After creating Metal Gear Solid, founding his own studio to develop Death Stranding and becoming best pals with most of Hollywood, Hideo Kojima’s next big ambition is apparently to be blasted into space to make a game.
]]>Hideo Kojima continues to tease his next project. This time it's with a new image showing actress Shioli Kutsuna with the words "Where am I?" written over it. It comes a month after a previous tease which confirmed the actress Elle Fanning was involved.
]]>In a bizarre turn of events, development studio Kojima Productions has threatened to sue people making suggestions online that their founder Hideo Kojima was involved in the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. Abe was shot dead on Friday. Online commenters making some very bad-taste jokes about the identity of the shooter led to a Greek media outlet and French politician misidentifying him as Kojima.
]]>Rumours spread this past week that Hideo Kojima's next would be called Overdose, and a return to the horror genre. Well, Kojima appeared during tonight's Microsoft conference and confirmed: yes, he is making a game of some kind. And that's it.
]]>Hideo Kojima has been tweeting about the final trailer for Death Stranding: Director's Cut for weeks now. He wants you to know that it was "self-edited", "handmade", that he obsessed over it. He sounds more like someone selling artisinally roasted coffee beans than a Sony-funded blockbuster that contains Monster Energy product placement.
The trailer is out now and you can watch it below.
]]>Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima doesn't like that the upcoming new version is called a "director's cut". Yesterday, he took to Twitter to explain his reasoning, saying that director's cuts of films typically add stuff that was filmed then taken out. Death Stranding's new version, on the other hand, will supposedly have a bunch of completely new content added. He'd rather it said "Director's Plus" instead - a pretty reasonable argument, I think.
]]>Abandoned is an upcoming horror game set in a spooky forest that's coming out later this year. It was revealed back in April, and it didn't take long for folks to start comparing it to Silent Hill - it shares a similar brand of eeriness, plus a setting is reminiscent of early PT teasers. Now however, thanks to odd comments from developers Blue Box Studios, some really weird naming coincidences, and a strong desire for more Silent Hills, people actually think Abandoned could be a new Kojima game.
]]>During this evening's Summer Game Fest stream, Geoff Keighley got his pen pal Hideo Kojima up on a video call to chat about his next game. Kojima said a lot of things, none of which revealed much about said new game at all, but he did reveal that a Death Stranding Director's Cut is on the way. They showed a little bit of footage that looked suspiciously like a Death Stranding X Metal Gear crossover.
]]>It's no surprise that Kojima Productions are working on a new project, seeing as Death Stranding came out almost a year ago and Hideo Kojima has muttered about new things for a while, but it is now official. Today they declared "a new project is in development" and put out a hiring call for new staff. No hint of what the new game is, mind. I dream of: a Death Stranding sequel where an adult BB carries a now-elderly Sam back across America, strapped to his chest. Come on Hideo, you know you love echoing stories and characters.
]]>For a game that never released and a Playstation-only demo for said game that now un-exists, there's been a sudden rush of (mostly) good news regarding Silent Hills on PC. No, not for the game itself, because that ship has long since sailed. But if you were enraptured by the spirit of the whole hullabaloo, there's a lot of neat bonus projects suddenly at your disposal.
]]>WILL IT BE ON PC OR NOT, KOJIMA? Good grief, will you just concentrate long enough to answer that one question. Death Stranding, the baby-coddling adventure from Kojima that was first shown at E3 two years ago, has released another bit of cinematic brain-vom that looks a bit more gamey than previous vids. It now looks (a bit) like something you might control. Prepare yourself for lots of sad postmen walking across a wet world full of irritated ghosts.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
Was Metal Gear Solid ever on PC? I have feverishly Googled for the answer and discovered: yes! It was ported in 2001 with slightly prettified graphics and some updated VR missions. That means I can write about it. Sweet PC port of the past, you have given me a fine gift this day. The gift of not scouring my brain for videogames that aren’t already on our 700+ list of things we’ve already covered for this column.
]]>Alice isn't here to tell you about Kojima and the Kojima Productions logo movie that involves a whale on the moon so instead you have me, muddling along and doing my best.
