Fragile Jump – Death Stranding

In Death Stranding, fast travel is made possible by teleportation which isn’t all that odd (it’s the future, after all). However, teleporting is done via an umbrella owned by Fragile. Following some events in Chapter 3, Sam unlocks the ability to fast travel to safe houses by simply looking at the wall where the umbrella hangs and hitting the prompt. Fragile will then jump in with her umbrella, she and Sam will touch heads and off you go. That this isn’t even remotely the weirdest thing in Death Stranding is an understatement.

Hideo Kojima, as you’re very much aware, is famous for his bizarre game plots and complex explanations for simple things. With that in mind, it’s surprising to find that some retailers, which include the Microsoft Store and Rakuten have the game listed as being available at retail on February 24th 2015, despite the fact that Kojima hasn’t made any announcements regarding the games official release date.

He has, however, in the past confirmed a 2015 release date. The image above was posted by a Redditor with the following message, “I work at a popular retail store as their inventory manager. I always check to see if the date changes periodically and it was always 12/31/2014. Today it switched and i think I cracked the code.”

Though it’s entirely possible that the date, which is a Tuesday, is just a place holder and that it holds no weight. But it wouldn’t be unlike Kojima to make a surprise announcement, just to keep you on your toes. Naturally, take all of this with a huge heaping handful of salt. Further more, following the release of Ground Zeroes, The Phantom Pain is on Steam as “Coming Soon”.

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The PC version of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is finally almost here, and if you were curious about the game’s pricing- remember, Ground Zeroes’ original pricing on the consoles back when it released on them earlier this year was a fair bit controversial, and caused quite a stir, at least to begin with- then rest assured, it seems like it will be reasonably priced.

Kojima and Konami have announced that the PC version of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes will cost only $20. For a game that technically can be ‘completed’ in forty minutes, that might still look like a lot, but Ground Zeroes is exemplarily well made, plays excellently, and actually has a lot if replay value.

In addition to this, multiple benefits were also revealed for the upcoming Phantom Pain:

When you play Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes on PC, there are a variety of benefits that will transfer over to the PC version of The Phantom Pain as well- these include the Mother Base Staff, where if  you rescue prisoners or unique characters in Ground Zeroes, you can use them as Mother Base staff. In addition, the costume Snake wears in MGSV:GZ will be available in MGSV:TPP.

Sounds like a good way to encourage PC players to continue playing on PC.

Konami saying MGS5 release timing will depend on how Ground Zeroes goes first combined with next generation, then decide if 2014 or 2015

— David Gibson (@gibbogame) November 7, 2013

When the Ground Zeroes was first revealed, it was thought that it would be the next MGS game. However, The Phantom Pain soon came along, which led to Hideo Kojima stating that Ground Zeroes was a prologue while The Phantom Pain, the bulk of the game, was an epilogue. There was still belief that both were part of the same game, despite conflicting reports and lack of information since then.

However, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes will be releasing early next year for both current and next-gen consoles with the aim of introducing players to the series’ new open world elements before The Phantom Pain releases. Does it really help to fast-track the release of the latter if the former does well? Just how far in development is The Phantom Pain? We’ll find out in the coming months it seems.