Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: When was Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots released?
Metal Gear(Japanese:メタルギア,Hepburn:Metaru Gia) is a series of action-adventure stealth video games, created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. The first game, Metal Gear, was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operative (usually either Solid Snake or Big Boss), who is assigned to find the titular superweapon "Metal Gear", a bipedal walking tank with the ability to launch nuclear weapons. Several sequels have been released for multiple consoles, which have expanded the original game's plot adding characters opposing and supporting Snake, while there have also been a few prequels exploring the origins of the Metal Gear and recurring characters.
In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the outfit of Altaïr is available as an unlockable, though, originally, it was only an April Fools joke by Hideo Kojima. Kojima later repaid the favor, by letting Ubisoft borrow the outfit of the Metal Gear Solid character Raiden as an unlockable in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.[171] In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the player can jump into a bale of hay from a rooftop (which also includes the "Eagle" sound effect used in the Assassins' Creed games) and use it to attract and subdue enemies. The Assassin order is also referenced by a character.[172]
"Metal Gear Solid Touch" for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad is a "touch shooting" game that revisits "MGS4"s plot and action through the touch interface. Developers of the game "LittleBigPlanet", Media Molecule, released an expansion pack based on "Metal Gear Solid 4" on December 23, 2008. It includes character skins for Old Snake, Raiden, Meryl, and Screaming Mantis, as well as a "Metal Gear"-themed set of levels.
On June 19, 2008, Konami released the "Metal Gear Solid 4 Database" onto the PlayStation Store in North America and Japan, and one week later on the European store. The Database is a downloadable application for PlayStation 3 that catalogs every piece of "Metal Gear" lore from all the canonical entries in the series released up to "Metal Gear Solid 4" in the form of an encyclopedia (browsable by alphabet and category), a timeline, and character relationship diagrams. Highlighted words in each article link to related articles, and it keeps track of which ones the user has already read. The Database automatically locks any items related to "MGS4", in order to prevent the leaking of spoilers to players who have not completed the game yet. In order to reveal these articles, the user must have a completed "MGS4" game save that was created on the same console and with a version of the game from the same region as their account.
When "" was known as "Metal Gear Solid: Rising", former producer Shigenobu Matsuyama hinted that Raiden's past as a child soldier would be elaborated and his weaknesses as a human would be explored. Matsuyama wanted Raiden to have as strong a role in the game as in "Metal Gear Solid 2", leading him to become the game's main character. Director Mineshi Kimura noted that he wanted Raiden to be able to move like he did in the "Metal Gear Solid 4" trailers, wanting to show "the stealth of the sword, and the strength of not even losing to the gun, and the fear and power you have with this blade." Matsuyama stated that they would focus on Raiden's strong will and physical strength, so he would be enjoyable to control. Raiden's design was changed during the game's development, leading to different promotional images of him. Following the game's reboot into a spin-off, Developers stated that while Raiden "has grown up" in comparison to previous "Metal Gear" games, he is still conflicted with his life as a child soldier in a past civil war, leading him to be a "dark hero". Shinkawa designed Raiden's new body as a way to emphasize him being a dark hero contrasting his "Metal Gear Solid 4" persona and later discussed with Platinum Games' Kenji Saito about including his quasi-human look. Raiden losing an eye also serves to represent his transformation across the story. In response to complaints regarding how "Rising" appeared to contradict Raiden's ending in "Guns of the Patriots", the Kojima Productions staff explained the game would explain what happened with Raiden's life.
Although he announced that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots would be the last Metal Gear game he would be directly involved in,[41] he announced at E3 2009 that he would return to help on two Metal Gear games: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, as a producer and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker as writer, director, and producer.[42] When interviewed at Gamescom 2009, Kojima stated that he got more involved with Peace Walker because "there was a lot of confusion within the team and it didn't proceed as I wanted it to. Therefore I thought that I needed to jump in and do Peace Walker".[43]
The events of "Metal Gear Rising" are set in the year 2018, four years after the events of "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots". The Patriots, a powerful shadow organization running the world's war economy, have been destroyed and Private Military Companies (PMC) have splintered into numerous factions. With the elimination of the Patriot-controlled nanomachine technology used to regulate soldiers' abilities, PMCs turn to advanced cyborg technology, creating durable superhuman soldiers. The player controls Raiden, a former child soldier turned into a cyborg that now works for the PMC Maverick Security Consulting, Inc. Raiden is supported by his Maverick colleagues, Russian pointman Boris Popov, military advisor Kevin Washington, computer specialist Courtney Collins, and cybernetics expert Wilhelm "Doktor" Voight. Returning from "Metal Gear Solid 4" is Sunny Emmerich, a child prodigy and friend of Raiden working at Solis Space & Aeronautics.
