Ever thought a tank on legs would look stupid and too far fetched to be made real?  Yes, we’ve seen legged robots that are able to keep themselves upright, but give them a poke or a sharp incline and they are far from agile.  However, the days of Metal Gear are closing in on us.  Follow the link for a video of the incredible quadruped robot, BigDog.

This advanced robot, with suitable Metal Gear Solid name, is a sight to behold.  It appears to share uncanny similarities to the dystopian Gear depicted in Kojima’s MGS series, such as Crying Wolf from MGS4’s Beauty and the Beast Corp.

Sporting four legs, BigDog can walk, run, climb on rough terrain and carry heavy loads.  The quadruped robot is being developed by Boston Dynamics with the aim to create a rough-terrain mobility robot.

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BigDog’s articulated legs are so shockingly animal-like in their balance and agility, matched by the on-board computer’s decision making on differing surfaces, that you might mistake it for MGS4’s creepy Gekko’s.  In fact, filter the buzz coming from the petrol engine that drives the hydraulic actuation system, turn it into a moo or howl and you’re surely in Snake’s world now. 

Imagine a pack of these things galloping towards you in the battlefield…  Cure your fear by watching the less agile and pedestrian BigDog Beta:

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Source: Boston Dynamics

Hideo’s coming to good ole’ Blighty! Naturally not for a holiday, but to please all the Snake fans. On Monday 2nd June, Metal gear fanatics will be able to meet Hideo Kojima and series’ artist Yoji Shinkawa at HMV’s Oxford Street store in London’s West End.

Hideo and Yoji will be in the store from 12 noon to meet fans and sign HMV’s exclusive MGS4 pre-release sleeves.  Sadly this will be an exclusive affair. Only those who have bought one of only 300 sleeves (via an MGS4 preorder) will get the chance to meet Snake’s creator. If you want to try your luck, the sleeves will be available from 9am on the day.

London won’t be Kojima’s only stop. On June 11th, he’ll be signing copies of MGS4 at the Times Square Virgin Megastore in New York.

In other MGS4 news, PSW magazine is reporting that some (yes, plural) of the cutscene’s will reach 90 minutes in length. That’s a collection of full length feature films tucked into your Metal Gear. Thankfully they can be paused, skipped and even interacted with.

Worried if it’s all style and no substance? Never fear, journalists who have played through the game have reported it to be 30 hours in length, with two thirds consisiting of pure gameplay. New screenshots can be found in our gallery.

*Update* - Sid Shuman of Gamepro is reporting that the “90 minute cutscene” comments from PSW are greatly exaggerated:

Like the other MGS games, MGS4 definitely has a cinematic quality. And yes, some of the cut-scenes in the game are elaborate and occasionally lengthy. But not a one, to my recollection, even approaches 90 minutes.

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What’s cooler than the cryogenic freezing chamber they’re going to put Stan Lee in after he dies? Stumbling upon the Konami booth and seeing that the NYC Comic Con gets the US premier of Metal Gear Online. That’s what!

Holy Revolver Ocelot, Batman!

So how did it play Zungre?

Pretty Cool Right from the Get Go.

You begin each round, as well as every time you respawn, with choosing your primary, secondary weapons and explosive items. There are multiple types of grenades and claymores, but you can also choose a magazine in this category. Strange right? I was like, “No I will not choose an issue of Cosmopolitan over 2 grenades, Kojima!” But from what I hear from Patrick is that it’s actually a dirty mag that you can use to distract other players. That’s something you won’t see unlocked when your rank up in Call of Duty 4 multiplayer.

The animation is silky smooth. I especially noticed when I was running up stairs. Very slick. I’m pretty sure his feet touched every step. And the ragdoll physics are well implemented too. Check it out.

Japanese Trickery! Based Gameplay

I should probably call it stealth based game play, but so much has to do with it being tricky. And yes, you can hide in a box! Which I did for a while, but then felt really lame and stopped. There were people watching and I only got to play for a few minutes!

The multiplayer is built on a lot of the same stealth concepts that the Metal Gear Solid franchise stands on. So why would walking around in a box fool anyone? Because there are freaking boxes littered everywhere throughout the multiplayer stages. So every time you approach one you don’t know if it contains a moustached stealth agent or not.

I spent a few clips shooting into a box, wondering, “Why is no one dying?” Because that’s just one of the random environment boxes, you idiot! That’s when Kojima ran up to me and gave me a DDT for being such a moron.

Check out this quick clip of box time.

You can also lie on your stomach, back or slump against a wall and play dead. I didn’t see anybody trying this technique, which is a shame, because I wonder how convincing it looks. I also wonder how long these tricks will be effective. I mean how many times can I fool someone with the dead possum thing? How long before players just start double tapping corpses for safety? And if the tricks only work early on in the multiplayer, how well is a game that is largely based on them going to work?

