Hyakko - Episode 1
To continue with the season opener reviews, I will give a brief review of the new series called Hyakko that has also just recently began.
First off, the main reason I even decided to take a look at the anime is because I thought that the art style looked very nice and a little bit different from the typical. So, is it the typical romantic school comedy that it appears to be from just the picture of the show? From the looks of the first episode it does seem to be very typically comedic and set in a school setting, though no romantic elements have hit us over the head yet, thankfully.
The first episode sets us up with the four main heroines of the show, though if you asked me to recite their names, I would laugh in your face. They all have their different personalities and seem to get along to some extent. The episode centers on them inside their school, being lost because it's so large. Other than that, nothing much really happened besides the resolution to the minor conflict.
Who would I recommend this series for? The awfully bored, looking for something to watch, crowd. It's not very exciting and it's not horrible. I will watch maybe a few more episodes to see where it goes from here, and let you know whether it's worth your time or mine.
That's all for now, stay tuned for further reviews.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Fall 2008 Season Opener Reviews Part 1
Alright, as stated in the previous post, we will delve deeper into the season openers for the 2008 fall season. Without further delay...
Casshern Sins - Episodes 1 and 2
First off, I want to start of by saying that I have never seen the original Casshern series from the 1970s, so I have nothing to base my opinion on from previous series. That said, this new Casshern series throws us directly into the foray, which may seem a bit confusing and make little to no sense even for those who may have seen the old series. I happened to watch the first two episodes of this series because it did indeed intrigue me.
The story starts off in an apocalyptic looking Earth setting, where our protagonist, known as Casshern seems to be in a state of amnesia and in a constant battle against robots that are trying to devour him to gain eternal life, which seems to be a rumor according to the characters in the story. It is in the beginning that he supposedly kills a character by the name of Luna and causes something called "The Ruin", which seems to be killing robots everywhere. The reason I haven't mentioned humans yet is because as of right now, I can't really tell whether there are any humans present in the plot, besides possibly Casshern himself, though he's quite supernatural. We also get a brief glimpse into what looks like the main villain, who seems to be a robot himself and keeps saying that the thought of devouring Casshern for eternal life is just a rumor, nothing more. In the first episode, we are also introduced to a little girl (robot also), whose name is Ringo and who keeps admiring Casshern, calling him very pretty, but when she's in peril and Casshern comes to save her, she becomes deathly afraid of his killing drive. Lastly, we meet one more character. She is very upset with Casshern about something and wants to kill him, but won't, because he can't remember anything and that would just be an easy way out for him.
The second episode picks up exactly where the first one left off and finds Casshern in a camp of robots who are slowly being devoured by "The Ruin" and who seem to be aware of the rumor about devouring Casshern, but pretend that they can accept the death that's coming to them. This episode was interesting because it personified robots in a human manner, but still made them seem like robots in the end. I don't want do spoil anything from the episode, so I will leave it at that.
Overall, I enjoyed the first two episodes of the series even if they left me quite confused. It has a very interesting art style and the plot was dark, but highly enjoyable. I will definitely continue following the show's progress.
Casshern Sins - Episodes 1 and 2
First off, I want to start of by saying that I have never seen the original Casshern series from the 1970s, so I have nothing to base my opinion on from previous series. That said, this new Casshern series throws us directly into the foray, which may seem a bit confusing and make little to no sense even for those who may have seen the old series. I happened to watch the first two episodes of this series because it did indeed intrigue me.
