The most important tidbit of all is the street date, of course. 

Konami revealed new promotional initiatives related to the upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In other words, details that we actually care about like the online multiplayer, pre-order campaign and oh yeah, a street date too! In case you've been sleeping over the past few months, then you should already know that this installment marks the final chapter in the Metal Gear Solid series (though we've heard this tune before). Armed with new gadgets and abilities, Solid Snake must shift the tides of war into his favor, using the chaos of the battlefield to infiltrate deep into enemy territory. In his globetrotting final mission, Snake must sneak deep into enemy locations in the Middle East, South America, and other corners of the Earth to foil Liquid Ocelot's plans for total world domination.

MGS4 is scheduled for a June 12 release in North America. Like most high-profile games, expect tons of marketing buzz, big blockbuster events, celebrities urged to say: "Oooh, I love Solid Snake — he's the man." Blah, blah, blah… you get the picture - this is going to get some major promotions!

Fans should take note that a special "Starter Pack" will be included with MGS4 offering online gameplay. Think of this as the spiritual successor to Metal Gear Online with next-gen sheen and 16-player support and you'll have a pretty good idea what to expect. Not excited yet? Well you will be soon, especially after I get into how you'll have the chance to guarantee a copy. Yes, I am talking about pre-ordering and no GameStop didn't pay me to write this. Konami has a sweet campaign set up for folks who opt to reserve a personal copy of MGS4 by rewarding them with Metal Gear Solid 2.0 DVD, containing a Prologue that recaps the Metal Gear franchise, a 20^th Anniversary retrospective, character bios for Big Boss, Liquid Snake, Solidus Snake, and Solid Snake, plus a collection of international trailers of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. PLUS, a special download code will be available giving users first dibs on beta-testing the PS3 edition Metal Gear Online when it goves live in late April. Now if you're a real fan, pre-ordering this should be common sense.