In their latest issues, both the Official Xbox Magazine and the Official PlayStation Magazine talk about their experiences playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain during May’s Preview Event. Here is a summary of all the new information, most of it gameplay related. Some of it may be considered a spoiler to some, so proceed at your own risk. Otherwise, you may want to skip the first part about the opening sequence, starting right after the image below. There are no ‘real’ spoilers though, so enjoy!

The Hospital Scene (Prologue)

• OPM absolutely adores the opening sequence
• The coma is a result of Paz’ bomb
• The hospital is indeed on Cyprus
• Snake has 108 foreign bodies in his body, including bone and teeth. Too risky to remove shrapnel close to his brain and heart. Blows to the head can cause him to hallucinate
• The hospital scene lasts for about half an hour according to OXM, about an hour according to OPM, and contains interactive cutscenes, thriller and Japanese horror elements
• OPM: “Kojima‘s direction and unflinching commitment to challenging expectations and conventions make it the most tense experience ever hosted on PlayStation.”

Open World, Buddies & Gameplay

• There are key missions that must be completed, followed by side missions. Completing enough of them will unlock the next key mission. But there are also important side-ops that ‘spring a surprise story when you least expect it’
• Northern Kabul and the Angola-Zairo border seem to be areas in the game. Mother Base is ‘near the Seychelles’
• There are around 14 major bases in Afghanistan and over a dozen smaller outposts
• Missions start at the Air Command Centre, where you can select your buddies
• The horse is referred to as D-Horse, the dog as D-Dog, and the bipedal mech as D-Walker. Those three and Quiet seem to be your four buddies to choose from
• You can call the horse while sprinting and it’ll run by your side, allowing you to climb on without losing speed
• OPM says the horse cannot die, despite earlier reports saying it could, so maybe that has changed since then
• The dog can sniff out guards and herbs, sit and bark or attack. You can also give him clothes, as implied by the recently revealed action figure. If you don’t rescue him as a puppy you’ll never unlock him
• The D-Walker (aka Walker Gear) can fold its legs and roll on a pair of wheels. You can shoot guards while inside, and it can also carry people (captured soldiers probably)
• Enemies will have their own Walker Gears which you’ll be able to hijack
• First mission is to rescue Kaz from the town of Da Ghwandai Khar, requiring intel obtained in the village of Da Wialo Kallai
• You can slalom off a slope inside a cardboard box
• Small animals are carried in Snake’s pockets instead of fultonned back to Mother Base
• It seems like you can play as the regular soldier characters as well (those you’ve recruited)
• Near photorealism and gorgeous skies
• The enemies referred to in the trailer as ‘Those Who Don’t Exist’ seem to be part of the so called ‘Parasite Unit’. They travel in sandstorms, can jump over canyons, turn into smoke and run at high speeds
• If you call in air support you’ll lose your potential S-rank. However, you can also use the helicopter to distract enemy patrols
• The Chicken Hat allows Big Boss to be spotted up to three times before going into alert phase
• The extraction chopper is called Peqoud, a reference to Moby Dick, of which there are many more
• You can find boomboxes that will give you new cassette tapes containing 80s classics and other types of music, featuring artists like Billy Idol, David Bowie and Richard Wagner
• One mission has you scale a dam while you search for a Mujahideen hideout
• You can hear radio chatter talking about Quiet and her ‘bloody trail’
• Rescuing her makes for ‘a classic scene’
• Reinforcements don’t just appear out of nowhere when alert is raised, they have to travel from nearby bases. This means you can anticipate and lay out traps
• Among the Side Ops are objectives like hunting a legendary bear or capturing former base members gone mad in the wilderness
• There are no more long cutscenes, but you can listen to hours of interviews and briefings on your iDroid
• Reloading a checkpoint keeps enemies marked
• When Big Boss receives a crate with a new item from Mother Base, his animation has him ‘hungrily dive in’
• Big Boss can deploy an inflatable doll of himself (replacing the Lisa doll?)
• You can let yourself be carried around to outposts inside cardboard boxes, like in previous Metal Gear games
• Each mission has multiple side objectives that are revealed once the mission ends
• When you steal enemy goods (vehicles, mortars, etc), they will not return, so you cannot grind at the same place
• If you try to lift stuff that’s too heavy for your current Fulton, it’ll come crashing down, alerting guards
• You can destroy satellite dishes to gain new landing zones and the ability to call in air support

Mother Base

• Much like in Peace Walker, every recruitable soldier has a set of skills and grades. There are negative skills as well, such as ‘troublemaker’ and ‘boaster’
• Mother Base has a Support Unit, a Combat Unit, an R&D Unit, and an Intel Unit
• The Mother Base Invasion is compared to Dark Souls. You can choose to activate this mode or not
• Quiet’s presence lowers morale. Morale also decreases if Big Boss is absent for too long
• OPM states you cannot explore Mother Base’s interior, but they only had a fraction complete

Metal Gear Online

• Three classes will be available at launch
• Some old modes will return

http://www.metalgearinformer.com/?p=19811

As someone whos been following every detail of this game, mark my words. This will be the greatest game ever made.

WHOOHOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

after playing Ground Zeroes i couldn't be more excited for this game, only 3 months more...

I'm disappointed by the turn away from proper storytelling. And I will absolutely turn off Mother Base invasions. Those sound dumb and infuriating.

