!

!

Let's all calm down here.

Look at those Kotaku comments. People are going WILD. They think this means an Xbox 360 Metal Gear, be it a port of MGS4 or a multiplatform (or even an exclusive) sequel. Everything the Konami site displays points in a different direction.

Of course, I'm not saying "Metal Gear will always be PS exclusive and all you xbots need to let it go." I'm not saying that at all. In fact, I would be surprised if the next entry in the series was exclusive (to any console, for that matter).

Take a close look at that image.

Now, a lot of people are jumping all over that power button icon, saying that it's existence means Metal Gear is coming to the 360. But take a close look at that thing. There are a couple holes in that conclusion:

1) "A NEXT METAL GEAR IS..."
a. First of all, it says "next," which severs pretty much any relation to Metal Gear Solid 4.
b. Second of all, it says "Metal Gear," not "Metal Gear Solid." That goes beyond this not being about Metal Gear Solid 4, but I'll get to that in a minute.

2) The vertical line of Konami's power button is an exclamation point, not a solid line like the 360's.

Clearly that power button is supposed to be some kind of a Metal Gear spin on the ubiquitous object, not some implication of 360 - MGS4 portage or exclusivity of any kind.

Back to the "Metal Gear [not Solid]" issue. The "Solid" in the titles of the past 9 or so games (that includes ports and expansions and such) was a reference to the fact that the games are in 3D, not the protagonist Solid Snake (which is why Metal Gear Solid 3 is called just that and not "Metal Gear Naked" or whatever).

Now, I don't know if Konami decided not to put "Solid" in there because they were trying to differentiate this "Next Metal Gear" from all the baggage from the series before it or what. The first thing I thought was "Metal Gear is moving into 4D, so it's gotta be PS3 exclusive." Then I realized that's god damn retarded and went with the more sensible thought.

So what do I think this thing means? I think it's all got something to do with the theme of the game. What that theme is I've got not solid (pun kind of intended) idea. Maybe the green resembles radioactivity? And the power button resembles just that? So nuclear power? Maybe it's got something to do with the energy crisis (if not the one in the real world then maybe one created in the Metal Gear world)?

See, I've got nothing good. What I can say though is I doubt this teaser has anything to do with which systems the next Metal Gear will be on, and I do think the plot is going to be separate from the Metal Gear games of old. Maybe not in a different universe, and maybe not forgoing some familiar characters, but probably unrelated to the Patriots, the Snakes, and all that business.

All in all, there are some pretty interesting things going on in that little equation. A lot of unanswered questions. What does that "i" stand for (something I intentionally did not bring up in this analysis of mine because I'm completely stumped about it)? Why is it green? What happened to "Solid?" What does the power button indicate? I've got no clue. And god dammit Konami, it is way too early for me to get all worked up again over Metal Gear. Just look at this fucking post! I don't have time for all this!

UPDATE:

A couple of things. One, a bunch of people on blogs like Kotaku and PS3Fanboy are saying that this means "A Next Metal Gear is On," as in, "in development." I don't think that's the case. I don't see how "i + ! = (!)" translates to "A Next Metal Gear = On." Also, I don't think such a cryptic message is necessary to say that the next Metal Gear is being developed. That's an incredible waste of hype.

Also, apparently the letters "mgst" appear in the web address for the site.

"http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/mgst/?ref=kjp_eng"

Yep, there they are. People are saying this is significant, and I agree with them. The odd thing is "s" is included in there. Could it stand for "Solid?" If so, where's "Solid" in "A Next Metal Gear is...?" Maybe I'm looking too much into it (meaning: maybe Konami just is trying to separate this new game from the franchise) but it still seems odd to me.

What's in a Name?

You're probably wondering what the hell the title of my blog means. No, it doesn't mean that I'm copying news stories or whatever from the fine folks over at redvsblue.com, it means that I'm copying my blogs from my Red Vs. Blue profile, which is ShirtGuyDom. This is only because that's the place I usually feel compelled enough to sit down for a while and just write. I don't know why. At any rate, here's the copy of my lates RvB journal, verbatim, for better or for worse:

Eh, these blog things. I don't know, I just don't have anything very interesting to talk about that you people don't already know about. Yeah, there's LittleBigPlanet being awesome an Call of Duty: World at War being better than everyone assumed it would be a SOCOM being fucking broken, and Far Cry 2 being the best game EVER and all that.

