No...well yes but it wasn't a cover, pop and fire, back to cover...  you could knock on the wall while in cover, lol...

MGS really isn't an action game to utilize a cover system in an action manner.

If that's the definition of a cover system then the original Doom had one.  Hide around a corner, come out and fire, and then go back.

^lol. Every shooting game in history had that.
We are tlaking about the cover system that we know (and love) today.

This involves...push A to stick to wall, object etc...push left trigger to pup out slightly and target enemies...push right trigger to fire...let go of left trigger to pop back in to cover...push A to get out of cover.

Headhunter controls exactly like this...plus it has the roll feature. All I'm saying is that I played it last night and the action bits play a lot like Gears...

You all need to remember Winback for the N64. That game was all about the cover system in 1999.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UaM-b3pvJk

Killswitch FTW! Not sure how to embed.... (I have the game, the cover is integral and very good in its implementation. This game is obscure but is the first game cited for inspiring Gears.....

I've played KillSwtich and yes...it did influence Gears for sure.

It had the army aspect plus open environments and was a pure action game.

However Headhunter has the exact same cover system as both of those games. Take a look at the video of a battle below... roll, shoot, cover... Yes, the game asn't a mindless action game(it was much better actually) but it had the gameplay mechanic exactly the same as both of those games had after.

Well, it seems like you must completely expose your body to take a shot, whereas Kill.Switch and the later Gears don't require that.  Meaning you have to come off the wall, whereas in the others just a small part has to lean out or over.  But yes, the systems are rather similar.  Expectedly, it seems more rudimentary than Kill.Switch, which is much more refined, and which Gears most likely looked into.

It seems to be in between every shooter, in which you can move away from a corner, shoot and go back behind the corner, and Kill.Switch, in which you can actually shoot from behind the cover.

@ disolitude

Interesting pic in your OP.