In Pulp Fiction, Uma Thurman says that there are two types of people in this world, Elvis people and Beatles people.

Well, I might see myself as more of a Vincent than a Mia (you can tell by the way I use my walk), but I agree. You're either a Metal Gear person, or a Splinter Cell person. I'm a Metal Gear guy, probably due to the fact that it was the first game I ever finished. And while I love the Splinter Cell series, if I was given a choice between only one and the other I'd always go with MGS. Fortunately for you, the PSP is the great uniter in that the Splinter Cell game that was released isn't very good, while on the contrary Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is fantastic.

It takes a little getting into, with the controls being a little bit difficult to get used to, especially if you're used to analogue controls, but in no time at all you'll be choking men to death. Once the control system is mastered, the game itself plays a lot like Metal Gear Solid 3, except in bite-sized, takeaway chunks. It suits the portable nature of the PSP perfectly, and allows you to stop and start without having to worry about trying to get back into it. The camera has a few issues, most notable if you've just come from Metal Gear Solid 3, but it will never annoy you for too long.

As always, the story is brilliant, with shocks at most turns. You can never be sure exactly who you're working for, and why you're doing what you do. It's one of my favourite recurring themes throughout the series, and it makes you feel better that Snake seems to have as little a clue as you do. I can relate because that's how I go through most of my life.

Essentially, it's a couple of years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Snake has been sent to South America for a Bay of Pigs-style operation. Once there, he's imprisoned for a very short amount of time and when he breaks out, he finds out he's being held responsible for stealing a top secret weapon. He has to find the weapon and get it back to clear his name, and it just gets crazier from there. Fans of the series will of course love the narrative, which is told in distinctive graphic novel cut-scenes, but it may prove too convoluted to some, especially those with no previous MGS experience. Hopefully this will encourage those unfortunate few to go play the other games, instead of just putting this one down, but you can never tell.

An interesting addition to the game is the recruitment mechanism. The idea behind it is, super soldier that he is, even Snake can't overtake an entire island (it's actually a peninsula) on his own. What he does is strangle people until they pass out from lack of oxygen to the brain. He then convinces the now brain-damaged foe to join his side and do his bidding. Once converted to his team, Snake can make them do a range of tasks, from Spying to find out information, all the way up to Sneaking, where they'll accompany Snake on an actual mission. I felt that changing team members in Sneaking missions was a little clumsy, but nothing game-breaking, and it does add a new dimension to the game, especially when you can walk directly past an enemy just because you're wearing the same outfit.

Multiplayer was quite a lot of fun. It seemed very intuitive, and the game types suited anyone from a hardcore recruiter down to a noob. It uses both Ad-hoc and Infrastructure modes to connect you to duke it out. You can either play Real Combat or Virtual Combat, the former being "for keeps", the latter being the pansies method. If a team member gets killed in Real Combat, they're dead, and your opponent can take them if they wish. In Virtual there's nothing to lose, and you're dead character simply queues back up to go at it again. Alternatively, if you don't want to use your own characters, or you simply haven't earned any yet, there's Free mode, which you can use to try out combinations and practice tactics. And of course, what kind of collecting game would it be if you couldn't trade. There's apparently even a Sleep Trade function, where the game will trade for you in sleep mode, but I was unable to work out exactly what that did.

All in all, this is the best game I've played on the PSP to date. A few issues come with the restrictions a handheld system has placed upon it from a control perspective, but the PSP never fails to handle the game performance wise, which is a testament to Kojima Productions' abilities, and a bit of a condemnation of most other developers for the PSP. Some may find the story to be a little convoluted, but on the whole, this is the best PSP game out there. It's totally worth your money.