The story starts off in an apocalyptic looking Earth setting, where our protagonist, known as Casshern seems to be in a state of amnesia and in a constant battle against robots that are trying to devour him to gain eternal life, which seems to be a rumor according to the characters in the story. It is in the beginning that he supposedly kills a character by the name of Luna and causes something called "The Ruin", which seems to be killing robots everywhere. The reason I haven't mentioned humans yet is because as of right now, I can't really tell whether there are any humans present in the plot, besides possibly Casshern himself, though he's quite supernatural. We also get a brief glimpse into what looks like the main villain, who seems to be a robot himself and keeps saying that the thought of devouring Casshern for eternal life is just a rumor, nothing more. In the first episode, we are also introduced to a little girl (robot also), whose name is Ringo and who keeps admiring Casshern, calling him very pretty, but when she's in peril and Casshern comes to save her, she becomes deathly afraid of his killing drive. Lastly, we meet one more character. She is very upset with Casshern about something and wants to kill him, but won't, because he can't remember anything and that would just be an easy way out for him.
The second episode picks up exactly where the first one left off and finds Casshern in a camp of robots who are slowly being devoured by "The Ruin" and who seem to be aware of the rumor about devouring Casshern, but pretend that they can accept the death that's coming to them. This episode was interesting because it personified robots in a human manner, but still made them seem like robots in the end. I don't want do spoil anything from the episode, so I will leave it at that.
Overall, I enjoyed the first two episodes of the series even if they left me quite confused. It has a very interesting art style and the plot was dark, but highly enjoyable. I will definitely continue following the show's progress.
The Fall 2008 Anime Season Start
Well, just like everyone else on the face of the blogging world, I've decided that I would do a little summary on the anime that I have looked at from this new 2008 Fall season. Now, mostly, this is for myself to keep track of the shows I'm watching this season, but also for you guys, I will try to make short reviews for each episode as I watch it, depending on whether or not I choose to follow said anime.
The following anime will be reviewed this time around:
Casshern Sins
Hyakko
Lucky Star OVA
Kuroshitsuji (Kuro Shitsuji)
Chaos Head
ToraDora!
These are what I have watched and what I plan to discuss. The next post will start detailing the releases.
The following anime will be reviewed this time around:
Casshern Sins
Hyakko
Lucky Star OVA
Kuroshitsuji (Kuro Shitsuji)
Chaos Head
ToraDora!
These are what I have watched and what I plan to discuss. The next post will start detailing the releases.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
GTA4
By now, any of you that care will know that RockStar released a teaser trailer for GTA4 tonight at 6PM. Any that are still in the dark should go here and partake of it. It's been a couple hours, and most places have posted their thoughts on the matter already, but now it's my turn.
The trailer runs for about a minute, and doesn't really include much plot. One thing that is obvious from it is that the character this time around is some sort of Russian smuggler/slave trader that has come to Liberty City for a second chance.
Yes, it takes place in Liberty City, at least according to the signs. If you pause the video at the right time, you can clearly see a sign that clearly says "Welcome to Liberty City". The confusion starts when you consider the timeline that this game takes place in.
Considering the look of the city, it seems like a more accurate representation of New York City. There are things like the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty, along with some very detailed coastline that could fit a New York atmosphere.
Here are my thoughts. If we are to believe that this is the Liberty City of past games, where have all these new buildings come from, or where have they gone. Assuming this is the same universe as the other games, it also shows a Ferry Station, which exists in Liberty City Stories, but is replaced by an underwater tunnel in GTA3. Either it takes place before the other Liberty City games, or they've brought back the ferry station. The cars look too new for the setting to be placed too far in the past, and if they've already got a tunnel, why would they make another ferry station?
However, I'm having a thought. RockStar are no fools, and they wouldn't make a trailer like that without a reason. I have an incling that this may be some sort of April Fools prank, where they release a trailer, and two days later they say "April Fools, here's the real trailer." It seems like something they might do. There are too many ideas running through my head, and for now I just have to leave them alone, and see how everything plays out in the next few days.
Gilmorne Out.
The trailer runs for about a minute, and doesn't really include much plot. One thing that is obvious from it is that the character this time around is some sort of Russian smuggler/slave trader that has come to Liberty City for a second chance.
Yes, it takes place in Liberty City, at least according to the signs. If you pause the video at the right time, you can clearly see a sign that clearly says "Welcome to Liberty City". The confusion starts when you consider the timeline that this game takes place in.
