After hearing the results of Eli's DNA test, I pretty much figured the ol' Body Double/GZ Medic as Big Boss theory was a shoe-in (my pet hypothesis the past few months was that Medic would become Solidus as a memetic clone of Big Boss as opposed to a genetic one, even though that doesn't jibe with MGS4), but it was still something of a massive shock playing through the Truth version of the hospital mission; with the simple twists of initially showing the avatar/Ahab's face in the mirror reflection and the difference with the photographs, it completely flips the whole game on its head. I kind of wish I hadn't been so embroiled in the fan speculation leading up to the game so that ruse could've put my head one a one way trip to I'VE JUST BEEN FUCKED-VILLE. Some people definitely just had their worlds rocked, man. Ahab's grin when he's listening to Ishmael's tape at the end is perfection itself.

Oh, and Quiet? That turn of events punched a perpetual hole through my fucking heart. The game just feels so empty now. Her pictures don't even hang in the ACC anymore...

[s]Chapter 3[/s] Ending 4. And did you expect anything less from Big Boss, The Man Who Sold the World? ;)

Wear the XOF uniform from the opening, though that goes against her story of her skin needing to breath. Her silver and gold outfits are pretty funny IMO, and Sniper Wolf cosplay was a great easter egg!

We love her so much that A Quiet Exit won't be occurring in this second playthrough. Might've been brutal but she was trying to help the poor guy with the parasite. Yet her looking after the child soliders, her love coming through for Venom Snake when most needed, it was just so touching. Her words actually help heal, instead of brutally kill (like in the opening). Quiet just does as she wants, she doesn't let fate or circumstances chain her, like it does so many other MGS characters. And if you do mess with her just because of her looks or just because she's a female soldier...Well, be prepared for a stab in the dick.

The female Skulls, who get chest and butt close-ups in their intro for no real discernible reason, on top of being zombies.

Do you think that the cut mission 51 counts as a canonical event? It would certainly fit well a lot of the end-game events (such as Skull Face stating that the fourth sample of the parasite was 'close to [Snake]' and melds with Liquid's later characterization, but it isn't really clear whether it actually happened or not.

[s]Chapter 3's[/s] Ending 4's a real thing, see above & my other posts in-thread

Mission 51 can't be canon either, since it was cut (for time?) by Konami.

There were actually 3 samples. The "close to you" one was Quiet. Skull Face intended to use her as the vector, hence her silence. The one Mantis stole was the one of the two Venom tried to destroy. I think 51 is pretty close to being canon, and was probably not fleshed out and explored because Konami had their falling out with Kojima and the game had to be pieced together from what was there.

I do feel that it probably has to be considered canon to explain away what happened to the parasites Mantis stole, as well as the fate of Sahelanthropus.

Your truth's been revealed, you lost Quiet and Eli, but your story and missions aren't over yet--would've been so powerful, IMO.

This 4th ending, which is real, and which does include that audio mentioned towards The Boss. Now, maybe ending 4 was originally meant to be part of "Chapter 3: Peace" within the game's files? Who really knows. Kojima had to work with what files he had (e.g. No Mission 51, Chapter 3, etc) since Konami gave him the boot and all. I love the game as-is, but would've welcomed more Kojima-approved content. Anyway:

Konami has been taking down any Youtube videos related to Ending 4, because it's meant to be an FOB mode end you get as a community, disabling each other's nukes--Kojima's right this is something never done before! This is one powerful ending. Gave me chills as much as Truth End did.

All the juicy details, video included, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/metalgearsolid/comments/3lgevj/tpp_spoilers_a_hidden_cutscene_practically/

The Philanthropists are actively trying to disarm all nukes, while the Patriots are actively resisting the disarmament by any and all means necessary. Yes, these are spontaneously created player factions.

Mind...blown.

Okay, so we get that incredibly compelling ending, and then she presumably wanders off into the desert somewhere to die. But my question is this: can the vocal cord parasites actually kill her? As I understand it the way they kill people is by invading the pulmonary tissue of the lungs, but . . . Quiet doesn't have lungs. So, what would the parasites do to her? I get that she'd still be a carrier and all, but would she necessarily die?

