This week, hosts Andrea Rene and Jessica Villarreal discuss the top video game news. Plus Adrian Acevedo-Smith answer your gamer questions, this week he features Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. They also list their TOP 5 Most ATTRACTIVE VG Characters. For more information, show notes, and scheduels, go to www.thisweekin.com

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TGS Day 1: Wii gets a price drop, download MGS Peace Walker now, GT5 dated for Japan, & Alienware’s uber lineup. See more IGN videos at video.ign.com

What’s next after Peace Walker? Only Kojima knows for sure, but he gave the rest of the world a hint via Twitter today.

Says the director, “I’m thinking about the casting for my next project. I haven’t even gotten to the planning stage yet, but everything is moving forward in my head. The title, game design story, characters, configuration, settings, the mechs, casting, the way the graphics will look, sound, beginning and ending, the important dramatic sequences. It all fits together naturally in my head.”

You knew it had to happen, and here it is. Sony has revealed a “Big Boss” pack for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which will contain a camouflage-colored PSP-3000 and a number of other goodies.

Alongside the PSP, there will be a UMD copy of Peace Walker; a PSN down-loadable film voucher; a 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo; a code that allows early access to in-game unlockable content and a carrying case. The whole package will run you £199.99.

Peace Walker has been in the news quite a bit lately with the approaching release date. It was recently revealed that the title will feature tie-ins to everything from Assassin’s Creed to Monster Hunter, with numerous product placements such as Axe body spray.

Fanboys beware, the one-console future is coming. At least according to Hideo Kojima. At yesterday’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker press conference in Tokyo, Kojima joined the ranks of other prominent developers, like David Jaffe and Dennis Dyack, with his endorsement of a one console future.

Kojima picked an odd way of of broaching the subject. His comments about a platform-less future came in response to the question, “why did you make Peace Walker for the PSP?”

In addition to special-ops agent, rogue soldier and rugged beard-wearer, Snake is apparently getting one more job in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker — monster hunter. Really.

This week’s issue of Famitsu magazine in Japan touts a collaboration between MGS director Hideo Kojima and Ryozo Tsujimoto, producer of the Monster Hunter series for Capcom. The tie-in, which apparently has been the works for a couple of years, means that Peace Walker will have a (bonus?) section featuring Snake venturing into the world of MH, stout Felyne companion by his side.

Snake in MH-land will work just like he does in the real world, using his mastery of camouflage and close-quarters combat to dispatch the exotic beasts and other meanies in his way. He’ll also be able to wield more typical Hunter guns and weapons, and there’s a few other tricks up his sleeve as well, such as “cooking” using his standard-issue military rations. The MH section is multi-player-compatible, just like the rest of Peace Walker, allowing you and your stealthy friends to co-op your way through the monster-bashing missions.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, out April 29 in Japan and June 8 in America, is still something of an enigma to a lot of people. Yeah, director Hideo Kojima has gone on in past interviews about how Peace Walker is “basically number 5″ in the series, but, like, it’s still not a “real” MGS game, right?

Wrong, according to pgame review coverage in this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine. The Japanese outlet is the first to print full-on pgame review impressions of Peace Walker, coverage based on playing the complete game through to the end — something that took their writers anywhere from 30 to 50 hours to reach, depending on how much they messed with extra content. “I was doing other work during that time, so I only played morning ’til night for two days, but Peace Walker definitely has the most volume of any game in the series,” said one. “It’s not just a matter of size, either. Complete some of the main missions, and you’re allowed to do other things; complete those things, and more features get added. More and more things you want to get unlocked over time — not ‘things to do,’ but ‘things you want to do.’”

As an example, Famitsu brought up Mother Base, Snake’s offshore headquarters within the game. You’re allowed to recruit enemy soldiers and POWs to join Mother Base, assigning them to battle squads and research units, and doing this lets you expand the base and unlock new guns and weapons and items.

Sony Computer Entertainment America has revealed that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker — the PSP Metal Gear game that Hideo Kojima says easily could have been called Metal Gear Solid 5 — will be launched in North America on June 8, and it’s coming alongside a limited edition PSP Entertainment Pack.

The pack will include the above-pictured “spirited green” version of a PSP-3000 (but not a PSPgo… how about that), Peace Walker on UMD, a 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo, and a voucher for a free PSN film (the title will be revealed later), all for £199. This will be the first time this spirited green PSP will be available in North America. Additionally, this copy of Peace Walker will also contain exclusive in-game items like a camouflage pattern with FOX logos and a “Stealth Gun” feature that can be unlocked early in the game.

Naturally, Peace Walker will also be launched digitally for the PSPgo, in case you happen to have one of those instead. For more on Peace Walker, check out our last pgame review to see what to expect.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is instituting a few intriguing new ideas for the MGS series, and according to recent tweets from Hideo Kojima (yes, Hideo Kojima is tweeting now), they may be the precursors to what could eventually be another new Metal Gear Solid game on a different platform.

“It’s not that PSP is the main platform for the future MGS series,” Kojima wrote (via Andriasang). “Peace Walker is a test to see what type of expansions are there if MGS is brought to a portable. We’re not just rising vertically with development on next generation systems, but also horizontally, trying to expand gameplay.”

So no, Kojima never out-and-out says it, but the implication is clearly that new ideas in Peace Walker may evolve into a new MGS possibly on current-gen hardware (or maybe they’ll end up in Metal Gear Solid: Rising, which we still know so very little about?). Among Peace Walker’s more intriguing new features is four-player co-op, where gamers can give each other various kinds of support by “synching” their characters together (check out our last preview for a more in-depth explanation).