The Phantom Pain leads Metal Gear charge

We’ve got a new contender for last great game of the generation with the announcement of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain today.

Announced in fairly bizarre fashion by Hideo Kojima wearing full-facial bandages, it was announced at today’s Game Developers Conference that the next instalment in the Metal Gear series will be The Phantom Pain, confirming rumours that have been circulating for months.

Kojima was mirroring the events of the trailer by wearing said full-facial bandages, and if you haven’t seen that trailer yet click this now - it does look to be a fitting sequel to MGS4 and to the series in general.

But despite the anticipation for this event, many of us are wondering where the familiar voice of protagonist Solid Snake was.

David Hayter, long-time voice actor for Snake, was apparently not even asked to be involved in the game. A couple of his tweets made me feel a little bit sad inside.

“Well look, At least I had a good run,” was the first one that made me depressed.

The second came when he responded to a tweet asking “Did they even ask you to do it?” to which he responded with a simple “Nope”. Oh dear.

This doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t be involved, as voice acting might not necessarily be complete yet – but it doesn’t look particularly promising, either.

All that aside, take a look at the trailer and let us know what you think – suitably epic? I particularly enjoyed the ‘end with Snake on a motorcycle smoking a gigantic cigar’ thing, because if anyone knows how to make smoking look badass, it’s Hideo Kojima.