We may never find out if love can bloom on the battlefield, but thanks to kickass GB mod Mike, we can discuss this and other platitudes on our very own Discord server![discord.gg] Here's the scoop from the man himself:

"It's probably not going to be of as much use until Metal Gear Online comes out, but I thought it would be cool to set it up and get it going now. It's free, so why not? If you haven't used Discord before, it's the new hot voice & messaging app. You can access it directly from any browser, or install a desktop or mobile app if you want to and use it that way. It's completely free for everyone and has a ton of cool features like text-to-speech, groups, private channels, and more."

While I agree that this thing will really shine for MGO, there's no reason why we can't chat about the amount of goats we've rescued (all of them) while cruising around in the open world. Just remember that both the main voice and the text chat are to be kept as SPOILER FREE as possible. Don't be that guy who drops in just to yell that D-Horse is Chico or anything dumb like that.

Wait, ♥♥♥♥.

-Mirado

Thanks to intrepid intel team member AdequatelyPrepared on GB, we've got a better understanding of how the FOB system actually works. Here's the relevant page[mgstpp-app.konamionline.com], but be careful browsing from there if you are very spoiler adverse as there may be some minor things on other pages that you won't want to see. Keep in mind this is the PS4's manual so there may be some irrelevant info.

Here's some highlights:

"FOBs you can infiltrate must either be in the same PF Grade bracket as you, be a rival who infiltrated your FOB in the past, or be the retaliation target of a PF you are supporting."

"If you can reach the core of the platform you have infiltrated, you will capture a large number of personnel from your opponent.
However, if your opponent's forces spot you, the user who owns the FOB may come and join the defense."

"You can earn rewards for successfully infiltrating or defending an FOB, besides the materials and personnel you steal from the opponent.

The rewards are even greater for successfully defending another user's FOB."

"Gain supporter PFs using [RELATIONSHIPS] in the iDROID's [MISSIONS] tab, and friendly users may come to help your defense."

It seems like we can add each other using the "RELATIONSHIPS" tab in the iDroid, which is how you choose which PFs (other players) you are supporting, and also how you share retaliation targets.

It's still unclear how that ties into the system level friends stuff (I.e. if everyone on your list will be under the RELATIONSHIPS tab), or there's any sort of cap (hope not!), but we'll know very soon. Either way, it seems we get a bonus for helping each other out versus going it alone, which is a smart way to incentivize it.

We did it! In roughly 21 hours, we'll have survived the longest and most painful wait in recent video game memory. Can you beleive this all started back in 2012 with a thinly-veiled ruse and a guy in face bandages?

However, like everything in life, it isn't as easy as just waiting for the First to roll around before pressing play. Konami, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to deny us a pre-load (or, perhaps they were too incompetent to set one up? I'm a firm adherent to Hanlon's Razor[en.wikipedia.org], after all. :D), which means that 12 AM EDT begins the worst kind of waiting; watching a download percentage tick up.

Now, for some of us blessed with fast connections or free time, that's not a big deal. But for others, they can only hope their shaky rural internet holds out while they are off in the coal mines, hoping to be rewarded after a day of breaking rocks in the hot sun with some sweet sneaking mission action.

...I may have scrambled my metaphors a bit.

Anyway, what are your plans for the First? For me, a resident of the (B)East Coast, I get the game at the crack of midnight. My connection is good enough to get me the game in about two hours, so I plan on downloading it, somehow forcing myself to sleep for five or six hours, and getting up around 8AM to play for three glorious, work-less days. (Just waiting to see what ♥♥♥♥♥ that dream up. :D)

What about you? Are you cursed to live in a timezone which gets the game at some unholy hour so that your Tuesday is all but spent? Are you one of those west coast bastards who get the game at 9PM and have such a fast connection that you'll be playing before 10? Are you praying that whatever potato is powering your entire regional infrastructure doesn't fail you at the most inopportune moment?

Let me know! We're very close to starting this cycle of revenge, and by all accounts, it looks to be glorious.

-Mirado

What a rollercoaster this week is turning out to be! First the reviews drop, with 9s and 10s all over the board, then we get this news[www.gamespot.com] and I immediately feel like finding the closest copy of a Konami published game and snapping it.

Luckily, you can put down your copy of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron and relax: you can earn the microtransaction currency in game. This tweet confirms it.

Not to excuse microtransactions in a $60 game (which is always ♥♥♥♥♥♥), but it may make a bit of sense if you think about it: FOB gameplay is fairly gear dependent. You may need to upgrade your Fulton just to lift containers with it, and can you imagine a fresh faced recruit trying to fend off a fully geared and upgraded player? Doesn't sound like much fun. Plus, poor Big Boss is building Mother Base from the ground up, right? Why would he immediately claim a far off piece of territory that he couldn't hope to support?

Here's my take: as long as you can earn those coins while doing things you would already be doing in the first place (completing missions, for example), and as long as the grind for them isn't so severe that you need to repeat things over and over to get enough, AND as long as only the initial purchase of territory requires the coins (and not every aspect of the mode as that would be a major pain in the ass, not a phantom one at all!), then I am ok with it.

That's...a lot of caveats. But I have faith in Sean Eyestone, game presenter extraordinaire, when he says that microstransactions are not required to experience any in-game content.

Let's not lose our minds before we have confirmation of a reason to snap our copies of Pro Yakyū Spirits 6, ok?

-Mirado

By now, you may have heard that Greg Miller is planning on livestreaming The Phantom Pain a full week before release. This has caused an uproar from many different corners of the internet (due to the spoiler potential), and as I have the ear of many a duder, I just want to post a quick clarification before you run to the hills:

He has confirmed that he will NOT show the hospital intro until launch.

He has confirmed that he will NOT go beyond the fifth mission.

If you are anything like me, this game is the biggest release of the year. I've been teetering on the brink of madness ever since we figured out The Phantom Pain was a MGS game way back in 2012. Spoiler aversion is becoming more and more important as we approach the 1st, but I just wanted to let everyone know that you don't need to panic and freak out just yet.

Prepping to dodge Red Wedding levels of spoilers,

-Mirado