Konami outlines its plans for the gradual shutdown

All online services come and go, and it looks like its time for another one to fade away as the console generations change. Today, Konami laid out its plans to gradually shutter servers for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, culminating in a full shutdown next year.

Over on its website, Konami lists out the rundown for MGSV and Metal Gear Online. The PS3 and 360 services will be terminated on May 31, 2022, but the schedule kicks off today—Aug. 31, 2021—with the removal of the in-game purchasing system. By the end of November, no Metal Gear Online-related DLC will be available to buy, a????nd on March 1, distribution will be terminated.

Konami noted that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will still be available to play offline. No re??funds will be made for in-game items.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4uSkAACoHc

This doesn't change anything for players on PC or more modern consoles, like the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, who will still have access to these services. Still, it's another story of an online service being shutdown, and it's always a sad little remi??nder that these virtual gathering spaces are, ultimately, temporary.

Metal Gear Solid V's multiplayer has, for years, been a source of fascinating news as players who stuck with it try to achieve fleeting nuclear peace, activating the secret nuclear disarmament cutscene. It's my hope that maybe this news revives that community, especially since their most successfu?l endeav??or thus far was on the PlayStation 3.

And it's always heartening to know that fans can carry on their favorite games in their own way, through modding and emulation. The stories we create in online arenas can be so compelling that they can live on long after a server goes quiet, so even though shutdowns like this are commonplace, it's st??ill nice to reflect back on the good fun we had while we had them.

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Have you played it lately?

My first week of Metal Gear Online went so poorly that I never came back to gi?ve it a proper second chanc?e but, looking over these latest patch notes and the several that have come before it, someone must be out there sticking with the multiplayer mode. It's still being consistently supported.

Tomorrow's patch is a mix of housekeeping (showing players' network conn??ection quality), balancing (making it so you can't repeatedly dive and sprint like an maniac), and fixing (fairer team sizes).

To that ??last point, "In a previous update, preset parties were set as the highest priority when setting player numbers per team in a mission. This has caused issues for many players who end up facing a disproportionate sized team. Team creation in AUTOMATCH will now prioritize the number of players before the preset party, so that pl??ayers in each team will be approximately the same."

The full list:

• Quiet can no longer be interrogated.
• Rank increase and decrease are now displayed in the mission results.
• Score has been adjusted for each mission.
• Assist score will no longer be granted when woken up by a comrade after putting yourself into sleep or stun status.
• Increased damage output from the SVG-76 and M2000-D.
• Reduced the knockback and firing rate of the URAGAN-5.
• Increased stamina damage when landing onto enemy players from a height.
• Reduced stamina damage from cardboard box attacks and low kicks.
• DEMOLITION+ Lv.2 will no longer trigger a thrown weapon to drop when killed by a knife.
• After diving, there is now a delay before you can dive again.
  
• Sprint duration is now temporarily reduced after diving.
  
• Crawling out of a cardboard box when prone will no longer produce noise.
• Each player's network connection quality will now be displayed.
  
• Team creation in AUTOMA??T??CH will now be prioritized for balanced number of players across both teams over preset party on a single team.
• The Rush Mode option is now removed from the mission selection screen in AUTOMATCH (except Xbox 360).
• Rush Mode will now occur in random frequency.
• A combat log will now be displayed when a player is fulton saved or woken up from sleep or stun status by an ally.
• The time bonus XP for the SABOTAGE mission has been adjusted.

Taking back what was lost with Ver. 1.12. [Konami]

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Cloaked in Silence

Metal Gear Online is still alive (though "well" is debatable), and a brand new DLC pack is arriving on all platforms today. Three new maps are in tow (all of ??which have a nostalgic element), as well as the Quiet character, for $3.99. There are also four $1.99 cosmetic pa??cks on offer, in addition to a bundle with everything (and 550 MB) for $10.99.

If you buy the DLC, you'll get instant access to a survival mode, balan??ced around win-streaks, which arrives on April 7. At that point, anyone can "try" the new maps? 10 times per week. It's...a strange and convoluted system, but then again, it's Konami we're talking about.

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'Cloaked in Silence'

Konami is prepared to unleash the next wave of Metal Gear Online, in the form of a paid DLC campaign. It's called "Cloaked in Silence," and will add three new maps to the game (Coral Complex, Rust Palace, and Azure Mountain) for $3.99. It'll also provide a playable Quiet, who has a quicker?? movement speed than most and a temporary cloak. Then there's more DLC in the form of unique character poses, which you can buy for $1.99 per pack. Sabotage is also coming as a free update, involving a battle over enemy missile stockpiles.

