The Metal Gear franchise features a large number of characters created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa. Its setting features several soldiers with supernatural powers provided by the new advancements of science.

The series follows mercenary Solid Snake given government missions of finding the Metal Gear weapon, resulting in encounters with Gray Fox and Big Boss in Outer Heaven (Metal Gear) and Zanzibar Land (Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake). Later, Solid Snake meets Otacon and opposes Liquid Snake's FOXHOUND in Metal Gear Solid then assists Raiden in fighting both Solidus Snake and the Patriots in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Additionally, there are several prequel games that follows Big Boss's past and legend development as well as the origins of FOXHOUND, Outer Heaven and the Patriots.

While the original Metal Gear games had their characters designs modeled after Hollywood actors, the Metal Gear Solid games established a series of consistent designs based on Shinkawa's ideas of what would appeal to gamers. Additionally, several of the characters he designs follow Kojima and the other staff's ideas. Critical reception of the game's cast has been positive as publications praised their personalities and roles within the series.

Pain (typeset as PAIN) is a musical project from Sweden that mix heavy metal with influences from electronic music and techno. The project started out as a hobby project for front man Peter Tägtgren, whose idea was to fuse heavy metal with 1980s-inspired electro-industrial and techno influences. Tägtgren, who is also the vocalist/guitarist of Hypocrisy and producer of his own The Abyss studios, is the only current member.

Pain's self-titled debut was released in 1997, and since then Pain has released six more albums and a DVD. Starting with their second, all of Pain's albums have made the Swedish charts, thanks in large part to hit singles such as "End of the Line", "Shut Your Mouth", and "Same Old Song". In early February 2006, Blabbermouth.net reported that Pain had signed with Roadrunner Records. Currently, Pain is under the Nuclear Blast Records banner.

In 2008, Pain was on tour as a supporting performer for the Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish. During this tour singer Peter Tägtgren, drummer David Wallin, and bassist Johan Husgafvel were assaulted by a gang in Leipzig. Tägtgren received 10 stitches in his face, Wallin suffered a concussion and stitches to his head, and Husgafvel had his nose broken.

PAIN was released on 1 June 1994 by Rhino Bucket. It is their first effort with Simon Wright (formerly of AC/DC) as drummer.

Track listing

Personnel

Pain is a 2007 action video game for PlayStation 3, developed by Idol Minds. It was originally released as a downloadable title available from the PlayStation Store and was first released in North America on November 29, 2007 and in Europe on March 20, 2008 and became the most popular downloadable game on the PlayStation Store. In June 2009, SCEE announced that the game was to be released on Blu-ray Disc. It was launched in Europe on June 24, 2009, in Australia on June 25, 2009 and in the UK on June 26, 2009. The Blu-ray version includes the original game as well as several other levels and features released as downloadable content for the PSN version. It is now available in a collection which is available to download from the PlayStation Store called the 3D Collection. On November 26, 2013, the game's online features were disabled.

A free-to-play version was announced at E3 in 2014 for a summer release exclusively for PlayStation 3, however it's yet to be released as of October 2015.

UFC 177: Dillashaw vs. Soto was a mixed martial arts event held on August 30, 2014 at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, California.

Background

The event was originally planned to take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, with a Light Heavyweight Championship rematch between the champion at the time Jon Jones and challenger Alexander Gustafsson targeted as the event headliner. However, that bout was pushed back a month and scheduled to headline UFC 178.

A Bantamweight Championship rematch between current champion T.J. Dillashaw and former champion Renan Barão was expected to headline this show. Their first fight, contested at UFC 173, ended in a fifth round TKO victory for Dillashaw. However, the day of the weigh ins, Barão had to be admitted to the hospital as a result of his attempts to cut weight. Dillashaw faced UFC newcomer Joe Soto in the main event. Subsequently, Soto's opponent, Anthony Birchak, was removed from the card entirely.

Demetrious Johnson was expected to defend his Flyweight Championship against Chris Cariaso in the co-main event. However, on August 12, it was announced that bout would be moved to headline UFC 178 after Jon Jones against Daniel Cormier was delayed due to injury.

UFC 158: St-Pierre vs. Diaz was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on March 16, 2013 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Background

The main event was the culmination of the rivalry between Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz, with the latter having been vocal in wanting to fight the current champion for nearly two years.

A rematch between Alessio Sakara and Patrick Côté, from UFC 154, was briefly linked to this event. However, Sakara was forced out of the bout due to renal stress.

Sean Pierson was expected to face Rick Story at the event. However, Pierson pulled out of the bout citing an injury and was replaced by Quinn Mulhern.

Rory MacDonald was originally scheduled to face Carlos Condit in a rematch. However, on February 18, it was announced that MacDonald pulled out of the bout citing a neck injury. Condit instead faced Johny Hendricks, who was pulled from his bout with Jake Ellenberger. Ellenberger then faced returning veteran Nate Marquardt.

UFC 28: High Stakes was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on November 17, 2000 at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

History

UFC 28 marked the first UFC event to be sanctioned by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, held under the newly formed "Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts". Hence, the event was held in New Jersey, the first UFC event to be held in a northern state. Under the new set of rules, this was the first event requiring competitors to wear trunks, gloves and shoes (and no other attire), with five-minute, judged rounds. The new rules also introduced new strict weight classes, resulting in the first and only UFC Super Heavyweight bout ever, between Josh Barnett and Gan McGee. The first UFC Bantamweight bout took place at UFC 26 in June 2000.

The event was headlined by the return of former Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture, who had relinquished his title in 1998 to return to competitive wrestling and because of contract disputes—and he regained his championship belt by defeating Kevin Randleman. UFC 28 also features the first UFC appearances of Andrei Arlovski, Renato "Babalu" Sobral, Josh Barnett, and Gan McGee, and Matt Hughes's twin brother, Mark Hughes.