Controls

There’s an unusual auto-aim mechanic that locks on to your opponents if you see them and press the R1 button. The Konami rep told me that the auto aim is for new players and you can switch to manual if you want. Personally, I found the auto-aim kind of cumbersome and think I would have done better with the traditional target sites.

But you know, I always have a hard time controlling a Metal Gear Solid game at first, especially with Snake Eater. So, of course, there were times where I was trying to reload my gun, and I accidentally disarmed myself, or put myself in the box and it was pretty frustrating. I can’t help but wonder if the inventory bar that pops up that worked so well in MGS single player games, may not work so well in multiplayer. Too many things to keep track of during too many split second decisions.

Lastly, I was KO’d by an opponent’s stun knife, with stars swirling around my head and everything. I was surprised with how long it takes to regain consciousness by moving the left analogue stick back and forth. It felt much longer than regaining your shields in Halo 3 or recovering from a stun grenade in CoD4. It felt like I was out forever, and I got capped before I could regain my bearings. Yikes! That stun knife’s enough to make Dan Landis quiver (Landis doesn’t quiver easily).

The Future

The Konami Rep told me that you will be able to build a character to use in online matches. You determine what he looks like as well as what his battleground specialities are. He also talked about a mode where you can play 1 guy vs. fifteen. This must be the return of the Sneaking Mission we talked about at the begining of the month, a task only old Snake could tackle right?

All in all, it felt like a promising experience and I can’t wait to try out the different stealth tactics I didn’t have an opportunity to try, like hanging down from ledges. I bet popping out of the box to cap someone who’s run past you is a pretty satisfying experience, too. The Beta’s up tonight guys! Go grab your new patch, v1.02, to make sure you’ll be ready to stealth in time.

Want to be one of the first to test out the multiplayer aspect of MGS4? No problem, the official Sony Playstation Blog confirms that those who pre-order the game will be guaranteed access to the MP beta.

… If you can’t wait to try out MGS4, the good news is you don’t have to much longer. Those who pre-order the game will be guaranteed access to a multiplayer beta test for Metal Gear Online scheduled for late April.

There you have it. The waiting period is drawing to a close, and the faint sound of “snake? snake? snaaaaaaaake?!!” is growing louder by the minute. Unfortunately, this deal only applies to the US at this time. Sorry Patrick.

Source: blog.us.playstation.com

News has been flip flopping over whether Metal Gear Online will be included with MGS4, or whether it will be purchased separately. In an interview with Gamespot, Konami’s director of marketing, puts the rumours to rest. A Metal Gear Online starter pack will be included in the shipped MGS4 game.

They haven’t yet disclosed how many maps there will be in the pack, but “there will be an element of the online component within Metal Gear 4, to capture that online experience.”

What does this imply? Does this mean the fully featured Metal Gear Online will be available separately, where MGS4 owners will own a fraction of this? It’s my belief that MGS4 will be the sole way to purchase Metal Gear Online, where the starter pack will then be fleshed out throughout 2008, adding new maps through downloadable content. If this is the case, then it’s a pretty sweet deal.

Getting a Metal Gears Solid game and an online component that will be further supported, is a dream come true. If the fully featured Metal Gear Online was available separately from the get go, it would make Metal Gear fans buy two games instead of one.

Konami’s director or marketing supports my suspicions that Metal Gear Online will only be purchasable through MGS4 in her following statement: “Within the rest of the year we will be stragically providing content.”

Kojima’s MGS4 is set for release in Q2 of this year.  The interview can be found here.

In an interview in Famitsu magazine, he says:

When you hit someone or inflict pain, faces get disfigured for example, and I want to make games that show that sort of thing.

If you don’t see the pain, you can’t understand what you’ve done, and you’ll pass through battles without taking responsibility for your actions. I don’t want to ignore that. I want players to think, even if it’s just a little, about what violence and war are.

It’s good to hear a heavyweight getting behind the industry for producing mature content, but it’s also clear to see that he means this with a caveat. Earlier in the interview he stated that he doesn’t think many games tackle violence head on.

He reinforces this point by adding: “I think there are fewer developers around today who think about making a good game.” Manhunt 2 and its ilk aren’t getting any love it seems.

As for Kojima’s vision; Metal Gear’s well established penchant for existential debate means we’re going to get a fair dose on the morals of war, but facial disfigurement? Is this some curious new IP brewing in his brain? We can’t wait.

More to the point, why is he being interviewed by Assassin’s Creed producer Jade Raymond?

Read the interview here.