Sister site Tomopop brings us word of a Metal Gear Solid Rex figure on the way from 3A toys. The photos come from a poster on Toyark and not much is known about the toy other than that it's bad ass looking. It's being speculated that the figure will be over a foot high and again, it looks bad ass. 

Rex, for those of you that don't know and to fluff up this post with another paragraph, served as the back drop for the final battle in Metal Gear Solid with Solid Snake, Liquid Snake and Revolver Ocelot. Tomopop speculates that this is the Metal Gear Solid 4 version of Rex judging by the weathered paint. I'll take Jason's word for it as I've never played any of the Metal Gears. 

Yeah yeah, I'll get to them one of these days. Until then, get a better look at the figure from the links above. Did I mention how bad ass it looks? 

Last week's bonus questions brought in even more discussion than the week before, and when you outdo a Zelda and Final Fantasy debate, that's saying something. And boy did you guys and gamer girls have plenty to say. I'm thrilled the new bonus question format is getting so much love! The Half-Life series also got plenty of love, and set a new game debate record for the most winning votes ever:

• Half-Life series (198 votes) -- WOW!
• Halo series (38 votes)

To see one of the best selling game series of all time get put in its place turned into quite the exciting comments section. For those of you who thought Half-Life was miles beyond Halo's reach, I hope you're ready for what's in store this week.

A few of you trembled in fear last week at just the thought of this debate. It may not be easy, but do your best to choose which series you like better as a whole, and tell us why! What aspects or individual games of the series made up your mind? Is your choice mainly due to support for that series, or your dislike of other series? Give it some serious thought, share your thought process with all of us, and then get some gaming friends to join in on the fun.

New Bonus Questions! Hit the jump to see not one, but all of the bonus questions. From now on I'm going to try a slightly new format to encourage more discussion! Feel free to suggest bonus questions of your own that you'd like to see used in next week's debate topic, which is also listed below.

Love Metal Gear Solid? Can't understand Moon Speak? Well you are in for a tasty treat, young fella-me-lad! It has been confirmed that an English language demo for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is in the works, and should be hitting a PSN near you soon!

The news comes via the latest KP Report podcast, where it was confirmed that an English demo was in development. Soon you will get to hear the lovely voice of David Hayter doing what he does best, saying "Metal Gear" in a gruff, confused voice. God bless that man.

The Japanese demo was really promising, and I have little doubt that Peace Walker will be a wonderful addition to the Metal Gear family. Who among you lot are looking forward to it?

_{[Hot otaku news ripped straight from the headlines of Japanator]}

You read that right. Hideo Kojima, the man behind Metal Gear Solid, along with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the character designer and manga creator for Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Ryuji Gotsubo, the illustrator for the Twilight novels in Japan, are judging what amounts to a fanart contest for Twilight.

In conjunction with the Japanese website pixiv -- essentially a Japanese deviantart -- users will submit their fanart for Twilight: New Moon, whereupon Kojima will give one winner an autographed copy of Metal Gear Solid 4, Sadamoto will give an art kit, and Gotsubo will give them an autographed copy of the first three Twilight books in Japan (it adds up to the first book in the US edition.)

If you're interested in checking out some of the submissions, here's a link to the search for "New Moon" as a tag on the website. The question that's floating around in my head is: why, Kojima? Do you just have this much free time, or are you really that big of a Twilight fan? And will this have an impact on your future games? I'm afraid you're going to rename Raiden "Edward."

[Image via pixiv user kakeru]

If you love all things Metal Gear Solid like my good buddy Rey here at the office, I'm assuming you want to get your hands on Peace Walker. Kojima says it'll make you buy a PSP, due to some surprise feature that's yet to be revealed. And now Famitsu reports (Via Joystiq) that the game will also feature a little something very popular in Japan: Yamaha's Vocaloid software. Yep, the same one that made virtual idol Hatsune Miku's (not to mention her PSP game Project Diva) a runway success. 

