If you've never played Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, there's a good reason: for 17 years it's been stuck on the PlayStation 3 and nowhere else. That ends on August 27, when Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 puts it on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Switch and Switch 2. Konami opened pre-orders on August 7.
What's in the box
Three games headline it: MGS4, Peace Walker (the HD Collection version), and Ghost Babel, the well-regarded Game Boy Color entry a lot of people missed the first time. Around them Konami has packed the usual reverent extras - digital soundtrack, scenario books and masterbooks for MGS4 and Peace Walker, plus reproductions of the original boxes and manuals.
MGS4 is the reason to care. It was a technical showpiece built specifically for the PS3's oddball Cell hardware, which is exactly why it never got ported - untangling it from that machine was the hard part. Getting it running on modern kit at all is the headline here.
Worth tempering expectations
Master Collection Vol. 1 shipped in 2023 to a mixed reception - solid enough emulation of the games, but light on options and rough in a few spots. Whether Vol. 2 sands those edges off is the open question, and we won't know until reviews land closer to the 27th. For now: MGS4 on something other than a PS3 is genuinely good news. Just don't pre-order on faith alone.
Comments · 0