Metal Gear Solid

Launching in October this year, Hot Toys has added two new Metal Gear figures to their store. Both are from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: Naked Snake in his sneaking suit and The Boss in her battle suit. Both are fairly large (1/6 scale), highly detailed and come with a lot of accessories, among which assault rifles, claymore mines and Davy Crockett launchers.

To order the figures or see more pictures, go here for Naked Snake and here for The Boss. Kojima has also left some photos on his Twitter.

The figures don’t come cheap though, in Japan they will cost ¥22,000, which is roughly $270, or €205. So if you want to reenact the epic battle between Big Boss and his mentor, you better start saving now.

Source: Hot Toys website

Quinton Flynn, who is the English voice actor for Raiden in the Metal Gear Solid games, posted this message on his Twitter:

Had the pleasure of working with John Cygan, Benito Martinez & Cristina Pucelli today under the direction of the esteemed Kris Zimmerman!

— Quinton Flynn (@quintonflynn) 23 april 2012

From the VGA trailer we could already hear that Flynn will be reprising the role of Raiden in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. John Cygan is the voice actor for Solidus Snake in MGS2, and Cristina Pucelli is the one who voiced Sunny in MGS4. Is it possible these characters will have a role in Revengeance? It is possible, since Sunny was saved by Raiden before the events of MGS4, which creates a clear connection between both characters. Solidus in Raiden’s ‘foster father’, the one who raised him and shaped him into the killer he is today. It it possible that he will return in the form of flash backs, maybe voices Raiden hears in his head.

Of course, it’s also possible this is for something else entirely, and has nothing to do with Metal Gear. But it does seem to point in that direction. Kris Zimmerman is also the person who always directs the English voice acting for the games. In any case, we will just have to wait and see. According to Kojima Productions, we will get more information on the game soon.

Source: Quinton Flynn’s Twitter, The Gaming Liberty

During the Kojima Productions podcast #159, the staff members gave some more insight into the decision to not update the controls of MGS2 and MGS3 for the HD Collection, to something more akin to MGS4 or Peace Walker.

People have asked us: why don’t you upgrade the controls to something more modern? If we were to do that, it would change the game completely, and I think people don’t really realize that. We actually did do experiments with that early on in the project. (..) It didn’t work. You would basically have to rebalance the entire game, and it would be like creating a whole new game at that point.

The staff members explained that while MGS3 does have free camera control, adding control features like crouch walking and run and gun would make the game far too easy. For MGS2, adding these features would be even more problematic.

MGS2 was completely designed to be from the top view. If you were to suddenly put a third person camera in there, it’s very confining and very hard to control. We tried it and it does not work.

When we make the games, we basically only make what you see. It’s like a stage set. You see the walls around you, but beyond that, there’s nothing. It’s just this big black space. So if you suddenly give the player the ability to look anywhere at any time while moving around, they may see things that they are not supposed to see, and it will totally destroy the illusion of the game.

Since Kojima Productions’ goal was to bring the classics to current generation consoles, the decision was made to keep the controls as they were, instead of rebalancing and essentially changing the games.

Source: Kojima Productions Report

More Metal Gear Rising news next week, and the previous version of the game is still a possibility for the future.

During the Kojima Productions Report number 159, the staff members talked a bit about Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, in response to a question sent in by a listener.

First they talked a bit more about the mixed response the VGA trailer has been receiving so far.

“As we release more information, I think more people will come around. What we showed at VGAs was just the first reveal. Really we didn’t show much.”

They also gave a hint as to when new information can be expected.

“We will be revealing more very soon. Maybe… next week, possibly?”

The staff members talked a bit more about coming information.

 ”We will delve more into the gameplay and what you can expect. Keep your eyes open over the next few weeks, you’ll be seeing a lot interesting things, and hopefully it’ll get you excited leading up to E3. Needless to say, we’re not doing this [the production of the game] half assed.”

The listener asked if there was a possibility of the previous build being made into a game as well, under the direction of Hideo Kojima.

“It had a lot of cool ideas (…). From our perspective, that story still exists. We didn’t abandon that story. It’s on a shelf right now, we may revisit it at some point in the future, there’s always that possibility. (…) We’re not throwing it away.”

