You shouldn't need to know anything from IV, but Peace Walker and Ground Zeroes would definitely be beneficial. Ground Zeroes actually has a recap for Peace Walker in the main menu (it's listed as "Back Story" I believe), so grab Ground Zeroes, read the back story, and take an hour or two to finish Ground Zeroes. Boom. You'll be all caught up in no time.

@MethodManFTW Naked was easily the worst Snake early on. I don't care what anyone says. He was green, naive, and was getting his butt handed to him. The other 3 were all badasses from the moment you met them; the legend, the madman, and the mastermind. Naked was still an awesome character, of course, just not the best Snake. Big Boss is a different story, though, since he essentially becomes all 3 rolled into one.

Also, if you add GTA: Vice City to that, those were the only 3 games I played in that time frame, too.

For any of you dudes who played MGS3 when it first came out, were you surprised when you found out Naked Snake was Big Boss, or did you know the entire time? I genuinely wasn't sure what was going on until the very end when they actually dubbed him "Big Boss," and every time I mention this in another forum, someone tries to make me feel like an idiot for not knowing from the very beginning. I mean, I don't feel like an idiot, but I'm surprised that so many act like it wasn't supposed to be a twist at all. Kojima even refused to answer questions about Jack's true identity before the game came out, so I always expected it to be something crazy. So, you dudes think it was meant to be a plot twist or not?

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Also, that cool thing is happening late tomorrow night. I hope I don't have to start clinicals this week. That would give me like 3 free days to play without consequence!

Nothing crazy about that, homie.

Correction on that release time, though. Konami Tweeted late last night that the previous release times were all wrong. The official release time will be Tuesday 9/1/15 @ 12am EST. That's Monday 8/31/15 @ 11pm for me.

According to MGSV's PC community manager, anyone who owns the game on Steam will be able to download and play as early as Monday 8am EST.

Sweet. Got a Phantom Pain code on eBay for $40. Now, I am ready!

I tend to get hyped up pretty easy, but this is on a whole other level. I honestly can't remember a time I've ever been this pyched for a game!

Yeah, man, I'm just trying not to go off the deep end before the 1st. I had about 4 more paragraphs of my own theories I could have posted, but to hell with that. It's too close now for so much speculation. I feel like pretty much everyone we would want to see again will show up in some fashion. If not, we'll probably be okay. It sounds like there's soooo much more about this game to enjoy.

He looks more grizzled because he was roughed over big time while in captivity. He lost an arm and a leg, and something crazy is going on with his eyes now, too. It shows where Big Boss rescues him in the big E3 demo that was show off this year.

Yeah, I heard the that last one, too. But GZ does disprove it. Or at least, proves that it wasn't true at that point in time. There could be other ways that the theory works out. Such as, what happened in GZ was orchestrated by someone else, but Big Boss remembers himself (SF) in that position because he felt guilty for all of it. Even if that part's not true, the SF we see in PP could be like Tyler Durden in Fight Club - just another part of BB's pysche that's manifest itself as an entirely different person that only BB sees. Either way, SF is definitely supposed to be a mirrored copy of Big Boss (in one way or another). FOX vs XOF? Another interesting thing is Bowie's "the man who sold the world." Kojima is a big Bowie fan. It's a Bowie song. Look up the lyrics. It sounds like something Zero would say to Big Boss, but considering the song is supposedly about a man singing to the better part of himself, I believe it's meant to be Big Boss speaking to Big Boss. However, if Skull Face is "the man who sold the world" then maybe he's the singer? It definitely seems he may be some sort of doppelganger. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Skull Face was a shitty clone. He's called a ghost without a past. He could be a clone of Big Boss that somehow retained all of Big Boss's memories and has experienced all of the pain of losing Boss (phantom pain), and if he remained with Zero, he may have taken Zero's stance on things. It could be the rapid aging that made him look all freaky and decayed. Or that part of the trailer could simply be symbolic for how Big Boss has come so far, through all this heinous shit, only to become the villain himself (with SF standing in as the villain). With Kojima, there's just no telling! I just hope I'm not disappointed when I discover who the heck he is.

You mean the blonde with the sunglasses? That's Kaz Miller. He loses his right arm (note the empty right sleeve). I'm going to have to find what you're talking about, though. I would love to see Campbell again. It's kinda weird that he and Boss already started an organization in Portable Ops but haven't spoke since.

Also, don't read any fan theories. A lot of them are correct apparently. Luckily, I only know 2, and I personally hope those 2 are true.