GC ’09: Kojima shows off Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Gaming legend Hideo Kojima was at GameCom 2009 to talk about the much anticipated next edition of his sprawling Metal Gear Solid saga. As many of you will know by now, it’s going to be a PSP exclusive.

In a brief speech, Kojima outlined why he chose to develop a major addition to the franchise for PSP:

"You might ask: “Why a sequel on the PSP?” One answer to this question is the style of how people play games these days" he said, adding the examples of "Music, pictures, movies, phones - everything these days is portable. People are used to carrying these things with them, and can’t live without them. So I saw that I wanted people to carry along MGS too."

Kojima then introduced a sizeable clip of Peace Walker in action.

It seems that the focus for Peace Walker will be ‘Co-Ops’ - Cooperative Operations. Yep, you’ll be able to play through the game (or at least part of it) along with a second friend-controlled Snake - with some interesting new mechanics to suit.

Firstly you’ll be able to revive your compadre should he catch a stray bullet. That’s some serious first aid knowledge.

Also, you’re able to pin control of both Snakes to one player, allowing for precision sneaking from cover to cover. This was also shown in a more aggressive light with both players moving along back to back but in perfect sync, covering each other against a large enemy assault.

It also emerged that there would be a four player element as an impressive tank showdown was displayed. Tactics included two players holding bulletproof shields while the other two fired over their shoulders, as well as a neat flanking manoeuvre which allowed one player to sneak around and take out a vital component, disabling the tank.

It was enough to whet our appetite for the game. We’ll have to wait for the Tokyo Games Show in September for more info.