Metal Gear secrets revealed

While the 15-minute trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4 revealed a lot about the characters and settings of Solid Snake's (allegedly) final adventure, there's a lot that's still shrouded in secrecy. But in the August issue of our sister magazine PSM (available now to subscribers), series creator Hideo Kojima pulls back the curtain just a little to reveal a few more juicy details.

"There are many events that have occurred between [Metal Gear Solid 2] and MGS4; lots of small stories" Kojima said in the four-page interview. "It will be very difficult to work all of them into MGS4; some may only be explained in just a couple of lines of dialogue." One of these stories may or may not explain why former pretty-boy Raiden now wears a cybernetic ninja suit, but Kojima does cough up one surprising detail: "Raiden's blood isn't real. … It's white, actually, and artificial - which is why his face is so pale."

Kojima also discusses at length how Snake's new, chameleon-like Octo-Cam camouflage system will work, and reveals that much of the hiding this time will be done in plain sight. Additionally, he said, players will be able to use other types of camouflage, including enemy outfits and face paint.

For more revelations about the characters, combat and setting of Metal Gear Solid 4 (as well as a few new details on Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops for the PSP), check out the full interview when it hits newsstands on July 4.

June 27, 2006

Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.