The two characters that make up the Rising concept, Zan and Datsu.

Metal Gear Solid Rising saw its debut at last year's pre-E3 Xbox 360 press conference. The game was back at this year's press conference, held earlier today in Los Angeles, only this time Konami brought gameplay footage.

Series producer Hideo Kojima took the stage briefly, saying "As executive producer on MGS Rising, I felt it was important for my team to come up with something new and unique for their first Xbox 360 project."

He introduced the game's producer, Shigenobu Matsuyama, who promised a game "unlike anything you've seen before." The game's concept is "Zan-datsu," he explained. This original word, created by the Rising staff, pairs two kanji, respectively meaning "cut" and "take." Gamers will recognize these two kanji from the Kojima Productions E3 teaser site.

A trailer demonstrated the meaning of the two words. The trailer first showed Raiden, the main character of Rising, chopping up a heavily armed enemy creature in a factory environment. After splitting the enemy at multiple arts, Raiden pulled out what looked like the enemy's spinal cord. Raiden then seemed to absorb something from the spinal cord before crushing it.

Following this teaser footage, the trailer continued to a lengthy gameplay sequence in an urban environment. Raiden slashed through everything from enemies to large environmental objects like building pillars and trucks.

Players seem to have precise control over the directions of their slashes. In one sequence from the trailer, the game shifted to slow motion as Raiden chopped up an enemy at multiple parts. It looks like the player is able to aim the directions of their slashes.

In typical Kojima Productions fashion, the trailer ended on a humorous note, showing Raiden chopping up a watermelon into little bits. This footage again demonstrated the apparent precision in the slash mechanics.

You can see the press conference trailer here:

[update 10:53 -- I've swapped out the previous version of the video for the official Kojima Productions upload.]