Solid Snake—voiced by a returning David Hayter—will be an Attacker, and will become available to pick in-game once the season—dubbed Operation Silent Hunt—kicks off next month. The character will be a permanent addition to the roster, and will be available in all of its game modes. A second video, showcasing Snake’s various abilities and weapons, gives us a look at what kind of threat he poses on the battlefield.

Solid Snake is armed with a TACIT .45 semi-automatic pistol with an integrated suppressor, the F2 assault rifle with a forearm grip, and the PMR90A2 designated marksman rifle. His main gadget is the Soliton Radar MKIII, which allows him to find nearby enemies and get the drop on them. Snake is also trained in on-site procurement, and can find utility pouches near fallen players. These pouches can be picked up to replenish grenade and gadget uses, extending Snake’s utility throughout a match.

Players might be worried about the Soliton Radar MKIII, since it offers an incredible level of tactical utility thanks to it being a mini-map in a shooter that typically doesn’t have one. However, one of its big drawbacks is that it can only show you the floor that you are currently on. Along with this, while the view is quite detailed in showing you breakable walls and floors, it isn’t as wide, only offering a glimpse into nearby rooms rather than the entire floor.

Year 11 Season 1 will also bring with it a new limited time event game mode, which pits players against each other in a 4v4 infiltration match. The mode revolves around Snake and Zero leading teams of operators to recover stolen data. Metal Gear fans will also be happy to learn that there are new skins for other characters, like Gray Fox for Jackal and Meryl for Ash.

“We’re excited to bring the world of Metal Gear Solid series into Rainbow Six Siege with Season 1’s new Redacted event, a limited‑time 4v4 infiltration mode where Snake and Zero lead a team of elite operators to recover stolen data. Players will also discover exclusive skins such as Jackal as Gray Fox and Ash as Meryl, and we’re thrilled to have David Hayter lend his iconic voice to Snake’s in‑game cues” said creative director Joshua Mills during the announcement. “The team also went a step further with ‘Last Assignment’, a new mission for Dual Front designed as a special nod to long‑time Metal Gear Solid series fans.”

Looking to the future, Year 11 will bring in more content. Season 2, for instance, will feature a remaster of Dokkaebi, changing the operator into a “high-pressure intel-denier Attacker”, complete with a new arsenal. The season will also bring the Calypso Casino as a new map from the classic Rainbow Six Vegas games. Season 3 will introduce a new Defender, along with a new long-term progression system dubbed Operator Mastery. Closing off the year, Season 4 will introduce the Social HUB where players can hang out together in-game.

Cut to a very familiar figure in a sneaking suit pulling out a silenced pistol amid, face obscured by red smoke. And if there’s any doubt, the video title literally says, “Solid Snake teaser.”

So there you have it – after decades, Sam Fisher and Solid Snake are finally going to be in a game together. It’s quite poetic, especially after Fisher was told, years ago, in Ghost Recon Wildlands, that the latter was out of the spy game.

Ubisoft will reveal more Solid Snake on February 15th when it showcases the roadmap for Year 11 at 8 AM PT. After a rather rough start to the year with hackers taking over and banning players for 67 days when they weren’t doling out tons of free currency, it’s quite the turnaround. Now let’s see if the next year of content can live up to the hype.

Rainbow Six Siege is available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and PC. It received a major overhaul and rebranding called Siege X last year.

We’re talking about the Fox engine, made with the ambition of being the best engine in the world, and coming pretty close to that goal. But things have been quiet for this fine addition to modern gaming in the years since. With Konami choosing Unreal for development on its current projects, what has happened to the Fox Engine?

Was it a bad move for Konami to abandon one of its best performers? Did the Fox Engine really fall out of favor, or were there more practical concerns at play? Join us as we take a look at a story whose ending could have, and perhaps should have, been a lot happier.

Built With Ambition

The Fox Engine’s lifespan is a showcase of how ambitious Konami was in the years after Metal Gear Solid IV. In an effort to make development across platforms faster and more seamless, Kojima and his team began working on it, intending to use it to reduce the studio’s single-platform dependence while also achieving better visual fidelity and performance in the bargain.

