X Years Since Big Shell?

A new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots was recently released at the Tokyo Game Show 2005, showing off the unbelievably impressive capabilities of the PS3 engine, and a new aged Solid Snake. At the beginning of the trailer, the text read "X years since Big Shell..." This became a topic of discussion among many circles. To start off, the word "X" does not represent the number "10" as many English-speaking circles are suggesting. The original Japanese language tagline that the English texts were translated from in fact says "数年 several years". In an attempt to be cool, the trailer actually confused English-speaking gamers with the usage of the letter "X". To reiterate, "X years" actually doesn't mean "10 years", but really means "several years". Then there is the related discussion of how many years had passed since Big Shell? With Snake looking so much older, the obvious appearance would be many years had passed. But evidences really prove otherwise, people are just looking only at the obviousness of Snake's new appearance. First, Director Kojima had said in numerous magazine interviews that not that many years had actually passed since Big Shell, and that Snake's old age is really accelerated aging caused by the aged genes of Big Boss which Snake was cloned from. Second, there's the character image of Raiden holding a baby. Assuming that is his baby and not Olga's baby, then really not that many years could have passed. (It being Olga's baby actually makes the possible time passed even shorter.) What is a number small enough for a baby to still be a baby, and yet big enough for a war to have begun and the amount of technological advances to have come to pass? Personally, I think the number would be around 3 to 4 years. Big Shell was 2009. My personal guess is that MGS4 will take place in 2012. Making Snake 40 years old. Unless that baby is Raiden's second child... (色男 ^_^) 10.3.2005

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