MGS3 casting call sheds light on the characters involved

Konami recently popped the lid on the mechanics behind Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for PS2, pointing to a blend of new stealth-action ideas that excited even those dulled by the exposition-heavy experience of playing MGS2. But Hideo Kojima was never going to release a standard, run of the mill stealth action game without his trademark whimsical storytelling, and this week we've seen the first signs of it thanks to a posting on an American casting website searching for actors to handle some key voice roles.

Although we somehow doubt the following could be construed as a spoiler, given that it's fairly ambiguous anyway, nevertheless we ought to point out that anybody continuing beyond this point is going to have a good idea of exactly which characters are returning, not to mention a good grounding in new character names.

All clear? Right. The most interesting names on the list, then, are Snake and Ocelot. David Hayter has voiced the role of Snake previously, and many gamers will identify with his voice, so you might think it a slightly odd decision to recast him. On the other hand, MGS3 is set in 1964 rather than after the close of MGS2, so there are lots of possibilities, not least of which is the inkling that it may not be the Solid Snake we know creeping around in all those lovely screenshots.

In the past Konami has been very guarded about MGS plot details, and we'd be extremely surprised to hear clarification of the rest of the list any time soon. Indeed, if the role of Raiden in MGS2 is anything to go by, we may not hear anything about some of them until the game is actually on store shelves. We do, however, expect to hear a lot more about Metal Gear Solid 3 when we arrive in LA for E3 this May.

The full list of roles in alphabetical order:

• CIA Chief
• Director Glanin
• Director Sokolov
• Enemy Soldier
• Eva
• Guard Johnny
• Hanger Intercom
• Ivan Radeinovich Raskov
• Khrushchev
• Major Zero (Major Tom)
• MIG Pilot
• Mr. Srgnt
• Ocelot
• Paramedic
• Parrot
• Pentagon Official
• President Johnson
• Snake
• The Boss
• The End
• The Fear
• The Sorrow
• Thunderbolt (Colonel)