Everything you need to know about Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

Konami may already be looking forward to creating more Metal Gear Solid games, but the rest of us are only looking at one upcoming Metal Gear Solid game — The Phantom Pain. This game could very well be the last game in the Metal Gear series directed by series creator Hideo Kojima, since his removal from Konami. The Phantom Pain has a lot of hype built around it, not only because of Kojima, but also because of its stellar reviews.

The game was developed with a budget of over $80 million and offers a huge open-world environment that allows you to do nearly anything you want and play any way that you want, so prepare yourself — we are going in deep.

First off there's something you need to know if you didn't already know:

David Hayter, the man that has been the voice of Snake for years has been replaced by Kiefer Sutherland. Hayter openly displayed his disdain over the switch through social media, but Troy Baker (the voice of Ocelot in The Phantom Pain) assured fans that Kiefer was 'honoring' the Snake that Hayter helped create.

Now, that we've moved past that we may begin…

Story:

What the heck is going on in Metal Gear Solid 5? Let's get that out of the way… The game is the direct follow-up to Ground Zeroes. Militaires Sans Frontieres (MSF) has been destroyed and Snake has gone into a coma. Nine years later, Snake wakes up and leads the mercenary Group called Diamond Dogs in Afghanistan, his mission it to track down the individuals responsible for MSF's destruction.

Along the way he meets up the Ocelot, Quiet and more.

PC Specifications:

The Phantom Pain is releasing on September first on the Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PC. If you're grabbing a console version of the game you're good to go, all you need to do is figure out which console to grab it on. If you're a PC player, you need to make sure your rig is ready for this game.

Note: The PlayStation 4 version will have a 25.1 GB file size, while the Playstation 3 version will take only 11.7 GB.

There is no pre-loading on Steam (it's only available on the console).

Minimum:

• OS: Windows 7×64, Windows 8×64 (64-bit OS Required)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-4460 (3.40 GHz) or better; Quad-core or better
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 (2GB) or better (DirectX 11 card Required)
• DirectX: Version 11
• Hard Drive: 28 GB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Recommended:

• OS: Windows 7×64, Windows 8×64 (64-bit OS Required)
• Processor: Intel Core i7-4790 (3.60GHz) or better; Quad-core or better
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (DirectX 11 graphic card required)
• DirectX: Version 11
• Hard Drive: 28 GB available space
• Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card (Surround Sound 5.1)

Don't forget to check your video card drivers for an update:

1. Press Windows + R.

2. Type "DxDiag" and click OK.

3. After the DirectX Diagnostic Tool loads, select the Display tab.

4. The video card's name and manufacturer are listed in the Device section. The current driver version is listed in the Driver section.

5. Visit the driver manufacturer's website to obtain the most up-to-date driver. Contact the driver manufacturer for assistance with updating the driver. If the computer is under warranty, contact the computer manufacturer.

   • AMD Drivers

   • Nvidia Drivers

   • Intel Drivers

Gameplay:

The Phantom Pain has two gameplay modes, you can either play the campaign or play online. The campaign's map is absolutely huge — it will take you a long time to get through all of the territories. There have been reports from players that after 30 hours of playing, their game completion was only at 27%, that goes to show you how huge the game is.

Here are some various gameplay details:

• Horse poo can affect vehicle stability (video on that here)
• Snake can steal puppies and train them at the Mother Base.
• You can airdrop animals into the battlefield in MGSV.
• When roads are slick from rain vehicles will be harder to control.
• You can get emblems for Fultoning animals.
•  Music starts playing at low volume when enemies are close, it stops after you Fulton or kill every soldier in an outpost.
• When the music has stopped, environmental noises take over.
• Flies that are attracted to you because of your body odor will be present during .

Mother Base:

Managing and upkeeping Mother Base is a pretty huge undertaking, it's no simple building that you walk into and get stuff – it needs to be expanded to unlock new weapons and items, and even field support in the form of intel, supply drops, first aid and medical treatment.

Everyone's Mother Base will look different, and it can grow to be so huge that you will need to use vehicles to get across the map. Oh, and if you don't shower (at one of the many showers on the Base) your staff will notice and comment on it.

There's a ton more, check that out in detail here.

Metal Gear Online:

In Metal Gear Online will be putting players on one of two teams; if you're playing on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One or PC you'll have support for up to 16 players a game and if you're on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 you'll only be seeing 12 players.

Players can set traps, parachute abductions, use fluffy puppies as a distraction, drop gun turrets and more. There's a video on that here. There will be a mode that will allow you to invade, sabotage and steal the Mother Bases of other players — so be sure you Mother Base is well protected!

Metal Gear Online will not have all players looking the same, there will be customizations, different loadouts, different colors and more – but there will not be online co-op. You can find more details on that here.

Despite claims, there will not be a paywall blocking players from accessing the PVP mode in The Phantom Pain. There will be microtransactions to help "speed up" certain features like research on weapons in the Mother Base, but the microtransactions have been described as a way to make the game less taxing on some players.