The way I see it, I don't think the parasites would kill her as she's already covered in them (wolbachia isn't an option because it would kill her "ones that cover" as well). The reason she leaves is to protect the rest of the base and the boss from an outbreak. I don't think she necessarily wanders off to die, because the only place that says anything to that effect is the guidebook which isn't really an official source. She's listed in the staff roster as MIA rather than KIA or deceased. There's also the possibility of a mutation thanks to Huey's typical dumbassery. It's not really too clear on exactly what the reasons are, but her tape spells it out pretty well. She wants to protect her comrades and being around them, she's a liability, so she becomes another phantom pain.

On another subject, TPP is starting to make me nostalgic for Peace Walker and Portable Ops. Once I finished the story and began grinding for GMP to develop my remaining projects, I started to realize just how much more content there was in PW. For instance, vehicles. In TPP there's basically 2 of each type from what I've seen so far. In PW I remember there being about 4 of each type. Also, TPP removed helicopters from the vehicle list. This was a huge disappointment to me, because I was hoping to eventually capture a soviet gunship and use that as my ACC (I never liked the Huey helicopters that the Pequod is based on). What pisses me off is that they already had that awesome Morpho chopper all ready to go for that role in GZ, but they never even gave us the option to switch back to it in TPP.

Mother Base was also disappointing in some ways. It was overhyped in the gameplay videos where they talked about it being highly customizable. The only things you can actually customize are the platform color and the logo. Everything else about it is just like PW except it's a physical location and expansion is optional instead of automatic. They also talked about how you could interact with your soldiers. Yeah if you call punching them and choking them out interacting. Would it have been so difficult to program in a salute button? Friggin' Snake Eater had that, and that game was made 10 years ago! Speaking of the soldiers, there weren't enough of them walking around. I've got 1,400 troops, I expect to see all 1,400 of them busting their asses on the platforms! Do I always show up at naptime or something?

I loathe the auto-sort feature for new recruits and the inability to disable it. In PW I liked taking the time to get to know the new guys and place them in their respective units, reading each of their funny quotes (yet another thing I loved that TPP removed!) and even getting attached to some of them. In TPP Mother base is run like a machine. You fulton new guys in, they get automatically assigned to their units, and most of them you never see again or even have a clue who they are. Everything about TPP's Mother Base is just so automated and soulless. I don't even feel like I'm actually in charge of it, the place basically runs its damn self. This feeling is reinforced by Miller repeatedly bossing me around and telling me everything I can't do. "Don't kill child soldiers, Boss. Don't bring strange women back to base, Boss. Do this mission next, Boss. Hey Boss, I completely went over your head and ordered construction of a new platform, but I'm sure you'll love it. Boss, pick up the radio and call me every 5 minutes so I don't get insecure. Boss, do a barrel roll, it will amuse me." I honestly wish I could fire him in TPP, he is such a whiny ass.

Which brings me to another thing: All the returning characters except maybe Ocelot have been turned into assholes. Miller thinks HE runs Mother Base and plasters creepy posters everywhere without my consent, Huey has gone from being the nice nerdy guy who makes my bipedal weapons to being a nutjob who locked his own lover inside an AI pod and left her there to die, then sabotaged medical equipment to cause parasite mutations and basically gave the world's most dangerous nuclear weapon to a bunch of disgruntled child soldiers! At first I was sad that Chico, Amanda, and Cecile didn't return in this game, but now I'm glad they were left out of the story. Who knows what Kojima would have done to them!? He's already ruined everyone else I liked from PW.

And none of the features I was hoping they'd bring back from PO made it in, namely soldier renaming, wearing enemy uniforms, and squad mechanics. In PO you could rename your soldiers if you didn't like their code name, you could deploy up to 3 soldiers from your combat unit with you on missions (they would wait inside cardboard boxes until you took control of them), and each soldier you captured retained their original uniform. The last one was great for preforming recon because you could just switch to a soldier who wore the same uniform as the soldiers at the target facility and waltz about the base undetected unless you did something suspicious like crawling or fighting the others. Sadly none of these turned up in TPP.

Sorry for the long rant, but I really needed to get that off my chest. After 120+ hours in TPP and no new story to focus on, every little flaw is becoming more apparent and I'm starting to get burnt out on the game. I need to play something else for a while. But I really do hope Konami decides to do open-world Fox Engine remakes of PO and PW. If they made those I'd probably enjoy them even more than TPP.