Its a different approach from what we are used to in an MGS game, but it was excellent. Btw Big Boss was never "bad", nothing was ever that black and white in the series. Also the quarantine mission was pretty rough ..... Having to kill his own men. The purpose of the game was always to connect some of the major dots of the series, from what happened between Big Boss and Solid snake in the first two games, up until the end/MGS4. However i absolutely agree on this notion, liquid/Eli's conclusion required that extra cut chapter. And chapter two was painfully rushed.

[quote]What a load of shit. Wasn't the entire purpose of this game meant to be demonstrating Big Boss's path to madness and warlord nature? Not once did we see either Venom or Big Boss do anything morally reprehensible, or even hint that they would.[/quote]Big Boss/Venom kidnaps soldiers off the battlefield and forcibly conscripts them to his army, and those soldiers are rendered infertile. He also takes in child soldiers. Big Boss has ZEKE and a nuke developed in order to serve as a deterrent. Big Boss orders the concealment of said nuke and Metal Gear and all documents pertaining to them destroyed. Big Boss goes along with a plan to use a non-consenting body double (Venom), his most loyal soldier, in order to go into hiding and work in the shadows (just like Cipher) while he takes credit for his phantom's work. I don't know about you, but I don't think a moral hero does that stuff. The only reason why we don't view him as a villain is because we see it from his perspective, and he thinks he's doing it for the right reasons. This is a descent that began at the end of Snake Eater when he refused to shake the President's hand. As for the marketing, well that's a whole nother subject. Basically, never buy into the marketing of a Metal Gear game, because there's always some higher purpose behind it. [quote]And what's the deal with the cut mission 51?[/quote]Nothing, really. It serves to tie up Eli's arc, though I don't think it's as big of a deal as other people make it out to be. It looks like it was cut early on in development as opposed to the common assumption that it was cut because Konami. [quote]I had a lot of fun with this game, and I wouldn't be so down on it if it didn't have the Metal Gear name on the cover, but as far as plot goes (I remind you that plot is one of the main draws to the Metal Gear series) it just had absolutely no reason to exist.[/quote]Same could be said for Peace Walker, MGS4, or even MGS3. I disagree, though. TPP recontextualizes and gives us answers on quite a few events in the lore.

I remember when Kojima said he'd leave the industry if he did the taboos incorrectly like child soldiers. "What a load of bullshit"

Well, to be totally fair, Konami made him leave the industry :^)