The cloning technology used to creat Snake was in its infant stage, thus his genome/body have begun to unravel prematurely.  That is no longer a problem with the cloning technology used to create soldiers genetically modelled after Snake (i.e. most of the soldiers you fight).

 I don't know if Raiden is a cyborg, but he does appear to be cybernetically enhanced somehow.  Simple explanation, Raiden wasn't hardcore, people wanted him to be hardcore, and now he is hardcore.  I am sure there will be a more story-based explanation like he became a 1337 agent or something and simply became that damn good.  I mean its not like he was a pussy in MGS2, so it makes since that he is even better now. 

I think he is supposed to be Snake's Eastern balance, like the Yin and the Yang of modern espionage, hence the use of the sword.  Now don't ask me why Snake gave him the sword, unless Kojima is trying to emphasize the importance of the cultural interchange between Eastern and Western culture. (part BS on my part, part true)

There are only two parts of Raiden's body that are real, His head and Spinal cord. Everything else is unknown.

I for one think MGS2 is the best in the series so far. It was insane at the time I played it. Graphics, story, and the cut scenes where outstanding! Mind you, I did play MGS1 2 years after its launch and maybe thats why it wasn't as mind blowing. And MGS3 came a bit later in the PS2's lifetime. Also MGS2 was my first PS2 game as well. Considering MGS4 will probably be one of the first PS3 games I'll play. I'm guessing its going to be every bit the epicness that MGS2 was and more! I can't wait >

Nope I don't think it will. MGS2 was raved about to end and when it arrived it was raved about even more. It was one of the few games that lived up to and surpased the hype that was surounding it. It's the gem in the series that brought the franchise to the forfront of gaming(yes even moreso the pt. 1) with its cinematics, its ever so controversial story and storytelling.

I write this as someome who never played any MGS games untill shortly before pt. 3 came out. As a gamer I would alway hear about it and thought it was stupid. But when ever I think of a game that lived up to its hype I think of MGS2. Thats what all the magazines said in reviews and what all the fans were saying when it came out.

With even more hype around mgs4 it would take a miracle to live up to all the hype. This is Kojima we are dealing with though so you never know.

God so many misguided souls.

MGS2 is not the worst game ever made, but its such a painful fall from grace for the series. MGS2's message is in fact intelectual and meaningful, however its delivered in such a way that completely ruins it and the game. If you need to read a frickin' paper by a Texas Professor to figure out what a game's asinine message is, then its a fair bet that the game fails to convey itself in an effective means on its own and thus is a failure in and of itself without assistance to derive that meaning.

The defense of MGS2 here has been perhaps best illustrated by the contradictory claims that both "MGS2 shouldn't be compared to Cinema because its a game" and that "MGS2 shouldn't be held to the standard of other games because its Cinema not a Video Game". Make up your mind. As for the rest of us who have graduated from our High School state of mind we don't need mass media to tell us what is intellectual or what should be liked. How ironic that the very meaning you claim is so true and life changing in MGS2 is the very ideology you ignore in embracing this game becasue on Hype, Sales and Reviews that tell you its good and you're suppossed to like it.

Why must a game abandon all other aspects of redeemability to be intellectual as you claim is perfectly fine with MGS2? Why must all games which are fun and entertaining in contrast to MGS2 automatically be labeled unintellectual by default? The ideal game is both intellectual and fun, its naive and insulting that you assert its one or the other. MGS2 is neither really. Its mediocre at best.

If you think MGS2 is the best of the series then I honestly have to wonder what your standard of an MGS game is.

The only people who think MGS2 is highly intellectual are more often then not the psuedo-intellectuals that argue the Matrix is "deep", the same people who still think Titanic was the best film ever made, the same high schoolers who think the legalization of marajuana would cure all of humanities problems.

All of your defenses for MGS2... Every last single one of them has been nothing more than pointing your finger to someone else and saying, "He/They say its good so it must be!" You've not presented one single self supporting fact or solid point to support this game being anything you claim it is. All we've been given on your behalf is your dope head praise of its convoluded genius and conflicting claims of it being both a cinematic masterpiece yet at the same time exempt from the same standard other cinematic masterpieces are held to.

I swear, If you guys keep having deep involved discussions like this every time I go to work, I may quit my job. Too late for my two cents, though.

I have a feeling that after MGS4 comes out, a lot of us are going to be replaying MGS2 and I think for those who dont truly get MGS2 right now, the events of MGS4 might help clear things us.

MGS2 was a very good game I think. 4 will be absoultely jaw dropping though.

If you think MGS2 was a great game, I don't see how it possible for anything Kojima does to dissapoint you.

 MGS3 did. The game didn't even need an essay or analysis as it was so simple in it's philosophy and storyline, it didn'try to go indepth into it's teachings like MGS2 did.

You buy a video game about guys with talking arms, vampires, and clone terrorist presidents.......for what it can teach you?  Awesome. 

MGS3 Was a tight, well paced, emotional, and well scripted narrative.  If you don't like it, cool.  You're seriously in the minority, though.  I liked MGS2 a lot, but it did quite a few things wrong.  Either that, or we're all wrong and you're right.  Either way, you won't change anyone's opinion tonight.  I promise.