The recent additions of Team Sneaking and Headshot Only modes to Metal Gear Online is just the beginning, since the first of the expected expansion packs is only a few days away. Let’s talk about what’s included, how it indicates some promising MGO evolution and why maybe the price (if it can’t be free) isn’t as bad as it could be.

Originally, Metal Gear Online was possibly going to be a separate game. Thankfully, Kojima Productions wisely gave everyone who purchased MGS4 a good taste of the basics that MGO had to offer in the form of the starter pack—touting coming expansions packs that would add lots more content for those wanting it.

Information on the first of these expansion packs, entitled GENE, has been posted by Konami. As they previously discussed, they look to be hitting all categories with this expansion by adding new characters, maps, a play mode, new customizability and an extra character slot.

Maps

Coppertown Conflict/City of Sorrow: Brown Town? YES! While I can’t be sure, this map almost surely looks like the reappearance of Brown Town from MGO: Subsistence, one of my favorite maps from that game. Hopefully it will find its own personality in the new MGO, as Midtown Maelstrom does hark back to its design with a wide-open street on one edge and more intimate alleyways on the other. I think there’s absolutely room for both.

Tomb of Tubes/Underground Waterway: Reminiscent of the underground Groznyj Grad sewers Snake escapes through in Snake Eater, Tomb of Tubes appears a darker, more intimate indoor affair.

Virtuous Vista/South American Power Station: Adapted from Snake’s latest adventure (MGS4), specifically the South American jungle of Act II. I get a Svyatogornyj East vibe from this one, though likely larger, which would be fantastic.

Characters

One of the things I missed most about MGO: Subsistence was the unique characters leading each squad and the fun, variety and tactics this brought to the game.

I had hoped unique characters might return and it looks like Kojima Productions had the same thing in mind.

Meryl Silverburgh: Meryl’s skills revolve around her role as a team leader.

Enemies she attacks and enemies that attack her will be displayed through SOP (perhaps something akin to Monomania and Narc at level 3).

Allies near her will regain Psyche faster, though as far as I know there’s no way to regain Psyche in MGO so perhaps she will enable this within certain proximity.

She can wake teammates quicker than usual and excels at handgun use (probably Handgun+ at level 3).

Whether or not she’ll be able to use the Desert Eagle, as she carries in MGS4, by default or by choice I’m curious to see.

Johnny (Akiba): Like Meryl, Johnny’s abilities seem tied to his in-game MGS4 persona. He’s an expert at traps.

He can see all traps in a stage and can disarm them in a special way, by pressing triangle, to turn them into items.

While he may be equipped with some special weapons or skills at using traps too, he may be less easily used given that I don’t see many trap users out there in MGO. It’s a shame because I not only had some great fun, but also success, when playing around with the likes of C4 and sleep gas mines. Most hosts sadly turn off many of the weapons.

It’s also possible that Johnny is meant as a weaker character, in-line with at least his early-game persona in MGS4 and his appearance as Johnny Sasaki in all the other MGS games. This would make him similar to Sokolov in Subsistence, who was controlled by the worst scoring player on his squad and who only had a weaker version of the optical camo to aid him.

Konami has added a note that these characters are not freely selectable, meaning that they should function similarly to the “leader” characters in Subsistence. Konami claims they’ll be assigned randomly, which would be a change, as previously the special characters were controlled by the best or worst scoring player on a given squad. To give more people a chance to play as these guys, randomizing it sounds like a good idea.

A similar change was made when deciding who becomes the next Snake in sneaking mode. No longer does the soldier who killed Snake take over his role, alleviating at least some competition within teams.

Customizability

The expansion adds the ability to create female soldiers, and with it adds a new character slot so that you can create and save a second character without having to purchase the atrocious extra character slot add-on for $7.99USD (includes 3 character slots.) You only really need one character I suppose, but still…

The total number of characters you can buy slots for now is apparently eight, if you want to waste money.

New items for your character will also be available in the Reward Shop for purchase with Reward Points.

Survival Mode and Reward Shop

I’m really curious about Survival Mode, but details are scarce. Presumably it revolves around staying alive and will probably be another fairly unique mode, very welcome in MGO. Reward Points can be earned in Survival that can be spent on items in the Reward Shop to further customize your characters. These items can be used in modes other than Survival as well.

Could Survival be a single player or perhaps cooperative experience as opposed to team vs. team? It’s an interesting possibility. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Release Date

You won’t have to wait long though as the Metal Gear Online GENE Expansion will be available for download on July 17, 2008. It will be available through the MGO shop, which probably elicits a groan throughout the world, as Konami has insisted on using their own proprietary online system for their games as opposed to the PlayStation Store.

