Magazine (book)



Magazines are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They cover a wide variety of genres, including literary, gaming, pop culture, sports, current events, fashion, and pornography (the last of which often being called "dirty magazines").

Usage
During Operation Snake Eater on late August 1964, Naked Snake procured some magazines. After he was captured, his belongings were retrieved by EVA, where she discovered the magazine. After he broke out of the prison, Snake asked EVA if she threw anything away, to which she told him that she won't throw anything away, not even the magazines. She then expressed irritation that he'd actually read the magazines in the middle of the mission, and that he could have at least asked for her help in distracting the enemy.

During the San Hieronymo Incident in late 1970, Big Boss and his resistance group procured several magazines to distract enemy soldiers, as well as to cope during the long period of the mission.

In 1974, the Militaires Sans Frontières procured design specs for the MGS Magazine while on a demolition mission in Selva de la Leche, Costa Rica. The MGS Magazine eventually became popular from the southern U.S. to the Panama Canal, gaining 1.1 million readers and even having CIA mercenaries becoming fans of the magazine.

The MSF also procured a set of hobby magazines while trying to destroy supplies for the Peace Sentinel in the Rio del Jade boathouse. They eventually procured copies of and copied the Solid, Liquid, Solidus, and Super magazines, which were a weekly sci-fi/horror genre magazine, a monthly mature literary magazine, a quarterly men's lifestyle/political magazine, and a bimonthly fashion magazine geared for women, respectively (the latter also experiencing its 23rd anniversary during the events of the mission). The Solid, Liquid, and Solidus magazines had their fair share of "adult content." They also managed to procure a cooking magazine, the Tomeat monthly magazine, which included in the then-recent issue meat grilling teaching as its feature article.

Aside from their primary use to distract the enemy, the MSF soldiers also used these magazines for their own personal leisure, although Big Boss had a tendency to borrow the soldiers' magazines for use in a mission. When the MSF subcommander Kazuhira Miller was going to propose to Big Boss to create an Intel team for MSF, Big Boss jokingly asked if Miller was planning to advertise MSF in the "local gossip rags." In addition, Chico also leaked a photo of the AI weapon Chrysalis to a tabloid magazine.

Post-Peace Walker
By the 1980s-1990s, Big Boss had been made the subject of various popular magazines across the world at the time, due to his becoming something of a legendary icon to the world.



Raiden procured several magazines during the Big Shell Incident, providing him a method with which to distract enemy soldiers. Solid Snake, while disguised as Iroquois Pliskin, told Raiden that he read such magazines for their "educational value," while giving advice to him on their use. In addition, a magazine rack was on board the USS Discovery tanker.

During the Guns of the Patriots Incident, Solid Snake utilized Playboy magazines to distract PMC troops and also as a means of relaxation for his own benefit.

Although magazines fell out of use with cyborg soldiers, due to their emotion-suppressed nature, printed magazines were still read by non-enhanced personnel, such as the the check-in guard at Solis Space & Aeronautics, who read a Japanese anime magazine during Raiden's visit in 2018.

Behind the scenes
The Book or Magazine is a recurring item in the, first appearing in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. It is a placeable weapon that can be used to distract enemy personnel who discover it. In later games, certain characters are immune to the Book's full effect, such as Major Raikov and EVA in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, along with female soldiers, and soldiers with the "Artist" career, in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the 3D Photo Frame serves an identical function, as does the Stuffed puppy weapon in Metal Gear Online 3.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
The Book made its debut in Metal Gear Solid 2, where the player can use it to distract an enemy. Using the Codec while holding the magazine will result in varying conversations: If the player calls Iroquois Pliskin, he will encourage Raiden to use the magazine, and strongly suggest using it as a distraction. If the player calls either Rosemary or the Colonel, they will express disgust towards Raiden having the magazine, although the latter will be somewhat sympathetic towards Raiden's desire to have it, to Raiden's shock and Rosemary's disgust.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
"Book Publication w/ adult-oriented material. Full of girly photos and interesting columns. Press A Button to set."

