This article was originally posted on June 11, 2008 at 1:55 p.m.

Today's the eve of the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots launch on the Sony PlayStation 3. It's hard to believe that the game we've been waiting for these past few years is almost here and the anticipation is coming to a close. With that, the MGS4 character countdown here at QJ.Net is on its last leg, but before it finally comes to an end, we'll be doing things with a bang.

After a nostalgic walk past such greats as Liquid Ocelot, Vamp, Otacon, Roy Campbell, the women of Metal Gear, Raiden, The Patriots, and Johnny Sasaki, we are finally ready to close the old books and open a new one. Before that, though, there's one last thing we have to do.

This week, we make like most Metal Gear games by supplying the explosive finale to what has been a memorable run. This blogger would like to thank everyone who has faithfully followed and commented on this article series and I'm hoping you all have a great time with Kojima Productions and Konami Digital Entertainment's latest masterwork. Without further ado, here he is, the star of the show: Solid Snake!

Character history

The Big Boss backgrounder

To better understand Solid Snake's background, it's necessary that we all familiarize ourselves with his genetic father Naked Snake (Big Boss). The respective fates and lives of the two seem to have been made parallel by design, and doing a background check on Snake Senior would do everyone a lot of good.

Naked Snake (sometimes referred to as "Jack" by his support crew in MGS3) is considered by many as the greatest soldier who lived during the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. He was a student of World War II heroine The Boss, and he was responsible for defusing a tense situation in Russia initiated by Colonel Volgin's faction during the events of MGS3.

It was during these events that Naked Snake discovered some truths about a secret organization called "The Philosophers" and their "Legacy" which happens to be a huge chunk of wealth desired by its remaining members. It was also in this mission that a weapon called the "Shagohod" was discovered to be in development. The Shagohod was a tank capable of launching nuclear weapons at any point in the planet to strike targets with accuracy and ease. The weapon laid the foundation for what would later be known as the Metal Gears.

In MGS: Portable Ops, Naked Snake was captured by the enemy and brought to San Hieronymo in Colombia where a militia conflict sparked by Gene was taking place. In MGSPO, Naked Snake discovered that Gene and him were both part of the US government's secret "Successor Project" geared towards spawning a replacement for The Boss. Jack also discovered that a Metal Gear prototype was under development in the area and promptly destroyed it.

Not a lot has been revealed about what happened between MGSPO and the original Metal Gear, but clues suggest that Big Boss may have been invited into The Patriots organization by Revolver Ocelot at that time. It was also revealed in MGSPO's ending that Gene left Naked Snake with hints to the Philosopher's Legacy and remaining Army's Heaven resources.

It's uncertain when exactly it happened, but some believe that Big Boss was cloned after the San Hieronymo incident. The US government at that time thought that the world needed a new Big Boss, causing them to put together the "Les Enfantes Terribles" project. Liquid Snake tells us the rest in the video below:

Perhaps more gaps in the seminal storyline would be filled when a sequel to MGSPO comes out, but for now let's move on to the events of the original Metal Gear on the MSX2. It was in this mission that Solid Snake's first big time hit took place. The plot was simple enough at the beginning: fellow FOXHOUND member Gray Fox was sent in on a mission to gather information about enemy fortress Outer Heaven and rescue some hostages. Fox apparently messed up, and Solid Snake was sent in to clean up the act.

In the first Metal Gear, Solid Snake was depicted as a young special forces operative who had the skills, but not quite the extensive experience to deal with situations such as this one. With the chips down, however, he was tapped by his commanding officer Big Boss to go in and complete the mission. As things unfolded, the mystery behind Gray Fox's capture proved to be almost too much for young Solid Snake to handle.

It turns out that Gray Fox was in league with the enemy and was used to lure in Solid Snake to a trap. An even bigger surprise at that time was the fact that Big Boss was actually calling the shots from within Outer Heaven and was just using Solid Snake to keep the US government misinformed. This set up Solid Snake in epic clashes with the two main enemies whom he beat at the endgame.

In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, the hero was called out of retirement by new FOXHOUND commander Col. Roy Campbell to deal with trouble brewing in an upstart rogue nation called Zanzibar Land. The country kidnapped scientists Dr. Marv and Dr. Petrovich to work for them, giving them two aces to hold the world hostage with.

The first was a biologically engineered algae that Dr. Marv developed in order to give the world an alternative to fossil fuels. Dr. Petrovich, on the other hand, was developing a new nuclear mech called Metal Gear D so that Zanzibar Land's leaders could blackmail the US. At the end of the day, it turned out that Gray Fox and Big Boss were up to their old tricks again and were defeated by Solid Snake once more.

Gray Fox was "killed" in a fist fight atop a minefield while Big Boss was charred with an improvised flamethrower that Solid Snake fashioned out of cigarettes and an aerosol spray. The victory here gave Solid Snake the chance to retire for the second time.

The 3D era of Metal Gear and Solid Snake

After a long absence from the console scene, the Metal Gear series resurfaced in 1997's E3 event where Konami captured the imagination of the media and the fans with their showing. The June 12, 1998 launch of Metal Gear Solid in Japan set off a frenzy of critical acclaims that would fan the flames of success leading to the North American release a few months after.

In MGS, Solid Snake was tasked with infiltrating the remote Alaskan nuclear disposal facility of Shadow Moses which was seized by a FOXHOUND unit gone renegade. Liquid Snake was calling the shots, and he demanded money, the remains of Big Boss, and a vaccine for the FOXDIE virus from the US government. VIPs were held hostage, including Armstech president Kenneth Baker and the DARPA chief who was later revealed dead even before Solid Snake's rendezvous with "him".

Ultimately, Solid Snake was able to defeat the members of FOXHOUND, destroy the new Metal Gear REX, survive Liquid Snake's assaults, and rescue Hal "Otacon" Emmerich and Meryl Silverburgh. It was revealed in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty that Solid Snake and his friends formed the organization Philantrophy afterwards to stop the proliferation of Metal Gears across the planet.

Colonel Campbell had Solid Snake listed as killed in action after the Shadow Moses crisis, only for the hero to reappear, get framed up and be thought of as dead in MGS2's tanker incident. It was in this sequel that Solid Snake took a back seat to new hero Raiden in the Big Shell chapter where he worked under the cover of Navy SEALS operative Iroquois Pliskin. It was here that he was portrayed to be on the decline as his age really started to show.

It was also in MGS2 that we saw how Solid Snake affects the personality struggle within Revolver Ocelot. In each time that the hero came within the near vicinity of Ocelot, Liquid seemed to take control. In the endgame, Liquid was able to possess Ocelot in a crucial moment to steal Metal Gear RAY and go after The Patriots.

In MGS4, Solid Snake has been portrayed as an old man who has several months left to live. He's been assigned by old friend Campbell for a hired hit aimed at Liquid Ocelot. This, Campbell says, will thwart Liquid's Insurrection scheme that was designed to take out The Patriots and spawn a new reign of chaos.

In new trailers, Old Snake is seen struggling to keep up in battle against the new type of mini-Metal Gears called GEKKOs. He's also been previewed as reliant on unknown medication to stay functional on the battlefield. Fortunately, he looks like he's going to get a lot of help from Otacon's little robot, Raiden, and the new FOXHOUND led by Meryl.

So, will this be the last hurrah for Solid Snake? We can't say. The only thing we can guarantee is that we will find out tomorrow. Do watch out for upcoming MGS4 features here at QJ.Net including our official review of the title.