MGS just became too bloated and full of contradictions. I'm supposed to think Big Boss is this ultra-charismatic literal demon, but all we see is a manchild action hero in MGS3, a "totes anti-hero" in PW and then he shows up in MGS4 to be "redeemed", while V never did anything to show us the actual BiBo's villainy. It was a bunch of blue-balling and it pissed me off because I do tend to favor anti-heroes and villains. As it stands it's all just "he said she said" interwoven together. I don't mind MGS4 as an ending to Solid's story but generally as the years go by I treasure the "idea" of MGS rather than the actual product. Technically we never even got a proper ending. V came out and that was that. It all just stopped. It kept on being milked for nothing. Kojima or Konami, that's the reality. Still, MGS2 is a masterpiece of sorts and the series' high point. At least for me. It did have something to say and utilized the medium properly. All the rest were just games that tried to be cinematic and hey, they did manage that, credit where credit's due. If you can turn off the nonsensical and convoluted story, the core is fun. But MGS2 is "MGS".
As time goes on I generally learn to focus on "bullet points" when it comes to IPs with tons of installments. Be they games, movies, comics, books and so on. Sometimes you have to pick and choose and make your peace with it. They still publish Bond stories. Herbert's son is still milking Dune. The Big 2 will never stop. So you have to say "my journey ends here". And then you buy a figure or two, a poster, a good copy of an issue and so on and so forth, and you've created this sort of "testament" to your affection towards them.
