1UP: We can't believe you actually managed to tie up all the series' dangling plot threads. What was the hardest plot element to resolve? Did you have to cut any corners or fudge facts to make things work? It's okay, you can be honest.

Ryan Payton: The stories of MGS2 and MGS3 were truly written without any backup measures if the series continued, leaving dozens of confusing and unexplained plot elements in the wake. The fact that we were able to tie up all the loose ends with MGS4 was nothing short of a miracle. Writer Shuyo Murata didn't have to fudge as many facts as I did, because the Japanese language is inherently vague. For example, at the end of MGS2, Snake and Raiden talk of rescuing Olga's baby but don't specify the baby's gender on the Japanese side. Perhaps the translator of MGS2 just assumed Olga's child would be a boy, so in the English version they refer to it as a "him." Well, as you know, we introduce Sunny in MGS4 as the daughter of Olga.

I ran into another problem of gender with Para-Medic, who was referred to as a male "Dr. Clark" in MGS1.... But those technicalities aside, I'm proud of how consistent the MGS world now stands. The MGS1 novel we just released through Random House has a subtle joke author Raymond Benson and I threw in about Dr. Clark's gender....

In MGS4, I also decided to set the record straight in regards to a number of issues that hardcore fans care about. In MGS4, I removed Mei Ling's Chinese accent to stay consistent with the true fiction, that she's American born. She should have never had an accent. That was a mistake that originated from the original MGS. And Liquid Ocelot was appropriately voiced by Pat Zimmerman (Ocelot from MGS1), not Cam Clarke who voiced Liquid in MGS1 and MGS2. These were two sticky points that enraged fans prior to release, but now that they've played MGS4 and understand the entire story, they've stopped sending hate mail.

Fun fact: When word hit that I chose Pat Zimmerman for Liquid Ocelot -- and not Cam Clarke -- I got dozens of hateful messages from fans including a 2,000 word short story depicting my execution. It was written by somebody in France, who then went through the trouble of having a friend translate the story and send it to me.