Not easy to use through the PS3 itself, the MGO Shop is simply a barebones webpage. While only the overpriced character slot and codec pack add-on have been available up until now, the expansion should be its first real test. If possible, try accessing the store via PC and making your purchase that way. I admit though that I do not even know exactly how that works and you may still be required to access the shop to at least start the download on your PS3.

Price

Priced at 9.99EUR for Europe, there has been no revelation yet for North Americans even days ahead of release. That figure is likely to translate directly to $9.99USD, or so I’d hope. If that will be the price, then all I can think is that it could be worse. With three extra character slot running $7.99USD on the MGO Shop, I worried how much an expansion might run if it included stuff that was actually worth getting.

$10 is certainly more reasonable than $15 or $20, but it’s probably the highest price I would consider acceptable. Given the price I paid for MGS4 already and the reliance on Konami’s servers to enjoy MGO, it still gives me pause for thought. Map packs tend to run around $5. There’s more here and it’s interesting content, but Survival mode is still a mystery and with more expansions on the way, the cost of the “full” experience could get pricey.

While I’m not privy to all the intricacies of the industry’s business model, look at what Criterion is doing with Burnout Paradise. There’s a precedent for this stuff to be free, and MGS4 is a full retail game. Clearly a huge amount of work went into it, but are they nickel and diming us with the online portion?

It’s impossible to say, since we don’t know what else the future will bring. I don’t know how many hosts out there will be using the expansion, but Konami is raising the danger that the already niche MGO userbase will be splintered. Of course prices could come down or expansions could be bundled, but the price already seems to be adding up.

Maybe it’s not fair to expect this kind of stuff for free, but as a big Metal Gear Online fan this is giving me pause for thought. And that’s something Konami should be concerned about.

Other companies are releasing impressive add-on content for free, so take notice Konami. It’s in your interest to keep the community strong.

Sources: Konami, Strategy Informer

A new Metal Gear Online mode has made its way onto the game’s servers. Taking inspiration from the existing “Sneaking Mode”, which sees Snake use Octocamo to collect Dog-Tags from warring teams, this mode is a battle of two teams with different gear.

The mode consists of a Sneaking Team and a “Normal” Team going head to head. Like Snake, the Sneaking Team is stealth-equipped (thus virtually invisible) and to win must either eliminate all enemies or return KEROTAN or GA-KO to their goal. The defending team must defeat the sneaking team or keep KEROTAN or GA-KO safe to win.

The defenders needn’t be overwhelmed, since if they spot one of the sneakers the whole sneaking team will be visible for 5 seconds. Moreover, the sneakers will only be able to equip non-lethal weapons, as opposed to the defenders who can use all weapons.

Sneaking Mode was really the only MGO mode to set the game apart from other online games and shout “original”, so we hope this new Team Sneaking mode will be as fruitful.

You can now also select “Headshots Only” for every game mode except Team Sneaking. However, take note, you’ll die if you kill somebody by any other method.

As I began to play the new Metal Gear Online the other day, I found myself frustrated. I began to write down some things that have changed since Subsistence and that are bugging me. As I played more I found myself adapting and finding options to better handle the frustrating situations, but there are a few things that I think bear discussion.

Lock-on vs. Over-the-shoulder

Rarely in Subsistence online did I use the two first person views to aim my weapons. The really good players were excellent at this, while I tended to favor taking people by surprise and utilizing the lock-on to get in that first shot and keep them from returning fire.

This is no longer possible in MGO. Auto aim has been weakened tremendously when using assault rifles, which is essentially the most versatile weapon class available to you. No longer does stealth pay off as reliably when you sneak up on someone from medium distance or the like.

Unless you’re extremely close and can use CQC, you must rely on the over-the-shoulder (OTS) aim to take down enemies. If you want to do so quickly and cleanly, getting that headshot on a moving opponent with their back to you can be frustrating. More often than not I would end up in my targets crosshairs after giving away my position.

Shooting skills are rewarded more now than before, where the playing field was kind of level thanks to the lock-on. If you had trouble aiming with the controller like in an FPS you could still have success.

This also makes the outcome of even lopsided encounters—say, you and a teammate against one guy—far from certain. Your teammate may get in the way, causing your weapon to lock; the other guy may simply headshot both of you with a single bullet; or mow you down while you’re trying to pick a shot. High level weapon skills make this worse as well.

More time with the handguns and submachine guns, both of which possess far better lock-on range, is needed, but I have doubts about how effective they might be against rifle users with heavy trigger fingers (something higher weapon skills lets you get away with). Switching weapons and auto aim on and off constantly is quite cumbersome. I feel compelled to have my handgun in the second slot instead of the knife, which makes me less efficient with CQC too.