The Fox Engine always had its work cut out for it. But its early previews, where Kojima was clever enough to divest it from the then-upcoming MGSV, showed that it was achieving a favorable response, a sort of affirmation of its capabilities. Even the demo of the engine showcased at E3 2011 was noteworthy for its effectiveness at presenting an immersive take on Metal Gear’s jungle environments.

Of course, an engine built with the vision to be the best one in the world was not going to restrict itself to a single title of franchise. The Fox Engine, despite being named after a significant presence in Metal Gear Solid, would first make an appearance in the 2014 iteration of Pro Evo Soccer.

It also came at a time when proprietary engines seemed to be quite popular with studios, with MT Framework and Luminous engines putting up quite a good fight. The Fox engine was Konami’s way of levelling the playing field, a tool that would allow it to compete with the industry’s best, and perhaps even inch ahead of them in the process. It wasn’t just about MGSV. It was about a whole other bunch of projects that would follow it.

As expected, it did perform as it was intended to. It not only ran well on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC with performance at 60fps and excellent visual parity, but it also delivered excellent results on the awfully underpowered PS3 and Xbox 360. It brought almost photorealistic graphics to the table, with gamers even challenged to identify between two images of a staff room at Konami, one of them having been rendered by the engine.

It could also render huge outdoor spaces with aplomb, and bring excellent lighting options to the table in addition to facilitating dynamic weather and day/night systems. Stealth mechanics were also handled quite well, making it a very versatile presence in the gaming industry at the time. It also made things easy for developers, showcasing its utility across the supply chain of a video game’s life. It proved itself quite well, earning its reputation after stellar showings with the PES and Metal Gear franchises.

Heck, there were even plans to make the engine accessible to a wide range of individuals, something that MGS5 modders would have deeply appreciated. But of course, things never really went according to plan, and it’s now time to sail into melancholy waters as the Fox Engine’s descent into obscurity begins here.

The Price of Dreams

The Fox engine was built as the result of a dream to create the world’s best gaming engine. But dreams like that come with a hefty price tag. An engine that performed as well as it did required huge initial investments into R&D, while maintaining the engine and sustaining its utility in an ever-changing landscape of gaming hardware would require constant upkeep, along with the manpower required for the job.

Add in new consoles and the possibility of other studios working with the engine and potentially requiring support on it, and you begin to see just how staggeringly expensive it could be to maintain a proprietary engine and keep it relevant enough to be profitable in modern gaming. However, with Kojima Productions at its side, Konami might have been able to stand by its own creation and perhaps even see it achieve true greatness over the years.

But the studio’s well-documented differences with Kojima would see the director and a lot of his former team at Kojima Productions make an exit from the company. It’s here that the Fox engine hit its first hurdle, as a lot of the staff who had now left the company were the ones with the expertise for its upkeep. In their absence, ensuring it remained viable would have been quite an expensive affair for Konami.

While things weren’t as bad in the short term, as the exit of folks who understand an engine doesn’t necessarily mean it immediately loses ground, the dissolution of the Kojima Productions team was the first domino to fall for the Fox engine. Its role in the immediate aftermath of Kojima’s exit is a showcase of that drop in momentum, as it would go on to power almost seven years of Pro Evolution Soccer titles with little to nothing else on its plate.

While that does not diminish the prestige that comes with being the life force behind a franchise like PES, it does show how the focus of an engine that was once meant to power a multitude of projects has now been narrowed down, signalled for the tech. But shouldn’t the results it managed from that franchise have been a catalyst for its update to work with current-gen machines? It did give PES some excellent lookers over the years, along with facilitating derivative tech like Fluidity, which was a great indicator that it could handle animation-heavy sport titles alongside stealth-action ones. The engine was certainly versatile and would have been a valuable tool in Konami’s arsenal had the studio chosen to stick with it.

Alas, that wasn’t where this story goes. But why would a studio choose to leave something it invested so much into behind? Did the fallout with Kojima Productions leave a bad taste in Konami’s mouth? Or was it perhaps something more banal?

