Some extra good news is that this story has been posted over on Kotaku : Click Here

The MGS4 PR machine shifts into high gear as the Metal Gear Solid 4 World Tour 2008 kicks off today in London. As I've mentioned before, Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa will be signing game sleeves. The most recent (and final?) Kojima Productions Report Podcast reports that actress Yumi Kikuchi and MGS4 producer Ken Imaizumi will be on hand as well.

For those living in the States, Hideo and co. will appear at the New York City launch, while Kojima Productions Ryan Payton and Solid Snake voice actor David Hayter will be at the Los Angeles one.

Many of the Exclusive Features that I can bring you all direct from the Signing at HMV London include such things as an article about the event, then there is a huge selection of screenshots aswell as a couple of videos that are available for direct download.

---

Here is the Exclusive Article from the London Signing

After waking up really early, I made my way onto the train, journeying about nine stops. After a long while I arrived at my destination on time. I ran to the HMV store where the sleeves were meant to be sold. There was a small crowd. Waiting happily outside HMV, I was delighted to know that I was one of the first. Everything was going smoothly knowing that I'm most definitely going to get the sleeve and meet Hideo.

After a few minutes of waiting, a women came up to me and asked if I were here for the MGS signing, I replied and she directed me to were the queue for the sleeve was. I immediately started running towards the directed queue, only to find I may not be able to get the sleeve after all. Seeing a packed queue changed my mood totally.

How was I supposed to know that there was already a queue for the sleeves behind HMV in some back ally entrance? There's not even as little as sign up on the store telling us that the queue for the sleeves is around the back entrance. Frustratedly waiting, with the heavy load of Metal Gear Solid collection in my backpack, I noticed that there was no one to supervise the queue at all. So now we don't even know if we were just wasting our time lining up, when we may end up not even getting the sleeve.

Surprisingly after a long and tiresome wait, I ended up getting the sleeve.

So now I have to kill about three hours before the signing, which I don't mind. I go into a few shops, make some purchases, and before I know it, it was time to queue up again. Luckily, I didn't have to wait as long as I did before in this queue. Whilst I was waiting, I readied my Metal Gear Solid collection to get signed.

I went up on the platform where it was my turn to get my sleeve signed. I get my collection out, only to be told by some random HMV employee who was supervising the signing that I'm only allowed to get the sleeve signed. I didn't know how to take it. So I just took out my sleeve, got it signed and shook Hideo Kojima, Yoji Shinkawa and Yumi Kikuchi (Raging Raven) hands. Which kind of made it better.

I wanted to take a quick picture of me with Hideo Kojima, so I shook Hideo's hand whilst my brother who came with me took a picture. For some reason, the man supervising the singing on the platform tried to stop my brother taking the picture, saying that no pictures allowed. But luckily my brother managed to take the picture before he could stop him.So now I couldn't take a picture of my brother and Hideo, which could be the first and last time they meet.

Very disappointing. I traveled such a long way, carried a very heavy bag of MGS games for nothing? It could be the last time I meet the man, and I've already gone through a long process of waiting, might as well sign all the games and let me at least take a decent picture.

I'm happy they let me shake Hideo and his crew's hand and get the sleeve signed at least. I'm sure that this could have been a much better experience for everyone if it was held at another store, HMV just sucks.

Written by and Credited to Ninjax - Download : HMV London Signing Article (68kb)

---

Here are some more Exclusive Screenshots and Exclusive Videos from the London Signing
All Videos + Screenshots Credited to Solid Alexei of MGS TUS Forums

Download : HMV London Signing Videos (12.0mb)
Download : HMV London Signing Screenshots (41.4mb)

---

Here are some of the Exclusive Screenshots from the London Signing
All Screenshots Credited to Solid Alexei of MGS TUS Forums