FIRST! The mini movie:
]]>What is the best stealth game of 2015? The RPS Advent Calendar highlights our favourite games from throughout the year, and behind today's door is...
]]>The great Konami/Kojima cabinet reshuffle continues - first Koj shacks up with Sony, and now Konami are running job listings for a new Metal Gear game that'll they make without the involvement of the notorious/revered auteur.
]]>Hideo Kojima, a legend in the eyes of those who live on the virtual battlefield, has indeed parted ways with Konami and founded his own new PMC (private makegames company). The Metal Gear maestro has even managed to sneak his old studio name out of Konami. All year we've heard about a falling-out of some sort between the designer and the publishers, so it was pretty clear he was going, and Konami even blocked him from accepting an award this month for MGS V.
Well, as of today, he's out, he's gone, and he's at a new Kojima Productions. Also, he's grown a cracking new beard for that 'grizzled veteran' look.
]]>Update: Konami are denying that Kojima has left the company, saying that he is instead "on vacation." More details below.
Original story:
Metal Gear Solid maestro Hideo Kojima has left Konami. We've been reporting on rumours about Kojima's departure from the publishers since March, but now it's reported by The New Yorker that October 9th was his last day at the company.
]]>While most of us continue to be starry-eyed about MGSV: The Phantom Pain [official site], there has been no shortage of Internet Grumbles about its ending, and concerns that it wasn't finished-finished (possibly related to Kojima and Konami's latest round of spats?). I'm not going to get into OPINIONS on that stuff myself, primarily because I'm not personally invested in MGS lore, but yeah, there really was an original, longer ending sequence with MORE RIDICULOUS DRAMA and arguably a greater sense of closure, both for Big Boss/Venom Snake himself and in terms of closing the loop between the two main Metal Gear Solid timelines.
This other finale, set on a jungly island, was partially completed before whatever happened happened, and is included on the MGSV bonus disc from the PS4 collector's edition. You can watch the whole, 18 minute sequence below. Spoilers, inevitably.
]]>I quailed at even the idea of bosses in MGSV [official site]. It’s my desert, leave me alone to do my thing, and that thing most certainly does not involve filling something big with as much heavy ordinance as is possible. A couple of encounters with the teleporting zombie super-soldiers known as The Skulls had already left a bad taste in my mouth. While stealth, or at least avoidance was possible to some degree, they were exactly the sort of bullet-sponge nightmare I was afraid of. Would this be pre-Director’s Cut Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s bosses all over again? I would be abandoning this game halfway through, of that I was increasingly sure.
Then I met Quiet. Spoilers for an early boss fight follow.
]]>It's been days since I wanted to talk about anything other than Metal Gear Solid [official site]. My sister is probably sick of this. We're very close but live far apart so we tend to speak almost every day, not so much about our lives as about the things that distract us from our lives. She had no interest in Metal Gear Solid, but eventually my incessant chatter caused her to look into The Phantom Pain. I should have predicted the response.
“I watched a trailer for it last night. What's the deal with the boob lady?”
I'd been talking about the game for days but hadn't mentioned Quiet, your sniper buddy. I had been raving about the things I liked about the game, and when the conversation turned to flaws, it turns out it's the small things that disturb the experience more for me than those bigger talking points.
]]>Game Of The Month returns, haunting the first Monday of the month with the answer to life's eternal question: "I do not have time to play all of these games so which one should I pick?" There are so many worthy games that it's hard to pick just one but in this month of September 2015, one game has dominated our waking hours with its extraordinary take on open world stealth. It's Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain [official site].
]]>Like Snake with the open expanse of Soviet-occupied Afghanistan stretching out before him, we've got a lot of ground to cover. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain [official site] is a massive game, both in terms of the systems that drive it and the number of plot threads it feels obligated to weave together. This breadth is the game's triumph, as well as its downfall. The Phantom Pain is the best stealth-action game ever made, and one of the worst Metal Gear stories ever told.