Unreal Numbers

There are two important titles that answer this question, both of which use Unreal instead of Fox to power the experiences they offer. The first one is eFootball 2022, which not only swapped out Fox in favor of Unreal during its development, but was a reboot of the PES franchise. That was always going to be a scary bet, and it’s a significant one because it showcased how the Fox engine had certainly fallen out of favor at this point.

But is that the engine’s fault? It was solid tech that churned out reliable results. So why would Konami make such a big bet on Unreal? That’s easy. It was just easier to build out a new experience on the Unreal engine instead of attempting to usher Fox into the current-gen era. The latter would require hiring new experts to work on ageing internal tech, while the former would likely bring talent already familiar with it to the table.

And yet, Konami’s teams were made to work with new tech and a new live-service model on top of a new animation system. The burden of high expectations and the need to craft for the current generation of consoles drove Konami to switch away from an engine that had delivered consistent, reliable results. The results were a title with sloppy animations, horrendous facial models, and bugs, which resulted in the reboot getting a lot of backlash.

It’s rather ironic that the switch to a “modern” engine brought those problems along. But it was a fall Konami had to take, and the studio has since lived and learned from the experience. The second title that’s important is Konami’s Unreal-powered remake of Snake Eater, an experience that brings a second irony to light.

The franchise that birthed the Fox engine has now moved to Unreal and even managed to be a great experience overall. The visual polish was welcome, but the quality of life changes that Konami implemented ushered the game into a modern avatar that’s going to see it continue to be one of modern gaming’s finest titles and a feather in Kojima and his team’s cap, even as his journey has taken him in another direction.

The Fox engine was the last ember of a once-flourishing relationship, and might have been behind some great next-gen experiences like a spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid, more crisp sports titles, and perhaps even a Silent Hill title fully realized with its extensive skill set. It’s a great example of incredible tech simply pushed into obscurity by more cost-effective and convenient options.

The Fox engine didn’t lose to spite or negative emotions stemming from the circumstances of its creator’s departure from Konami. It simply fell victim to entropy, unable to withstand the test of time in an ever-evolving industry. Unfortunately, it’s now collecting dust, and with its use case more or less finished, Konami can make it open source. Perhaps I am dreaming?

But it does live on in its own way, with Kojima Productions moving on, and with Guerrilla Games, the Decima engine is now carrying the torch for what a very talented team of individuals can achieve when they work towards a daring dream. The engine that started it all will remain a fond memory and a testament to true talent.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

It features questions across various topics, but the one that sticks out the most is which games in the Metal Gear series fans would like to see remade next. Almost everything is included, from the original Metal Gear titles to Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain. Even Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which is playable only on PS3, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker are fair game.

It’s not surprising to see Konami considering future remakes. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater sold over one million copies on its first day and received extensive critical acclaim. Regardless of what fans vote for, however, an announcement may take a while, so stay tuned and check out our review.

One of the big defining factors of Metal Gear Solid’s unique identity is the hardware it was relegated to. There’s a certain atmosphere from early 3D games that gets lost in the sauce with modern rendering techniques. One can almost feel the cold, desolate winds of the island. The entire experience retains that cold bluish filter throughout with the exception of the green-tinted codec calls. While the falling snow around Snake isn’t exactly groundbreaking today, the unpredictable trajectory of the flakes combined with the light mist and fog really set a mood of isolation and tension. This pensive and cold visual style is punctuated by the moody musical score, even if occasional comedic alert stings contrast that in a quintessentially Kojima way.

Another aspect of MGS1 that isn’t likely to be replicated today is its fusion of retro and innovation with regard to gameplay. Like the original Metal Gear titles from the ’80s, MGS1 is largely played from a top-down perspective. It’s a perspective exceptionally common in older arcade titles for its simplistic 2D routing and rendering, but it was quickly becoming outdated by the time MGS1 released. Metal Gear Solid dynamically fuses both the top-down view and breakthrough cinematic framing in a uniquely  unprecedented way.incredibly unique. The overhead camera resulted in more precise and capable stealth routing than an over-the-shoulder perspective could. This allocation of traditional perspective to gameplay and the newly developed 3D shoulder perspective to cinematics set a standard in story/gameplay framing. After MGS1, games started adopting more dynamic cameras that shifted based on story rather than sticking to just one perspective throughout.

