Last weekend, I had the opportunity to fly to Hong Kong to check out the last stop for the Metal Gear Solid 4 world tour, and interview four of the people behind the game, including the creator himself, Hideo Kojima.

Click below the jump for more pics and random musings about the big event.

The event took place at a place called Dragon Centre, which was way out on Kowloon island in the Sham Shui Po area. I had no idea what Dragon Centre was, or what Sham Shui Po was like, but the moment I stepped out of the MTR station, it definitely wasn't Central or Nathan Street anymore. I initially thought Dragon Centre would be some huge Konami headquarters or something (my notes told me that their office was there), but it turned out to be a suburban shopping mall (and the office turned out to be a little retail outlet tucked into the corner).

But it was great. I loved the whole authentic vintage Hong Kong feel that reminds me of the days when Jackie Chan movies were awesome.

Once inside, it was pretty obvious that Metal Gear Solid 4 was a big deal, because it was packed. The event wasn't to start for another couple of hours, but already people were crowding the stage.

Well, I was there for a media press conference first, so I went to the Konami store (tucked in a corner), where I was told that I'm too early. The Sony rep told me to check out the fashion show downstairs, and I'm like "What does Metal Gear Solid have to do with fashion?" The answer lies in the picture below.

Yep, Metal Gear Solid 4 has nothing to do with fashion whatsoever, but apparently that isn't going to stop anyone from parading some models around in swimwear, squirting bubbles at each other. After all, it works for Motor Shows, right? There might have been an explanation, because there was an announcer saying a lot of things, but my Cantonese is a bit rusty so my only explanation is that the target demographic for MGS4 are horny male teens, or that the multiple Playstation stickers stuck on them  were enough to make that MGS to swimwear transition.

With all the girls around, even Solid Snake had
to squeeze into the crowd for a peek.

After that, the models started bouncing beach balls around, posing randomly, before most of them retreated except for two. I'm not sure who they were, but the posters of the event included two extra names that weren't in the MGS4 team, so I'm assuming these two particular models are somewhat famous. Aforementioned models then proceeded to play MGS4, and the fanboys totally went nuts.

At this point, you might have noticed that my photos aren't the best photos ever. No, it wasn't because I was operating the camera one-handed, but because I'm stuck near the back of a very large and tightly-packed crowd, wielding a regular compact camera. Some of the more hardcore fans came better prepared, with massive telephoto lenses and some even brought mini-ladders and stools! I don't know whether that's ingenius, or disturbing!

I'll post up the media press conference pictures in a later post, as well as the big fan-greeting ceremony. Also, you can check out this post to see how you can win a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4.