Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is full of hidden surprises. It's got easter eggs up the wazoo and tons of secrets, many of which are still being discovered as players make their way through the 100-hour open-world environment.
One of the secrets that players discovered is the fact that the game celebrates your birthday if you load it up and play it on your birthday. How does the game know what your birthday is? Well, it asks you what it is at the beginning of the game.
Previous games in the Metal Gear Solid series have done this, and your birthday information comes up in small ways.
Other games, particularly those made by the PC gaming-oriented studio Apogee, which used to be big back in the '90s when they released titles like Duke Nukem, Raptor, Rise of the Triad, and id Software's Commander Keen, celebrated special occasions like Christmas and Halloween with content developed for these events. Origin Studios' Crusader: No Regret even featured a Christmas-themed song if you played it on December 25.
In any case, Redditor CubemonkeyNYC discovered that MGS V celebrated his birthday when he loaded up the game yesterday.
MGS V celebrated his birthday with a special cutscene after recalling him back to the mother base.
When you emerge from the helicopter you'll be greeted by the sound of fireworks.
The soldiers will sing you "happy birthday."
They'll even wheel out a cake.
And offer you a cigar.
So be sure to use your real birthday date when you start a new game if you'd like to experience this for yourself.