Open-world Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes revealed

In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the Metal Gear series, Kojima Productions and Konami announced the first open world game in the franchise, the Fox Engine-driven Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.

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In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the Metal Gear series, Kojima Productions and Konami announced the first open-world game in the franchise, the Fox engine-driven Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, which attempts to take the series beyond its traditional stealth roots.

Dubbed as a Game without Game Over, the concept is that even if Snake is discovered, there are plenty of options for the hero to get out alive, evolving the series to be more than just a sneak fest. The demo showed Snake (no prefix) sneaking and killing on a huge military base, then driving a jeep and calling for a helicopter to pick him up, Kotaku said.

The new Fox engine, which apparently did a superb job with atmospheric effects such as rain, lighting and shadows, was running on a PC with series creator Hideo Kojima using an Xbox 360 controller for the action. According to GameSpot, Kojima said the engine is designed for next gen consoles, but the game has been designed with Xbox 360 and PS3 in mind. No platforms or release date were officially announced.

Konami also announced the first social game in the series, Metal Gear Social Ops, developed by Gree using the Unity engine. According to Andriasang, players will be able to "relive the stories" of their past Metal Gear exploits using cards for battle. The game is expected to be released later this year.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 30, 2012 7:30 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Open-world Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes revealed.

    In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the Metal Gear series, Kojima Productions and Konami announced the first open world game in the franchise, the Fox Engine-driven Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.

    • reply
      August 30, 2012 8:24 AM

      Throughout the course of my gaming life I've tried to get excited about these games, but I cant seem to connect with them. I don't understand the story (hell I tried paying someone to tell me and they didn't even know and they worked at Konami) Wiki's are pointless, game mechanics haven't changed much since the part 2 which I thought was a very good game.

      I don't know, I have part 4 and I played a few hours and never picked it up again and from what I hear I was spared the FMV hell that follows to the end. In any case.

      I don't hate these games, but I just think they are stuck in some kind of weird design paradox. They need fluidity, better shooting mechanics, cover system, stealth options...I dunno.

      In either case, its nice to see they are trying something different.

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        August 30, 2012 8:29 AM

        I love them precisely because they're so weird and because they've changed so little since I played the first Metal Gear Solid on Playstation in middle school. MGS is like comfort food. I don't expect someone coming to the series for the first time at numbers 2, 3, or 4 to enjoy them the same way. That's a failure of a sort, but I'm glad the games haven't lost that Kojima twist.

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        August 30, 2012 9:06 AM

        What do you find confusing about the story?

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          August 30, 2012 9:29 AM

          At one point I had all the information printed in front of me, the DVD movie running, the wiki's on my laptop and several obscure interviews by Kojima talking about inside knowledge about the series since its inception and I couldn't make heads or tales about this story. Solid Snake, Big Boss, Pre-Russia wars. Kojima has "games" in his mind that he has never put to silicone however he considers it to be cannon, he then creates a real game based on ideas that gamers never played. The universe itself is an enigma. I have no real idea why I'm doing what I'm doing other than moving forward for the games sake.
          I like Kojima as person, I think he is an accessible human being. I loved the work he did in Castlveania LoS and how he can be down to Earth and have fun with even some independent projects...

          But this is nuts.
          Like I said, I tried even paying some folks I thought where in a good place to explain this thing from soup to nuts and they couldn't. No one knows the whole story, but Kojima.

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          August 30, 2012 9:45 AM

          to be fair, MGS2 is fucking nuts. MGS1 was so cohesive and well put together, and then MGS2 comes along and its like holy fucking shit Kojma-san, are you on acid??

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        August 30, 2012 9:42 AM

        Your "design paradox" statement makes me think these games simply aren't for you. Nothing wrong with that.

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        August 30, 2012 9:44 AM

        the story only got confusing with MGS2. there is no point trying to decipher it.

        fortunately, if you just skip all the happenings in MGS2 except for "raiden is a younger gayer version of solid snake" and "snake and otacon are bros now" and "the patriots are evil and are the government of everything and secret" you can just ignore the utter madness beyond that. i tell you, it took me awhile to grasp MGS2 and i played all these games to death.

        MGS3 in fact, you can play and understand without any of the other games, because its pretty far seperated and the parts that connect with the wider series are pretty obvious, and will be understood if you can grasp the storyline of MGS1, and the basic plot of MGS2.

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      August 30, 2012 8:25 AM

      I wonder what platforms this will be on, PC would be cool.

      And I worry when someone says the engine is meant for next gen, but the game will be current gen? Are we going to get two different versions then?

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