Then at E3 this year we were giving much more than a glimpse behind the vale and from what we’ve seen there is a whole lot to be excited for. There are more than just a few new things for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain as the series has undergone the biggest change we’ve seen since it came to the Sony PlayStation way back in 1998. With a new open world, voice actor and setting, the Metal Gear series won’t ever be the same again.

Episodic Narrative:

Hideo Kojima has described the latest installment of the Metal Gear series as a game that plays like a TV show, saying that the past titles played more like a movie and that the players were just along for the ride. He hopes that the new format will give players more freedom.

This change in the narratives direction gives the Kojima production team a bit more flexibility from section to section of the game. Metal Gear Solid 4 did feel like it was going in this direction, with major sections of the game disconnected from one another as the plot lead it along, but the game still had that cinematic, movie feel to it.

Kojima mentioned about these different segments which is Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, saying that they are both a part of Metal Gear Solid 5. However Ground Zeroes is a prologue that leads up to The Phantom Pain, which should be considered the “main” story of the game.

Missions:

The Metal Gear series has historically revolved around completing missions and objectives in order to succeed, leaving very little choice in how each is completed. While the player was relatively free to explore their environments, they were still stuck completing objectives in the same order to move the story forward each time they played the game. While you may find a few different items or weapons from previous playthroughs you may have missed, the story is still going to essentially be the same each time.

Kojima has said that this open-world format for MGS5 changes all that. Citing the Grand Theft Auto titles as some of his inspiration, we will now be able to do missions in just about any order we so choose. Whether the order of those missions alters the narrative of the game has yet to be mentioned, but with all this new talk about freedom, why would we not have those choices affect the story? Kojima and Konami have never been one to tell a shallow story in any of the MGS titles, and this would allow them to tell a much more complex and personal story.

Day and Night Cycle:

Other games have done this before, but it’s new to the Metal Gear series. Kojima has said that the day and night cycles will differ when moving through areas and travel time between those areas does affect what time of day it is when you get to another area of the game.

While it has not been confirmed, these day and night cycles probably require to player to use different stealth tactics. It may be easier to avoid detection at night, while visibility during the day is much better, but you’re more easily spotted, causing the player to move slower for instance. Compensating for travel time is just a nice, extra touch that helps the world feel more real.

Kiefer Sutherland, an actor in Hollywood films such as Melancholia, Phone Booth and Mirrors but most famous for TV roles such as Jack Bauer of 24 and The Touch, will be the new voice actor for Snake. Sutherland has experience voice acting for video games having voiced characters in Call of Duty: World at War, but this would obviously be a big step up for anyone.

Surprised? Former voice actor David Hayter seemed to anticipate a sort of backlash to the decision, and even posted on Twitter “Look, I tried to warn you..” and “Ah well, can’t fault @RealKiefer. Great actor, good man. The game will probably still be excellent. Like New Coke!”

Given the almost instantaneous nature of his reaction and the fact that it IS Kojima, we’re inclined to disbelieve just about anything right now. As for Metal Gear Solid V, no new gameplay trailer was showcased so we’ll need to wait till E3 itself for more details.

However, even if this is true, what are your thoughts on Sutherland as Snake?

Later, it was revealed that Hayter would in fact not be returning to voice Solid Snake/Big Boss, and that the decision rested with Kojima.

Now, he’s stated that, if it were his choice, “he would do this role forever. To hear anyone else’s voice coming from Snake’s battered throat, makes me a little ill, to be honest.

“But the truth is – it’s not my choice. Any and all casting decisions are the sole purview of Hideo Kojima, and Konami itself. And that’s fair. And I’ll get by. I am not lacking for employment on any level.

“But I didn’t want anybody to think that I was intentionally abandoning them. And know that I will miss this job, and this character, very much.”

So why is it conspicuous? Well, because VOs don’t usually make this kind of commotion when it comes to their roles. That he posted this on April Fool’s Day and explicitly mentioned the date at the end of the post is enough of an indication. He may not return as Snake, but Hayter may not necessarily be gone.

Stay tuned for more details.

However, at least the release window for Metal Gear Solid V will be slightly less complicated. Analyst David Gibson recently tweeted that The Phantom Pain would not be available until the fiscal year ending March 2015. He also says that the prologue will launch in the fiscal year ending March 2014 to “keep interest going.”

If they are indeed two separate games, then it would make sense. However, it’s not sure whether this is from Konami or just Gibson projecting his own analysis. Also, with no confirmation on which game arrives on next gen consoles – though The Phantom Pain will be on Xbox 360 and PS3 – this situation just gets curiouser and curiouser.

Well, after Siliconera got in touch Konami’s Director of Public Relations Jay Boor, he stated that they were two separate games. “Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain are two separate games. GZ will be a prologue to The Phantom Pain.”