]]>I woke up this morning in a bright new world, a world in which what may be Hideo Kojima's final Metal Gear game [official site] is available on PC. It still seems like an impossible dream, that a series that has only sporadically stealthed its way onto our machines should be here day one, the same time as the console launch, so I was expecting something to go wrong. Performance issues due to the port from console to PC? A sudden stepback in visual quality as compared to 'prologue' mission Ground Zeroes?
Remarkably, The Phantom Pain hasn't gotten its cape into a tangle and seems to be running smoothly while looking devilishly handsome. There are some caveats and snags though, as always.
]]>When I was asked to write 1000 words about why Metal Gear Solid matters, and what you need to know about it, I knew there was only one way to do it.
By feel alone.
]]>If you want to go in cold when Metal Gear Solid V [official site] lands next week, you probably shouldn't watch this brand new 'launch' trailer. In fact, you probably shouldn't even go anywhere near the discussion around it because as soon as I clicked through to Konami's YouTube page, I saw speculation and rumours that have now wormed into my brain. Of course, the whole thing might be a bait and switch, designed to provoke certain trains of thought so that the game can happily derail them as it twists and turns like a weird combination of M. Night Shyamalan and an Olympic high-diver.
Is it possible to go in cold at this stage though? We're all red hot, if we're interested in the slightest. It's below of you want it - a spectacular five minute burst of memories, melancholy and military murderbots.
]]>If you pay any attention to the internet, you may have noticed some rather glowing write-ups of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain [official site]. You may also have noticed some quibbling and equivocating about the appearance of microtransactions in the Forward Operating Base competitive multiplayer mode. Yes, that's a PvP mode called F.O.B. that may be fobbing people off with in-game purchases to speed things along. Below, I've gathered what information I can about those pesky microtransactions and explained why we haven't been able to pass judgement on the game yet.
]]>You know those rumours going around that Metal Gear mastermind Hideo Kojima and publisher Konami have fallen out, and he'll be leaving the company after Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, throwing the series into turmoil just as it starts settling down on PC? Well!
Following statements to press saying everything was hunky-dory, Konami and Kojima have issued a public statement which carefully avoids confirming or denying the juicy bits of the rumours. It mostly says what we know: Kojima will finish MGS V, then Konami will keep on making Metal Gear games with or without him.
]]>Sometimes I'd swear that Ian Video Games is deliberately trying to ruin everyone's fun. Just as we're getting used to Metal Gear games settling on PC (not just Solid - we mustn't forget Platinum's Rising), Big Mouth strikes again and starts spreading rumours of strife.
Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear creator and director, and other senior members of Metal Gear Solid devs Kojima Productions are at odds with owners and publishers Konami, Ian says, and will leave once MGS V: The Phantom Pain is done. So Ian says, anyway. Konami say all's hunky-dory.
]]>Metal Gear Solid V's release date is so important that there's been a countdown and everything. TICK TOCK, it went. TICK TOCK. And then, moments ago, a cuckoo popped out screaming "SEPTEMBER 1ST, SEPTEMBER 1ST" before the timer had hit zero. Oops.
]]>The existential limbo that the PC version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain finds itself is is pretty apt given the ridiculous lore of the series. For what it's worth, Hideo Kojima has stated that it will appear "sometime", but that it's not a priority. Boo-urns to that! His lackadaisical attitude isn't going to stop me from showing off the new videos of the game, because open-world stealth games are my jam. Below is probably the only footage of Metal Gear in existence that's not interrupted by seven billion cut-scenes, which I find encouraging. I might be able to play this when it eventually comes to the PC.
]]>SHOCKING DEVELOPMENTS. Metal Gear Solid 5 is an actual, factual thing, as revealed during Kojima Productions' GDC panel. But wait, that's not all. Are you ready to ratchet up the vein-searing voltage? OK, here goes: The Phantom Pain was just a promotional stunt! It was Metal Gear all along, just like no man, woman, child, infant, or single-celled organism could've surmised from painfully obvious evidence. Now, though, you probably ought to flee into your local neighborhood tire factory, because here comes the most electric news of all. In spite of Hideo Kojima's repeated claims that Metal Gear Solid 5/Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain's demos have been running on PC, Konami still won't confirm or deny a PC version for some reason.
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