Of course the bulk of this announcement is paid DLC, because Konami. MGO hasn't been out for long, so it still hasn't proven that it's in it for the long haul. I wonder how many people are going to buy in and keep playing -- is the playerbase big enough to afford segmen?ting it like this?

All of this will arrive in March 2016.

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That was fast

Last we heard, Metal Gear Online's PC beta was pulled due to an exploit last week, but in the middle of researching when a fix would happen, I found out the thing already launched! According to a post on Steam from the developers, MGO is officially open for business on PC, ????and you can download and play it right now.

If you happen to finish a match from today until January 26, you'll net a bonus 3,000 GP. The devs promise an "exciting year for MGO," with additional update plans. We'll see.

Metal Gear Online Officially Launches for PC [Steam]

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Get your croc mask on

Metal Gear Online may have a number of issues preventing it from achieving greatness, but it's still a decent diversion, and a nice bonus on top of Metal Gear Solid V. Now it's headed off of consoles, as MGO is entering a limited beta phase sta?rting today. If everything goes according to?? plan it will launch at 10PM PT later today.

It's a nice gesture that the team is still trying to salvage this game, but with Kojima's input gone,? I'm n?ot super hopeful for the future of the franchise now, or at any point in the future.

Metal Gear Online Beta [Steam]

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It's not over yet, Snake

I've spent a considerable amount of time this week with Metal Gear Online, and despite my initial p?ositive im??pressions, I'm having some big-picture issues.

In short, I'm not sure how long this train is going to be chugging along, especially when you take Konami's recent h??istory into account.

Metal Gear Online (PC, PS3, PS4 [reviewed], Xbox 360, Xbox One)
Developer: Kojima Productions
Publisher: Konami
Release: October 6, 2015 (Consoles), TBA 2016 (PC)
MSRP: $59.99 (PC, PS4, Xbox One) $49.99 (PS3, Xbox 360) / Included with MGSV

As previously mentioned, Metal Gear Online only has three modes currently. There's a decent amount of variety within those gametypes, but the issue is how everything is playing out right now in the game's meta. In essence, players often aren't using any form of stealth (outside of Cloak and Dagger, which forces one team to do it), or aren't going for the objectives in general. Instead, most games end up being slugfests and devolve into team deathmatch situations. That's not to say that these basic strategies aren't handily countere??d by players who have the know-how, it's just what's happening.

While it's not wholly the fault of the designers, Metal Gear Online doesn't do a great job of facilitating objective play, as the whole thing is kind of a laissez faire situation. That both excites and concerns me. On one hand, I love that MGO is just as vague as Phantom Pain. Instead of spelling out every?? facet for players, you'll have to just figure out everything on your own, from advanced ?tactics to the best way to counter enemies. On the other, I'm not confident in Konami's ability to effectively police and update the game in the slightest.

It's very possible that there could be a ton of content from Kojima's team waiting to be pushed out in waves over the course of the next year. But since this is all speculation, we only have what's currently in MGO to a?ssess, and it's lacking in areas, chiefly how servers are handled -- or, I should actually note, a lack of servers. It seems as if the game is P2P based, which creates all sorts of issues for players. First off, hosts can remove?? people from the game, and if they disconnect, everyone gets booted with no XP or rewards. It's egregious to say the least, and not something you really see in a major shooter in 2015.

Then you have issues like the party system not actually placing you on the same team as your party constantly, or the basic inability to join a friend's game in progress through a quick menu option. Thankfully the microtransaction element hasn't bled through for MGO (yet?), but cosmetic equipment is too expensive currently, as it would take hundreds of games to earn some of the higher-up rewards. I would be more okay with the expe?nsive price ??of gear if the aforementioned booting issues were rectified with dedicated servers.

Now, the gameplay is still superb. That's due in part to the fact that it's literally Phantom Pain, online, which is completely fine by me. Every movement is fluid, gunplay handles like a dream, and the sheer flexibility of the engine makes for some breathtaking moments. Aiming, running, and dolphin diving feels better than pretty much every shooter on the market right now. It's crazy how it feels like a natural extension of my adventures with Venom Snake, and how all of my training instantl?y pays off online.

When you distill it down to individual matches, Metal Gear Online is just fun to play. You can boot up a session, and provided that you don't have any connection issues, generally enjoy yourself, even if a lot of people are ignoring objectives. It's a rush to use stealth effectively and have an enemy run by your prone body completely, then dash up to them, choke them out, and Fulton them. Getting to use the Snake and Ocelot special loadouts from time to time is a joy as well, as are all of the little Easter eggs and details locked within MGO.