While the OTS view is an excellent addition, I dislike seeing MGO turn in to a more standard shooter. It won’t appeal to that crowd for other reasons and it’s not playing to Metal Gear’s unique strengths. While I appreciate the OTS at longer ranges, close range has been turning in to a frustrating mess for me if I can’t land a grab.

Not being able to take out a sitting duck right in front of you half the time because they’re just running around in circles is horrible.

Versatile Sniper Rifles

In Subsistence, if you chose to equip a sniper rifle you had to really play the game differently—like using traps, and having a spotter or backup to assist you. That is no longer the case and it seems like the checks and balance of having a weapon very accurate and deadly at long range (but not so mobile) is gone.

I mentioned that the assault rifles are the most versatile weapon class. Given that they do have some limited auto aim functionality and CQC that may still be true, but sniper rifles look to be giving them a run for their money.

Theoretically being able to fire sniper rifles on the move and from OTS is perfectly fine with me, and it does change things a lot. This is apparent when looking at the M14, which is fully automatic, and the DSR-1, bolt-action but fatal even with a body shot. The SVD is quite effective also.

Time will tell. I enjoy the versatility, but it may make sniper rifles the new assault rifles.

Weapon Skills

The inclusion of skills is not surprising. Games like Call of Duty 4, Battlefield, and others have popularized this incentive to play and ability to customize not only how your character looks but how it plays.

A lot of the skills in MGO are really neat, involving close range fighting abilities and advantages attained through the SOP system. The weapon skills, however, are troubling. The playing field is no longer even and if two people are firing at each other, the person with a level two or level three assault rifle skill has a substantial advantage. In fact, even in close with the disorienting OTS aim, many seem much deadlier with the assault rifles than someone perhaps more fittingly trying to utilizing a short range handgun or SMG, auto aim, or CQC.

It’s up to play style, but I dislike frantically and inaccurately trying to aim OTS at that range with a primary weapon. It’s unreliable and frustrating. Against someone forcing you in to that situation though, you really have no choice but to try to get lucky with a headshot yourself before you go down. If they have a higher weapon skill they’re nearly certain to win just by holding the trigger down.

Most people may not find this an issue once they’ve raised their own weapon skill, but what if you’re interested in utilizing more CQC, SOP effects, or other tactics? You only have four skill points available to you, are you going to feel forced to use three of those just for a primary weapon just so you feel you can compete?

Again, it’s early to make a judgment and overall I like the variety of skills available—I just want to use some of them and not get dead. An even playing field, at least as far as weapon stats go, might end up being preferable.

Squad Character

While MGO allows you to create and customize your soldier, it’s hard to notice those details on the battlefield and everyone ends up looking kind of nondescript and similar. It’s bland and teams can’t really tell each other apart aside from the ubiquitous floating name tags that can be difficult sometimes to pick out in a cluster.

I loved the character and style that each of the GRU, KGB and Spetznaz squads had in Subsistence and their leaders. You could always identify them and their leading scorer. Those were really fun and unusual elements, bringing that unique Metal Gear character online. You had the option to turn leaders off if their special skills weren’t welcome, but no matter what your team had a uniform character.

There’s been mention of new characters among many other things in store for the upcoming expansions. Perhaps we’ll see leaders, special characters and new uniforms added. I hope so, but unless you’re playing with your clan or an entire squad of friends no one will really be coordinated. Still, it would be welcome.

A small thing, but I really miss it.

Keep an eye out for more on MGO as I continue to play, including some special tactics to deal with those tricky close range confrontations and other situations.

Pixel counters at the ready!  There’s been some debate over the final rendering resolution of Metal Gear Solid 4.  Screenshot pixel counting has been hazy, so the first sign of a possible resolution is found in the launch of the Metal Gear Online Beta.  The Beta has now begun in Europe (yes it’s up, go and play!) and the results are in.

Over at Beyond3d technical forums, resident video game investigator Quaz51 (who also happens to be Eurogamer’s source in their console face-offs), has now proved his suspicions right.  MGO renders natively at 1024by768.

This resolution is not 768p as you might suspect, since 1024by768 is not a 16/9 isomorphic resolution.  Instead, it’s equivalent resolution (contains the same number of pixels) is 1182by665 – or 665p.  It is thus accurate to say MGO renders natively at 665p.

Why this resolution? Rendering at this resolution can aid in post-processing effects, help with tiling through the RSX graphics chip, and also has the advantage of natively supporting 4/3 Standard Definition TV’s.  In addition, MGO has been confirmed to run at 30 frames per second.