This simple top-down camera angle allowed MGS1’s iconic stealth mechanics to flourish and thrive. First, there’s the iconic audio/visual indicators. The alert sting and accompanying exclamation mark have permeated pop culture just like Snake’s oh-so-clever box disguise became meme-worthy. These are all examples of super punchy and memorable feedback processes indicating an aspect of stealth gameplay. Just as the top-down camera allows ultra-precise radar-driven level design, so too do the various indicators and UX flourishes provide distinct and clear feedback of what’s happening to the player. Many modern games trip over themselves trying to come up with ultra-realistic stealth vision cones and sound mechanics. The sheer level of environmental detail in today’s games tends to obfuscate what matters most in stealth games: knowing what gets you caught. Metal Gear Solid’s simple and clean top-down layout and alert indicators are as much a breath of fresh air now as they were then. Players know immediately when they’re in the line of sight of an opponent, and it’s just as clear where to go to hide. No clunky textures getting in the way or even PS1-era fog effects to contend with. MGS1 is ultra clean and distinct. While indie games today love emulating retro visuals and mechanics, it’s unlikely we’ll ever get another AAA stealth game as punchy and precise as MGS1.

Nothing demonstrates the brilliant marriage of atmosphere and punchy mechanics better than MGS1’s boss fights. The Sniper Wolf encounter is a prime example. The industrial battlefield exposes Snake directly to the sniper’s line of sight. As a player, you’re tasked with navigating through the trenches, hiding from her rifle shots from above. It’s a tense feeling of being totally outmatched and utterly vulnerable—a theme that persists through other fights as well. A codec call from Otacon hints at the location of a sniper rifle that can greatly assist with the two Sniper Wolf showdowns, but most first-time attempts aren’t so privileged.

The tremendous scale of the hangar where players fight Vulcan Raven also emphasizes this feeling of vulnerability. Snake is like a tiny speck compared to Raven’s hulking mass and giant Gatling autocannon. It’s really only with the help of the convenient radar and minimap that Snake gets the better of him in the end. The shipping container pillars provide a fun and engaging environment to sneak up on Raven and maneuver around his shots.

And of course, how can a Metal Gear Solid retrospective be complete without the mention of Psycho Mantis? This boss fight became the de facto example of fourth-wall-breaking design in games for decades. It’s a psychological fight more than a reflex-dependent one. And it’s a fight that forced the player to think outside the normal rules of video game logic. What other boss in history was overcome by changing controller ports on the system console? Psycho Mantis even forms a kind of personal connection to the gamer with the memory card reading. This psychic trickery perfectly demonstrates the kind of gameplay/story integration Kojima has been so well regarded for.

Not that the quality of the story relied solely on gimmicks and tricks to impress. One glance at the voice talent confirms that. Without hyperbole, Metal Gear Solid gave us the best voice acting of the PS1 era, and it’s not even close. I love the cheesy voices in games like Mega Man 8, of course, but MGS1 supplied cinema-quality presentation that was simply unheard of in that era. And today, without David Hayter as Solid Snake, there’s nothing else that can replicate the voice cast from early Metal Gear Solid games, especially the first one. Much of the dialogue occurs within the context of the codec calls. Important exposition and mission details are handled through in-universe codec calls rather than some menu tab or text summary. What’s more, the codec was diegetic to the game world; it helped establish character development and context without breaking the immersion of the setting with extra menu clicks.

The plot itself was something of a rarity at the time. It took mature themes like nuclear war and genetic fatalism and didn’t reduce them to an arcadey, simplistic thriller. The themes of Metal Gear Solid are explored in depth throughout the series and sometimes expounded upon in lengthy diatribes by the characters. Many essays have been written on the themes of MGS—suffice it to say Kojima’s iconic stealth series helped catapult storytelling in gaming to new heights.

