Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 Only

Courtesy: http://www.tomshardware.com/us/

Sony's PlayStation 3 had a relatively low profile at CES 2008 - in fact, Sony press conference didn't even mention the product once - but the company did take the opportunity to preview what many believe will be the killer app for the console - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. And once again, Sony is insisting the game will only be on the PlayStation 3.

The game was being demoed on a single PS3 at Sony's booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center, and it drew a steady crowd. Metal Gear Solid 4 had become the center of attention for Sony not only because it's anticipated to be the most popular title yet for the console, but also because of persistent rumors that indicate the game will be ported to the Xbox 360; the Metal Gear Solid series has been a longtime exclusive for Sony. Sony still says the rumors are false and that the game is a PS3 exclusive (a nearby monitor said as much, and also said Metal Gear Solid 4 will support the new DualShock 3 controller).

While some news Internet news reports have claimed the Metal Gear Solid 4 demo at CES suffered from frame rate fluctuations, we didn't notice any such issues during gameplay. The demo used the same urban battlefield level as previous demos shown at E for All. Metal Gear Solid 4 features much of the same kind of stealth action of previous MGS games, but there looks to be a few differences for the fourth installment. The third-person view can be moved to a first-person view; in fact at several points during combat the camera zooms in on Solid Snake and resembles the "over the shoulder" view of Resident Evil 4. There's also a stress meter in the top left corner of the screen that replaces the stamina meter from previous titles.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is scheduled for release sometime this spring.