201w ago - On July 12th, in 1987 everybody's favorite stealth man Solid Snake debuted with the Japanese release of Metal Gear for the MSX2 computer platform.

He and the game that started it all can now celebrate their 22nd birthday.

To quote: Since then, Hideo Kojima's game has turned into a mega-franchise, with releases on computer platforms, NES, all three generations of the Playstation, PSP and even the Xbox 360.

Not to mention several spin-off games for mobile platforms; even the GameCube played host to MGS in the form of The Twin Snakes.

Solid Snake even made an appearance on the Wii with his inclusion into Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

With all four core MGS games scoring well into the 90's on MetaCritic, it's clear that the innovative gameplay coupled with the intriguing and often intense storyline have propelled the series to the critical acclaim it has reached.

If you consider the approximate 26.5 million units moved for the overall franchise, you could make the case that it's pretty popular too.

248w ago - Courtesy of Kotaku, linked above: You finish Metal Gear Solid 4, you get access to a screen where you can enter passwords.

Indeed, we've shown you some of these before! These are just like those.

If you visit the extras menu, go to passwords and enter jmsotsynrn, you'll get the Type 17 pistol.

Nice enough, but entering aottrykmyn will get you the Snake-dressed-as-Altair costume that left the Internet scratching its head a few months back.

It even matches his moustache!

251w ago - For those following, you can Launch Java Homebrew from the PS3 XMB... since then, others have been making various BD-J games and apps for the PS3.

Dragula96 has released a 2-Player Pong v1.0 and Snake v1.1 homebrew game, and Ihatecompvir has shared with us a PS3 News RSS Reader for PS3. Be sure to check our ongoing BD-J Homebrew thread for the latest releases.

Finally, in the ongoing Possible attack vector through BD-J Forum thread RexVF5 has been progressing with BD-J development... if you are into BD-J stuff it's worth checking out. Enjoy!

261w ago - As expected, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patroits is not the final chapter in the Metal Gear series, but will serve as the conclusion to Solid Snake's saga.

Confusion arose last week at a press event held in Tokyo, with series producer Hideo Kojima vaguely stating that MGS 4 is "the conclusion to the Metal Gear Saga."

"I think there's been some misconceptions that this is the last Metal Gear," Payton told MTV. He added, "This is really just the last chapter of the saga of the Solid Snake story."

But if this is Snake's story, what's up with the inclusion of Altair's costume from "Assassin's Creed"? And how did Kojima get Ubisoft and Konami to cooperate?

"The "Assassin's Creed" costume was one of the last things we put in the game," he said. "It was kind of a last minute thing [and] we were really lucky enough to have Ubisoft be so enthusiastic about this kind of cooperation. They worked overtime to get that costume into the game."

264w ago - Per G4TV: Take control of the Lengendary Hero, Solid Snake, in Metal Gear Online!

Those interested can check out the MGO: Solid Snake trailer video below:

Enjoy!