- Book description in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

In Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, the Book's cover features Ellia, while the centerfold features Alexandra "Alex" Roivas. Both are playable characters in Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, with the latter being the main protagonist of the game. The book is unique because it doesn't feature a traditional female model. Eternal Darkness 's developer was Silicon Knights, who also developed The Twin Snakes. In the latter, Alex can be seen holding the Winchester Model 1300 Defender shotgun on the centerfold's right page, which is one of the more powerful weapons in her arsenal in the same game. In Hal Emmerich's lab, there are various magazines spread across the floor and on the shelf, including a Metal Gear Solid comic, a magazine with the Eternal Darkness logo on it, and one detailing art from Alaska.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Sabra, a magazine featuring Japanese gravure models and articles geared toward young men, serves as the Book item in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The magazine was published from May 2000 to March 2010, with only special edition magazines remaining in publication since then. The Sabra models shown in the game are Akiyama Rina, Hanai Miri, Ookubo Mariko, Shimomura Mari, and Yabuki Haruna, with the cover being the 2004 011 issue. The Book is assigned a weight of 0.1kg for the Backpack, in the Survival Viewer.

"A picture book for "gentlemen." Full of stunning photos of young female models."

- Book description in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

In addition to the Sabra magazines, other magazines, primarily gaming magazines that have Metal Gear Solid as the front cover issue, are seen within Groznyj Grad's library on a magazine rack. In addition, there were Metal Gear Solid magazines and a Playboy magazine in Graniny Gorki's Western portion of its basement.

If the player kills a soldier while they were reading a magazine, their ghosts will later reappear reading the magazine while fighting The Sorrow.

In the Nintendo 3DS remake, Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D, some magazines included in Graniny Gorki were issues of Nintendo Power. At least 11 magazine covers (the amount in the Japanese version) can be found in the background including magazines such as TV Bros., Popeye, Cut, Newtype, and the like. In addition, the magazine item itself was redone completely, featuring six bikini-clad women with colors of orange and white on the cover, as well as the title on top MGS SE 3D. According to Yuji Korekado on his Twitter account, the cover was derived from a cover for Hooters Japan magazine. The old Sabra magazine does appear at one point, however, when contacting EVA from the prison, see below:

Calling EVA shortly after escaping from the Prison area of Groznyj Grad, should the player have the book weapon in his/her possession up to the player's capture, will have EVA comment on the magazine and sarcastically referring to it as a "fine piece of literature" to Snake's embarrassment.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops features a mission in which the player can recruit a strong soldier for their unit from the Research Lab. Since he is physically indistinguishable from the other soldiers in the area, his only identifiable feature is that he carries magazines on his person. EVA serves as the magazine's centerfold in-game.

In the expansion, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus, another variety of magazine, called the Fashion Magazine, was also included. Rather than distract the enemy, they are used to boost various soldiers' stats and leave them in a specific pose.

In the Japanese version of Portable Ops Plus, unique soldier characters can be obtained via passcode, which wear camo adorned with the logos of Famitsu, Dengeki PlayStation, and Arms Magazine.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
The Playboy magazine is featured in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, along with a variety of "emotion magazines." The latter feature the Beauty and the Beast members on their covers, which cause enemy soldiers to well up with various emotions, or in the case of Haven Troopers, perform a salute. During multiple playthroughs, the emotion magazines will include articles using their beauty forms after the first playthrough.

"Gentlemen's magazine adorned with sultry beauties on each and every page.

Guaranteed to arouse the interest of males ages 18 to 80. Grip the magazine in your hands with the L1 button, carefully plant it using the R1 button. To view the magazine, continue to hold the L1 button and R1 button and then press the PlayStationCircle.svg button."

- Playboy weapon menu description in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

"An adult magazine. Provides stress relief for men on the battlefield. Useful for distracting enemies and slipping by while they are occupied. Staring at one in first-person view curiously raises Snake's psyche..."

- Playboy model viewer description in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

If the player turns the pages of either the Playboy or "emotion magazine" 100 times or more, the player will be awarded with the Rabbit codename, a reference to the fact that the mascot/logo of Playboy magazine is a bunny rabbit. Also, if the player downloaded the trophy patch and then exposed an enemy soldier to an emotion magazine, they'll unlock a trophy achievement called "emotion control."

