It's an early Christmas present for MGS fans from Konami! Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker: Demo-Ops is hitting the PlayStation Store later today, giving fans a taste of four different mission types with content previously playable at the Tokyo Game Show and "more." Ooo, more. I like more. I don't know what "more" entails, but I know what I like.

The free demo will be available later today on PSN, with several other gaming sites hosting it as well, in case you are allergic to the PlayStation Store or something. The full game drops May 25th, so hopefully they've got enough gameplay in there to keep fans satiated for another five months.

Snake's '70s era sneak attack will hit North American PSPs just a few days before Europe gets a crack at it, a little more than two months after the game launches in Japan. The follow-up to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater features an original scenario from Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima and a "unique new game system designed specifically with the PSP in mind," according to Konami.

We've already checked in with Konami USA to see what the publisher's plans are for PSPgo owners who may want to download the game at launch. Quick Update: Konami reps say "There will be a download sku as well as a UMD sku available at launch." Yay!

Might have to wait just a little longer. Konami have announced that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will be out on the PSP in the UK on May 28, 2010.

So a two month delay at the longest. Remember; the US release might be in between.

Starring Naked Snake, the game takes place in Costa Rica during the 1970s — 10 years after Metal Gear Solid 3 and chronicling the rise of Outer Heaven.

Check out our impressions from this year's Tokyo Game Show.

Famitsu's report that a Valkyria Chronicles 2 demo will drop November 2, the day after the PSP Go hits Japanese shelves. Also — and way less important to me — Phantasy Star Portable 2 will have a demo up on launch day itself. Not bad, Sega, not bad at all.

If you really want to turn yourself green with envy, check out this list of stuff coming out on Japan's PlayStation Store around the time of the PSP Go launch that fan site PSN Stores compiled:

* 10/29 Crystal Defenders PSP

* 11/1 Disgaea Infinite
* Dissidia: Final Fantasy – Universal Tuning
* Echochrono
* Elemental Monsters TD Portable
* LocoRoco Midnight Carnival
* Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker Demo
* MotorStorm Arctic Edge
* Persona 3 Portable
* PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe

* 11/2 Phantasy Star Portable 2 Demo
* Valkyria Chronicles Demo

Yep. Really wishing I'd stuck to my 8th grade master plan of moving to Japan right about now...

新作タイトルやキャンペーンも、PlayStation Store最新情報を公開 [Famitsu via Andriasang]

In an interview with Famitsu, Kojima told Assassin's Creed II developer Patrice and Patrice's beard:

Really, I don't think much about whether a platform's portable or for the home. In other words, it's not important to me. With the PS3, you've got a whole range of middle- and high-school kids who can't play your game because their parents don't let them play video games at home. Those kids can whine at their parents all day about how the game's anti-war and anti-nukes, but they'll just respond 'Well, you're still killing people with guns, aren't you?' and brush it off. I wanted to go the extra mile for gamers in that sort of situation. That was one of the reasons I chose the PSP.

Kojima isn't doing it for me or you, he's doing it for the kids. And the kids are alright. Elsewhere in the Famitsu piece, Kojima tells Patrice what games stand out in late 2009 (Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2 and Assassin's Creed II) as well as talking about Assassin's Creed II improvements. Patrice gives his impressions of Peace Walker. Sadly, Patrice's beard does not.

Metal Gear, Assassin's Creed Creators Interview Each Other [1up]

In a recent interview, art director Yoji Shinkawa explained the 2D cutscene feature: "For example, if you zoom in on the scene where you first meet Paz, you can see the uniform she has on under her coat, and then what's under that." Let's try!

Here is Paz. Hi Paz.

Zoom, zoom, zoom. Oh, she's wearing some sort of uniform. Something seems wrong with her arm — guess that's why we are peeking. Next!

Zooooooooooom. Ah, yes. Underwear. That's what most people wear under their clothes, too. Some don't, though. It depends.

『メタルギア ソリッド ピースウォーカー』新たな物語が描かれるシリーズ最新作 [ファミ通.com]

In the latest Kojima Productions Report, the MGS PW voice cast has been announced. It is:

Master Miller - Robin Atkin Downes
Paz - Tara Strong
Amanda - Grey DeLisle
Strangelove - Vanessa Marshall
Coldman - H Richard Green
Huey - Christopher Randolph
Galvez - Steve Blum
Chico - Anthony Del Rio
Cecile - Catherine Taber
Naked Snake, Big Boss - David Hayter

And like that, David Hayter is back for more gravelly gravel gruffing. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayter!