I've had this pre-ordered for PS4 for ages! I am certain that I will enjoy it, but I suspect that MGS4 might remain my favourite Metal Gear game.

• OPM: “Kojima‘s direction and unflinching commitment to challenging expectations and conventions make it the most tense experience ever hosted on PlayStation.”

Like I told.

"- They say the opening hour is astonishing and one of the greatest they've ever seen."

One of the greatest thing ever created in video games.

Guys, I have never played a Metal Gear game and I know the basics of set up/timeline and story. I am considering to purchase this one? What can I expect? And is Ground Zeroes a good indicator? (will be playing that thanks to PSplus in the upcoming weeks)

Plenty of good stuff means a good chunk of my weks/months might be drained by this, that and playing the online for free.

I am so into spoiler evasion mode right now that I didn't even finish reading the thread title.

from uk playstation magazine

They say the opening hour is astonishing and one of the greatest they've ever seen. The original Phantom Pain/Moby Dick Studios trailer didn't touch on it's full brilliance. They say it's completely different in tone to the rest of the game and almost horror-esque.

Early on you can interrogate guards but you 'don't understand Russian/Afrikaan'; it's useless until you do a side-op to Fulton a translator. This unlocks the ability to understand foreign dialogue from enemies.

Can get easily around the map using fast-travel with cardboard boxes. Orange signposts are delivery points and you can collected and dropped off elsewhere like in MGS1 and 3, but far more useful because it's open-world.

'Loadout' screen like in Peace Walker, you can select the time of mission start, weapons, gear, tools, mechanical arm (electrocution is just one type), explosives, buddies, boxes, starting vehicles and player character. Says you can play as your generic troops, like in PW. You can have a car or lorry with you from the start, if you want.

Lists the Buddies as Quiet, Horse, Dog, and mech-walker. Says the mech walker can go turbo, you can put it on cruise-control, and upgrade its skill-tree to give it more stuff like CQC and a stun-gun. You only unlock the mech when you finish a 'specific' mission whilst using the mech (danced around spoilers here).

the dog attacks enemies and finds things in the environment that shows up on the iDroid. The horse is invincible. You can put a prisoner on the horse like in Red Dead.

Says Quiet's presence actually lowers morale on Mother Base, probably due to being a former antagonist.

Setting off the alarm in a large base causes reinforcements to drive in from smaller, adjacent bases nearby. You can choose to shut down the smaller bases first to stop potential reinforcements, or sever smaller communications dishes in the main base to cut them off. You can also call the chopper to act as a distraction in an adjacent base, which removes reinforcements from the the base you want to get into, thinning out the ranks.

The larger satellite dishes on the bases control automated AA defences. Blow them up and you can call for chopper extraction at closer points.

Cardboard box tobogganing, says you can run and press square and you go into a funny slide, which retains momentum if you're on a hill.

Named Ah-Ha, Billy Idol and David Bowie as helicopter tunes to choose from.

They had a whole section on his notepad ready for notes on how it performed/technical complaints, and the only thing he wrote at the end of his whole session was that some foliage occasionally pops-in in Africa, i.e it was mostly perfect.

Counted 14 or so major bases in Afghanistan, and over two dozen smaller outposts.

Minor spoiler, they said once you rescue Miller the base you take him from floods with gas.

Minor enemy spoilers about the pale, weird looking soldiers from the trailers: They're called the Skulls, they can run faster than your horse, have glowing green eyes, and are described as 'unkillable' but the word is in inverted commas so there's probably a way. They're compared to MGS4's Haven Troopers in that they fit the enhanced soldier archetype. They hunt you down after you rescue Miller.

This has been said before, but the missions are presented a little like TV eps, with opening and closing credits. They remark how it wouldn't matter if Kojima's name was scrubbed from the box art and marketing because it's EVERYWHERE in the game.

Every mission has smaller side-objectives that bring extra rewards if you check them all off. Reminds me of Assassin's Creed bonus objectives (or GTAV if you like). Says it only tells you the bonus objectives once you've finished the mission once, encouraging replayability without distracting you with it on the first pass.

There's a great screen of DD riding in a jeep with Snake.

You have to upgrade the Fulton to extract heavier stuff. When extracted, it's gone from the map for good, so you can't farm for infinite stuff.

Says that like PW, there's a lot of cassette tapes to flesh out the story if you want to.

Game structure is open-ended. Numerous missions are open at any time and you don't have to go back to Mother Base in between. Some 'Important' side-ops open up new story missions. The game rewards you constantly with new blueprints and tapes.

Some side-ops have you rescuing 'crazed' survivors from your MSF base-destruction 9 years ago.

One side-op you have to tranq and extract a 'legendary brown bear'.

New Mother Base is in the Seychelles. Compares MP to Dark Souls invasions, which can simply turn off in the menu.

Goes over the base management, tl;dr sounds like a richer version of PW. Outer Ops seems to be back to send your Combat soldiers to.

Wash blood off of Snake at the Mother Base showers, do target practice or fight with new recruits. Says MB starts off disappointingly small, but soon grows and adds new layers and levels. Morale of your men will drop if you don't visit it often enough.

The item to view enemy soldier stats in the field before Fultoning is back from PW.

Mission completion times are recorded to the thousandth of a second.

There was a lot more they saw, but not allowed to talk about yet.