Metal Gear Online
A specialized harness called the Magazine Carrier could be unlocked by the player for the right amount of points, carrying a magazine on the front and back called M.G. GAL (Metal Gear Gal), a magazine that was presumably a pornographic pinup magazine. However, the magazine was fake and could not be used. Instead, it was meant to highlight the trickster aspect of the player.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
"A popular magazine. Once set, anyone who notices it will stop to read it. The more issues set, the longer the person will be interested."

- Magazine weapon description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"A popular pulp magazine. Once set, anyone who notices it will stop to read it! Face location to be set, ready, then press [Square button] to set."

- Solid Magazine, Liquid Magazine, and Solidus Magazine weapon description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"A magazine loaded with pictures of beautiful women. Once set, anyone who notices it will stop to read it! Face location to be set, ready, then press [Square button] to set."

- Super Magazine weapon description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"The pages are ingrained with the scene of countless delicacies, sending nearby wildlife into a trance."

- Cookbook weapon description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

"人気雑誌. 設置すると面白さに足を止めて読みふける者が続出. 刊行数が増すごとに面白くなり、より長い間熱中するようになる."

- Hobby Magazine weapon description (Japanese) in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

The Solid, Liquid, Solidus, and Super magazines in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker were originally Weekly Famitsu, Dengeki PlayStation, Dengeki Games, and Weekly Shōnen Magazine, respectively, in the game's Japanese release. They were added in by Hideo Kojima as a joke towards product placement, though these were changed for the overseas versions, presumably due to copyright issues. The inclusion of product placement items, however, received some degree of controversy, especially regarding the inclusion of the aforementioned magazines, specifically Famitsu, with some going as far as to list its inclusion and the high reviews made by the magazine as a conflict of interest. Their menu name was given as simply "Hobby magazine" with little distinction between either of the four. The respective magazines required the completion of various Extra Ops of either Fulton Recovery (as was the case for Solid/Weekly Famitsu, Liquid/Dengeki PlayStation/Famitsu Xbox 360, and Super/Weekly Shōnen Magazine) or Target Demolition (as was the case for Solidus/Dengeki Games), the specific missions being 010: Fulton Recovery for Solid/Weekly Famitsu, 011: Fulton Recovery for Liquid/Dengeki PlayStation/Famitsu Xbox 360, 018: Target Demolition for Solidus/Dengeki Games, and 013: Fulton Recovery for Super/Weekly Shōnen Magazine, with the rewards being listed as "Magazine Layout" with the name of each magazine name included for the respective magazine in the Overseas version.

On June 17, 2010, Kojima Productions made a special collaborative project with romantic comedy manga series Arakawa Under the Bridge where players could download three DLC T-shirts containing characters from within the series. It also supplies magazine data that replaces the cover with Volume 6 of the manga, although screenshots indicated that it was initially planned to be a separate item called "Comic Mag." The same DLC package containing Volume 6 magazine also contained a special magazine item based on the July 2010 issue of S-F Magazine. Like Volume 6, it replaced the regular MSF magazine (or Volume 6, if the player downloaded it already) with a different cover. Another DLC package, released on June 24, contained a magazine weapon based on Volume 8 of Arakawa Under the Bridge. Each magazine data costed 16 KB to download, and requires only one magazine data per game save. These DLC magazines are only available in the Japanese version of Peace Walker, presumably for the same reasons as why Weekly Famitsu, Dengeki PlayStation, Dengeki Games, and Weekly Shōnen Magazine were changed in the overseas versions of the game. In the HD Edition, there are some slight differences for the Japanese magazines: Namely, Weekly Shōnen Magazine uses a different cover between the PSP version and the HD Edition, and in the HD Edition, depending on the console version, it either still uses Dengeki PlayStation as the second magazine (PlayStation 3), or otherwise replaces it with Famitsu Xbox 360 (Xbox 360).

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
 * Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
 * Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
 * Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus
 * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
 * Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
 * Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (cutscene only)