Um.... sorry if you felt tricked.  SDF is a well known joke site mocking PS3 fanboys.  And I figured the last line after the ----- would be enough to show I was being sarcastic.

The real Sony Defense Force knows Metal Gear is by default AAA. Nothing needs to be said.

It's 1UP (bankrupt now), Kotaku, and bunches of other sites.  1UP leaders have repeatedly left for Microsoft jobs in the past.  SDF was started to fight MS guerilla marketing propaganda with hilarious user-created pro-Sony propaganda.

meh.. starting to not be as funny as it used to be.. i guess its a little more original than just giving it a 10 or 11

This site was a lot funnier when most people thought it was actually run by PS3 fanboys, because they actually made it believable in that sense.

It's kinda lame now.

 1 million units sold on opening week confirmed

I

Wow, I was just reading the comments section and there are still quite a few 360 fans who thinks this site is legit and they are freaking out.

It's always been that way. it's the funniest part of their site, the xbots REALLY believe that SDF is for real and get pissed off then calls them out everytime the site updates.

Actually I think this review puts the AAA status at risk, considering it joins the ranks of such games as Haze, Heavenly Sword, Lair and Warhawk which all have perfect scores from SDF.

All joking aside, I don't think there was any doubt in anyone's mind that this would be a AAA title. The only possibility would be if there was a form slump with the developer (it happens at some point with most game series) but even then I would say that it would still have been a great game.