Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

Wrapped in bandages like his fake accomplice Joakim Mogren, slightly bonkers video game luminary Hideo Kojima confirmed during his GDC 2013 keynote earlier today that The Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes are actually, well, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. How did you possibly guess? Could it be because the connection’s been rumoured for the past few months?

The Phantom Pain was originally announced during the Spike VGAs, prompting a slew of rumours regarding the title’s ties to Hideo Kojima. But a feature length trailer confirmed the link this evening, with the developer revealing that, much like Ground Zeroes, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is an open world game.

The title stars a Snake – or is that Big Boss? – who's been in a coma for a whopping nine years. Kojima played the opening section from the release, in which the protagonist tries to escape from hospital alongside a fellow named Ishmael, who sounds like he's voiced by Kiefer Sutherland. From what we understand, legendary voice actor David Hayter will not be reprising his role this time, but nothing is concrete yet. [Update: Hayter's confirmed that he's not involved with the project.]

Hallucinations seemed to play a big part in the demo, as Snake spies a woman who resembles famous antagonist Psycho Mantis and a threatening man who appears to self combust. It's unclear whether the whole scene was merely a dream, or if the character is still suffering from the effects of his coma. Considering the history of the series, we suppose that anything's possible.

From a gameplay perspective, though, there's not a lot to talk about. Kojima explained that the section forms the adventure's tutorial, which is perhaps why you spend the majority of it pushing forward to make Snake crawl. Interestingly, the developer confirmed that the gameplay sequence was being powered by a PC – but we spotted a PlayStation 3 logo during the title's trailer. As such, it's safe to assume that the game will release on Sony's current flagship console. However, considering the quality of the visuals, we wouldn't rule out a PlayStation 4 port.

We've included the trailer and the first gameplay footage in the space below. As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section.