Naturally, this would be a little conspicuous given how none other than Kojima himself said they would be the same game. Later, when pressed for a response, Boor stated that, “Can’t comment on the SKUs unfortuantely [sic]. TPP is definitely 360 and PS3 though.”

Finally he was asked if both games were part of the same package or even the same disc. Boor replied, “Can’t confirm at this time”.

So there you go – Kojima’s trolling includes Konami employees as well. Stay tuned for more info, especially on whether the game(s) will arrive on next-gen consoles.

At GDC this week, Kojima has finally stopped beating around the bush and revealed that Ground Zeros and The Phantom Pain coalesce to form Metal Gear Solid V. Rumors around the connection between The Phantom Pain and its connection with the Metal Gear Solid series have been swirling around ever since it debuted at the VGA’s, and now, the wraps are finally off. In an interview with Game Trailers, Hideo Kojima disclosed quite a lot of information regarding the newly announced title.

To start off, Kojima explained why all the ambiguity and the reason for using The Phantom Pain as a ruse.

“There are several reasons for this. One is that I think core fans, myself included in this, wanted to do something really interesting in the social space. You know I think it’s been kind-of dull lately and we wanted to do something to energize the community,” he explained. “The second reason for doing this is we wanted to evaluate the FOX Engine. So we wanted to put the game out without revealing that it was Metal Gear Solid and just see how well it would do just based on the visuals of the FOX Engine.”

Kojima admitted that they knew that fans would be quick on the heels of the mysterious link between Metal Gear Solid and The Phantom Pain right from day one, which they were. And that he was glad they did play along. As for the supposed CEO of Moby Dick Studios, the man interviewed by Geoff Keighley a few weeks back was in fact a real person. Kojima revealed that he himself wanted to be in the interview masqearading as like he did in the Game Trailers interview, but his busy preparations for GDC prevented him from doing so.

“We  knew from the beginning that it wouldn’t be a secret – we wanted fans to realize it. It was kind-of service to the fans saying, ‘Hey, here’s the inside joke. We know that you know what it is, but just play along with it.’ We’re happy that fans did realize what it was and did play along with it.”

From what we can dissect from the gameplay reveal trailer, it’s evident that a new voice actor for Snake and Big Boss is at the helm. David Hayter, the man who voiced Snake so far announced on twitter that he wasn’t even contacted regarding the project. Kojima also explained why he took this decision.

“I can say, yes, it will be a new person. I can’t say who it is yet. What we’re trying to accomplish here is recreate the Metal Gear series. It’s a new type of Metal Gear game, and we want to have this reflected in the voice actor as well” said Kojima.

Metal Gear Solid V will be taking some bold new turns for the franchise, by embracing a open world structure in favor of the more linear narrative driven gameplay of past entries which Kojima himself describes as “on-rail”. The biggest question lingering on everybody’s minds is whether Ground Zeros and The Phantom Pain will be two separate games released individually, or if they’ll both be sold as a single package. We’ve got to wait for a little longer to get our answers as Kojima couldn’t comment on how they’re going to distribute them just yet.

What he did reveal is that Ground Zeros is actually a prologue to The Phantom Pain and is set immediately after the events of Peace Walker. The Phantom Pain on the other hand is a much bigger game in terms of scope and length to Ground Zeros. It takes place nine years after the events of Ground Zeros. In fact, Kojima says that the purpose of Ground Zeros is to make players come to grip with the open world structure and new mechanics, so that they feel right at home with The Phantom Pain. We’ll be seeing old faces return as well as plenty of new characters.

There are still plenty of questions surrounding Metal Gear Solid V, and judging by the series track record, we’ll have the answers only when the game hits shelves. The game is currently only announced for the PS3 and Xbox 360, with no mention of a release on next gen platforms. Which is odd, as we’re sure that current gen consoles are not capable of reproducing the visuals which we saw in the debut gameplay, which by the way, was running on a PC.

Be sure to check out Game Trailers for the full interview, and feel free to let us know your thoughts on the game below.

Kojima Productions showcases how the FOX Engine matches up to real world environments and settings, revealing a process wherein a complex scan renders the image or person in excruciatingly realistic detail. Yes, on a close inspection and with a reference, you can tell it’s a game. But passing by or from far-off? Not quite.

The FOX Engine is Kojima Productions’ next generation graphics engine that will power the next Metal Gear Solid. Oddly enough, many assumed it would be meant for consoles like the PS4 and Xbox 720. However, so far, Hideo Kojima has only announced the Xbox 360 and PS3 as platforms for the game(s).

And then he said they’re actually two games instead of one. Never change, Kojima. Never change.

It’s easy at this point to think that Hideo Kojima has gone insane. The man was no stranger to hitting us upside the head with shock after shock, whether he chooses to mislead you totally (Metal Gear Solid 2), show you tons of insane happenings (Metal Gear Solid 3) or simply combine the two into a smorgasbord of mind-melting insanity (Metal Gear Solid 4). However, Metal Gear Solid V feels different.