I've seen a lot of complaints that the Walkers are overpowered, but I've found them easy to deal with. Not only are they incredibly easy to spot (and show up on the radar), but they can be swiftly taken out with a quick sniper shot or a few well-placed bullets. Plus, both sides get them, so it's not like one team is at a disadvantage -- people just need to learn how to counter them. For the most part I don't think balance is an issue for MGO -- it's?? the technical side that drags things down.

Even though we don't review what might be (could you imagine how cool it would be to see co-op Metal Gear missions? Now we may never see the day), I'm still torn with the current state of Metal Gear Online. I wouldn't necessarily recommend picking up the entire Metal Gear Solid V pack??age just for online?? play, as it still has a lot to prove. I'm pulling for it to get better, but I don't trust Konami.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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It's not over yet, Snake

Kojima's departure from Konami has left me all sorts of worried for the future of Metal Gear Solid -- a series that I've enjoyed ever since I laid eyes on the first NES game over 20 years ago. For now though his legacy is intact and ongoing, as a result of the recent release of Metal Gear Solid V, which happens to house a fully-fledged multiplayer experience in the form of Metal Gear Online.

While I'm unsure of how much Konami will support it going fo??rward, for now, I'm somewhat ple??ased with how things are being handled. So far, at least.

Metal Gear Online (PC, PS3, PS4 [reviewed], Xbox 360, Xbox One)
Developer: Kojima Productions
Publisher: Konami
Release: October 6, 2015 (Consoles), TBA 2016 (PC)
MSRP: $59.99 (PC, PS4, Xbox One) $49.99 (PS3, Xbox 360) / Included with MGSV

After downloading the free add-on (if you own the original game), players will be greeted with a whole new main menu. That's because it's a completely new title, and in no way feels tacked-on to the core Phantom Pain experience. In fact, there's very little in the way of interaction between the campaign and MGO.

You'll start off within the character creation module, which takes the shape of your avatar from? the core game, and a choice -- players can adopt the scout, enforcer, or infiltrator class (standard, heavy, and light, essentially). Your first character is locked in after your choice, but after a few hours of play you'll unlock two new loadout slots and plenty of cosmetic pieces of gear, including goofy hats. There's also a really cool freeplay mode that allows you to try out your loadout and equipment at will, which has plenty of ground to cover, featuring a diverse jungle location. I wis??????????????????????????h more games had this feature, as it's incredibly easy to tweak a loadout, go into freeplay, try it out, and tweak it some more.

Online play itself provides you with a few options, including automatch (traditional matchmaking), "select" (filter any map or mode), and "create" (complete with a password feature for private games). It's a pretty open-ended system with plenty of choice, but it seems to be P2P-based, so expect online issues depending on the connection on top of any problems Konami has with the servers. For the most part, my time with the game in the past ??day or so has been rather smooth.

You're only getting three gametypes currently, including a ticket-based mode (read: lives), a data theft variant, and capture the point. It's all stuff you've seen before, but the deciding difference is the Metal Gear charm that injects itself throughout MGO. F??or instance, killing enemies will reduce the opposing team's ticket count, but?? Fultoning them after using non-lethal force will net you more points. Making lots of noise will also show up on the radar, so it's up to players to use stealth as much as possible to maximize their kills.

After a few hours, I really started to pick up on quite a few new tactics, which is very similar to how Phantom Pain plays out. MGO really is a skill-based game, with plenty of nuances to learn, and an emphasis on stealth prowess. Bounties for more points even show up on players who do well, and I've seen many matches where top people complete entire rounds with no deaths -- hell, without even being seen, really. There's also a lot of little touches, like the "Team Liquid" and "Team Solid" monikers, and the power to change the soundtrack to legacy Metal Gear music. 

But there's one major shortcoming that I can see rather clearly right now -- a lack of diverse modes. It's very easy to feel isolated after going back into freeplay mode, and the three gametypes do tend to blend together at times. In short, you're really going to get as much out of MGO as you put in, and the skill of the enemy team definitely plays a factor in terms of how much fun you're going to have -- think of them almost as mini-Metal Gear boss fights.

I need some more time, but my initial impressions of Metal Gear Online are positive. It really feels like a Metal Gear game...online. Without the complete mess of the Guns of the Patriots Konami login scheme, of ??course, and with ?its own issues to boot.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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