Those were the last words spoken in Metal Gear Solid 2 : Sons of Liberty. This November will mark its tenth anniversary but the scene has changed so dramatically since that period that it feels like a hundred years ago that I bought a copy of this passionately crafted game. Perhaps the echo of the phrase still lingers on in my subconscious which would explain why I am shamelessly excited about the upcoming collection. Let me say that I love Metal Gear Solid 3 : Snake Eater and that I'm definitely curious to check out Peace Walker but revisiting Metal Gear Solid 2 is something I still do on occasion and I still love every single bit of it.

There was the historical E3 moment that showed how Sony and the Playstation 2 owned...the fucking planet man! At least that's what it felt like to me. Yesteryear's fanboyism aside what truly makes me wet my pants Otacon style is the gamey aspect of everything in this game. It's all so gamey. There you have it my nostalgic statement on how much fun -- pure and simple fun-- this game was and still is. I wasn't dissapointed to play as Raiden all though it is kinda crazy that you could choose to skip the prequel, meaning the part where you play as, erm Snake for god sake. Also 80% of the game looked the same but sometimes It's just rewarding to let the fiction suck you in and the game objectives keep you coming.

All though there's something better still about the dark and moody atmosphere of the original Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation, something i feel hasn't really been iterated on ever since, for as much as Kojima seems like a huge ego tripper little can be held against the man's ability to outdo himself creatively each time around and nothing about this franchise feels like it's been done to death yet. For what it's worth MGS4 could probably not have been much better than what we got our hands on in 2008 and it still looks remarkable but I didn't like the way it was broken into chapters. Either way fingers crossed for MGS5 and I'd be lying if I said I didn't care at all for Metal Gear Rising.

For such a story driven franchise the replay value has always been insanely appealing. In MGS2 it was the DOG TAGS! remember that? A unique dog tag for every enemy in the game and a unique set for each of the 6 difficulty settings. With the HD collection on the way and the implementation of trophies and achievements I wonder if one of them will include "Get All The Dog Tags". In that case I'm just afraid i'm gonna spend the following year playing this game over and over again -- all over again.