"He may be a child, but he's definitely one of yours."

The year: 1964.

The Cold War is at its height, with the United States and the Soviet Union narrowly avoiding all-out war just two years ago. It's an age of tradecraft, with CIA and KGB agents vying to outmaneuver one another in their worldwide game of musical chairs. Battle lines and allegiances shift with the wind.

Desperate for the upper hand, the Russians are closing in on a weapons technology breakthrough deep in the darkest corner of the Soviet Union: Tselinoyarsk, the "Virgin Cliffs." Doctor Nikolai Sokolov, the would-be defector returned to Russia in the Cuban Missile Crisis, is worked tirelessly against his will to bring his project to fruition: the Shagohod, a nuclear-equipped battle tank poised to single-handedly swing the balance of the Cold War.

With the clock ticking, the CIA calls on its brand new FOX unit and sends in a lone operative: a capable, young, and hungry soldier codenamed Naked Snake. The mission is simple: Get in, grab Sokolov, and get back out in time for dinner. Now, time to cross this rope bridge . . .

Next episode: The rest of METAL GEAR SOLID 3: SNAKE EATER

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The second Ocelot scene

The DEATH STRANDING needle drop

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Ryan: @celebrityhottub.bsky.social

Matt: @mattbrown.bsky.social

Victoria: @dirtbagqueer.rocks

Show account: @shadowmosesbook.club

"The world is being engulfed in truth. This is how the world ends."

We're deep into the guts of METAL GEAR SOLID 2 now, and Raiden has crossed the threshold into outright absurdity: shadowy cabals running western democracy, nuclear mechs the size of city blocks designed to protect AI supercomputers, forty-minute cutscenes, sweeping digital censorship, extremely poor boss fights, child soldiers, baroque swordplay mechanics, psychosexual stepsibling drama, bisexual vampires, magic powers, and . . . whatever is going on with Rose.

Ryan, Matt, and Victoria convene to see if they can possibly make sense of any of it, and in the end, agree that this video game is prescient, innovative, and extremely important. The much tougher question to wrangle: is it, like, good?

Next episode: The first part of METAL GEAR SOLID 3: SNAKE EATER (the climbing of The Ladder) (if you're playing for the first time you will know The Ladder when you get to it)

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Metal Gear Scanlon 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUwp0awYTh8

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Ryan: @celebrityhottub.bsky.social

Matt: @mattbrown.bsky.social

Victoria: @dirtbagqueer.rocks

Show account: @shadowmosesbook.club

"The Hudson River, two years ago. We had classified intelligence that a new type of Metal Gear was being transported. The whole thing stank, but our noses had been out in the cold too long."

The year: 2009.

The world has changed in the aftermath of the Shadow Moses Incident. After Revolver Ocelot leaks the specs for Metal Gear REX, the world has entered a new arms race, with every nation-state, organization, and dotcom seeking to arm themselves with nuclear battle tanks.

Two years after the USS Discovery oil tanker is destroyed in the Hudson River, the off-shore decontamination facility, Big Shell - a symbol of environmental protection and cooperation - is seized by a terrorist group calling themselves the Sons of Liberty. Employing the rogue special forces unit Dead Cell, the group demands thirty billion dollars in ransom. Their bargaining chip? The President of the United States. Their leader? A man calling himself Solid Snake... the legendary operative presumed dead and responsible for the sinking of the tanker in the first place.

While Navy SEALs are sent in to handle the crisis, American special forces unit FOXHOUND also deploys a rookie operative: a whiny seventh-grader with anime hair named Raiden, who quickly discovers that there's a lot more going on with Big Shell that he was briefed on.

And when the Navy SEALs are massacred, one thing is certain: Raiden's accidentally become important at work, and it's ruining his life.

Next episode: The rest of METAL GEAR SOLID 2: SONS OF LIBERTY.

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Ryan: @celebrityhottub.bsky.social

Matt: @mattbrown.bsky.social

Victoria: @dirtbagqueer.rocks

Show account: @shadowmosesbook.club