There have been many “sub-HD” games this generation, from Halo 3 to Call of Duty 4.  To most the differences will be negligible and won’t detract from the gameplay experience.  Moreover, with MGO offering a higher resolution than the above two games along with 2xAA (gets rid of teh jaggies), you’ll be hard pressed to tell the difference.

It’s still uncertain whether this will be the final native resolution of MGS4. For now, go and enjoy the Beta!

The long awaited beta for Metal Gear Online is finally upon us, but for some unfortunate people the codes supplied to access the beta are invalid.

Some people in America who pre-ordered MGS4 to get in the MGO beta have found the expected 12 digit download code to have the last few digits missing, presumed hiding under a cardboard box.

Upon entering the shorter code, the helpless player is treated to an error message and not much help. A quick scout around the forums and blogs swarming with angry Metal Gear fans found one possible solution, sending an email to Konami support.

The response PS3Blog.net got gave a few more instructions:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for contacting Konami Support. If your code is appearing with only 9 or 11 digits, then this is incorrect.

Please copy your code exactly as it appears on your voucher in your reply to this email. We’re very sorry for this inconvenience and we will do our best to rectify the situation in time for the Beta start.

Regards,

Konami Customer Support

So, to get a working code, send an email to kdeussupport@konami.com giving the 9 digit number.

No solid figures on the quantity of incorrect codes have emerged yet, but from the frequency of complaints showing up around the net, it looks to be a rather substantial number.

When you do actually get your code and can download the Beta, you might be unable to download a patch for the game, nor will you be able to set up your Konami ID/Game ID since their servers are being battered.  Hopefully Konami will get this all sorted in time for April 21st when the Beta begins.

After the successful launch of the new Playstation Store, there’s a feast of content to get your teeth into this week.

The Metal Gear Online Beta makes its presence known on the European Store, but will be hidden in the US for those that were lucky enough to acquire a Beta code.  Then again, don’t be too excited since many are having trouble setting up their Konami Game ID’s.

With Gran Turismo 5: Prologue and the Warhawk Pack to tide us over until the MGO Beta’s April 21st launch, it’ll be easy for us to forget about the content we might have been expecting. Yes, the Resistance 2 trailer won’t be gracing your PS3 this week, but we hope it jumps onto the Store in the near future.

US Playstation Store Update:

Games/Demos:
- Gran Turismo 5: Prologue – $39.99
- Metal Gear Online beta (for those who have beta codes)
- UEFA EURO 2008 Demo

Downloadable Content:
- LAIR – Dragons and Control Pack – free
- Super Stardust HD – Solo Add-on Pack – $4.99
- WarHawk – Operation: Broken Mirror Add-on – $7.99
- Warhawk Booster Combo – $11.99 (Contains “Omega Dawn” and “Broken Mirror” Packs)
- Rock Band Songs:
* “Still Alive” – GLaDOS and Jonathan Coulton (free)
* “Sprode” – Freezepop ($0.99)
* “Shake” – Count Zero ($0.99)
* “Rock Rebellion” – Bang Camaro ($0.99)
* Harmonix Pack 1 ($2.99) – (Includes “Rock Rebellion”, “Shake”, and “Sprode”)
* “Call Me” – Blondie ($1.99)
* “Simple Man” – Lynyrd Skynyrd ($1.99)
* “Message In A Bottle” – The Police ($1.99)
* Classic Rock Pack 1 ($5.49) – (Includes “Call Me”, “Simple Man”, and “Message In A Bottle”)

Trailers:
- Gran Turismo 5: Prologue – “Beyond the Apex”
- Gran Turismo 5: Prologue – “Friendly Fires”
- Warhawk Broken Mirror Trailer
- Condemned 2: Bloodshot Making Of The TV Spot
- HAZE Mantel Corporate Vision
- This is Vegas Annoucement Trailer
- Pineapple Express Blu-ray Trailer

Other:
- Warhawk Theme (x2)
- Lair Mokai Theme

European Playstation Store Update:

Games/Demos:
- Metal Gear Online beta (open to all of Europe/PAL, won’t work for non-PAL users due to IP restrictions)
- SEGA Superstars Tennis demo

Downloadable Content:
- Super Stardust HD – Solo Add-on Pack – £2.99
- Guitar Hero III – Dropkick Murphys pack – free
- WarHawk – Operation: Broken Mirror Add-on – £££/€7.99

Trailers:
- Bionic Commando Rearmed
- GTA IV Trailer 4
- Lost Planet Trailer 2
- SEGA Superstars Tennis

Oh, and if you’re clever enough to have a Hong Kong PSN account as opposed to a Japan one, you’ll be able to get your mits on a Lair demo. Yes, Lair.