Considering the look of the city, it seems like a more accurate representation of New York City. There are things like the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty, along with some very detailed coastline that could fit a New York atmosphere.
Here are my thoughts. If we are to believe that this is the Liberty City of past games, where have all these new buildings come from, or where have they gone. Assuming this is the same universe as the other games, it also shows a Ferry Station, which exists in Liberty City Stories, but is replaced by an underwater tunnel in GTA3. Either it takes place before the other Liberty City games, or they've brought back the ferry station. The cars look too new for the setting to be placed too far in the past, and if they've already got a tunnel, why would they make another ferry station?
However, I'm having a thought. RockStar are no fools, and they wouldn't make a trailer like that without a reason. I have an incling that this may be some sort of April Fools prank, where they release a trailer, and two days later they say "April Fools, here's the real trailer." It seems like something they might do. There are too many ideas running through my head, and for now I just have to leave them alone, and see how everything plays out in the next few days.
Gilmorne Out.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Onichi Anime Review Episode 2: Death Note
As promised, this is our second episode of Onichi Anime Review, with the review of the Death Note anime. The podcast is our supplementary material, and if you can't see the link above, here is the MP3 Link:
Get our show here.
The anime Death Note is originally based on the manga of the same title, written by Ohba Tsugumi and illustrated by Obata Takeshi of Hikaru no GO fame. The show began airing on October 3rd, 2006 and was co-produced by Studio Madhouse, Nippon TV, and VAP. Slated to run for 37 episodes, the latest released was 23.
Warning: The following Review may contain some mild spoilers. Read at your own discretion.
Supplementary Material:
And now for some definitions:
SHINIGAMI: Death God. Demon like characters who reside in the Shinigami world. To increase their lives, they must write names of humans in their Death Note. They cannot be killed by physical methods and must follow strict rules if they want to live without punishment.
DEATH NOTE: The Death Note is a notebook, which every Shinigami (Death God) carries. In this notebook, whose ever name is written will meet their death. There are a number of rules that one must abide by when writing in the notebook, which are revealed in the anime during the eye catches (commercial break teasers). The ways of killing someone can be very specific, or very loose, depending on the writer's intent.
Here are "The Rules of the Death Note".
The Plot
The story of Death Note revolves around a number of central characters, the main one being Yagami Light. He is a 17-year old high school student and is very bored with everyday life, because it is so mundane to him. That is until he finds a notebook in the school courtyard one day. The front cover of the notebook reads: Death Note. The inside cover of the notebook contains the rules that we alluded to previously. This is also when Light finds out about the Shinigami, Ryuk, who happens to be waiting for Light in his room. Ryuk was the Shinigami that dropped his notebook into the Earth World, out of pure boredom.
This is the point at which the story really begins, when Yagami Light decides that he will create a Utopian society and crown himself the God of said state. You could almost say that this goes according to Ryuk's plan, since his only reason for being on Earth was to observe what humans would do with such power. Ryuk finds Light to be quite interesting. Light begins writing the names of many criminals into the Death Note and sees the effects of what he's doing. This comes with positive and negative reaction. Some people are glad to see criminals being judged, while others call it inhumane, and call this Judge a murderer no better than the criminals. The general public starts calling this Judge simply by the name Kira, which is a play on the word "Killer".
Good or bad, the police cannot have this self-proclaimed Judge of good and bad, do as he pleases. They begin an investigation, headed by Yagami Soichiro, who happens to be Light's own father. This investigation is helped by a very peculiar individual, who is called throughout the world, the top rated detective. His name is L. Or at least his alias is L. He never really gives out his real name nor does he really show his face to anyone, until this investigation, when he helps out the investigation team lead by Yagami Soichiro. This begins the cat and mouse mind game between L and Kira, with many surprises along the way.
