For all of the games – including its own sequels – that have come since, the opening moments of 1998’s Metal Gear Solid still loom large. After years of terrible pre-recorded ‘interactive movies’, here, at last, was a game that understood that having live actors on screen wasn’t the key ingredient in giving something a cinematic edge. Metal Gear Solid, if nothing else, understood how to create mood, even if the camera was panning around low-polygon character models. It aimed to feel like a movie, not look like one. It focused on the small flourishes that mattered: moody music, precise camera angles. As players guided Snake around the frigid location, actor and staff credits played. And then, notably, just after the scripting credits: Translated by Jeremy Blaustein. It must be a cool feeling, to see your name in one of gaming’s iconic scenes. “It is,” Jeremy tells me from across an aggressively nondescript table, his hands nursing a bottle of tea that he would not recommend to any