06.06.2007 - A game is for life, not just for Christmas.

Ive had Metal Gear: Portable OPS for a long time now, I bought the Japanese version it when It first came out in Taiwan. I later got hold of the English version but since the game has no auto save function, much like cooking mama, meant that every time I revisited it I was playing through the same bits over and over. Surely in our day and age of gaming, constant auto-saving is a no brainer, especially on the PSP where the battery has a tendency to die when you least expect it. Well, last night after I got home from work, still feeling sick in stomach, I put away my washing and lay down on my sofa to give portable ops another try. I found you could skip the codec sequences I has seen a million times before by holding triangle and skip the cutscenes by hitting start. Lo and behold after about 20 minutes of constant saving and skipping I got to the furthest I had been before, which wasn't all that far.

The new mission I found myself on saw big boss/naked snake heading for a harbour which was on the other side of a barricaded bridge. Col. Campbell tells you that the only way to clear it is by creating a distraction, a real "light show" as he puts it. So heading back to your map the game requires you to deploy spies to various adjacent locations in order to check out via able spots where TNT might be detonated, tankers, trucks and so forth. After a few days the guys you have recruited by knocking out, bungling into your van and convincing to do certain jobs come back with the intel you need. Once the reports come through it's your turn to detonate these changes over four different locations and once done the bridge is clear.

The spies are the most interesting thing about this game so far, not only do they report on new campains to be attempted they also, depending on where you place them, inform you of new swag which arrives at each location. Just before I finished detonating the last diversion they told me a shotgun could be found in a cabin by the bridge and it was ready to collection at any time. Based on the information they give you drive your truck to the location and get to work on the salvage mission. After three hours of game play last night, describing this one small aspect of the game does not do justice to how much I am enjoying this game right now. Nor how attached I have become to my recruited comrades, they could be because I give every one a name of a bleach character.

What with this, Lumines and Bleach Heat the Soul 4, we are in a golden age of PSP and based on at least 30 more games I would saw are exceptional, I implore everyone I know who does not own one yet to go out and buy one. and If the incentive of being able to meet my portable ops Bleach crew in head to head wifi deathmatch isnt enough then I dont know what is.

Till next time,
This has been MMI