We are later introduced to yet another key character of the series, Amane Misa, who you will later find out to be the Second Kira. Her Shinigami's name is Rem, who has helped out Amane Misa for personal reasons and developed a certain connection with Misa, for which she is willing to kill those who oppose her. Amane Misa has an extreme crush on Kira because he "punished" the murderer of her family. She becomes very devoted to Yagami Light and claims that she fell in love with him at first sight. Light only sees her as an asset because of a certain ability that she has, which he doesn't. You'll just have to watch the show to find out what that ability is though.
That is all I will have to say plot-wise, because otherwise the show would be ruined for you all.
The Animation
As stated previously, this show was illustrated by Obata Takeshi. If you've seen Hikaru no GO, you can kind of tell what his animation style is like. Though Death Note looks extremely refined compared to his previous works. Much less cartoony and a lot closer to reality. Overall, the animation looks great and is definitely worth a watch.
The Audio
Overall, the background music in this show is very nice to listen to as well. The opening and ending themes are really well done and the songs are something else. Well worth the listen anyway.
Overall Grade
I give this show an "A-" for the grade, because there may be some flaws here and there, since nothing is perfect, though this show is very close to perfection. I'd have to say that this is the best anime of the new season and anyone who enjoys good plot and fantastic mind games, should definitely give this show a view.
Where Can I Get It?
Just recently it was licensed by VIZ in the United States and the DVDs are slated to come out sometime in the 4th Quarter of 2007, but VIZ has promised downloadable episodes sooner than that, though no date has been established for it either. These downloadable episodes are supposedly in Japanese with English subtitles only, which is a great thing for us that love subtitles. The DVDs will of course have both the Dub and the Sub. Meanwhile, these episodes are available for download from a number of bittorent sites, which I will NOT supply links to, but if you are a long time anime fan, you probably know how to use these sites anyway. Up to episode 23 has been released fan subbed.
That concludes our review for the anime Death Note. Next time on the podcast and here, on the site, I plan to take a look at the often overlooked, but very good anime, Rose of Versailles. Meanwhile, you can contact us at OnichiAnimeReview@gmail.com and give us some opinions and suggestions for the podcast or for the site. You may even get your e-mail read on the air! Until next time, this is Gokuu Son signing off. Jya matta minna.
Get our show here.
The anime Death Note is originally based on the manga of the same title, written by Ohba Tsugumi and illustrated by Obata Takeshi of Hikaru no GO fame. The show began airing on October 3rd, 2006 and was co-produced by Studio Madhouse, Nippon TV, and VAP. Slated to run for 37 episodes, the latest released was 23.
Warning: The following Review may contain some mild spoilers. Read at your own discretion.
Supplementary Material:
And now for some definitions:
SHINIGAMI: Death God. Demon like characters who reside in the Shinigami world. To increase their lives, they must write names of humans in their Death Note. They cannot be killed by physical methods and must follow strict rules if they want to live without punishment.
DEATH NOTE: The Death Note is a notebook, which every Shinigami (Death God) carries. In this notebook, whose ever name is written will meet their death. There are a number of rules that one must abide by when writing in the notebook, which are revealed in the anime during the eye catches (commercial break teasers). The ways of killing someone can be very specific, or very loose, depending on the writer's intent.
Here are "The Rules of the Death Note".
The Plot
The story of Death Note revolves around a number of central characters, the main one being Yagami Light. He is a 17-year old high school student and is very bored with everyday life, because it is so mundane to him. That is until he finds a notebook in the school courtyard one day. The front cover of the notebook reads: Death Note. The inside cover of the notebook contains the rules that we alluded to previously. This is also when Light finds out about the Shinigami, Ryuk, who happens to be waiting for Light in his room. Ryuk was the Shinigami that dropped his notebook into the Earth World, out of pure boredom.
