Dataminers find evidence Konami will free Metal Gear Solid 4 from PS3 purgatory, but it's hard to be excited about it

25.10.2023 - 11:23 / pcgamer.com / Peace Walker / Will

The Metal Gear Solid Master Collection is here, and that can only mean two things. One, that this series probably deserves stewardship from a company willing to spend any money at all on creating decent, modern PC ports for it, and two, that it's time to pore over its various data files with a fine-tooth comb. 

The dataminers have gotten to work in the 24-some hours since the Master Collection hit Steam, and it's with some trepidation that I can tell you they've found more evidence that Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid 4 will be making their way over to PC eventually. Over on Reddit, a user named Timo653 decompiled the MGS 2 Master Collection launcher and found functions «to read assets for» Peace Walker, MGS 4, and MGS 5, which at least suggests each of those games is set for their own Master Collection launcher at some point in the future. Are you nervous? I'm nervous. 

It's not confirmation that those games are coming, but it would hardly be a shock if they were. For one thing, Konami explicitly calls the collection of MGS 1, 2, and 3 «Volume 1» of the overall Master Collection, and while it would be a very funny bit to leave it at that, it seems unlikely that even a company as baffling as Konami would do so. There's also the fact that references to MGS 4, Peace Walker, Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain were found tucked away on the Master Collection website back in June.

So hey, that's great. MGS 4 came out 15 years ago, but it's been marooned on the PS3's cell processor architecture ever since, inaccessible to everyone who doesn't own that console. Seeing it finally break free and getting a chance to play it would be wonderful, but it's difficult to get too excited about it in the wake of the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1's iffy release.

As we covered yesterday, players aren't happy with how volume 1 came out. MGS 1 is a slightly dodgy emulated version of the original console game (it runs dreadfully on my relatively high-powered PC) despite the fact it got a native PC port in 2000. MGS 2 and 3, meanwhile, are muddy, 720p ports of Bluepoint's 2011 Xbox 360 remasters with abysmal keyboard and mouse support, although at least those games got 4K mods hours after release. 

I suspect any hypothetical future port of MGS 4 and Peace Walker would be equally reliant on modders' goodwill to reach a modern standard. It's looking more and likely we'll get our wish of a freed and (mostly) functional port of MGS 4, but just you wait for a finger on the monkey paw to curl.