[Wings of Fire]

I still don't understand why MGS4 is fanservice for MGS3 fans.

Stuff like Vamp and Raiden reappearing, the homoerotic subtext taken to absurd levels, the continuation of themes started in MGS2 etc etc point more at it being fanservice for MGS2 fans if anything.

I do remember reading that Kojima pretty much lost interest by Metal Gear Solid 2, which is why MGS3 is basically a fun James Bond parody with minimal connection to the other games that wasn't retconned in by 4, and MGS4 is a huge collection of Hollywood cliches patched together with an increasingly oblique narrative about technical jargon and information control.

You can sort of see Kojima losing his shit with the miniboss squads in the series. MGS1 had really good well rounded sympathetic villains who you felt genuinely interested in and sorry for. MGS2's minibosses were more of a stylistic parody of Foxhound. Fortune was a deeply stuipid character, and Vamp and Fatman were just ridiculous over the top monsters. Then you get to MGS3 where none of the Cobras but Sorrow and The Boss have anything approaching a backstory and finally MGS4 with that trumped up ridiculous Beauty and the Beast unit which stretched the concept to its logical conclusion with absurd ten minute asides after the battle to moon over the pointless loss of life. It's ridiculous.

In summary, Metal Gear Solid 4 is fanservice for Metal Gear Solid fans. It has all the good, bad and stupid of the series up to fifteen. I liked it. Hell, I've only seen a Let's Play of it and that was enough to get the full experience.

I also haven't played any of the games set between Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear, by the way. The poignant end of 3 is more than enough to accept what happened to Big Boss between those two points. I think that expanding on the events takes away from the character.