As we’re all gearing up towards E3 various game companies are putting out countdowns for game announcements at the conventions. The stranger of which being the one posted earlier today by Kojima Productions. As we all know, Hideo Kojima likes to fuck with our heads every once in a while.

Kojima did mention in an interview earlier this year that his upcoming title would challenge a certain type of taboo. Considering the ongoing theme of things being cut in the countdown teaser, could it be he’s tackling suicide or self-harm? Or maybe I’m just suffering from symbolism overload, not to mention feeling like The Architech from the Matrix trilogy. All will be revealed in about three days.

Shinji Hashimoto, one of the Square Enix suits, and the guy in charge of their twitter account, tweeted today to tell us about a collaboration between them and Hideo Kojima. Above is a picture of the meeting, with Kojima on the right, Hashimoto in the middle, and MGS art director Yoji Shinkawa.

Now, this may be nothing. They have collaborated before, Square doing the figures for Peace Walker, as well has having Front Mission Evolved items appear in the game, so this may be nothing more than that. Still, info like this is enough to get the fan gears churning.

TGV previously reported that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the highly anticipated PSP title from Hideo Kojima, got the rare 40/40 score from the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. Now it seems this score possibly can’t be trusted.

After the score was announced, Kotaku‘s editor in Japan, Brian Ashcraft, reported that Famitsu may have a conflict of interest. Not only do they appear in the game’s in-game advertising, the president of Famitsu’s publishing company, and former editor of Famitsu, appear in magazine ads and on the website of the game. The review mentions nothing about this conflict of interest.

Further complications surfaced today, when both Konami and Famitsu contacted Kotaku Japan (who are owned by a different company, but republished the article in Japanese), disapproving of it. Konami also uninvited them from a press event about Peace Walker. Not a very professional reaction, in my opinion.

Famitsu, the biggest and most influential Japanese video game magazine, have gotten their hand on the latest installment of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, Peace Walker, and awarded it with their highest score possible.

Famitsu are notorious for only giving the 40/40 score to the very top game, so when you saw it, you would know that the game has merit. To achieve it, all 4 reviewers looking at the game have to give it a 10. Among the few titles that have gotten the famed 40 are the original Soul Calibur, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the first title to get the score since the magazines’ inception in 1986.

The scores seem to be more lax lately, though. Out of the 13 titles to have gotten the score before Peace Walker, 7 of them are from 2008 and 2009, which leads to gamers saying the score is more diluted than before.

How do you think this PSP game will play? It DOES have the full Kojima machine behind it, but is it as good as, say, Vagrant Story or MGS4, two other top-scoring games?

The Castlevania series has been bringing scares and hardcore action-platforming to gamers since 1986, but most of the 3D entries have pretty much sucked. The newest entry to the franchise, Lords of Shadow, seems to be heading in the right direction though.

The game itself was announced at E309 with some impressive trailers following in its wake, not to mention a cast of with some serious acting talent on their backs like Robert Carlyle, Patrick Stewart and Natascha McElhone.

In an interview with VG247, the game’s producer Dave Cox revealed some interesting new things about the upcoming game, one of them being the return of some very well known secondary weapons.

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Konami has recently announced release dates for the upcoming PSP exclusive – Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

Japan – March 18th 2010
North America – May 25th 2010
Europe – May 28th 2010

Still no word on that rumoured English Peace Walker Demo though.

At TGS 2009 Kojima Productions released two different demos of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. One was available for all at sites such as IGN, and another exclusive to Konami’s TGS 09 show room floor.

This new demo is said to contain the missing level from the downloadable demo, aswell as extras. Some of these extras are;

New control scheme
A third control scheme is said to be “unlockable”. Unlock a control scheme? Seriously?

New enhanced AI
Many people will agree that the Peace Walker AI had its glitches. Such as standing right in front of a guy, and not being seen. Aswell as standing behind, holding them up, and getting caught.

Mountain Level
The missing level from the downloadable demo will be available.

When will the demo be available? November 1st. Less then a week away. You will be able to get it on the Japanese PlayStation Store, and from the Peace Walker Official Site. No word on if this will contain atleast English subtitles, or will be all-Japanese.

Source: Metal Gear Solid: News

A nine minute trailer, and some gameplay videos for the PSP-exclusive Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker surfaced at the Tokyo Game Show today, and they’re really quite impressive to look at.

If these haven’t been digitally enhanced then colour me very impressed. It looks as good as (if not better) than the PS2 games did, and those still look impressive even now.

It’s important to note that while the game looks as good as the PS2 titles, the game employs all the improved gameplay mechanics from Metal Gear Solid 4, such over-the-shoulder aiming, improved close quarters combat, and a forward facing camera angle instead of the older titles overhead view.

Check them out after the cut.

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The cast list for Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker. Fans of the franchise will no doubt be pleased by the appearance of Master Miller on the list.

Check out the full cast below.

• Snake
• Amanda
• Huey
• Chico
• Strangelove
• Coldman
• Cecile
• Miller
• Paz
• Galvez

Those of us who are already excited about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will most likely be doubly excited after witnessing the new trailer revealed at gamescom this week.

Developed by mercurysteam, in association with Kojima Productions, Castlevania is shaping up to be vastly different than the old school 2D side-scrollers, with ambitions of being the first actually good 3D Castlevania game.

Some parts of the trailer is footage we’ve already seen, but others reveal more combat footage, as well as various ways protagonist Gabriel can use the combat cross. There’s still no details on whether or not Gabriel is a Belmont, but the Belmont name is mentioned in the title, by a character voiced by Jason Isaacs. Could he be the one playing Dracula? Only time will tell.

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