PW English Voice Cast Announced / PW英語版声優さん発表｜コナミ小島プロダクション公式ウェブログ [コジブロ]

Just as Kojima explained to Kotaku at this year's Tokyo Game Show, he going to great lengths for Peace Walker, giving it the attention and effort the title deserves.

The game's script is as thick as Metal Gear Solid 4's. But there's something else Kojima has in store. What? He wouldn't say.

"I'm putting everything I want to do on a portable console into this game," Kojima told Famitsu. "I haven't announced this yet, but there's another feature in here that will surprise people, to the point where they'll want to go out and buy a PSP right now!"

Kojima also discussed other Peace Walker features like interactive 2D cutscenes. "For example," art director Yoji Shinkawa says, "if you zoom in on the scene where you first meet Paz, you can see the uniform she has on under her coat, and then what's under that." Besides this, voice interactivity appears to be planned with the inclusion of Vocaloid software.

Wonder what this surprise is... Oh, and Kojima-san doesn't have to make Metal Gear anymore. Well, starting after Peace Walker, that is.

Kojima Discusses Cutscenes, Metal Gear's Future [1UP]

Here's what the eminent games designer had to say:

President Obama, who declared 'A World Without Nuclear Weapons' in Prague, has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Has the era at last started shifting? The start of the Peace Walker plan? I hope that comes to be.

'Peace will not walk to you'

'You must both walk towards one another.'

Pretty bold plug of one's game, I'd say.

ノーベル平和賞 [Kojima Productions via Go Nintendo]

The demo will go live on the game's official page at 6:00 PM Japan Time. This demo is the same demo that was playable at this year's Tokyo Game Show. You can read Kotaku's impressions right here. Or not.

Peace Walker Official Site [Konami]

"The 30 minutes I spent playing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on the first day of the Tokyo Game Show left me with the best first impression I've ever had of a game on the PlayStation Portable," wrote Kotaku's Stephen Totilo.

That's not good enough for Kojima Productions, it seems, as the studio is currently tweaking the game's controls based on the opinions at TGS of the media, the industry, players, the internet, bulletin boards, etc. It really sounds like Kojima Productions is open to whatever input can make the title better and is making changes "at a quick pace".

At TGS, two control types were playable: Shooting Type and Action Type. Kojima Productions is currently investigating whether or not it is possible to implement a third control scheme into the game.

TGSを受けての操作変更｜コナミ小島プロダクション公式ウェブログ [コジブロ]

Kojima Productions knows how to put together some informative literature, as you might be able to gather from perusing the TGS Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker promo book yourself. It's brief, but big—about 14" by 10" when folded. Plus, it's pretty too look at, with snazzy artwork from Metal Gear maestro Yoji Shinkawa and good design slathered all over the thing.

Take a peek. And be gentle with the quality. The Japanese authorities confiscated my scanner at customs.

During a half-hour backroom chat with Kotaku and Kotaku Japan at the Tokyo Game Show on Friday, sitting beside Metal Gear character designer Yoji Shinakawa and a publicist cos-playing his next game's female characters, one of gaming's most celebrated creators amiably discussed his latest works, a curious detail of his past and his hopes for the future. Much of the conversation, covering all three eras, involved Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear series, of course, a series the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will continue but not complete.

"I think the Metal Gear story will not end until I pass away," Kojima said. "But, even then, young people of the next generation will continue the story as they would a classic. It's basically the story of a master and an apprentice."

Kojima's latest Metal Gear is Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, a portable adventure that supports multiple players and tells the pivotal story of the master, Big Boss, who would become the nemesis for the hero of the next generation, Solid Snake.

"In Metal Gear Solid 3, Naked Snake became Big Boss, but, in reality, he's not really the Big Boss yet," Kojima explained. "Eventually he's going to become the enemy of Solid Snake. I want to tell the story of how Big Boss began and what changed him."

Peace Walker is the game that will tell that story, a PSP experiment that finally puts Kojima in direct charge of one of these portable adventures of his Metal Gear heroes. It's also an early test of a theory he has. "I basically think that the future of gaming is less about platforms and more about cloud-computing, with a super-computer and people connecting to that," he said. "We wanted to experiment with the idea early on with Peace Walker and have a portable game."

