Remember when a Kojima Productions podcaster said that what Hideo Kojima had planned for the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary event would be "shake" the industry? Well, as it turns out, he wasn't lying!
No, he wasn't referring to the Metal Gear movie, or the Metal Gear social game or clothing line. What they were saving for last was none other than a reveal of the mysterious FOX engine and a new Metal Gear game!
To cap the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary event, Hideo Kojima did a behind-closed-doors unveiling of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. Sadly, no filming of any sort was allowed, so we have to take most of the info we have from secondhand sources.
While info regarding what was shown is still under embargo, that hasn't stopped a few people attending from tweeting what they saw…and they were all very impressed.
Here's what Mark MacDonald, executive director of 8-4, had to say:
Holy. Fucking. Shit. #mgs25 #!
Demo of "Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes", started w cutscene (all realtime), went into gameplay, open world, night, raining, base. AMAZING
Snake crawled @ avoiding searchlights, killed guard, rode jeep, called in heli for evac. Sounds like MG, but the scale & atmosphere… Wow.
Aside from MacDonald, fellow 8-4 colleague and former EGM alum John Ricciardi also tweeted this exclamation of excitement (has since been removed):
Well other ppl talking about it so…next MG shown, and it looks F'ing HOT. Metal Gear: Ground Zeroes #foxengine #mgs25 #openworld #want
If that wasn't enough to make you feell a bit tingly, maybe the game's first-ever screenshot will! (courtesy of Konami Japan)
Looks quite sexy, no? But we're not done yet. Famitsu has also revealed a few details regarding the game and it makes that image you see above seem even more impressive (courtesy of NeoGAF and Andriasang).
– Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is not a normal tech demo, but they're showing actual development from their current open-world sneaking game,
– Apparently, the script has lines about "soldiers who cannot return home," "Paz," and "Mother Base." These are all references to Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.
– Kojima Productions is definitely targeting PS3/360 for this game, but the FOX engine can also make next-gen games.
– Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is an open-world game.
– The event had a FOX Engine demo running in real-time.
Lastly, before I leave you to catch your jaw off the floor, here;s another image of Snake in Ground Zeroes (courtesy of Twitter user @iceblockwill):
In a rather ingenious move by Kojima, the first official image — while no doubt is impressive — leaves us with a lot of questions than answers. Is this Solid Snake or Big Boss? Is that a patch running over his head or just the goggle straps? Is this really slated for current-gen hardware?
Hopefully, these questions and a lot more will be answered at the Tokyo Game Show or when Hideo Kojima decides to talk about it next. Come to think of it, Kojima releasing this much-ballyhooed trailer would ease a lot of the anxiety due to the lack of official info.
So, now that you've seen the first in-game screenshot from Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, are you impressed? Was KojiPro right in saying that the industry will be "shaken" from what they just showed?
I don't know about you, but I honestly can't wait to see the trailer for myself and speculate if the PS3 or Xbox 360 can even manage to run this beast.
