Konami has made some shuffles to the release schedule of their soon-releasing gaming blockbuster, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, most of which apply to PC gamers. To start, despite originally being planned to launch a couple of weeks later, the PC version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has had its release date moved up! The game will now launch on Steam on September 1st, placing it day-and-date with the console versions on PlayStation and Xbox platforms that were already planned to release that day. This also comes on the heels of news that purchasers of certain top-tier Nvidia graphics cards will get a free PC copy of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain alongside their new hardware.
Not only that, but PC gamers can now view the game’s system requirements on the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Steam page, and as expected, you’ll need a pretty beastly rig to run the game on optimal settings! Should you opt to pre-order Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain from Steam however, you’ll score a free Steam download for prequel offering, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, assuming the PC version of that game isn’t already part of your Steam library. Those who pre-order the game on Steam can also get an exclusive behind-the-scenes bonus video for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, along with some exclusive staff additions for their Mother Base. Finally, the PC version will also pack exclusive graphics settings, 4K resolution support, custom soundtrack support, and Steam Trading Cards.
It certainly sounds like the PC version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is getting quite a lot of love, and that’s awesome news! These PC-specific perks do come with a couple of caveats however, which won’t be so much an issue for those planning to buy the game for a console.
The largest of these is a warning from Konami that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain may not launch with proper Windows 10 support, which will have to be patched in later. Basic performance is apparently available for Windows 10, but if you’ve already upgraded to Microsoft’s new OS, you may not have as much flexibility in terms of tweaking the settings and running the game at peak performance right away. If you’re an avid PC gamer that’s planning to purchase Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain from Steam, you might want to hold off on upgrading to Windows 10, or, if you’d rather not do that, and you’re concerned about being able to play Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on max settings, you might not want to purchase the PC version at launch, and wait until full Windows 10 support is in place.
Second is a snag that will also affect console gamers, though not quite as much. Konami has sadly confirmed that the planned multiplayer mode for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, a new, upgraded version of Metal Gear Online, won’t be available for the game’s launch, on any platform. Metal Gear Online will instead be patched in to the PlayStation and Xbox versions of the game on October 6th of this year. PC gamers however will be waiting considerably longer, and won’t have access to Metal Gear Online until January of next year. Ouch. Konami didn’t give a reason for PC gamers having to wait longer for the multiplayer component of the game, particularly now that the PC version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is launching alongside the console versions, though it may be due to strained resources on account of optimizing the PC build of the game for Windows 10.
Regardless, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain comes to retail and digital storefronts for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, and Steam for PC, on September 1st.
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