But nothing can quite capture that very peculiar and iconic atmosphere that the original PS1 Metal Gear Solid did. Even The Twin Snakes remake eliminated some of the old-school charm with its cleaned-up visuals and ramped-up action. The classic minimalistic tension of the PS1 original was lost in translation, if just a bit. I mean, Snake backflipping off missiles was admittedly rad, but admit it—some of that cold, isolationist grit was lost. As such, the original Metal Gear Solid remains a unique gem of the PS1 era, one that cannot easily be replicated or captured.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Mass Effect 2

The opening of Mass Effect 2 is as climactic as most other games’ endings. This sequel begins with the player controlling a limping Commander Shepard crawling through the carnage and destruction of an all-too familiar locale from the first game; the Normandy ship. What follows is a complete breakdown of everything we built up in the first game. What’s more, Shepard has to work with a mysterious group, Cerberus, to get back what was lost and fight the Reaper threat. Mass Effect 2 feels like The Empire Strikes Back of video games with how high the stakes have been raised and how dire things have gotten.

Inside

Combining atmospheric story-telling with clever puzzles, a stark aesthetic, and impeccable pacing, Playdead’s Inside presented one of the best side-scrolling adventure titles of all time. It’s saying something when a title of this caliber launched more than eight years ago, and nothing else in the genre has come close to matching up.

Given the long gap between major Metal Gear releases, there is no doubt that the newer generation of players might not be too familiar with (or even aware about) the classic stealth series, especially with there being so few AAA stealth games being released nowadays. As such, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater carries the enormous responsibility of ensuring that it not only brings new players into the series, but also keeps Metal Gear’s legacy alive. Metal Gear series producer Noriaki Okamura also believes the same.

Speaking in an interview with Play magazine (Issue 46, via GamesRadar), Okamura revealed that one of the aims behind the upcoming remake is to ensure that the series reaches new audiences.

“One of the things that really sparked us to do the remake in general is because we realised that a lot of the newer, younger generation of gamers aren’t familiar with the Metal Gear series anymore”, Okamura stated. “It was basically our mission, our duty, to kind of continue making sure that the series lives on for future generations. After all, we leave behind much more than just DNA, as Solid Snake would say—but again, who is Solid Snake?”

Judging by Okamura statements, it seems clear that Konami intends to support the series for a long time. Whether it will take the form of remakes or new releases is something that remains to seen. In the past, Okamura has spoken about the viability of developing remakes of Metal Gear 1 (1987), Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990), and Metal Gear Solid (1998), but at the same time also acknowledged the challenges that may come along with undertaking such projects. He also expressed an interest in working with Hideo Kojima on Metal Gear, but said he understands that it may not be possible given people’s changing commitments.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is set to release the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. As per Sony, it was supposed to release this year, but that is looking more and more unlikely. Given that the game’s development is more or less finished and it is likely undergoing polishing at the moment, a release for next year seems likely.

Whatever the case, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is looking like a faithful remake, but one that will also include a number of quality-of-life improvements, which should hopefully quench the thirst of long-time fans. Whether it will be a critical and commercial success remains to be seen, but a lot seems to be riding on it. Let’s hope it delivers.

For more on the game, check out our recent video about five new details about it below.

As per Konami, as of the end of September, the Metal Gear series has collectively sold 62.1 million units. As of August last year, the series’ sales stood at 60 million units, which means it has sold an additional 2.1 million units since then. One would assume that the majority of those sales were for Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, which launched in October last year.

Metal Gear fans also have upcoming MGS3 remake Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, which is in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, but doesn’t yet have a release date. Additionally, Konami also seems to have plans for a second Master Collection. Read more on that through here.

As it turns out, it seems the actor may be stepping into the Big Boss boots again, though it’s unknown to what extent exactly. Taking to Twitter, Hayter teased that he recently recorded new lines for a role that he hasn’t played in a long time, before attaching a Big Boss / Naked Snake gif from Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater in a follow-up tweet. 

Fans of the series will obviously be excited at the prospect of David Hayter returning to the role of Big Boss, but it remains to be seen exactly what his tweets are referring to, from a new game to another remake to perhaps something else entirely- like promotional material for the upcoming MGS3 remake, perhaps. 

Either way, it does look like the Metal Gear franchise is building momentum again, with Konami also thinking about the series’ future and additional potential remakes down the line. Read more on that through here.