Sony seems to be determined to transforms the 2008 in the PS3’s comeback year. And what a better way to do it than releasing some new, exclusive game titles and some hardware goodies?

At the annual retail and publisher conference Destination PlayStation, Sony Computer Entertainment America announced that the widely-expected, PS3 exclusive title, Metal Gear 4: Guns Of The Patriots will start shipping until the end of Q2 2008.

That means that no later than June 30, the gamers will be able to enjoy the latest adventure of Solid Snake.

Konami claims that Metal Gear Solid 4, a PlayStation 3 exclusive, offers a totally new concept and situation, resulting in the toughest Metal Gear infiltration mission ever devised.

The game is set after the events of MGS2 and players will reprise the role of top secret agent Solid Snake with appearances by characters throughout the MGS series.

Set across stages including the Middle East and South America, the now aged Snake has been asked to assassinate his old adversary, Liquid Ocelot. To do this, however, he must make his way through a series of battlefields, using his legendary stealth abilities and all-new OctoCamo suit to avoid detection and to reach his target.

Also, Konami promised Metal Gear Solid 4 will offer online capabilities and Sony confirmed today hat players who pre-order Metal Gear Solid 4 will be "guaranteed access" to a multiplayer beta for Metal Gear Online set to start in April.

But the better news is that the game will be available also as part of an 80 GB PS3 bundle, which will include the long-awaited DualShock 3 controller. The price of the bundle is set at $499.99.

“In response to incredible demand, we will be manufacturing more 80GB PS3s for North America and the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots 80GB PS3 bundle is an ideal way to offer that continued value to our consumers," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, SCEA.

Also, the DualShock 3 controller will be available in U.S. starting this April for $54.99. Kazuo Hirai announced the DualShock 3 controller last year at Tokyo Game Show. The controller is compatible with 100 titles.

Initially, Sony claimed that rumble capabilities are not “next-gen” features, but one of the main reasons for which Sony did not include rumble features into the current SIXAXIS controllers for PlayStation 3 is the patent lawsuit filed by Immersion, which owns the intellectual property over some key aspects of the technology integrated in PS2’s DualShock controllers.

After settling the lawsuit with Immersion in March 2007, Sony was quick to announce DualShock 3 that went on sale in Japan in November last year as a separately sold accessory.