availability.

Q: Is there any special process that consumers must go through to verify their participation in the beta?
A: When the pre-order program begins in April 2008, consumers who pre-order Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will receive the Metal Gear Saga 2.0 DVD, containing a Prologue that recaps the Metal Gear franchise, a 20th Anniversary retrospective, character bios for Big Boss, Liquid Snake, Solidus Snake, and Solid Snake, plus a collection of international trailers of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. This pre-order package also contains an insert with a download code and special instructions for accessing the Metal Gear Online beta test when it goes live in late April.

I’m particularly happy to see you’ll be able to get a recap of the Metal Gear franchise; that’ll save me the effort of playing through the first three games in time to make the MGS4 release, and having to deal with the first game’s archaic controls. (Or is that first three games?) As if beta access weren’t reason enough to pre-order, consider me sold.

Head over to PlayStation.Blog for the rest of the FAQ.