 is a character based on the character of the same name from "Policenauts" that was redesigned and reintroduced. She is introduced in "Metal Gear Solid" as Solid Snake's sidekick/love interest and Roy Campbell's legal niece/biological daughter. Meryl returns in "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" as Rat Patrol Team One's commander. Meryl Silverburgh is voiced by Kyoko Terase in the Japanese version and by Debi Mae West in the English translation.
A Limited Edition was released simultaneously with the game's standard edition, as an enhanced counterpart. The limited edition contains "Guns of the Patriots", a box with artwork by Yoji Shinkawa, a Blu-ray Disc containing two "making of" documentaries, and partial game soundtrack containing only songs written by Harry Gregson-Williams. The Limited Edition was available exclusively at GameStop in the United States and EB Games in Canada, while a similar bundle with an additional 6-inch 'Olive Drab' Old Snake Figurine was made available at Play.com in the United Kingdom. It is also included in the 40GB Limited Edition PlayStation 3 "Metal Gear Solid 4" bundle.
"Metal Gear Solid 4" includes the Starter Pack for "Metal Gear Online" ("MGO"). "MGO" features up to 16 player online tactical battles and incorporates several gameplay elements from "Metal Gear Solid 4", including the SOP system that allows players to have a visual confirmation of their teammates' position and battle status. "MGO" also allows fully customizable characters. The Starter Pack allows players to engage in sneaking missions, where Old Snake and Metal Gear Mk.II acquire dog tags from other human contestants, along with standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and several special modes. Expansions packs, offering more maps and playable special characters (Mei Ling, Meryl, Akiba, Liquid Ocelot, Raiden, and Vamp), can be purchased via the "MGO" menu item "MGO Shop (PlayStation Network)", or via MGO or Konami's shop. The PlayStation Wallet is used for the first option and a credit card for the latter two. "Metal Gear Online" was completely shut down on June 13, 2012.
The game was publicly announced first at E3 2005, by means of a humorous and slightly abstract gag machinima using characters from "Metal Gear Solid 3", under the slogan of "No Place to Hide". The title was described as "essentially finished" by January 2008 and went through extensive beta testing. At Destination PlayStation on February 26, 2008, Sony announced that "MGS4" would be released worldwide on June 12, 2008, along with the special "MGS4" PlayStation 3 bundle. It was announced that "Guns of the Patriots" is the first PlayStation 3 game that uses a 50GB dual layer Blu-ray Disc even with the use of file compression.
After "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" was released, Hideo Kojima started coming up with ideas for another game, "Metal Gear Solid 5". The game was meant to feature The Boss and her comrades, the Cobra Unit, as main characters. However, the lack of experience from the younger staff in charge and the lack of involvement from Kojima resulted in this project being scrapped. Afterwards, a member suggested turning it into a sidestory focused on Raiden since said character was featured in "Guns of the Patriots" and the staff agreed to develop "Metal Gear Solid: Rising". It was originally conceived to chronicle the series of events that resulted in the transformation of Raiden into his cyborg ninja persona in "Metal Gear Solid 4". "Rising" would have taken place during a point in the series' chronology at which Raiden had already begun his transformation into cyborg form, albeit with a different and somewhat more crude appearance from the one seen in "Metal Gear Solid 4".
Metal Gear fictional chronology 1964 – Snake Eater 1970 – Portable Ops 1974 – Peace Walker 1975 – Ground Zeroes 1984 – The Phantom Pain 1995 – Metal Gear 1999 – Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake 2005 – Metal Gear Solid (The Twin Snakes) 2007/09 – Sons of Liberty 2014 – Guns of the Patriots 2018 – Metal Gear Rising: Revengeancevt
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is an action-adventure stealth video game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami exclusively for the PlayStation 3 console. It is the sixth "Metal Gear" game directed by Hideo Kojima and was released worldwide on June 12, 2008.
