Grand Theft Auto 5

Rockstar Games’ most successful title, Grand Theft Auto 5 redefined how detailed and lifelike open-world games could be. On top of its gorgeous visuals and intricate world, it pushed the boundaries of the franchise’s established formula with three protagonists, heists, activities like sports, hunting and racing, and memorable side stories. The fact that it achieved all of this on seventh-gen console hardware is a feat, that too without considering GTA Online.

Two all-time great titles in the Metal Gear Solid franchise will be available for Xbox One today, courtesy of its backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 titles. These are Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty HD and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater HD, which were originally part of the  Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. The announcement was made by Xbox Live director of programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb on Twitter.

Though the gameplay and story are the same as their non-HD versions, these versions include 720p resolution support and 60 FPS frame rates. You can also look forward to Metal Gear Solid 2’s Snake Tales and Casting Theater, along with Metal Gear Solid 3’s first person camera option among features.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Edition was made backwards compatible for the Xbox One earlier this year, so that makes almost every game from the original Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. When will Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake arrive? Time will tell.

In the meantime, you can head here to view the full list of Xbox One backwards compatible titles.

https://twitter.com/majornelson/status/1049691131942907905

Recently, reports had begun circulating that Armature, the people who handled the collection for the PS Vita, would be bringing the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection to the PS4. These reports began surfacing as a result of Armature seeming to have updated their website to reflect this, with Metal Gear Solid HD’s platforms mentioning the PS4 as well.

Interestingly enough, Peace Walker, which wasn’t included in the PS Vita version of the collection, seems to also have been pictured on the page along with Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3. Peace Walker was, of course, part of the HD Collection on the PS3 and Xbox 360. This was all, of course, still unconfirmed, but it now looks like Armature have officially and irrevocably refuted these rumours.

The PS4 listing, it turns out, was nothing but a typographical error. “Unfortunately this was simply a typo by one of our web developers and is neither a leak nor indication that the MGS HD collection is coming to PS4. Or that Armature is working on any new MGS games.” said Jonathan Zamkoff, head of business development at Armature Studios when asked about this by DualShockers.

Oh well… at least there’s Metal Gear Survive to look forward to… right?

Konami has just announced the dates for the digital-download editions of each game and the entire collection. Of course, this is the date list across all formats, so patience is necessary. Check them out below:

August 21st:

•METAL GEAR SOLID 2: SONS OF LIBERTY – HD Edition (PS Vita)

•METAL GEAR SOLID 3: SNAKE EATER – HD Edition (PS Vita)

•METAL GEAR SOLID 2: SONS OF LIBERTY – HD Edition (PS3)

•METAL GEAR SOLID 3: SNAKE EATER – HD Edition (PS3)

•METAL GEAR SOLID – HD Collection – MGS2 + MGS3 (X360) – Games On Demand release

August 28th:

•METAL GEAR SOLID: PEACE WALKER (PS3)

•METAL GEAR SOLID: PEACE WALKER (X360) – Games on Demand Release

•METAL GEAR SOLID – HD Collection Bundle – MGS2+3+PW (PS3)

Though, what about Silicon Knights’ remake of the same? We’re talking about Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, which released exclusively on the Nintendo Gamecube. Why the exclusion here?

Kojima Productions’ Sean Eyestone in their latest podcast provides some answers:

That was a remake made by Silicon Knights. We supervised it but we didn’t create it directly and we wanted to make sure that everything in the HD Collection was canon. Everything that goes into there is something created directly by Kojima Productions and Kojima himself. So that is the reason why Twin Snakes was not included in HD Collection.

That begs the question though: Why didn’t Kojima Productions do their own HD translation? Beggars can’t be choosers, it seems.

Source: Examiner

The HD Collection contains two games – Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3. Both of them are considered really good and have aged really well. However, it’s a bit disappointing knowing that Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker was excluded for some reason, and it makes absolutely no sense not to have the PSP version enhanced for the Vita as well.

