English-language MGS3 trailer debuts, new details emerge

Check out the first English-language trailer for the next Metal Gear Solid. Click "Stream for Free" for higher resolution. This morning, Konami Japan released a brand-new five-minute video trailer for its highly anticipated stealth action game, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The trailer was originally shown at an industry event in Leipzig, Germany.

What's most significant about the new trailer is that it's the first time the game's English language track has been revealed. Series fans will immediately recognize David Hayter's reprisal of the main character, Solid Snake, and they may identify some other veteran English voice actors among the cast. They'll also catch many rather obscure references to previous games in the series.

The trailer again implies Metal Gear Solid 3's anachronistic setting in the 1960s, whereas previous Metal Gear Solid games took place closer to the present day. Bold text messages flash during the course of the trailer, presenting such statements as "ReLive the Cold War" and "ReLive Memories," perhaps suggesting that there's more to the game's decades-old setting than is probably apparent.

Also shown in the new trailer are new characters, including a female warrior referred to as The Boss--someone who apparently has a close relationship with Solid Snake. The game's plot seems to revolve around a lot of Cold War-era double-crossing between Soviets and Americans, as well as a deadly weapon called the Shagohod, which is apparently a nuke of some kind. The trailer prominently shows another villainous character--someone referred to only as the Colonel. Some action-packed sequences of Snake riding in a motorcycle sidecar also showcase the apparent high quality of Metal Gear Solid 3's cinematic presentation.

This latest Metal Gear Solid 3 trailer is purely based on storyline and cinematic cutscenes, and it gives a feel for the game rather than showing off its actual gameplay. In this fashion, it's reminiscent of the cinematic trailers that led up to the release of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty--a game that went on to confound many series fans after they discovered that the trailer's storyline implications turned out to be red herrings. We know this much: Metal Gear Solid 3 will clearly tie in with the elaborate and twisting story--and unresolved conclusion--from the previous game.

[UPDATE] At a press event in San Francisco today, Konami released some new morsels of information on Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater that aren't readily apparent in the new trailer for the game. For starters, if you tranquilize animals that you're planning to eat (rather than kill them outright), the meat will stay fresher and, as a result, you'll get more benefit from eating it. We were also told that in addition to poisonous foods, the game will feature foods that Snake--whose stomach will growl when he gets hungry, incidentally--likes or dislikes. Intriguingly, though, if you repeatedly eat foods that he dislikes, there's a good chance that he'll eventually acquire a taste for them. Finally, it was revealed today that if you save your game at a point where Snake's health is low, and then return to play it after an extended period of time (the example given was three weeks), Snake will have used that time to relax and recuperate. It's not clear how quickly Snake's health will be restored while you're inactive, but we definitely got the impression that not playing for three weeks (which sounds like a difficult thing to do) would be long enough for Snake to regain full health.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is slated to ship later this year. For further information, check out GameSpot's coverage of Konami's fall lineup. Also, we invite you to watch our exclusive new video interview with Metal Gear Solid's US brand manager for additional first-hand information.