The game was also described as being very sad and depressing for a video game, with the main character dealing with death, depression, and self-carelessness. Kotaku said, ""Metal Gear Solid 4" is so unusual in that it's the rare game that asks them to be interested in something else: a march toward defeat, an interactive tragedy."
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots deals with a rapidly aging Solid Snake (now branded "Old Snake") who is on a mission to find and defeat Revolver Ocelot, now known as Liquid Ocelot. Despite the destruction of the Arsenal Gear in Sons of Liberty, the Patriots have continued in their plans to influence the course of human history, installing artificial intelligence systems around the world. Ocelot, opposed to this, has assembled armies with which to fight back and intends to hijack their entire operating system for his own ends. Solid Snake's objective later changes to destroying the AIs of the Patriots and stop their oppression. After he and his allies succeed, Snake decides to live out his life peacefully.
The second version is in "Metal Gear Solid" when Liquid Snake's FOXHOUND takes over Shadow Moses Island with Liquid's hopes of threatening the rest of the world with Metal Gear REX but was foiled by Solid Snake. The third version is seen in "Metal Gear Solid 2" as Solidus Snake's plan to destroy the Patriots by detonating a nuclear warhead on New York which would trigger an electromagnetic pulse so Solidus can permanently destroy the Patriots' AI systems.
In North America, a bundle containing an 80GB PlayStation 3, a DualShock 3 wireless controller, a downloadable game coupon for "Pain", and a copy of "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" was released for US$499 on June 12, 2008, to coincide with the release of the standalone edition. Japan saw the release of the "Guns of the Patriots Welcome Box" that contains the game itself, a DualShock 3 controller, a Sixaxis controller, and a 40GB PlayStation 3 in either black, white or silver.
The official soundtrack was released on May 28, 2008, by Konami Digital Entertainment under the catalog number GFCA-98/9. It consists of two discs of music and 47 tracks. A soundtrack album was also packaged with "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Limited Edition".
Following Metal Gear 2's completion, Kojima worked on other projects before directing his third Metal Gear game, Metal Gear Solid, for the PlayStation. It began development in 1994 and debuted at the 1996 Tokyo Game Show,[13] before being released in 1998.[14][15] The success of Metal Gear Solid resulted in a series of sequels, prequels, spin-offs, ports, and remakes for Microsoft Windows, the Game Boy Color, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Metal Gear Solid was followed up by the sequel Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty released in November 2001 for the PlayStation 2. A remake of the original Metal Gear Solid called Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was made for the Nintendo GameCube in early 2004.[16] Later that year, the third numbered entry, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, was released on the PlayStation 2. This is the first prequel which was set prior to all the previously released Metal Gear games and which acted as an origin to the franchise.[17][18] These games were followed by a sequel to Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, which was released on the PlayStation Portable in 2006.[19][20] The series' main storyline was concluded in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for the PlayStation 3 in 2008.[21][22] The game featured a multiplayer spin-off called Metal Gear Online.[23] In April 2010, another sequel to Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, was released for the PlayStation Portable and was set shortly after the events of Portable Ops.[24][25] The spinoff game, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, was released in 2013 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and in Jan 2014 on Steam(PC). The game is set after Guns of the Patriots and stars Raiden, the protagonist of Sons of Liberty who turned into a cyborg ninja.[26] Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was released on March 18, 2014 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Ground Zeroes was much shorter than previous games and served as an introduction to the next game, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The latest game in the series is The Phantom Pain, which was released on September 1, 2015 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