(Yes, Kojima believes that cloud computing, the technique of users engaging with digital content that is stored and processed far away, is on the rise, "more of a longterm thing before cloud computing is the mainstream of games." But, no, said Kojima, who has seen his words turned into hyperbolic headlines, "That's not the main part of this article. That's just my idea on the future of gaming.")

We moved to discuss the importance of cardboard boxes as they relate to Peace Walker and his own past.

In Peace Walker, up to four players can participate in missions co-operatively. Among the co-op maneuvers available, two players can hide together under the series' signature cardboard box. "I think the cardboard box is what represents Metal Gear in a way, of stealth," he said. "This time I wanted to emphasize the co-op part through the cardboard box by having two people in it." (Read more about how the game's co-op works in Kotaku's Peace Walker preview.)

The cardboard box has been an unlikely device for Kojima to utilize to think about things differently. Long before Solid Snake or Big Boss ever hid under a box in a Metal Gear game or trailer, their creator did. He was young. "There was a story in Japanese literature called the Box Man, and, kind of an as an homage to that story, I used to hide under cardboard boxes when I was little. That Box Man book is basically about hiding under a box and looking at the world through that box and having a different point of view. I wanted to experience that, though I'm not sure if it worked."

Few who have followed Kojima's work would say he has failed to see the world a different way. He is a fan of a different stripe of video games, saying the only games that interest him at TGS are the non-Japanese ones: Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin's Creed II. (Well, he admitted, he liked Konami dating game Love Plus, too.) He is the designer of a different kind of game, maintaining a standard of dramatic storytelling and quirky gameplay unique to the Metal Gear series.

And, with Peace Walker, he's hopeful to promote a different kind of multiplayer emotion.

Multiplayer games was originally cut-throat, the developer explained. "In multiplayer gaming, especially in online gaming, first it was about competition with each other. Then the next level was co-op. But it wasn't really about friendship. It was about benefiting from your teammates, a give and take kind of thing. But, this, time I want to take it to the next level and to give a feeling of sharing.

"I want players to feel the joy of helping each other out. For example, there's the game's life bar. When players are close to each other, it becomes one. Even if one player is dying or weaker, they can help each other. We want to express the strength of friendship through that."

Huddling under the box might bring the players closer too. But the box can't fit all four players supported by Peace Walker. Blame PSP memory restrictions, Kojima quipped. "I wanted to have it fit four," he said before naming a non-programming justification for fitting only two. "In reality, there is not a cardboard box that fits four people. Maybe if it's a next-gen console I can do four or five or 10 people. And then it probably doesn't need to be a cardboard box."

A Kojima mention of the next-gen platforms might stir memories of his other Metal Gear announcement of this year, the development for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 of Metal Gear Solid: Rising. While Kojima was happy to speak about Peace Walker, he chose to reveal little here at TGS about Rising. He referred to it simply as a "next-gen Metal Gear," a game he said is designed to apply his team's Metal Gear know-how to a revamped engine and new development system. He said the game is "far from completion."

One of Kotaku Japan's bloggers asked Kojima to react to some Japanese gamers' concerns that the developer's announcement of Rising at an Xbox 360 press conference was a betrayal of the PlayStation 3. "I don't make games for platforms," Kojima said. "I make games for players, and it's because of the players that I'm able to be here."

Kojima has a full plate of Metal Gear projects ahead of him to ensure he's busy. But I noted to him that some of our readers have clamored for Kojima to work on something other than Metal Gear. He gets the message.

"Not only the Kotaku readers but I myself am interested in doing something besides Metal Gear," he said. "But, right now, I am working on Peace Walker. Eventually, after the project is done, I might think about it."

He joked: "If you write that 'Kojima-san doesn't have to make Metal Gear any more' every day on Kotaku, and write to the CEO of Konami and tell him that, then it might be easier for me to make non-Metal Gear games."

That could free him from the Metal Gear box, perhaps. But from within it, for now, he will continue to see the world differently. With Peace Walker, he's got room for more.

I may have rolled my eyes when Konami's Hideo Kojima started telling the press this past summer that the 2010 PSP game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker was going to be a significant enough Metal Gear game to be considered the successor to the PlayStation 3's Metal Gear Solid 4.

