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

Metal Gear Solid fans who have been waiting for Guns of the Patriots to release will be glad to hear that a perfect bundle will be released to coincide with the game’s release – an 80GB PS3, a copy of MGS4, and a DualShock 3 controller for $499.99. Sure, it doesn’t equal big savings for you, but you’ll guarantee that you’ll have a DualShock controller and a copy of the game.

Of course, if you do opt for this bundle and pre-order the game to gain access to the Metal Gear Online beta, you’ll end up with two copies of the game. Unless you cancel the pre-order after you get your beta access, of course.

via PlayStation.Blog

Want to check out Metal Gear Online before the game goes on sale? Well then just pre-order Metal Gear Solid 4 and you’ll be granted access to the open beta once it begins. Konami is expecting to begin the beta in late April, giving you a look at the game a full two months before it ships to U.S. stores. Metal Gear Online will allow you to play in 16-player matches as you try to fulfill various objectives in the usual Metal Gear style. The beta will be a trimmed down version, presumably with fewer maps, weapons, and character models than the full release. This probably also means you won’t get to play as Solid Snake just yet; not until late June.

Via Game|Life

Gaming news journalist Freeze over at XboxFamily.com vehemently reports that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be heading to the Xbox 360 platform sometime in 2009. His source? An undisclosed Konami representative via a meeting of sorts. According to Freeze, he wrestled info from the rep stating “Metal Gear Solid [4] will be released for the Xbox 360 between 12 to 14 months after the PS3 version hits shelves.” Freeze stands by his claim that “This is not a rumor.”

Not satisfied with that alone, Freeze attempted to get an MS PR team member to assist him in backing up the Konami reps’ claim. Of course, Freeze received the obligatory “no comment” response from Microsoft.

Whether to chalk this up as a rumor or not, I’ll leave up to you to decide. It is my personal opinion that reports from undisclosed sources, regardless of the reputation of the reporter or site reporting it, are rumors until proven otherwise.

And I’m sure the fanboys will have their fun with this as well. As far as rumors go, this is certainly a plausible one. I would easily place more faith in information passed down from an undisclosed source from Konami than any Sony representative claiming “MGS4 is PS3 exclusive.” (If you will recall, MGS2 was claimed “PS2 exclusive” prior to release.)

Then again, one could easily argue that the whole “wow” factor of MGS4 will probably die down a year after release. 2009 is a long way off. Snake will be sucking down margaritas on some undisclosed beach in 2009. Enjoy your (hopefully permanent) retirement, Snake.

And Konami, milk that fat cash cow for all it’s worth.

Via XboxFamily

With new console purchases expected to reach 200 million units in the next five to six years, John Riccitiello who is the head of Electronic Arts is pleased with the upswing in PS3 sales. “It’s been the longest, hardest transition in the history of the industry. Last Friday marked one of those points where you can say something’s changed,” he said. “Around the world, based on the data I’ve got, it was pretty clear that the transition is now over.”According to Riccitiello, Sony’s recent price cut for the PS3 will ensure that the console will hit the company’s sales target of 11 million units. While sales for the console have lagged behind the Xbox 360 and Wii for what seems like eons, sales jumped following an October price cut and the launch of a lower-priced version. Last week during the holiday shopping mayhem, the number of PS3 units purchased more than tripled from the year before.

“It looked like it might have been a two-horse race, but it’s clearly a three-horse race,” Riccitiello said of Sony’s recent sales. “I think from this point, pleasantly for me, it’s sort of fat city in the game industry.”

Does this mean that the possibility of MGS4 selling one million units on day one of release is now actually plausible? I believe it does, and to give PS3 fans even more news to smile about, the PS3 recently outsold the Wii in Japan during November for the first time.

In the weeks leading up to November 25, the PS3 had sold 183,217 units in Japan which tops the sales of 159,193 Wii consoles. Formerly, Sony had dominated the industry with previous generations of their console, but lost out to the lower priced Wii.

For the full monty on the PS3’s latest sales figures, check out the Reuters articles here and here.

Reuters has an interesting article up today exploring the question, is Metal Gear Solid 4 destined to be the last of the great third-party exclusives? Video game production costs are rising these days, costing between $10 million and $50 million to make a quality title. Assistant producer for MGS4, Ryan Payton, says that the game will need to sell a million units on day one to recoup production costs. That’s quite a tough mark to hit, since only two other PS3 games have sold that many to date. Thus, many game developers are going multi-platform, a fact that Sony has been observing for some time now:

“We understand publishers are needing to recoup their investment,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony. “From our perspective, as long as the games aren’t going exclusive to other platforms, PS3 gamers are not actually losing anything.”

For my money, I doubt MGS4 will be the last great third-party exclusive, but they are becoming rarer these days. Still, as long as the console makers have enough money to lure developers to their camp, I’m sure we’ll continue to see the occasional major title remaining exclusive to one console or another.

Via Reuters

Fans of the Metal Gear Solid franchise have been eagerly awaiting Snake’s swan song in the form of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots since 2005. Originally slated for a November 2007 release, the PS3 exclusive was delayed until Q1 2008. Now, it looks like we are going to have to wait a little while longer. According to Konami, the game will still be released in Japan in the first part of 2008, but the rest of the world will have to waiting until Q2 – which means sometime between April and June.

A spokesperson for Konami has stated that: “Konami has decided to delay the title’s release in order to make further improvements to the quality of the game and provide even greater enjoyment for more customers worldwide.” They also stated that they will be working continuously on MGS4, so that it will “meet everyone’s expectations.

While I can find no fault with Hideo Kojima wanting to make sure that his baby is perfect, I – like many who have been itching to play MGS4 – am disappointed that I will not be able to get my hands on it sooner. However, in the grand scheme of things, there are many titles out there to keep us occupied until it is finally ready for its devoted followers. Metal Gear Solid fans would rather wait for a great sequel than be force fed a mediocre game any day – all that would do is make us angry and do an injustice to our hero Snake.

Thanks: GamesIndustry.biz

Ah, SomethingAwful.com. It’s one of those sites that’s great to pass the time and relieve a bit of boredom, particularly with their Photoshop Phriday and Comedy Goldmine features. Last week though, they decided to post a list of “spoilers” (read: fake spoilers) for the Metal Gear Solid 4. Of course they contain hilarious revelations like how the whole twisted plot has just been a series of nightmares and the monkey seen in the trailers is actually the final boss. My personal fave:

“If you shoot an enemy soldier on his birthday, his ghost will follow you around for the remainder of the game, lamenting all of the poor life decisions that eventually led to you shooting him on his birthday. Ghosts can only be destroyed with the ghost gun, which is invisible.”

Oh, the hilarity.

Via Something Awful