You can still play the vanilla PSP game on the Vita with second analogue stick enabled, but it doesn’t really give a significantly better experience than playing on the PSP, but for some people that second analogue makes all the difference. It would have been nice to get Peacewalker in the overall package as well, but as they say, there’s always a catch for something that is seemingly flawless.

But flawless it is not, and no, it’s not because there’s a lack of Peacewalker, but because I felt Vita’s analogue sticks didn’t do the camera justice as it required a lot of manual tinkering, which reduced the immersion a bit. Apart from that, the replication of the two games is very good and it looks gorgeous on the OLED screen of the system.

The touchscreen plays an important role here as well, and in-game you can switch weapons and gadgets by just selecting the appropriate thing and pressing the down button on the d-pad. It took me a while to figure that out, but it’s not that inconvenient once you get the hang of it. The pressure sensitive button for firing is still in which I absolutely hate, but considering I rarely fired at anything and employed a stealthy approach, it wasn’t that annoying.

As I mentioned in my PS3 review of the HD Collection, “These games will take you on a memorable journey, and you will witness some of the best, and intense storytelling in video games ever. It can get a little convoluted for the first-time players, so it would be advisable to start with Metal Gear Solid 2. People will have problems with adjusting to the complex control systems in these games, especially the CQC actions – but with a little practice, it shouldn’t pose a big issue. Actually for me, I didn’t have any adjustment period at all, since I’ve played these games so many times on the PS2 and loved them.”

It stays true in the Vita version as well where these games will take you on a memorable journey, and it is recommended that you play them in the release order instead of chronological, ignoring the dates in the main menu. It will take you 12-14 hours to finish Metal Gear Solid 2 and an equal number of time for Metal Gear Solid 3 as well. So you are looking at a phenomenal amount of content here. It’s a testament to how awesome these games are, considering they are quite old now but still give most latest games a run for their money.

These games can be considered as ‘HD’ as the asset quality is much better than the PS2 versions, and the remaster has been quite good here for both the games. There are trophies as well which use the same set as the HD version on the PS3, and there is the transfarring ability as well, which lets you use the same save files between the PS3 and Vita versions.

Five years ago no one would have thought it would have been possible to play these games on a portable device at a high visual fidelity and with proper controls, but the fact that it’s possible itself makes it a progressive thing, and something that offers a different experience. You couldn’t go wrong with these games on the Vita at all.

This game was reviewed on the PS Vita.

Competition time!

Thanks to our good friends Origin Games, distributors of Konami, 505 Games and City Interactive in India, we’ve got one PlayStation Vita copy of the recently released Metal Gear Solid HD Collection to one lucky reader.

How do you enter? Simply answer this question in the comments section below by 13 July 6pm GMT.

Liquid Snake died in which Metal Gear Solid title:

a.    Metal Gear Solid 1

b.    Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

c.    Metal Gear 4: Guns of the Patriots

Snake? Snaaaaaake! Let’s hope you have better luck than Liquid.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for the PS Vita is finally upon us and Konami’s put together a rather snazzy release trailer.

While Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is absent, you still Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. If random snippets like MGS2 entering the Guinness Book of World Records for “Biggest Selling Stealth Game on the Playstation 2” don’t catch your fancy, then the gameplay will. Everything appears faithfully translated and bumped up in visual magnitude.

The trailer also helpfully outlines the various new Touch features. How this will work in actual gameplay situations remains to be seen, but it appears quite easy and intuitive.

One of the more awesome features, though, is “Transfarring”. If you have a copy of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection for your Playstation 3, you can transfer your save files to the PS Vita (and vice versa) to continue where you left off. It’s the ultimate continuous play experience, though it’s limited to Sony consoles.

And if that’s not enough, you can also play the original MSX versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, along with all 5 Snake’s Tales missions from MGS2: Subsistence.

For more information, visit the official site.

This walkthrough is 9-min long, and features some solid gameplay. It also runs pretty well and seems to be locked at 30 fps. The collection will include two games, namely, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3.

There’s no mention of Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker, which is a bit weird but as long as it is made properly for the Vita, it’s fine.

Check it out and tell us what you think in the comments section below.