We can't be 100 percent sure on this just yet, but it's implied that the software will be used to allow in-game weapons to make sounds. Like singing. Not the first time a weapon has made a sound in a game, for sure, but if you're familiar with the general sound of vocaloid software, it does seem like a bit of an odd choice. Maybe they'll do something to make it sound super tough. Who knows.

One should think that everybody who ever wanted a PSP now has one, but mad genius Hideo Kojima believes that there are plenty of people ready to be turned into fans, and that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is the game to do it. How will this happen? Well, that's a secret!

"There's an unannounced system that will surprise you. It will make you want to rush out and buy a PSP," boasted the MGS creator while chatting with Famitsu.

What could this secret system be? I find it hard to believe that non-PSP owners are going to chomp at the bit for anything related to the portable PlayStation, but I'm sure current adopters are in for a treat. The game's already looking amazing, so quite what this system will be is anybody's guess. I'm going to make my own bet that it will involve the PS3 somehow, and possible connect with MGS4.

What are your guesses?

Yesterday, I was legitimately shocked by news that Barack Obama had won a Nobel Peace Prize for being trendy and simply saying he'll do some things. Hideo Kojima isn't quite as cynical as me, however, and thinks that President McJesus is bringing us one step closer to his vision of a nuke-free world. He also thinks this while situation is a great opportunity to plug Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

"President Obama, who declared 'A World Without Nuclear Weapons' in Prague, has won the Nobel Peace Prize," states the MGS game designer. "Has the era at last started shifting? The start of the Peace Walker plan? I hope that comes to be. Peace will not walk to you. You must both walk towards one another."

Hate to break it to you, Hideo, but just saying that you'll do something doesn't mean that it'll actually happen, and the chances of a world without nuclear weapons is are slim to nil. I'm afraid that Kojima's world where nanomachines control everything and robot dinosaurs fire invisible missiles is about one hundred times more likely than Obama crafting this whimsical nuke-free world of love that everybody seems to think he's capable of crafting like some sort of magic Santa.

Have you all had a chance to download and play the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker demo? I certainly have, and I thought it was pretty damn promising. Despite the generally positive feedback, however, Kojima Productions is listening to its fans and the studio's looking into making some improvements to the controls.

When you try and bring a console experience to the PSP, you have to compromise and do your best with the limited control interface, and the developers did well enough to provide two control methods -- Action and Shooting. After reading what people have had to say at TGS and on a variety of message boards, Kojima Productions is hoping to make changes "at a quick pace" to make sure this game is everything the fans want. 

With that in mind, a third control scheme, designed to cater to the concerns of those who played the demo, is being planned and should hopefully come to fruition. 

Isn't it lovely when a developer actually listens to people?

I say looks pretty good because I haven’t watched Metal Gear Solid Philanthropy yet. This fan made movie is 70 minutes long and I’m feeling way too A.D.D. to focus on one thing at the moment. Topless Robot watched some of it at least and says that the CG work is excellent, it has a decent plot and the Solid Snake actor is pretty good.

There’s been a sudden surge in fan made stuff like this. In fact, there’s a couple of fan made videogame movie trailers I may post later tonight. For now, give this a watch and let us know how Metal Gear Solid Philanthropy is. If the video doesn't play for you, you can also download the movie at the official Web site.

Hit the break for some METAL GEAR action.

Unique controllers for videogames are all the rage these days now that Guitar Hero and Rock Band have shown that a game can sell profitably despite requiring them. Why stop with music games though? If a game needs a special controller for it then it should have one. Conforming to a platform's given controller is sooo last year. To hear Kenichiro Imaizmu, one of the Metal Gear Solid producers, such was the thinking of Hideo Kojima when he was first developing MGS4. The dev team tried coming up with a plethora of different ways a person could interact with the controller Imaizmu said in one of a series of videos Microsoft released showcasing developers talking about Natal.

