ONE WEEK UNTIL MGSIV!

The time is nearly upon us! One week from this very moment, I will be playing Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots! Just this morning, I was extremely excited to learn that one of the Gamestop locations in Champaign, IL (which is where I spend most of my time) will be doing a midnight launch of MGS4. You can bet your ass that I'll be the first one in line! Here's a list of all the Gamestop stores that will be selling it at midnight on launch day:

http://www.gamestop.com/gs/landing/mgs4/MGS4Midnight.pdf?affid=3346&wt.mc_id=mgs4

Be there, or crawl into a dark and filthy corner and turn your tear-burnt eyes away from the cruel light of the unforgiving world like the miserable wretch you know you are and always will be!

Ahem. Anyway, here's today's Metal Gear fact of the day:

The third clone produced in the Les Enfant Terrible project, Solidus Snake, was actually the President of the United States of America during the events of MGS1. As a result of those events, the existance of Metal Gear REX was made public knowledge, and Solidus--known as President by his "real" name, George Sears--resigned his office.

This was not done out of disgrace, no matter what the public might have thought. Solidus knew better than anyone that the Presidency was a sham--the winner of every election was selected and then controlled by The Patriots. Solidus was sick of being under their thumbs, and went underground after his resignation to plan a way of striking at The Patriots directly.

Even though the presidental elections in the USA as it exists in the world of Metal Gear are rigged by The Patriots, I still find it extremely interesting to ponder how "George Sears" was sold to the public. Did he run as a Republican or a Democrat? Seeing as the second Iraq War officially does happen in the Metal Gear timeline, is Solidus meant to replace Bush in the series' fictional Presidental lineup, or did he beat Bush in the 2004 election? I like to think it's the latter case, as that would mean that Solidus Snake--who in the past had murdered innocent people without a second thought and trained child soldiers in Africa--ran as a Democrat. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty liberal myself, but I'm absolutely in love with the irony of that possibility.