Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots [PS3]

But just as the FOXDIE begins to take its toll on all (including Snake), the screen cuts to black. Coming back from the credit sequence, we are then treated to another amazing display of ass-kicking acrobatics from Raiden in his Ninja outfit. He takes out a series of Metal Gear walkers, but his true foe stands at wait. Raiden must face off with Vamp. The battles of MGS2 were left inconclusive, and now the two warriors must face off to end it forever. But as the two face off in an amazing and yet beautiful battle, we quickly begin to realize that the two are at last an even match. In fact, the battle begins with each talking about immortality -- Vamp about his own proven immortality, and Raiden about having no fear of death...

And as Raiden lands a boot knife right in Vamp's neck, which Vamp then pulls through his body, we hope for his sake that Raiden has some kind of plan to kill this immortal being. Battling again, Vamp gets the upper hand, stomping Raiden to the ground and doing a crushing dance on his chest. Raiden gets up, and the two wrestle, at which point Raiden stabs a sword through himself so that it will draw through Vamp. Both survive. Is it the suit? Is Raiden immortal? And how do you kill a true immortal? How do you survive a battle that may end your own immortality? Those questions remain to be answered...

Shown in HD with incredible visual clarity and a perfect framerate, Metal Gear Solid 4 was the stunner it needed to be. And although all of the footage was cinematic clips, the whole trailer was built out realtime footage, and Mr. Kojima promised that the actual game that you play "will be in this quality". Konami will unfortunately not be showing MGS4 in playable form at E3 2007 (though Konami does have its own E3 press conference scheduled at about 6PM PST today, so we'll see what more surprises will be revealed there), but the company has scheduled a realtime demonstration in Tokyo next week where Hideo Kojima will be playing the actual game to show how its gameplay mechanics work. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will release across the globe in a simultaneous release early in 2008 exclusively for PlayStation 3.

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