As the continuation of a story that began with MGS 3, Portable Ops and Peace Walker. It’s a great approach, like another excellent addition in a masterwork, and hopefully MGSV won’t be the culmination of this so-called “Naked Snake saga”.

However, if the trailer proved anything, it’s that Kojima indeed knows what he’s doing. Essentially an auteur, the Metal Gear Solid creator has always believed in his vision shining through, no matter how insane or absurd or loaded down in exposition it becomes. The absurdity has become Shakespearean in some regards, and separates itself nicely from the hack-like nature of, say, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance’s story.

There are several times where the vision threatens to overwhelm the game – indeed, Metal Gear Solid 4 was criticized for many of its clunky control aspects, especially given the increased focus of shooting in the game. To that end, Metal Gear Solid V at least appears to have inculcated enough improvements. The open-world nature of the title, in which you can rely on various vehicles and move fluidly about even on foot, is only the tip of the iceberg. The potential it presents is immense – whether Kojima Productions can properly utilize remains to be seen.

Again, we haven’t seen much in the trailer. It’s hard to draw a bead on anything due to the sheer overpowering nature of the vision. Perhaps it was Kojima’s intention, to showcase these two diametrically opposite halves of MGS V fighting for control over the viewer’s interest while simultaneously not revealing too much about themselves. But the intriguing thing about MGS V that already puts it miles ahead of the so-called “next gen” games? Stuff is happening. Interesting stuff is happening. Nothing is typical or rote.

This isn’t the same MGS experience. Heck, name one tactical military title with a unicorn in it. For the ability to take risks and go places with the subject matter – and still deliver it convincingly – Kojima deserves praise.

And those are only the story elements; we still haven’t had a proper look at MGS V’s gameplay but dear lord, sign me up if it even partially indicates that I won’t just be running down some corridor, shooting some dudes, getting to some extraction point and suffering a horrific pre-scripted event I’ve experienced time and time again (okay, that was the beginning of the Phantom Pain portion’s escape from the hospital but still).

The maddening part? We could try faulting Kojima for his approach of just presenting bizarre elements, little snippets of his twisted vision, which he does again and again before finally sharing the finished product and challenging us to make sense of it all. But that’s the whole point: To get us talking about the game. To hype it up. To have us hungering for more details. And then the next trailer hits and the cycle repeats until release.

It’s a formula that’s been perfected by this point. Forget the smoke and mirrors of Moby Dick Studios, bandaged faces (which some media outlets proclaimed as CG and an “example of the FOX Engine’s power”) and the entire AR teases – it was all just a publicity stunt to keep us talking about the Phantom Pain in relation to Metal Gear Solid.

Perhaps the most baffling development is that MGS V isn’t announced for next-generation platforms. But you know what? You just can’t be sure of anything when Kojima is concerned. We’ll wait till the game is near release before hedging our bets, but at least the legendary designer has mercy in one respect: If indeed arriving on the Xbox 360 and PS3, at least we won’t have to shell out the moolah to experience his next masterpiece.

As if the rumors and speculation surrounding The Phantom Pain and its link with the Metal Gear series weren’t enough already, Kojima’s gone out of his way to throw more fuel at the fire. The man took to twitter to tease what he’s currently up to. The tweet reveals a pic which implies that he’s hard at work editing a trailer. Zoom in closer and you’ll find that the current name of the video is “TPP_GDC2013_720p_ESRB”. Hmmm, what could TPP possibly stand for? And what does it have to do with GDC 2013? Beats us, doesn’t ring a bell.

Kojima also tweeted that the concept of his new FOX engine is “photorealism”. Which just begs us to ask the question. Is Joakim Mogren, the CEO of Moby Dick Studios which is developing The Phantom Pain, just CG? It would be an incredible technical feat if that was the case, and should give us an indicating of what awaits us next-gen.

What can we say, Kojima loves to troll us. GDC is just around the corner and we’ll just have to hold on to our horses till then. Be sure to tune in on March 25th when GDC will open its gates, for all the news updates from the show floor. In the meantime, feel free to let us know what you think about the enigmatic tweets, rumors, and of course the game itself.

A new ARG video for The Phantom Pain was uploaded and while it didn’t contain much aside from an odd laboratory with lots of beeping (which may have been Morse Code or something, who knows), you can spot this little screen if you pay attention.

This can be seen in the initial reveal trailer for Kojima Productions’ Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. And that too, quite prominently.

A closer look at the still from the ARG video indicates that the Phantom Pain is a VR Program and that is for “treatment of neurological damage sustained in combat situations”, “treatment of combat related stress” and “enhancement of combat ability following impairment”.

Perhaps this has something to do with the boy seen in the initial trailer?