Then there's the whole me being in college thing that nobody really cares about (well, in the sense that you probably don't want me to ramble on about how I won a button that says "Glück" on it for winning a game of Bingo) because it's not really that, you know, exciting. I did steal a Caution: Wet Floor sign from the chemistry building though.

But my life right now is pretty much a blur of studying and gaming. I am having a LAN party this weekend because Left4Dead came out (yet another fucking fantastic game that I have no time to play!). My brother built himself a new computer consisting of a kick-ass quad-core processor, 4 gigs of RAM, and an nVidia 260. So that's all well and good.

I'd say the game I've been playing most recently is Call of Duty. The multiplayer is just as addictive as COD4's was. That fact that it's World War 2 doesn't hurt it at all. But maybe that's because I'm somewhat of a "fan" of World War 2 (fan is a bad word, because what the hell is a fan of war?) and all the weapons and stuff. And the game is really gory, which is satisfying. I do have Fallout 3, and I did get to Megaton City, but I haven't touched it beyond that. Again with the time thing. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is another game I've barely touched. And I've played a lot of but recently completely dropped Mercenaries 2 and more recently Far Cry 2. I imagine I'll pick up playing all of these once the semester ends and I just have work to consume me otherwise free time.

I figure I'll move on to the election for a minute. So how about that Obama winning? Pretty unprecedented, right? I hope he does well. And I'm certainly glad McCain didn't win. Not only can I not stand him, I couldn't stand Palin. But this horse is deader than Elvis (don't sue me Ubisoft*). Also, apparently Obama is Hitler. Some crazy-ass Senator made that comparison. I don't know, aside from the whole mass genocide thing, I kinda liked Hitler...

Saw Quantum of Solace, and pretty much agree with the idea that it's a good action flick, but not the best Bond movie and not as good as Casino Royale. House and It's Always Sunny are still my favorite current TV shows. I can't wait for the next season of Burn Notice. I came for the Bruce Campbell, I stayed for the surprisingly cool show.

I wish I still had my 360, as I really want to play Gears 2, and Halo Recon sounds kinda cool (I'm a secret sucker for Halo, but I think I've mentioned that before). Oh well, maybe when I go back to work. Course, I also have to buy some new speakers, and I'm working towards putting together a nice LAN box (you know, a computer in a small case that's easy to transport...for LANs). Maybe I'll sell my DS and PSP to GameStop for credit. Unfortunately I don't really play them anymore. But then again, I'm never in an environment where a hand-held gaming system is...appropriate (the toilet doesn't count because I always read a magazine then).

I guess I do have shit to talk about. That's kind of how I write. I don't really brainstorm or anything. I just write. With a little editing this could probably be a sensible and cohesive blog. But fuck that, I've got a research paper to edit. Anyway, it's 4:50AM, and all I have is my 11AM German class before I go home and have what is going to an amazing LAN because Left4Dead is the absolute perfect LAN game. We might throw in a little BF2 co-op.

Who am I kidding. I'm not going to go to bed. Let's see here. Oh, apparently Rammstein started writing music again. So I'm all excited about that. Also, I'm wondering how the next Splinter Cell is going to pan out. The last thing I heard about that was that it's going through an entire redesign. Well hurry up! I wanna give you my money! Also, give me some Assassin's Creed 2! Motherfucking ending to Assassin's Creed 1...

I hope that development for the next Brothers in Arms is...smoother than for Hell's Highway. A BiA with no technical issues would be the greatest thing ever. GTA IV on the PC should be great. I don't know if I want to drop $50 on a game I already own though. Maybe I'll torrent it, despite the fact that I'm against pirating (these cases where I already own the console version of a game but want to play the PC version are the exceptions).

Speaking of fucking pirating. A common excuse people use for "pirating" is the fact that it's not technically stealing, it's only copying. Okay, fine, then stop trying to be cool by calling yourself pirates. If you're not stealing, you're not pirates, mothefuckers. Buy your games.

Man, this post is all over the damn place. Should've done an outline or something. Or multiple posts. I'm just Mr. Schizophrenic right now. Probably because it's 5AM. Shit, it was 4:50AM like three paragraphs ago! Okay, I'm done.

*Extra friend points to whoever can catch that reference.