Famitsu magazine, the beloved Japanese publication, got the scoop on Metal Gear Solid 4 this week, exclusively from series creator Hideo Kojima himself. The magazine revealed never before seen images of the videogame and had a brief interview with Kojima regarding the world surrounding the new Metal Gear.

From what was shown in the magazine, the game is visually on par with the much talked about Killzone PS3 tech demo. Snake has aged quite a bit which is evident from his silvery hair. His facial structure from different angles shows an amazing detail the talented team at Konami have put into his model. Overall, the trademark bandanna, cigarette and muscular physique are back and notable additions are a mustache, a high-tech eye patch and a friendly robot sidekick named, 'Metal Gear MarkII'. A little bit of homework reveals the new sidekick resembles a robot in one of Kojima's other games called 'Snatcher'. What purpose would be of this new addition is yet to be unveiled but it will be something unique and amazing given Kojima's track record with Metal Gear games.

Other hints from the images make it seem like the game will take place in some sort of an abandoned city. Another shows number of soldiers, tanks and 10-12 feet high mechs with only two legs wandering the streets. Most probably enemies, searching around for our hero, Snake. Broken landscape and Kojima's promise of 'No where to hide' makes us believe the environments will be destructible to a large extent.

Promising more action oriented gameplay, Kojima explained to Famitsu staff that this time around he's trying to make Metal Gear Solid 4 more "natural" feeling than any previous game in the series. With the hardware now capable of facial expressions and life like motions, he believes now it's possible for his team to eliminate the need for exclamation marks over an enemy soldiers head when they detect danger. Instead players will be able to recognize an alerted soldier with the way it moves.

The Famitsu preview also had Kojima sharing his idea about the new open ended nature of the gameplay. Giving an example, he said, If Snake appears in a battle where country A and country B are fighting a war. It's very possible that both of these countries will have factions that support different views and might not be that friendly with each other. Making the whole plot a lot complex yet intriguing than any previous Metal Gear game. This idea would be much easier to understand with the soon to be unveiled demo at TGS, says Kojima.

According to him, the screenshots were taken from the game playing on an actual PS3 unit and they will certainly get better as the development progresses.