New Metal Gear Solid makes US debut

Konami has unveiled the next chapter in the epic Metal Gear Solid franchise, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.

The game was revealed at the PAX Prime convention which is currently underway in Seattle. At the event, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima walked attendees through a hands-on demo of the title.

Ground Zeroes will be a prologue to Metal Gear Solid 5, which is a polite way of saying that it is not as epic and intense as Metal Gear Solid 4. While it will continue that game’s linear storyline, Kojima admitted he doesn’t see it as the same kind of several-hours-long experience.

In the PAX demo, players are shown a scene of a prison camp, a giant open-world environment. It seems like it is on the same kind of playing field as Metal Gear Solid 4 even though it might not be as sprawling overall.

The demo continued with Snake hopping into a Jeep in order to gain access to the base. Also in the scene was a helicopter, which players will be able to fly between the various environments in the open-world game experience.

While the game was being demoed to show off that the title was coming to the PS3, Kojima admitted the prototype version is running on PC hardware, and is not yet ready to show off a PS3 build.

Metal Gear Solid, once a very loyal Playstation exclusive franchise, has recently expanded its horizons to the Xbox 360. There was, however, no mention of a 360 version of Ground Zeroes.

The release date was also not announced.