Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Details Unveiled

"Snake? Snake? SNAKE?!?" Dara O'Brian's unanswered cries grow ever louder as Ground Zeroes nears its release.
Game Informer have today released a new preview of Konami's imminent stealth video game Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. This prologue chapter for the fully-fledged fifth instalment, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, takes place nine years before the events of the main campaign and introduces a number of key gameplay mechanics and plot elements which will factor into the subsequent open-world experience.

Courtesy of CVG.com, who have had access to the latest issue of GI Magazine, we're now able to recap all of the major revelations unveiled in the exclusive preview. Here's our comprehensive round-up on each of the tantalising (and more controversial) snippets of info on Ground Zeroes:

• It's set in 1975, while The Phantom Pain's central narrative will take place in the year 1984.
• The mini-campaign's main story mission involves Solid Snake's infiltration of Camp Omega, and this will involve an open-ended approach, electronic-tagging binoculars, improved guard AI, a refined line-of-sight for weapons and an updated inventory system.
• Vehicles aren't as simple to control as other open-world titles such as Grand Theft Auto V, requiring a great deal of precision and practise (not that we're complaining, though!).
• Aside from the core narrative and its accompanying multi-objective mission, the game will feature "a handful of extra missions" to add replay value and these will be unlocked by collecting XOF patches. On top of those, expect the new leaderboard system to lend a sense of competition to the gameplay experience.
• Game Informer's playtester completed Ground Zeroes in...two hours. Ouch. That's got to hurt for any of us who don't have the luxury of a free review copy, especially when the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version of the product will cost £20 at retail and the Xbox One/PlayStation 4 edition will launch for a whopping £30. Here's hoping that those aforementioned "extra missions" are particularly substantial, since this completion time, along with a recent Konami tester's speed-run time coming in at just five minutes, is troubling food for thought at best.
• Word has it from Konami that Ground Zeroes and its upcoming successor look "slightly" better on PS4 than Xbox One- let the fanboy wars recommence...

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes sets up operations on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 this March 18th.