I will roll my eyes no longer.

From its visuals to its abundance of good ideas, Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker seems, based on initial impressions, that it could be worthy of a good amount of hype. The game feels important.

The demo I played — and which is being distributed to Tokyo Game Show attendees — begins with a tutorial set on a dark, rainy beach. The demo is all in Japanese, but game representatives present at Konami's Peace Walker meeting area to explain things to me and a trio of other reporters. On the beach, Snake stood shirtless as a drill sergeant barked orders at new recruits freshly entered into Snake's mercenary fighting force. The men called Snake "Boss" in this sequence, but it's a term our hero won't be comfortable with in this game, the Konami men told us. Our star is a young Snake, one a decade removed from his actions in the 1964-set Metal Gear Solid 3.

The beach scene, set on Colombia's Barranquilla coast, both wowed me with its graphics and introduced me to the game's smooth controls. Camera movement is mapped to the action buttons on the right of the PSP. The system's analog nub moves Snake. The R trigger is used for primary actions, like fighting moves. Tapping down on the d-pad makes Snake squat. Holding down makes him lie prone and — in a change for the series — prevents him from moving. Walking up to an enemy (or hapless beach recruit) and tapping R makes Snake punch and kick. Holding R causes him to grab and hold his opponent from behind. Running and holding R just as Snake reached his opponent triggers a grab and throw. Doing that in a crowd — and tapping the R trigger again as soon as the first guy gets tossed to the ground — causes Snake to swiftly throw the second guy — and then a third if you tap R again. Single throws can be aimed with the analog nub, letting you throw one opponent into another. Weapons are aimed with a press of the L trigger and fired with a press of R.

After dabbling with the controls, we watched a cut-scene. It was long, as would be expected of a Metal Gear game, and it was visually stylish, as you would also expect. The scenes are comprised of still images from Ashley Wood,the comics illustrator who did the cut-scenes for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and the Metal Gear digital graphic novel projects. In Peace Walker he uses starkly toned toned brushstroke art. His drawings are enlivened with comic book sound effects, camera pans and other visual tricks. After an in-game close-up of Snake's face morphed into a Snake portrait drawn by Wood, the story kicked in.

The story could be simplified slightly as follows: Snake was meeting with a man named Galvez, a supposed professor from Costa Rica who believed that the CIA was trying to overthrow his government. Costa Rica, like Japan, was not allowed to have its own army, so Galvez hoped Snake's fighting force could take care of the CIA forces instead. Snake was reluctant, not wanting to fight in just any old conflict. Galvez offered access to an off-shore base. Snake's comrade Miller was intrigued. Snake was not. Galvez tried something else and introduced Snake to a young woman named Paz who was dressed in a long red coat and seemed traumatized by war.

Time for a narrative interruption. As we watched the several-minute scene, we learned that the cut-scenes in Peace Walker are interactive. Later we'd be shown a scene featuring Snake wielding a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher against a flying drone. The player could manipulate the position of the RPG launcher in Wood's drawing in order to make Snake hit or miss his target.

A different kind of cut-scene interaction was emphasized in the scene that introduced Paz. The intent was to introduce the ability for players to pan and zoom in on these still drawings. The developers showing the demo said we could use this to see Paz's wounds. She had been held hostage by the forces Galvez wanted Snake to overthrow and scars had been left. So we zoomed it. Surprise. Zooming provided more than a glimpse at his wounds. We could see under her red coat to her regular clothes and then, closer in, to her underwear. Easter-egg leering is expected. This is a Metal Gear game.

Back to the story, briefly: Even Paz's presence couldn't convince Snake. Galvez, the supposed professor, then called Snake "Big Boss." That got Snake's attention. He signed on for the task.

Back in control, I briefly played a solo mission. My Snake wore jungle fatigues, could use a machine gun or stunning electrical stick against enemies. From the d-pad I could pick other weapons and gadgets. A digital display in the game's upper right corner indicated how exposed and unstealthy Snake was. When I made him run, the number went up. When he fired his gun, it peaked. Using the moves I learned from that beach tutorial I was able to have Snake prowl the jungle and take some enemy soldiers down.

