So it’s happened again: an anticipated title has gotten possessed by the dreaded delay ghost, and this time it’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. This was announced in a statement issued by Konami over the weekend. The delay has come as a surprise after both retail posters for the game had been printed, and the promotional site for the game was launched mere days ago.

“Unfortunately, we require more time in order to make the final adjustments and it is with the greatest regret that we have decided to change the release date for this product.

We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this may cause customers who have already placed orders for this product or who are eagerly awaiting its release, as well as other concerned parties.”

The game’s producer, Hideo Kojima, is less than pleased with the game’s delay, as announced in Kojima Productions own blog:

“I always preach to the staff, ‘You must not have a delay after a release date has been announced. There is no greater crime as a game developer.’ Official announcement of a release date is nothing less than a promise to fans and business partners. In other words, a release date change is like betraying the expectations of everyone.”

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

According to Kotaku, Konami, masters of announcing announcements, have done it again. They say they’re going to be announcing things for MGS4 all week.

They also say that the announcements will be exciting and involve ‘game updates and other highly anticipated announcements’.

I can almost see my reflection looking back at me from some trophies. That could just be wishful thinking though – the trophies, not my reflection. God no.

We almost forgot to mention: MGS4 1 year anniversary means boobies.

The Konami press conference was naturally going to be an interesting one, simply due to the universal love for Hideo Kojima, and the hope that we would hear more about the previously announced Metal Gear Solid: Rising and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. There was also hope that we would find out about the mysterious MASK project, which had unsurprisingly fell under the radar with the Metal Gear hype machine chugging away.

The press conference started a bit late due to the number of press in attendance. People had spotted Kojima about so the general feeling was that it was to be a good conference. After a brief montage of what we were going to see today (which included stuff we had seen before, but also some new releases), the Executive Vice President of Konami came up on stage.

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During Konami’s press conference at E3, Hideo Kojima took the stage to talk about some of his upcoming games. Obviously Metal Gear Solid was a huge part of the update, but a few surprises were in store as well.

First off it seems Metal Gear Solid Rising isn’t going to be Xbox 360 exclusive as it was initially assumed. Kojima said Rising is for next-gen consoles, meaning 360, PC and PS3. MGS Peace Walker was also mentioned, but nothing new other than what we saw at Sony’s press conference. Kojima wrote the entire game himself and the MGS4 team is heavily involved in the creation of the PSP exclusive.

Metal Gear Solid Arcade was announced and is being built on the PS3 engine. The game will come with special 3D goggles and features an online component so gamers can compete across arcades. Seeing as arcades aren’t as big in the West as in Japan, it’ll be interesting to see if it will even make it to our neck of the world.

Finally, Hideo Kojima’s “mask game” was revealed, and I am definitely excited about this one. A debut trailer narrated by none other than Patrick Stewart showed off Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. The trailer was full of incredible fights, huge bosses and gothic locations. Lords of Shadow is a re-imagining that’s not connected to the other games in the franchise. LoS tells the story of Gabriel, voiced by Robert Carlyle, who’s looking for “revenge and retribution”. According to Kojima, Konami found that the world audience “demands bloodthirsty action with men that wield crucifix-whips”. Could this be one of the few good 3D Castlevania games?

Lords of Shadow is being released 2010 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Speaking to Develop, gaming legend Hideo Kojima’s said that it’s unlikely he will be working on any “smaller” games anymore, instead sticking to big, next generation titles.

“Someone asked me earlier if I’d consider making a smaller game now that I’ve finished a project as massive as Metal Gear Solid 4,” he said.

“My answer is that, personally, I’d love to work on a smaller project. But, thinking about the time I have left to survive, I’d rather spend that time working on bigger projects.”

Kojima also admitted that Konami puts pressure on him to release more games in the Metal Gear. franchise.

“Yeah, there’s absolutely pressure there,” he said. “Maybe if I quit Konami that pressure might be a bit better, but since Konami handles the business side of our operations, yeah, there’s definitely a demand to continue a series as successful as Metal Gear.”

Expet something from the legend himself at this year’s E3.

David Hayter, recently known for his role as co-writer in the recent Watchmen movie, and most famously recognised amongst video game fans for providing the legendary voice of Solid Snake, has announced today the formation of his own company, Dark Hero Studios.

Dark Hero Studios will be “a company that will generate film, TV, Internet and video game projects in the action, sci-fi and horror genres,” according to the company’s report.

The company will be looking to corner all corners of the entertainment spectrum, ranging from comic books to game properties and original genre scripts for movie projects.

The company’s first project will be something that goes by the name of Demonology, which Hayter himself has penned and will be directing as a movie.

It should be interesting to see what directions this company takes in the near future.

Developer Hideo Kojima will be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2009 Game Developer’s Choice Awards at GDC.

Previous winners include Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Richard Garriott and Will Wright.

“For years, Hideo Kojima’s contributions to game development have broken new ground and inspired the community to think about creating games in never-before-imagined ways,” said Meggan Scavio, event director of GDC.

“From giving birth to the stealth action game genre to showing game makers how to interact with their players by breaking the ‘fourth wall,’ Kojima’s achievements make him an obvious choice for an award.”

Kojima will also be holding a keynote speech at GDC, titled “Solid Game Design: Making the ‘Impossible’ Possible”:

The PlayStation Asia site has announced today that it will be releasing the MGS4 Level Pack… soon. As in, we know its coming out. We just don’t know when.

For the Level pack it states 

“Send Sackboy™ into a covert world of stealth and intrigue with this downloadable collection of Metal Gear™ Solid goodies.”

Though, the level packs doesn’t actually contain any levels, just awesome costumes and stickers.

A next Metal Gear is… this is the cryptic message on a page on the Kojima Productions website. Check out the image and see what you thiink.

The internet detectives among you have likely concluded that a green power icon can only signal one thing. That the game will require electricity! or needs to be turned on at least, but lets hope its not a iPhone game.

No one knows why this teaser was posted like this and why Mr Kojima takes so much pleasure in taunting everyone but lets hoping its something good!

Following the recent surprise announcement that Konami is“looking into” bringing MGS4 to Xbox 360 Microsoft’s Xbox Live boss has “informed” MVC that the Xbox 360 easily has the power to “handle” Metal Gear Solid 4.

John Schappert, the firm’s corporate vice-president of Live, Software and Services, pointed out that that he would “love to see the game come [to 360]“.

His comments come in light of Konami’s Yoshitaka Arai alleged admittance that “The worldwide demand for an Xbox 360 version of MGS4 is quite high, and it is something we are currently looking in to.”

“I’m certainly in the fan club that would love to see Kojima-san’s masterpiece come our way. It would be wonderful to play Metal Gear Solid on the Xbox. It could become another of the many franchises that started their life on another console that are now coming our way.”

“I can’t speak on behalf of Konami, but I can shed more light on the fact that we definitely have the power to run MGS4. There are a lot of recent examples that are in true high-def on our platform and aren’t on PS3. We’ve got an amazing amount of horsepower and graphics power.”

This is going to become an interesting story to follow…

The repeatedly rumoured arrival of Metal Gear Solid 4 on Xbox 360 has been thrust back into the spotlight once again, as a Konami representative admits the company is “looking into” it.

Earlier in the year, Konami denied that they were even considering it and definitively said back in January: “For the record, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a PlayStation 3 exclusive and there are no plans to develop an Xbox 360 version of the game.”

But answering to yet more questions of the possibility of a platform shift, Konami PR man Yoshitaka Arai told Japanese site Morningstar today: “The worldwide demand for an Xbox 360 version is quite high, and it is something we are currently looking in to.”

Make of that what you will.