Source: Kojima Productions Report

Konami is having a special offer for Japanese buyers: if you buy a PlayStation Vita simultaneously with the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, you will receive not only a special decal sticker for your Vita, but also a MGS HD themed shopping bag.

One side of the bag features a picture of Big Boss, the other one of Raiden, and on the inside you can see the title of the game.

More information (in Japanese) can be found here.

Source: Konami Japan, AndriaSang

Hideo Kojima posted some photos on his Twitter of the Play Arts Kai Solidus Snake figure, which has now been painted. He mentioned he is checking the colors, and also noted that the figure is pretty big, which can be seen especially well on the last photo, on which it’s being held by Yoji Shinkawa.

Source: Hideo Kojima’s Twitter

Hideo Kojima posted photos on his Twitter of the special 25th Anniversary Metal Gear t-shirts, which will be available at UNIQLO Japan starting today. The shirts will be available in limited quantities. They will also be for sale at UNIQLO stores worldwide (in response to questions on Twitter Kojima confirmed that UNIQLO US, UK, France, Singapore, China and Malaysia will have them), but three limited edition prints are only for sale at UNIQLO Ginza, in Tokyo, one of them being Metal Gear Rising Revengeance themed.

This shirt is exclusively available at UNIQLO Ginza, Japan, starting April 28th.

Kojima visited the store in Tokyo and took photos of the opening. It seems like people where lined up outside.

You can see all the different t-shirts on this page. Here is the Japanese UNIQLO page where the shirts can be bought for ￥1,500. They will be available this May at UNIQLO UK, for £14,90. As stated, they will also become available at other UNIQLO stores worldwide.

Source: Hideo Kojima’s Twitter

Hideo Kojima posted once again some updates on his Twitter regarding the things he is working on. Yesterday he was checking out the PlayStation Vita version of MGS3, and apparently it’s good, because according to Kojima time flied while he was busy with it.

He also spent some time on Project Ogre, 3 hours to be precise, in which he ‘changed the structure of the last part’.

Kojima also talked a bit about the recently deceased Takeshi Aono, the Japanese voice actor for Roy Campbell in the MGS series. Kojima posted:

‘As 80% of movie depends on the sound, the character’s characteristic depends on their voice, I think. I’ve always created based on that theory. Similar to the Frank Jeager, Ninja character ended when my favorite Mr. Shiozawa passed away, I cannot think of anyone for Campbell except Mr. Aono. Sorry guys.’

It sounds like we won’t see the colonel return in any of the future MGS titles, but of course it can always change, if Kojima does find someone who is able to provide the voice for those characters.

Today is also the day that issue 217 of Play Magazine comes out, which promised ‘stunning new details’ on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The magazine features a two page spread in the form of a preview for the game, but most of the details were already known. The screens posted in the magazine are also already existing ones.

One new piece of information Play gave us is the fact that Raiden won’t be able to use guns at all in the game, only enemies will have them. Raiden will use solely blades, and aside from his katana he will also have a subweapon that he can use, such as a dagger.

Another new detail is the fact that Raiden is able to parry enemy attacks, even when his back is turned against them.

The game will be released in Q4 of 2012.

Source: Hideo Kojima’s Twitter, The Silent Chief

Konami has released a bunch of screens for the Vita versions of MGS2 and MGS3, as well as the PAL boxart, which is different from the Japanese and US one.

The game is planned to release on June 28 in Japan and somewhere in the summer for the rest of the world.

Source: Examiner.com & GamingEverything.com

Yesterday, on April 9 2012, Takeshi Aono, the voice actor who did the Japanese voice for Colonel Roy Campbell in the Metal Gear series (among many other roles in television and video game series), passed away.

June 19, 1936 – April 9, 2012

In addition to providing the voice for Campbell in Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, 4 and Bande Dessinée, he also did the voice for the scientist Alexandr Granin in Metal Gear Solid 3. Due to health problems, the actor had to end his voice acting career in 2010. Yesterday he passed away, at the age of 75.

Hideo Kojima -along with other staff members- posted a message on his Twitter concerning Takeshi Aono’s death, offering his condolences.

Source: Hideo Kojima’s Twitter