First of all, what a name. I had to Google it to make sure I was spelling it right. Metal Gear Solid: Rising might not have been a great title, but this? I wonder what drugs Kojima-san has been experimenting with recently. Originally, this interquel (love it) set between the events of MGS2 and MGS4 saw Raiden take the centre stage instead of Solid Snake. First announced back in 2009, it caused a bit of astir for a while until everyone forgot about it and assumed in 2011 that it had been cancelled. Kojima finally admitted that there had been difficulties in the development process and the games development had been passed over to Platinum Games, cutting out all the stealth-orientated gameplay in the process as well as changing the games setting. Essentially the game has been started from scratch. Its now gone from being a stealth-action orientated game to a full out action game, as well as the story now taking place after the events of MGS4. From what we can tell so far, the game is focused on Raidens katana, ninja abilities and bushido code, with a heavy focus on the cutting mechanic. Quite how this will translate to actual gameplay should be interesting to see when the game makes its first playable appearance at E3 this year. Final thought: Raiden was generally abhorred by fans in MGS2 who only wanted to play as Solid Snake yet when he returned in MGS4 it was to open arms now that hed seemingly shed his crybaby skin and donned the role of badass ninja. Taking the centre stage once more, its hard to imagine him remain the enigmatic figure hed recreated himself as in MGS4. If Platinum decide to explore Raidens fragile past once more (pleasegodforbidno), I predict blowback of epic proportions ala Ninja Theorys disastrous treatment of Samus Aran in Metroid Other M.