Some more Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain info from previews and E3

A few days ago Yongyea released a massive video compiling all the information from numerous sources that attended the MGSV preview event prior to E3. If you have an hour and a half to spare, check out the video. For those who don’t have the time or prefer to read, here is a list of some of the most interesting or new information taken from the video. As always, beware of spoilers.

Note that some of this info may have been revealed in the recent gameplay demo.

• When Snake wakes up, the doctor shows him an x-ray of his damaged body. Aside from the one in his brain, Snake also has shrapnel in his heart that is too risky to remove.
• No media outlet was allowed to talk about the identity of Ishmael.
• Gamesradar called ‘the man on fire’ a ‘flaming psychic projection’.
• In the first mission briefing he is designated the codename ‘Punished Venom Snake’, and will take on other names during the game (including ‘Ahab’, according to Hobby Consolas).
• A lot of the background story will be told through cassette tapes (such as mission intel, backstory on The Patriots’ formation or on Strangelove’s fate).
• After the events of GZ, Kaz began training dissident soldiers during the 9 years Big Boss was in a coma.
• The binoculars are called the INT Scope (intel scope).
• The Skulls are part of Skull Face’s army.
• Main missions also come with optional objectives that reward you with extras such as cassette tapes. They will be hidden to players until they have completed the mission once, after which they are revealed and the mission can be replayed to obtain the extra stuff. Some of them require better gear, meaning they can’t be tackled the first time.
• Mother Base will grow as you advance through the game and collect more materials. There are six units: combat, R&D, base development, support, intel, medical. Each of the different units will have a leader (Miller is in charge of base development, Ocelot is in charge of intel). You can construct four of each unit. Some of the platforms can be constructed for specific needs (brig for prisoners, animal conservation platform).

• The animal conservation platform unlocks after fultoning a certain amount of animals, and can be visited. Putting animals in it will also unlock certain upgrades.
• Players cannot customize Mother Base’s structure, expansion happens automatically. They can choose the color scheme and design the custom emblem, however.
• If morale becomes too low (Snake not visiting enough, Diamond Dogs going bankrupt), soldiers may desert the organization.
• On Mother Base, Snake will sometimes have to make decision on matters Kaz and Ocelot disagree on.
• Some plot developments may also occur when you return to Mother Base.
• Snake can even develop a non-lethal machine gun.
• The Phantom Cigar can be upgraded using plants and herbs, increasing the amount of time that can be fastforwarded.
• There will be lots of different cardboard boxes for Snake to use.
• When using the bionic arm to knock soldiers out, the accompanying sound is reminiscent of classic 80s movies.
• The vehicle option in the preparation screen will unlock once the player has upgraded the fulton recovery to be able to lift large objects, such as jeeps. Vehicles can also be customized or dismantled.
• Some side ops can only be completed by a recruit, instead of Snake.
• D-Horse loves apples and sugar cubes.
• DD will have a ‘very cool story’ for players to explore.
• DD’s presence in Mother Base will raise morale, and soldiers can be overheard talking about him.
• Quiet will decrease morale on Mother Base, as people don’t trust her.
• One media outlet called Quiet’s boss battle the most epic sniper battle since The End in MGS3.
• One boss battle in particular, played by Hobby Consolas, ‘paid homage to one of the most memorable confrontations in the Metal Gear saga’.

• According to PSX Extreme, the game will feature ‘half naked men’.
• D-Walker can be set on cruise control, so that it moves automatically.
• The relationship between Snake and the support buddies will grow as they spend more time together.
• Support buddies can’t die, and high praise was given to the AI of these companions.
• Players can save up to three load-outs in the preparation screen.
• The music that plays in the preparation screen is the main theme of PW.
• The walls of the chopper will fill up with photos as the game progresses.
• Main missions are called episodes, complete with opening and closing credits.
• New missions will be unlocked in batches, so that the player can choose the order in which to complete them.
• One mission involves destroying a battalion of tanks that travels across the map (this is one of the few missions that doesn’t have a limited mission area).
• Some side ops will appear automatically, others have to be triggered (for example, the one that has Snake recruiting a translator, it will unlock after Snake tries to interrogate a soldier and Ocelot suggests finding a translator).
• There will be over 150 side ops, and they can be tackled at any time, even during main missions.
• The longest and most impressive mission Hobby Consolas played was in fact a side op.
• One side op involves rescuing the scientist that created Snake’s bionic arm. Rescuing him allows Snake to upgrade his arm.
• According to Miguel Asher from Atomix, some side ops can ‘become’ main missions.
• Players aren’t ranked for completing side ops.
• If you access a mission from the field, a portable briefing station will be deployed, where Snake can plug in his iDroid and download the mission data.
• The game is quite challenging in its default settings, and with reflex mode turned off, ‘ridiculously difficult’.
• Some missions will have a time limit.
• It takes about 45 minutes on foot to travel from one end of Afghanistan to another.
• Snake can fast travel by tearing shipping labels from signposts, sticking them on his cardboard box and waiting at a delivery platform.
• Difficulty will ramp up significantly when players reach Angola (Africa), which will be accessible after completing the main missions in Afghanistan.
• One outlet came close to finishing Angola’s missions (20 of them), after which the completion percentage was at 35 – 40%.
• One Angola mission involves going into a mine to rescue children with diamonds.
• In the swamplike areas Snake can leave footprints behind, that soldiers can use to track him down. Rain will wipe them away though.