This is the point at which the story really begins, when Yagami Light decides that he will create a Utopian society and crown himself the God of said state. You could almost say that this goes according to Ryuk's plan, since his only reason for being on Earth was to observe what humans would do with such power. Ryuk finds Light to be quite interesting. Light begins writing the names of many criminals into the Death Note and sees the effects of what he's doing. This comes with positive and negative reaction. Some people are glad to see criminals being judged, while others call it inhumane, and call this Judge a murderer no better than the criminals. The general public starts calling this Judge simply by the name Kira, which is a play on the word "Killer".
Good or bad, the police cannot have this self-proclaimed Judge of good and bad, do as he pleases. They begin an investigation, headed by Yagami Soichiro, who happens to be Light's own father. This investigation is helped by a very peculiar individual, who is called throughout the world, the top rated detective. His name is L. Or at least his alias is L. He never really gives out his real name nor does he really show his face to anyone, until this investigation, when he helps out the investigation team lead by Yagami Soichiro. This begins the cat and mouse mind game between L and Kira, with many surprises along the way.
We are later introduced to yet another key character of the series, Amane Misa, who you will later find out to be the Second Kira. Her Shinigami's name is Rem, who has helped out Amane Misa for personal reasons and developed a certain connection with Misa, for which she is willing to kill those who oppose her. Amane Misa has an extreme crush on Kira because he "punished" the murderer of her family. She becomes very devoted to Yagami Light and claims that she fell in love with him at first sight. Light only sees her as an asset because of a certain ability that she has, which he doesn't. You'll just have to watch the show to find out what that ability is though.
That is all I will have to say plot-wise, because otherwise the show would be ruined for you all.
The Animation
As stated previously, this show was illustrated by Obata Takeshi. If you've seen Hikaru no GO, you can kind of tell what his animation style is like. Though Death Note looks extremely refined compared to his previous works. Much less cartoony and a lot closer to reality. Overall, the animation looks great and is definitely worth a watch.
The Audio
Overall, the background music in this show is very nice to listen to as well. The opening and ending themes are really well done and the songs are something else. Well worth the listen anyway.
Overall Grade
I give this show an "A-" for the grade, because there may be some flaws here and there, since nothing is perfect, though this show is very close to perfection. I'd have to say that this is the best anime of the new season and anyone who enjoys good plot and fantastic mind games, should definitely give this show a view.
Where Can I Get It?
Just recently it was licensed by VIZ in the United States and the DVDs are slated to come out sometime in the 4th Quarter of 2007, but VIZ has promised downloadable episodes sooner than that, though no date has been established for it either. These downloadable episodes are supposedly in Japanese with English subtitles only, which is a great thing for us that love subtitles. The DVDs will of course have both the Dub and the Sub. Meanwhile, these episodes are available for download from a number of bittorent sites, which I will NOT supply links to, but if you are a long time anime fan, you probably know how to use these sites anyway. Up to episode 23 has been released fan subbed.
That concludes our review for the anime Death Note. Next time on the podcast and here, on the site, I plan to take a look at the often overlooked, but very good anime, Rose of Versailles. Meanwhile, you can contact us at OnichiAnimeReview@gmail.com and give us some opinions and suggestions for the podcast or for the site. You may even get your e-mail read on the air! Until next time, this is Gokuu Son signing off. Jya matta minna.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Review: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Hey folks. It's been a while since I've posted anything, let alone anything productive. However, it seems my counterpart has been doing stuff, so I might as well jump on in, and give you some of my opinions. So without further stalling, I'll be reviewing Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops for the PSP.
I had originally wanted to purchase this game when it initialliy came out, around Christmas time, but certain things held me up. I don't remember the details now, but let's move on. I had seen the Metal Gear Acid series, and was unimpressed. I've been a big fan of Metal Gear for a long time now, and it just kinda made me sad that it's name got lent to a Strategy game. Strategy games are fine, if you want to play D&D and don't have any friends that are willing to stoop that low. However, when somebody says Metal Gear, D&D is just about the farthest thing from my mind.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is a legitimate Metal Gear Solid game. It also, surprisingly, fits into the storyline of the entire Metal Gear series. You play as Snake, as usual. This is the Big Boss Snake too. It takes place a few years after Snake Eater, and Big Boss finds himself captured by some guy named Cunningham of the CIA. When you come to conciousness, you find that your neighbor in the prison is an extremely young Roy Campbell, who proceeds to help you escape from your cell, and you return the favor. It becomes quickly apparent that up against this new enemy, the two of you won't be enough to stop an entire army of Russian soldiers and an impending new threat called "Metal Gear."
