Pretty much everyone with a Playstation 3 has already preordered or is planning on purchasing Metal Gear Solid 4.  It's one of those rare games that is classified as a "system seller" along with games like Super Mario Galaxy and Halo 3.  I preordered my copy a month or two back, and last week I received a message from GameStop saying that they had a special Metal Gear DVD which also included an invite to the beta.  The beta actually starts on the 17th (the day this post goes up) so I figured I'd do a little post about it in advance.  I have activated my copy of the beta, installed it, and I'm now waiting for it to update which is a very grueling process.  Sony recommends the P2P update downloader (think bit torrent) but it's going awfully slow.

betabox While I'm waiting though I'd like to comment on how appreciated this is.  Usually when you preorder a game from GameStop or whichever other game retailer you choose you don't get many perks in advance.  Sure you're guaranteed a copy of the game on its release date but most of the time there isn't any other reason to preorder.  In Metal Gear Solid 4's case, Konami has seen it fit to not only give people who preordered access to the beta but there's also a really cool DVD I received which outlines the Metal Gear franchise and its story so far.  Metal Gear has been around a long time, actually it came out in 1987 so it's been around since I've been around.  Because of that you can see that it's nice to get a refresher on the Metal Gear lore, especially since I never owned a Playstation 2 so I missed out on Metal Gear Solid 3.

betafun The beta that I'm referencing is for Metal Gear Solid 4's new multiplayer component which has never been seen in a Metal Gear game so far.  I'm pretty excited to try it out.  It's good to see the Playstation 3 getting some more exclusive releases worth looking forward to.  With the MGS4 beta going on and the Resistance 2 teaser-trailer that came out last week things are starting to look good for the rest of the year if you're a PS3 owner.  Personally I wasn't huge into the first Resistance: Fall of Man game but some of the improvements they've listed are welcome, and the completely separate co-op campaign should be fun.

A couple of the other games I'm looking forward to on the Playstation 3 in the coming months are Killzone 2 and Little Big Planet.  Killzone 2 is the sequel to Killzone which was on the Playstation 2 and, at the time, was labeled a "Halo-killer."  What that means is that it was assumed that Killzone would be as good if not better than Halo.  That didn't really pan out but Killzone 2 is looking great, the graphics particularly.  On the complete opposite spectrum is Little Big Planet which is a cartoon-like platforming game which heavily stresses user-generated content.  Gamers will be able to create and share content using the included level editor which should be pretty fun.  That seems to be the "new hotness" as far as gaming goes.  I wrote a post a few weeks ago saying that "hostile takeover" was the official buzzword of 2008 but if we're talking strictly gaming then it would have to be user-created content.

Another recent update to the PS3 is the new finally re-created Playtation Store which needed a makeover pretty bad so I'm glad to see it finally happened.  The new store is a lot like the Xbox Live Marketplace which makes me happier.  It displays content in a much more cohesive way and actually made me think about purchasing something again, which is good news for Sony.  You can see a little demo of the new store here if you'd like. 

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