The developers want you to pick a slower pace. One way of encouraging that is by preventing Snake from being able to pick up items if he runs over them. Snake must squat before he picks up whatever a downed soldier drops. But the developers don't want the slow pace to make the game itself slow. In fact ,they encourage a sense of perpetual movement. The game can't be paused unless the system is put in sleep mode, for example. Pressing start produces a map, but does not pause the action. And in a change from series tradition, audio codec sequences will play while Snake moves around rather than during action-interrupting dialogue screens.

By the time I had absorbed everything I just described, I was thinking that Peace Walker was one of the best-looking games on the PSP, one with stylish cut-scenes, an interesting story and solid controls.

Then I played co-op, and — always a sucker for an innovative idea — I was bowled over.

Peace Walker's missions can be played solo, but sneaking machines can also support a second player. Boss battles can support up to four. G4's Billy Berghammer and I tried a sneaking machine. We were each able to play as Snake, selecting one of four load-outs. I chose to play as the armored Battle Snake, forsaking quiet movement and speed for heavy weapons. He chose Naked Snake, getting heavy weapons as well, getting fast movement, but sacrificing defense. Other options were Jungle Fatigues Snake, a well-balanced character, and Sneaking Suit Snake, who was good at stealth and could wield a shield.

At the beginning of a level set near the jungle, Billy and I were asked to try Snake Formation. One of us would have Snake as the leader. The other got to be the gunner. As the gunner-to-be, I walked my Snake behind Billy's and was given a prompt to hold down the up button on the d-pad. Doing so linked us. My Snake put his hand on the other Snake's shoulder. Billy's Snake, in the lead, could move but not shoot without breaking the chain. In a four-player co-op mission, four players can make a Snake Formation chain.

To maintain a Snake Formation, the gunner player has to keep pressing up on the d-pad. Releasing it breaks the formation, but staying close still allows to two players to sync together. The syncing is displayed with a horizontal meter that appears in front of the characters and fills over the course of a few seconds. When players sync successfully, they received a brief bonus to their attributes. Their health regenerates more quickly and their camouflage index will increase.

Co-op players can access one another's inventory, wielding weapons not otherwise available to their Snake class. They can also perform special co-op moves like a boost over a chain-link fence. Those moves and the Snake Formation are only possible, though, if the two players are within range of one another's co-op circle, a ring that reached the extent of the visible playing field in the mission Billy and I tried. If the players get outside of each other's range, the PSPs treat the session as if the two Snakes just happen to be in the same single-player game level together. But if the two Snakes are within range, then all of the co-op actions I've described can be accessed.

We tried one other co-op action. This one was very Metal Gear. We hopped under a cardboard box together. The game labels a co-op box as a Love Pack and lets a second player scoot under it to join the one who initially equips it. Billy took the lead and made our box scamper around the screen. The producers told us that if we let the Snakes stay still then the box might start shaking in a frisky sort of way.

Levels may differ depending on the number of players who go into them, but the producers were unable to provide much detail about how the game might re-balance itself to accommodate that added firepower of multiple Snakes. In the demo being distributed at TGS, none of that tailoring is activated. It sounded to me like the extent to which levels will change is still being worked out.

We didn't get to do much fighting or sneaking in the co-op mode. Time only allowed us to learn the abilities, test them in a small space and imagine how they'd apply to a longer scenario. It was, nevertheless, an impressive demonstration of fresh thinking, consistent with the overall impression I got that Peace Walker is getting much more development thought, attention and budget than the average PSP game.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has a long way to go, but it already appears to have the potential to be both a very good game and an influential one. That first quality is always welcome on the PSP. The second, on Sony's portable, would be a rare achievement.

(Note: In Japan, where local multiplayer with PSPs is popular, the co-op of Peace Walker has the potential to be widely used. I neglected to ask whether the co-op in Peace Walker will be programmed to work over Wi-Fi, which might better suit many American gamers. If I can find out, I'll update this piece.)

According to the upcoming issue of Famitsu, here are the characters: Amanda, Huey, Chico, Strangelove, Coldman, Cécile, Miller, Paz and Gálvez. Character illustrations above.

Due out in 2010, Peace Walker takes place 10 years after Metal Gear Solid 3, chronicling the rise of Outer Heaven in Costa Rica. The game is not a side story or spin-off, but a full game written and produced by Kojima himself.