Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Snake prepares to slither out of hiding

Come now Venom Snake, haven’t you kept us waiting long enough? It’s been well over two years since Kojima’s stealth icon first made his current-gen intentions known with the Ground Zeroes debut trailer. No wonder the smokes-loving agent is beginning to look like he should qualify for a free bus pass. Thankfully that long, agonising wait for The Phantom Pain will be over soon… ish.

During Kojima Productions’ 32nd episode of its weekly webcast, one of the presenters teased MGS V’s release date will confirmed shortly. “I think we should be able to announce that soon, so look forward to that. It’s only a little longer.” Providing said date jumps out of a cardboard box before summer, we’re hopeful Snake’s open-world sneaker will hit in the final few months of 2015; still a full seven years after the last canonical entry. Somehow, we don’t see MGS becoming an annualised franchise.

“Kojima’s revealed Snake brandishing a rail gun and Posing with a dog.”

As for new gameplay updates, creator Hideo Kojima’s Twitter timeline has been the source of many intriguing in-game snaps. Recently, he’s revealed a shot of Snake caked in blood (the more damage you take, the more claret covers you), one of your hero seemingly brandishing a rail gun and an image of him chilling out with Diamond Dog.