• Fog can increase the difficulty of a mission for Snake.
• Enemy soldiers can notice Snake’s shadow, and during cloudy days Snake won’t have one so he will be more difficult for enemies to find.
• The game will feature a great variety of wild animals. Small animals like rats won’t be fultonned, but Snake will put them in his pockets.
• Soldiers come with ranks, different personalities, different weapons, vehicles, work shifts and more.
• The enemy AI has been improved a lot since GZ.
• By clearing nearby bases of enemy soldiers, Snake can make sure this base can no longer be contacted for backup by another base while infiltrating. Communication relays can be destroyed as well, but this will raise suspicion. The same goes for generators.
• You can see if enemy snipers are aiming for you by the glare of their scope.
• Intel gathered will remain intact even if Snake dies.
• Snake may be contacted from Mother Base, informing him of important individuals in the field who may be beneficial to certain departments of the base.
• If a recruit is injured, he may die during fulton extraction.
• Aside from CQC, recruits can be trained trough various mini games, according to Miguel Asher.
• If you kill a recruit on Mother Base, the game will load a previous checkpoint.
• Recruits will interact with Big Boss through dialogue (such as asking how he got the nickname Big Boss), as well as with eachother, as they can be overheard talking or gossiping.
• The part of Mother Base that is accessible is mostly outdoors, but there is the brig and Greg Miller (KindaFunnyGames) also mentioned a downstairs area that he couldn’t talk about.
• Mother Base can become so large that you have to use the jeep and chopper to traverse and it will still take several minutes of travel.
• New shooting range challenges (such as an obstacle course) will become available as you expand Mother Base. Completing them will raise morale.
• If you visit Mother Base on your real life birthday you will be greeted with some sort of surprise.
• While in GZ, L1 was used for the radio, in TPP it is used to bring up the context sensitive command wheel.
• Hobby Consolas reports that pressing the triangle button while lying down will activate stealth mode, making Snake’s body sink into the ground and rendering him basically invisible.
• Different parts of Snake can get injured depending on where he gets shot, resulting in negative side effects (not being able to lift his arm, or to run). To fix this, the player has to find a save location and hold the triangle button for about 10 seconds.
• Snakes abilities can’t be upgraded, only his equipment.
• Snake can get badly injured but he can’t get sick.
• There is no stamina or psyche meter in the game.
• Rations are gone too.
• The game won’t have a morality system.
• If Snake stumbles over an object in the field, guards will react to the noise. Same goes for the sound of bullets.
• Lots of praise for the sound effects, such as the wind whistling at Snake’s ears as he rides his horse.
• While Snake won’t talk a lot in the game (at least in the first 16 hours), he does have a lot of dialogue in the cassette tapes.
• Throughout the first 16 hours, there were no two characters who had the same face, according to Level-Up.
• If you shoot Ocelot with a tranquilizer dart, he will get woozy and say ‘LaLiLuLeLo’.
• GZ posters can be found throughout the world of TPP.
• Players will also have access to a database that holds information on all the characters, animals, flora, fauna etc found in the game. Aside from info on TPP it will cover the history of the franchise.
• A Konami representative told PlayStation Access that he had almost completed the story and it took him about 50 hours. His completion level was only at 52%.
• There will be some changes between the build journalists played and the final game. The Kojima Productions logo may not appear in the final game.
• Smartphone applications are being developed alongside the game.
• There is a lot more in the game than has been revealed so far (such as the rumor that Snake’s face can be customized, which may be only for MGO).

To watch Yong’s compilation video, which has the length of a feature film, click on the source below.

He also released a 20 minute impressions video based on 1 hour of playtime at E3. Here are some new bits of info from that video:

• Opening credits were shown during the intro cutscene.
• Ocelot is wearing the ‘Ocelot Gear’ sunglasses by JF REY.
• The bionic arm punch is performed by pressing R2 while sprinting (needs to be equipped as a secondary weapon).
• The controls are improved compared to GZ, and feel more direct (probably due to streamlined animations).
• Cover has also been improved, Snake isn’t ‘glued’ to walls anymore, so it’s easier to get in and out of cover quickly.
• At night, guards will fire flare guns to alert other guards they have spotted you.
• Cardboard boxes will be used differently depending on Snake’s position (crouched or standing up).
• When the Skulls spot you, a ‘reflex mode’-like scene consisting of flashing images will play, after which they’ll go into a different state to attack you.
• One of the Skulls seemed to pull a machine gun from thin air (out of the empty palm of his other hand).
• The cassette tapes will paint a full picture of what happened between GZ and TPP (and more).
• After the hands-on demo, Yong is absolutely sure Big Boss is Big Boss (for those who are still doubting).
• Weapons can be upgraded up to level 6 (called Grade 6 in the game).

Again, to see the video for yourself click on the link below.

Source: Yong Preview Compilation, Hands-On Impressions