C’mon, Koj. Make this the happiest first week of March that’s ever been. Yes, Konami recently set the internet ablaze with a cryptic countdown on its official Japanese site teasing a big old Metal Gear Solid 5 announcement for Wednesday, to coincide with this year's GDC. A little Seiko timer and an icon for the Phantom Cigar (that cutely fast forwards the clock) frame this enigmatic upcoming MGS reveal. Is Hideo finally going to unveil the open-world sneak ‘em up’s release date? Or will Konami announce a urine-soaked Otacon skin as a pre-order bonus? Yeah, it’s more likely to be the former.
Kojima Productions has long been aiming for a 2015 release for The Phantom Pain and the announcement later this week will hopefully cement the exact date. It’s been close to seven years since Old Snake snuck his arthritic keester into the sunset in MGS 4 and there’s only so many times we can replay Ground Zeroes’ Extra Ops to tide us over for the next proper canonical entry in Big Boss’ saga.
In other oh so slithering news, Kojima has been using his Twitter timeline to post something other than delicious pictures of ramen for a change. To commemorate the original Metal Gear Solid’s 16th anniversary in Europe, the visionary game director has been sharing his favourite memories of his sneaky series.
He recounts being filmed for a super brief cameo during the Psycho Mantis fight (remember his cackling picture frame?), Decoy Octopus never actually being a boss battle, and Metal Gear Solid 2’s thoroughly crackers Codec messages, which besiege Raiden deep within Arsenal Gear.
To top off this delicious MGS meringue, Kojima has also posted an image of his own personal Mother Base from The Phantom Pain. Plenty of customisation options have been teased for the legendary offshore military base and it looks like Koj has used these tinkering tools to paint Big Boss’ heavily armoured home in a quite delightful shade of pink. Oh Hideo, what won’t you do?
Keep checking back on GR+ for all the latest MGS 5 news, including Wednesday’s (hopefully megaton) announcement.
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