Last week, Metal Gear Solid fans were treated to something of a tease; a Twitter account that purported to be from a fictional employee at Big Shell from Metal Gear Solid 2. In various ways it seemed to be teasing an impending announcement for what many assumed would be a Metal Gear Solid 2 remaster, or remake, or rerelease of some king. As it turns out, that whole Metal Gear Solid 2 remaster tease was just a hoax that got a bit out of hand, and didn’t even begin with the intention of being a hoax.
The fictional Tom Olsen Twitter account started posting photos and videos from his daily life at Big Shell, images that were higher resolution screenshots of Metal Gear Solid 2’s gameplay environments from a first-person perspective not possible in the game. The account picked up steam when it started teasing visits from President Johnson and big meetings on specific dates. Playing into classic Metal Gear themes, some of the tweets were a bit more…bizarre…and seemed to indicate something more going on than someone just roleplaying. And things really took on a life of their own when the official Metal Gear Twitter account quote tweeted one of the Tom Olsen tweets in character, reminding him that they had “visitors coming.” Gaming media, ourselves included, started picking up on the story at this point. The Metal Gear Twitter’s involvement seemed to be a surefire confirmation that Tom Olsen was in some way official. And Metal Gear has had f...