The Early Details of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes

Snake is back, and he's at PAX. At this year's convention, Metal Gear series director Hideo Kojima gave a talk about the series' origins, its characters, and what the future holds in store. Of course, what fans were most excited to see was the extended demonstration of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes running on Kojima's new Fox engine.

While this was only a taste of what is to come in the Metal Gear universe, Kojima did offer some interesting details during the demonstration. As mentioned, the game will be open-world, and players will be able to pilot a helicopter to different parts of the world--perhaps to the different ground zero locations. Players can also summon their helicopter "at any time" by deploying a special signal flare. The helicopter will swoop in blasting "Ride of the Valkyries" (or whichever custom song you choose) and lay down suppressive fire for Snake.

Helicopters were mentioned a third time when Kojima noted that players can now hijack vehicles. As seen in the demo, Snake swiped a jeep and took it for a quick spin. Between stealing military vehicles and calling down death from above, it's unclear when Snake is going to find time to get any real sneaking done, but there's still plenty we don't know about this game.

One thing we do know is that Kojima did not want to brand Ground Zeroes as Metal Gear Solid 5. Instead, he referred to it as a "prologue" to MGS5. We'll be sure to keep you updated with more details about the game as they become available. Until then, you can check out the game's official trailer below: