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Nowadays, the term “epic” gets used so often as a descriptor for most things that the word has practically lost all meaning. Having said that, Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear franchise is one property that truly deserves to be labeled as such. With its decades-long existence, excellent hybrid of stealth and action gameplay dynamics, impeccable narrative style, as well as its sprawling in-game lore, a lot of fans would argue that Kojima-san's dedication to Solid Snake's story would naturally produce what many positive reviews from critics are touting to be his masterpiece with Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.

Throughout the course of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain's development, the public has been lucky enough to have been given mostly up-to-date information regarding the espionage-driven title, even when the situation was at its rockiest during Kojima's and Konami's contentious split. So far, we've seen lots of material, such as an homage to an old-school villain with a mini-Psycho Mantis in its gamescom trailer, and a bunch of alternate ways the title can be played. Not to mention, fans have recently been shown a retrospective of Metal Gear's past with a Sony trailer celebrating the game's history. However, up until now, we haven't been privy to an actual bit of footage edited by Hideo Kojima, himself.

Today, the long-awaited official launch trailer for Metal Gear Solid 5 has been released, and with it brings not only a reverent bow to how far the franchise has come, but also a new look at the game's monstrous Metal Gear mech. After the intro's waltz down memory lane, the footage segues into Solid Snake or rather, Big Boss running for his life from a giant weaponized bipedal robot known as Metal Gear Sahelanthropus that eventually pulls out an electrically-charged bullwhip/sword, and makes quick work of surrounding military equipment.

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Should fans currently be on the fence as to whether or not they should make buying Metal Gear Solid 5 a priority, the fresh footage ought to push them into getting the stealth-action game as soon as it drops. Plus, as previously mentioned, reviewers have been singing the title's praises, with many calling it the apex of the series, which ultimately makes Konami look like the bad guys for attempting to scrub all traces of Kojima Productions from the game's box art.

Recently, the cheeky Australian retailers over at JB Hi-Fi snubbed their nose at Konami's authority in their own way by supporting Kojima with their in-store displays, letting consumers know that MGS 5 is indeed a creation of the highly-esteemed game designer. At any rate, with the feud between the publisher and former VP of Konami Digital Entertainment likely to remain a past conflict shrouded in mystery, we can all at least agree that it will be exciting to finally play Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain next month.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is set to release on September 1, 2015, for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Source: Konami (via GameSpot)