Hideo Kojima said Half-Life had a "kind of soul" which Japanese games lacked, and Metal Gear Solid 2 was directly inspired by Valve's classic FPS

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

Thanks to a visit by Hideo Kojima to Valve HQ, the internet is reminiscing about a note from the Metal Gear Solid 2 developer diary in which he recalls playing the original Half-Life.

There's a multitude of reasons many still cite 1998 as the greatest year ever for video game releases, and two of the reasons were Metal Gear Solid and Half-Life – two industry defining games that released months apart (there were also some other games you may have heard of like, Tekken 3, Resident Evil 2, Crash Bandicoot Warped, Baldur's Gate… I could fill out my entire wordcount with bangers). But when it came to Game of the Year, our friends at Edge picked… The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but for some reason, Kojima singled out Half-Life.