I Got Next: Metal Gear Solid writer Raymond Benson explores our Phantom Pain

Finally! Finally, we can sink our collective teeth into Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. The Metal Gear mania that's taken hold in the GamesRadar offices has reached almost maddening levels. To relieve the pressure this week on I Got Next, Anthony, Sophia and David are actually playing The Phantom Pain but they have a unique guest joining them.

Raymond Benson is not just a teacher, pianist, game designer, and prolific author. He's also the writer behind the novelizations of Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2. Join our stream starting at 3:30PM ET/12:30PM PT to hear Benson talk MGS, how to adapt a game into prose, and his newly collected series The Black Stiletto.

Dig the show? We’re here four days a week, Monday through Thursday so make sure to follow our Twitch channel! When are we live? Here’s our schedule:

Monday: Caught Up

6:30PM – 8PM ET/3:30PM – 5PM PT Maxwell McGee and company take you inside the world of gaming this week, playing what's new and discussing everything that's happening in the news.

Tuesday: I Got Next!

3:30PM – 5PM ET/12:30PM – 2PM PT Anthony John Agnello hangs out with fascinating folks from every walk of life, playing their favorite games. This is you chance to chat with creators from the world of music, film, comics, and everything else under the sun.

Wednesday: Departure Lounge

6:30PM – 8PM ET/3:30PM – 5PM PT Sometimes you just look at a game and wonder: what in the f*&% is that?! Hosts Ludwig Kietzmann, Ashley Reed, and the rest of the GR+ crew check out gaming's strangest treasures.

Thursday: How It’s Done

4:30PM – 6PM ET/1:30PM – 3PM PT Arthur C. Clarke said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Maybe that's why video games seem so remarkable. We meet with the creators of the best games to demystify the process.

Anthony John Agnello
I've been playing games since I turned four in 1986, been writing about them since 1987, and writing about them professionally since 2008. My wife and I live in New York City. Chrono Trigger is my favorite game ever made, Hum's Downward is Heavenward is my favorite album, and I regularly find myself singing "You Won't See Me" by The Beatles in awkward situations.
Latest in Metal Gear
Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta screenshot
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater – Everything we know about the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake
Ape Escape monkey showing its behind to the camera in a trailer for Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta
Xbox won't have Metal Gear Solid 3 remake's Ape Escape mode, but it is getting a crossover that's arguably better
Metal Gear Solid 3 remake Snake aiming a pistol
Metal Gear Solid 3 remake release date confirms the PlayStation leak: Snake returns this August
A screenshot from the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake.
Metal Gear Solid 3 remake release date leaked by PlayStation, alongside a silly Ape Escape mode returning from the PS2 days
Metal Gear Solid movie
Metal Gear Solid's former art director once said he spends "a lot of time fussing over the details of the characters' backside since that's the side the player sees most in-game"
Metal Gear
In 1997, Hideo Kojima said the "one thing" he wanted to avoid in Metal Gear Solid was "tedious" cutscenes with characters "blabbering at each other for 4 or 5 minutes"
Latest in Features
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX still of protagonist Machu
I beg of you, learn nothing more about the incredible new Gundam anime beyond the fact that you should learn nothing more about it
A painting shows a woman sleeping as a demon with three eyes bites her chest.
Final Fantasy 7 concept artist Yoshitaka Amano's new gallery exhibit summarizes everything I love about the Square Enix games, even though he might have stood me up
Pokemon Legends: Z-A screenshot
Pokemon Legends: Z-A looks to finally bring my anime-inspired dreams of truly active combat to life
Frieren and Fern with their foreheads pressed together in Frieren Beyond Journey's End
Frieren season 2 release date, story, trailer, and everything else we know
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 screenshot of Henry wearing a fancy coat, hat, and spectacles
I'm terrible at the combat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, so I'm beating the RPG as a medieval rizz master instead
Lego Twilight, Easter Egg, Eeyore, and Flowers divided by white lines, with a GamesRadar+ new Lego badge in the middle
New Lego sets in February 2025, from Twilight to Winnie the Pooh