Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - 6 Things We Learned From Gamescom 2015

3. There Will Be Wormholes

After years of utterly bonkers story elements such as vampires, fat dudes on rollerskates, psychics and ancient snipers, most of us have come to accept just about anything that the MGS games throw our way. So when the latest MGS V trailer revealed that there will be wormholes in the game, we just smiled wryly and thought "awww, that's just so MGS". Unfortunately, the wormholes don't - as Hollywood would have you believe - let you exploit rifts in the space-time continuum and travel to alternative dimensions, but they are pretty handy in the base invasion mode. In the gameplay footage, one of the player's FOB guards gets critically injured in combat against an invader. Instead of leaving the guard for dead, you can extract him to safety by standing next to him and pressing Triangle. The guard then gets extracted via a Fulton balloon, but this has its flaws because it can be shot down by an invading player. The 'wormhole extraction device' is essentially an upgraded version of the Fulton balloon that works faster, can't be shot down, and looks utterly terrifying; the poor wounded soldier appears to get eviscerated when he's extracted through it, presumably to be re-assembled in the safety of a casualty ward somewhere. You will also be able to use this device to extract fallen enemies from your base, which is how you win base invasion matches when you're defending. It's comforting to see that The Phantom Pain looks set to keep the series as eccentric as ever.