That's where the storyline ends, and I start talking about the gameplay. Well, if you enjoyed Metal Gear Solid, MGS: Sons of Liberty, and MGS: Snake Eater, then you're in for a treat (if you happen to have a PSP). This game is very much the same as Snake Eater, and rightly so. You'll be sneaking around levels holding up and grabbing Russians, and shooting them in the head after they've given you their delicious bounty. Either that, or you can drag them back to your base of operations (It's a truck) so you can persuade them to join your team. Torture aside (We never saw it, so it never happened), once you get them on your side, you can use them in missions, in order to add a level of steath onto Snake's already impressive line-up of things like sneaking, crawling, and doing summersaults. While using a russian soldier, other soldiers that are dressed the same way don't really care what you're doing. Other than that, the extra characters don't really add anything to the gameplay.
One thing that I was rather disappointed about was that Snake's neverending pockets have been gimped! Now each character you have only allows you to carry 4 items, which includes extra ammo. I found myself running through an entire level with Snake to take everyone out, and sending other units through to collect everything. Other than that, the new style is refreshing, and It could be a more interesting genre on a more complex system like the PS3 where you can have AI for each of them, and assign them tasks such as Covering Fire, or switch between them in real time, without needing to find cover.
Moving onto graphics. Like most PSP games, they look like they belong somewhere between PSX and PS2. The levels, also true to form, are about as big as the sections of the map in previous titles. However, since they are each separate levels, you have to load each of them before you can play. The cinematics, however, have been done a bit differently this time around, mostly, I'm sure, because of the same reasons the levels are small and that the graphics are average. Limited resources. The new style is a comic book style, with black and white images drawn somehow so that the pictures move. Just because they're different doesn't mean their bad either. I thought that the gritty artwork they used was perfect for the general story of the series.
Something else I need to mention is the playtime that the average person will get out of this game. Something I like to call replayability. While the main point of Portable Ops is to add another piece of the puzzle to the world that came out of Hideo Kojima, it has a lot of things that you can do with it after the story is all out on the table. First of all, is an online multiplayer mode. Take a team of your four best (or worst, depending on the mode) soldiers across the world wide web via any hotspot in order to test your skills against anyone in the... well, at least in the country. Not sure if we've broken that border with this one. It includes three different online modes, which are also playable via Ad Hoc wireless, so if it isn't enough that one person owns a PSP in your general vicinity, and you can find other real life people to play against, then you can do that. One of the modes even lets you play "for real" where you capture anyone of the other players that you kill, and they capture anyone that they kill. Scary, right?
If you can't find anyone else to play with, or you've become fed up with the multiplayer stylings of other people, then you can always start a new game, which will allow you to keep your soldiers and also, since you probably missed a couple of these guys on the first pass through, capture all the bosses. This can get fairly complex, and will most likely require a faq or walkthrough in order to be completed with maximum efficiency, but who knows, maybe you're just a glutton for punishment.
The whole package is actually very impressive. For a fan of the series and a handheld that doesn't have too much that will allow you to play over the internet with people, this is a welcome addition to my library. If I ever finish all my other games and have some free time to kill, then I'm definitely going to come back to this title and capture the rest of the bosses and lose them to the people that play online.
