heres something i dont understand,

in the end scene before the fight w/ solidus, he says wasghington took office at that building(federal hall) 200 yrs ago today.
that would mean the game is set in 1987, but by my count the game is set circa 2011...
whats happening here?

The ending to metal gear solid 2 is very confuseing with this whole storyline with the patriots if my memory serves me right i for a while tried to figure it out but then i just realised it wasnt worth the effort

I didn't like MGS 2. Sure the gameplay was good, but the storyline was awful. Plus the fact that you had play as Raiden. The tanker section was the best part of the game,.

It's a rounding thing. Oh, and a timeline:

February, 2005: Metal Gear Solid occurs
Late 2007: Metal Gear Solid 2 (Tanker) occurs
29 April, 2009: Metal Gear Solid 2 (Plant) occurs

@ armenius:

thanks for correcting my timeline, i thought the tanker chapter happened 4yrs after shadow moses, but thanks.
still, i still dont understand it, its 22 yrs out? and i doubt kojima san would overlook a simple matter of dates, so there must be some meaning...
but @ wolfe, i dont understand, surely the addition of raiden adds to the story, with the whole possible death of snake, but then we as the player would understand that david hayter as voice actor could only mean solid...