"We tried running electric shock waves, install a pulse reader ... we also tried to build a controller that's receptive to the strength of the [player's] grip," he divulged. "We tried a lot, even a transforming controller." Given the Metal Gear series' penchant for involving the player in unique ways this isn't that far off the beaten path, but if Kojima was considering a pulse reader it makes Nintendo sound a whole bunch less crazy. Of course I think their use of the technology would have been/is completely different.

And since I rarely get to combine my love of videogames and my love and James Bond I really must add that Kojima's theoretical controller would have been shocking. Positively shocking. 

A brand new trailer has surfaced for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and it is stupidly amazing. If you're an MGS fan, you owe it to yourself to hit that link and check it out. The story sounds like a true-blue Metal Gear Solid game, and it's almost a shame that this is going to the PSP and not a console.

I am getting very excited indeed for this new game, and have the TGS demo all downloaded and ready to try. How about you chaps, want to try it right now? You can download the demo from this torrent or via IGN.  Installation is easy - just check the release notes below for installation.

Pumped for more portable MGS, or are you longing for a console version?

Last week we stepped on another sports course to watch another industry rivalry. With a long line of games on other consoles in both series' pasts, it was tied for the first half of the votes. However, long before it was time for a sudden death hole, one side blasted five votes in a row -- an albatross and an eagle if you will -- to take the lead to the finish. Here's the results:

• Mario Golf series (26 votes) -- Winner!
• Tiger Woods series (11 votes) -- Golf clap!

This week brings another series showdown, but this time with hugely different play styles facing off against one another. Don't let the titles fool you, the pacing and action setup for these two well acclaimed series are complete opposites, and it will be interesting to see how it polarizes the Dtoid army this week. And I do mean Dtoid army. This one could get ugly.

Which series do you like better as a whole, and why? What aspects or individual games of the series made up your mind? Give it some serious thought, get your gamer friends to share their opinions as well, and check back next week for the winner who will receive a five hour cinema.

Bonus Question: What is one thing you do not enjoy about the series you voted for?

There's only one thing lacking from the Metal Gear Solid experience. Keychains! Who else could you entrust your keys and Borders reward tags to than Solid Snake himself? Japanese Capsule toy company System Service has unleashed a new set of Metal Gear Solid 4 keychains, and they don't just look classy. They speak to you as well.

This set of keychains is actually a follow-up to the near-impossible-to-find "Ration Sound" chains. This time around, the keychains include voice samples for a number of characters, including Old Snake, Liquid Ocelot and Otacon. The crown jewel, however, is the Exclamation keychain which plays the classic discovery sound that has become a series icon. 

In Japan, you can get these keychains from dispenser machines or find them for individual purchase. We filthy roundeyes can pre-order them from this online import shop, where a complete set will cost you $30.90.

Metal Gear Solid Raiden Rising is a dumb name for a game. You’d figure the marketing folk would reign in Hideo Kojima’s fascination with the peculiar when it comes to the stuff on the front of a box. Alas, the name doesn’t appear to be changing, but the core Metal Gear gameplay could be. In an (OLD!) interview with GamePro at gamescom, Kojima-san described the title as his pseudo-Frankenstein’s monster, explaining that Kojima Productions is doing a lot of “experiments” for the title.

“We're at an experiment level right now,” he said. “We're doing a lot of experiments for Rising. But let me give you a hint at what's happening at KJP right now. I said this at GDC, as Kojima Productions, and for the Metal Gear Solid series as well, we always want to go to the next step beyond. And how we go up a step is really a big job actually. But what we're doing right now is making totally new, not just an overhaul, engines and A.I.s and things like that,” Kojima said.

Kojima would go on, describing that some of the new changes -- not an overhaul, folks -- involves even management and teams at KJP. Then he said that bit about the PSP team and the Rising team not liking each other too much.

Back to the point: Rising will be a different game and we’re excited to see what kind of experimentation will make it into the final product. We do draw the line at talking scorpions, though. The thought is just too creepy. Remember that, Kojima.

[via Joystiq]