I had originally wanted to purchase this game when it initialliy came out, around Christmas time, but certain things held me up. I don't remember the details now, but let's move on. I had seen the Metal Gear Acid series, and was unimpressed. I've been a big fan of Metal Gear for a long time now, and it just kinda made me sad that it's name got lent to a Strategy game. Strategy games are fine, if you want to play D&D and don't have any friends that are willing to stoop that low. However, when somebody says Metal Gear, D&D is just about the farthest thing from my mind.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops is a legitimate Metal Gear Solid game. It also, surprisingly, fits into the storyline of the entire Metal Gear series. You play as Snake, as usual. This is the Big Boss Snake too. It takes place a few years after Snake Eater, and Big Boss finds himself captured by some guy named Cunningham of the CIA. When you come to conciousness, you find that your neighbor in the prison is an extremely young Roy Campbell, who proceeds to help you escape from your cell, and you return the favor. It becomes quickly apparent that up against this new enemy, the two of you won't be enough to stop an entire army of Russian soldiers and an impending new threat called "Metal Gear."
That's where the storyline ends, and I start talking about the gameplay. Well, if you enjoyed Metal Gear Solid, MGS: Sons of Liberty, and MGS: Snake Eater, then you're in for a treat (if you happen to have a PSP). This game is very much the same as Snake Eater, and rightly so. You'll be sneaking around levels holding up and grabbing Russians, and shooting them in the head after they've given you their delicious bounty. Either that, or you can drag them back to your base of operations (It's a truck) so you can persuade them to join your team. Torture aside (We never saw it, so it never happened), once you get them on your side, you can use them in missions, in order to add a level of steath onto Snake's already impressive line-up of things like sneaking, crawling, and doing summersaults. While using a russian soldier, other soldiers that are dressed the same way don't really care what you're doing. Other than that, the extra characters don't really add anything to the gameplay.
One thing that I was rather disappointed about was that Snake's neverending pockets have been gimped! Now each character you have only allows you to carry 4 items, which includes extra ammo. I found myself running through an entire level with Snake to take everyone out, and sending other units through to collect everything. Other than that, the new style is refreshing, and It could be a more interesting genre on a more complex system like the PS3 where you can have AI for each of them, and assign them tasks such as Covering Fire, or switch between them in real time, without needing to find cover.
Moving onto graphics. Like most PSP games, they look like they belong somewhere between PSX and PS2. The levels, also true to form, are about as big as the sections of the map in previous titles. However, since they are each separate levels, you have to load each of them before you can play. The cinematics, however, have been done a bit differently this time around, mostly, I'm sure, because of the same reasons the levels are small and that the graphics are average. Limited resources. The new style is a comic book style, with black and white images drawn somehow so that the pictures move. Just because they're different doesn't mean their bad either. I thought that the gritty artwork they used was perfect for the general story of the series.
Something else I need to mention is the playtime that the average person will get out of this game. Something I like to call replayability. While the main point of Portable Ops is to add another piece of the puzzle to the world that came out of Hideo Kojima, it has a lot of things that you can do with it after the story is all out on the table. First of all, is an online multiplayer mode. Take a team of your four best (or worst, depending on the mode) soldiers across the world wide web via any hotspot in order to test your skills against anyone in the... well, at least in the country. Not sure if we've broken that border with this one. It includes three different online modes, which are also playable via Ad Hoc wireless, so if it isn't enough that one person owns a PSP in your general vicinity, and you can find other real life people to play against, then you can do that. One of the modes even lets you play "for real" where you capture anyone of the other players that you kill, and they capture anyone that they kill. Scary, right?
If you can't find anyone else to play with, or you've become fed up with the multiplayer stylings of other people, then you can always start a new game, which will allow you to keep your soldiers and also, since you probably missed a couple of these guys on the first pass through, capture all the bosses. This can get fairly complex, and will most likely require a faq or walkthrough in order to be completed with maximum efficiency, but who knows, maybe you're just a glutton for punishment.
The whole package is actually very impressive. For a fan of the series and a handheld that doesn't have too much that will allow you to play over the internet with people, this is a welcome addition to my library. If I ever finish all my other games and have some free time to kill, then I'm definitely going to come back to this title and capture the rest of the bosses and lose them to the people that play online.
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