REVIEW: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

December 28, 2006

And what just might be the last game I beat in 2006, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is finished. Another fantastic game from Kojima and I hope won't be the last (well you know... other than MGS4). Even though its on a much smaller format, doesn't mean that make it any less of a game. This is a true Metal Gear Solid game, and I really hope there will be more "Portable Ops" on the PSP in the future. Lets see what we got...

The PSP never ceases to amaze me with the kind of graphics it can push. I am sure you have heard it many times before, but its a damn PS2 right in the palm of your hand. That being said, the graphics are pretty much the best on the platform right now. Even though you can tell where they had cut some corners in order for it work on the PSP, you could match the graphics to MGS3 and it would be almost identical. That alone is impressive.

If you have ever played an MGS game, you know the one thing that always sticks out are how good the cut scenes are. The make you feel like you are playing a movie. While they are all there in full force with Portable Ops, they aren't what you might expect. Instead of using the in-game graphics for them like you see in other MGS games, what they do instead is almost tell it like a comic book. If you have seen or player the MGS Digital Novel, you know already what they look like. While this might be a turn off for some people, I think it does a fantastic job of telling the story, and I would love to see even more of it. Ashely Wood, who did the artwork for the Digital Novel returns and works his magic for all the cut scenes in Portable Ops. It is really a sight to be seen and is really slick how they pull it off. If you wanna see how it looks, you can look HERE. Its the first scene in the game, and if you have played MGS3, it doesn't really spoil anything.

On sound we find another great job. Again, Metal Gear Solid is just one those games that you can always count on to bring you great audio work. Form the voice acting to the music, its all here. All the voice actors that were in MGS3 return, and again, its just like as if you were playing it on a console. They did have to cut some corners though. Due to the size of the UMD disc, pretty much everything BUT the codec scenes has voice acting. You can't really blame though, its still a fantastic job.

For gameplay, there are a few niggles, but again, with the format they are on, they still pulled off a great job. For example, since there is no second analog stick, the camera controls are mapped to the D-Pad. Because of this, its pretty much impossible to move and position the camera at the same time. Also what is different is you have to hold a button to sneak. While there is an option to make it a toggle, I think it would have been a better idea to make it the default.

Also a first for an MGS game is that rather than having Snake going solo in all the mission, you work in a team of four. While it is possible to play the whole game without even using Snake, lets face... he's god damn Snake and he has the best stats out of everyone. ;) What this opens up is the ability to go in with units that you can either recruit by capturing or using the game's Wi-Fi feature and play the game in a whole new way. Lets says you recruit a enemy grunt or something. Well once he is on your side, he blends in with everyone else and is able to sneak in unnoticed to the guards. This lets you maybe plant a bomb or grab some info and get out quickly whereas if you used Snake, you might have some resistance along the way. This always didn't work the way it should though. You could just be minding your own business doing you best to not looks suspicious, where all of a sudden some guard walks by, looks at you for a second, and have all hell break lose. It also didn't make any sense where if you were caught walking around, alarms would start going off like crazy if you were spotted, yet if you were running around like a maniac, they wouldn't even think twice. It seemed really silly, and if they do make a Portable Ops 2 (Which I don't see why they wouldn't), I would like to see that fixed.

I haven't even touched the multiplayer though, and I am not sure I will.... not to say I don't want to though, maybe I will even check it out after I finish writing this, but I have this huge ass back log now after getting games from Christmas and all, I don't really have the time to focus on it. I have heard some good things though! :D That being said, after all is said and done, MGS: PO is THE reason to own a PSP. If you love MGS as much as I do, you won't be disappointed, and even if you may have never played one, you might find this fun as well. Go get it!

REVIEW: Resistance: Fall of Man

December 5, 2006

And to what I am sure will be the first of many, I have beat my very first PlayStation 3 game. Finished up Resistance last night. A very solid start for Insomniac on the PS3. If you own a PS3, you really should have this game. Not just for the single player, but for the ass kicking multiplayer. While I did have fun with it, there are a few issues that I would of changed if I was in charge. Lets see if I can cover those in this review.

As always, lets start with the graphics. Seeing as how I really don't have a 360 and this is my very first game I played with an HDTV, I really don't have anything to compare it to. The graphics are very good for a launch title, and it only makes me look froward to seeing what type of stuff we will see in the future. It gives it that real life, but not really type of look. Not sure how to say it any other way. I guess if you take a game like Half-Life 2, you kind kind of compare it to that. Or something.... yeah I don't know... What most cool kids are doing this day are taking this game and comparing it to Gears of War. Well, duh, its not going to look as fantastic as Gears, but I think it does a great job of standing on its own. Give it a year and lets see where it goes. :)

Sound is great too. Every enemy sounds unique. If you hear one, you can tell what type it is and how you could use that to your advantage. Where it really shines though, are with the weapons. Every gun/grenade has its own unique sound which not only lets you know what you are up against, but it leads to some pretty laugh out loud moments during multiplayer. I think my favorite is when you throw an Air-Fuel grenade on someone and they hear the whine as it charges up. They think they better get the hell out of here before it blows up, only to realize that the thing is stuck to them and they will die anyway. What happens is that they try to get into some cover where a group of people might be hanging out, the whole thing blows up and everyone dies in the huge inferno. Trust me... that NEVER gets old. :)

As for game play, there is where I had a few problems with the game. While there are really nothing major, it does become a pain in the ass as you get further into the game. The biggest of those problems is the way the checkpoints would work. Now, like I have said before, I consider my self to be an above-average gamer. Certainly not the best, but if things came down to it, I bet I could hold my own against the best. That said, this game can be frustratingly hard at some points, causing you to restart a checkpoint over and over again to get it right. Enough times where you know where the enemies will be or what type of waves they will come in. The checkpoints and or health were always in these weird spots where it felt like hours before you even saw one. You could be doing really good only to have a bunch of dudes jump you a few steps aways and you had to restart this really huge ass level. I guess it made sense so you are forced to stay alert, but it just felt really unfair at times. Add in the fact that one of the guns can shoot THROUGH walls and I think you can see where this is heading. Oh well.

Next is the multiplayer. I think this is the best multiplayer experience I have had in a while. Compared to Metal Gear Online, it comes pretty damn close. I haven't seen an once of lag ever since I have been playing. With all the crazy shit that can go on during a match, 40 people playing all at one time, and all the weapons, Insomniac needs a pat on the back for sure. There was a time where I would compare the net code from any Valve game to other games to see how the size up, but I think now the winner goes to Insomniac and their net code. I don't know how they do it, but they do it good. :) The one thing they really need to fix though are how the ranked matches work. As it stands now, you could get thrown into a TDM that is maybe 3v3. Sounds pretty normal. Well not when you need 2000 points to win. Each kill nets you 10 points and an assist nets you 2 or 3 (I can't remember). Then throw in your team dropping, or the other team dropping, and things can take FOREVER. Plus, if you leave a ranked game. You don't even get ANY of the credit you got while playing. Also, I haven't see anyone new join once a ranked game has started so you are left to try to duke it out. Insomniac has said they will be bringing out a patch very soon, so maybe this will fix a few issues.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for this review. I have MGS:PO sitting right next to me and I really want to play it!