The overarching theme of the Metal Gear Solid series is that of the "gene, meme, scene, sense, peace,[61] revenge[62] and race,[63]" and how people are affected by these factors according to the game's producer Kojima — Metal Gear Solid deals with genetics and the moral implications of genetic engineering, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty deals with how identity can be affected by the philosophies of one's society (a "meme") and the effects of censorship on society, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater deals with how the time and place one lives in (a "scene") affects their identity, how politics change along with the times and hyperreality, the inability to distinguish fact and fiction in an information saturated world.[64] Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots deals with the "sense" a person dies with and how some things cannot be passed down to future generations and be misinterpreted as well as the artificially controlled (and globally shared) sense-data of the new era's nanotech-enhanced soldiers.[65] With Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker the plot deals with the true nature of 'peace', and the concept of conflict in human societies. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain deals with the themes "race" and "revenge" and how the latter can make one lose his humanity. Following the initial Metal Gear, each game has been a deconstruction of action movies and video games, using tropes to invoke the themes and ideas especially those of spy movies - it examines what kind of mind and complete control of a situation would be needed to pull off the absurdly complex and convoluted plans that rely on events completely within the realm of chance yet comes off without a hitch. Furthermore, it examines what happens to a child soldier forced to take up a normal life through the characters Eli also known as Liquid Snake in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Raiden was also known as Jack in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.[66] Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance also deals with "revenge". Raiden is defeated in the beginning and feels a deep sense of vengeance, and as such exacts his 'revenge' on the group who sabotaged him, as well as coming to terms with his own past and embracing his true nature. The games carry many implicit parallels to Nietzschean philosophy.[67] Solid Snake serves as a deconstruction of the action hero archetype, as his wartime experiences have turned him into a bitter, broken-down soldier who wishes to retire, but cannot escape the life of conflict that had entwined him for so long. This concept is further explored through Raiden, who is put through the same torments as Snake in explicit detail. Big Boss is similarly not immune to this theme: as Naked Snake, he does not resemble a suave, impeccable secret agent that would otherwise into the 1960s spy film pastiche of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, but is instead an everyman character. Only after undergoing immense psychological and physical scarring does he begin to resemble the ultimate soldier known as Big Boss.[68]
The Metal Gear franchise has achieved great success, selling over 53.8 million copies as of March 2018.[8] Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty sold over 7 million copies worldwide,[209] and is followed in sales by Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, all with 6 million.[210][211][212][213] According to Chart-Track, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was the second fastest-selling PlayStation 3 game in the United Kingdom after Grand Theft Auto IV.[214] The PlayStation Portable games were met with notably lower sales, but it has been analyzed that this was because of the low sales of the console when the games were released.[215] Metal Gear Survive, the first Metal Gear game to be developed since series creator Hideo Kojima left Konami, sold only a fraction of the sales made by Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.[216]
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Original Soundtrack is the official soundtrack for "", released for Sony's PlayStation Portable. The soundtrack contains 44 tracks composed by: Akihiro Honda, Kazuma Jinnouchi, Nobuko Toda, Takahiro Izutani, Norihiko Hibino & Yoshitaka Suzuki. The soundtrack was released on December 20, 2006.Metal Gear 20th Anniversary: Metal Gear Music Collection is a compilation album released for the video game series "Metal Gear" on July 18, 2007. The album contains songs from various games in the series, as well as a new song titled "Metal Gear 20 Years History — Past, Present, Future —", a medley spanning the whole series. The album was produced by Norihiko Hibino, who also composed three of the album's songs and co-arranged two tracks.Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the , composed primarily by Nobuko Toda, Shuichi Kobori, Kazuma Jinnouchi, and Harry Gregson-Williams. The official soundtrack was released on May 28, 2008 by Konami Digital Entertainment under the catalog number GFCA-98/9. A soundtrack album was also packaged with "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" Limited Edition, but featured fewer songs.
In "MGS4", players assume the role of an aged Solid Snake (also referred to as Old Snake), using stealth, close quarters combat, and traditional "Metal Gear" combat. The overhead third-person camera of earlier games has been replaced by a streamlined view and over-the-shoulder camera for aiming a weapon, with an optional first-person view at the toggle of a button.
"Guns of the Patriots" is set in 2014, nine years after the events of the original "Metal Gear Solid" and five years after "Sons of Liberty". The world's economy relies on continuous civil wars fought by PMCs, which outnumber government military forces. Soldiers are equipped with nanomachines that monitor and enhance their performance on the battlefield, controlled by a vast network known as the Sons of the Patriots (SOP) system. Liquid Ocelot, missing since the events of "Sons of Liberty", re-emerges from hiding to launch an insurrection against the Patriots.