Pictures of a supposed Metal Gear Solid 4 branded Bluetooth headset had been floating around the web, but most people cast it off as being a Photoshopped image. Turns out, the headset is popping up in retail databases in both Europe and the US, as well as in the catalog of PDP.

While I think it looks pretty cool, $60 for a Bluetooth headset whose quality is highly suspect doesn’t really induce impulses to buy one. A carrying case, eight hours of talk time and a 30 foot range all sound nice, but product descriptions and actual performance are two very different things.

via Kotaku

With the PlayStation Store’s redesign set to launch later this week, you can expect to see the PlayStation Network go offline for around 13 hours tomorrow. The downtime is currently scheduled to begin at 8AM PST and last until 11PM PST, but with these sorts of things who knows if it’ll last a few hours extra or less. However, the only thing expected to actually be down is the PlayStation Store itself, so you should still be able to play online and access your friends list.

Once the new Store is ready to open, you’ll need to first download the new firmware update that will be made available later this week. When you’re in, you’ll be able to download the Metal Gear Online beta (provided you have a key), as well as Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. The firmware update will also bring DTS-HD Master Audio, so there’s plenty to be looking forward to this week for PlayStation 3 owners.

via PS3 Fanboy

Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming in so many different forms with so many different box art designs that PlayStation.Blog has a post up to clarify the whats and wheres about it all. In the simplest terms possible, the above image is the MGS4 Limited Edition box art in the US. You can find MGS4 in four different ways: the Standard edition, Limited Edition, Standard Edition Hardware Bundle, and the Limited Edition Hardware Bundle. The Limited Edition of the game will only be available at GameStop. The Metal Gear Saga pre-order bonus and Metal Gear Online beta codes are only available in limited quantities, so don’t think that pre-ordering the game will guarantee you either of those things.

I’ll let you chew on that for however long it takes to read this sentence.

If you’ve alreayd gotten your MGO beta key, don’t bother trying to redeem it on the PlayStation Store right now. It’s not going to work until April 17, so find something better to do with your time, like watch the GTA IV trailers for the thousandth time.

Those that pre-order at GameStop can also get an exclusive art book, and seeing as it’s the only place to find the Limited Edition, it sounds like GameStop is the place to be for MGS4.

More details and pictures on all of this can be found at PlayStation.Blog.

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.

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.

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

One of the latest mods featured on the Oblivion Files features a tribute to Metal Gear Solid IV. AlexScorpion’s Adamantium Battlesuit is the featured armor pictured above. Yes it’s inspired by Raiden’s armor in MGS4, as it confirms in the description. By the way for the Bethesda Blog Devs that spotted it; this is a cool mod but your conclusion on the inspiration for the piece was a bit off. Wolverine’s adamantium skeletal makeup and claws are internal, not body armor. You were closer with your first guess of MGS2.

Other featured mods are the “featured home” mod from newcomer Arron_Dominion who contributed the Solsthiem Abandoned Shack and the “featured spell” from Trollf is Unnatural Aura. This spell mod contains two new spells, Unnatural Aura and Unnatural Perception. They aren’t strictly useful, but they are sweet:

“There’s the ‘Unnatural Aura’ Spell, which lets you put several different effects(Shaders) on your character, from the fog that comes off a Zombie, to the electricity from a shock spell, to the eerie glow of a ghost. The second spell, ‘Unnatural Perception’ allows to to put these same effects on Non Player Characters and creatures.”

via Bethesda Blog

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.

Look at that magnificent beauty up there. It’s not overly flashy or trying to overcompensate. It’s just… there. That’s some lovely artwork of Snake, if might say, and if this were a poster I would gladly hang it up in my room. Alas, it’s merely box art for the lucky folks over in Japan.

I’m assuming the box art will have a lot more going on when it comes Stateside, but a man can dream, can’t he?

via PS3 Fanboy