Portable Ops league launches

By Tom Bramwell Published 25 May, 2007

As delayed game is released.

Konami has launched an online league for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops on PSP, which finally launches properly in Europe today following this month's earlier, botched attempt to get it out there.

Residing at www.mpoleague.com, the service allows players to create their own custom tournaments and build up their own clans, managing recruitment, discussing tactics in the forums and all that jazz. Konami also plans to run three official tournaments between June and October.

The rather brilliant Portable Ops has taken a while to arrive in Europe, but it's been worth the wait if you ask us. As well as a meaty single-player game, which moulds the traditional MGS stealth gameplay into a more compact form that suits the PSP, the game offers online multiplayer similar to PS2 title Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.

Indeed, Konami says that Subsistence's online popularity was one of the reasons it created a similar service for Portable Ops. Those of you buying in can read the full announcement over on the site, which is offered in five languages - English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • GamesConnoisseur #1 5 years ago

    Already got it at the first supposed launch from Tesco before they withdraw the game from shelf. So glad to be able to try the online league and will give it a good go!

  • tonynibbles #2 5 years ago

    If you have a PSP, buy this game. It's awesome.

  • Hughes. #3 5 years ago

    If you want to arrange matches without having your posts wiped off the forum front page in a matter of minutes, you can get your game on here

    Get recruiting, go out WiFi cyber-scrumping and get yourself a squad together.

  • SeesThroughAll #4 5 years ago

    @ Hughes.

    I've been trying to, mate. But good soldiers are really hard to find! :(

    Did you manage to recruit Eva? I can't find her in the game. And the passwords have been changed for the euro version, not even cheating will help.

  • AcidSnake #5 5 years ago

    /obscure mode on

    "What is it, Sebastian? I'm arranging matches."

    /obscure mode off

  • Steroyd #6 5 years ago

    I refuse to get this game on the precendent of Konami being reta.....

    ...I can't resist, but Crush is out today to. ;_;

    Why PSP? WHY!?!

  • Hughes. #7 5 years ago

    @STA

    Any area I'm going to I stuff with "bait" guys, and then tranq and capture everyone, the dump anyone with crappy stats. The enemies get stronger the further into the game you go. That said, the ones with more life and stamina tend to have lower weapons ratings, and verse-vicer.

    Scrumping is a bit hit and miss too, but I've found some good officers that way. I haven't got any of the major characters yet, I forgot to Tranq kill Python, so I don't even have him (is dim).

  • Nova5lag #8 5 years ago

    @acidsnake...

    Its always you in here with the fuckin matches!

  • SeesThroughAll #9 5 years ago

    That said, the ones with more life and stamina tend to have lower weapons ratings, and verse-vicer.

    Aaah, but life and stamina are not a real problem. If you repeatedly keep on playing as a soldier, his stamina and life will gradually increase. You'll notice this immediately on Snake if you start a second playthrough, by repeating the single player campaign, he gets stronger.

    I try going for those who drop "special" items when searched. (As in, not ammo).

    Make sure you have save data from MGS DGN and MGA2 in your memory stick. Major Zero is a great sneaker (Politician, Rescuer and Delivery man, I think), and Venus is a straight A character!

    Having said that, most "regular" soldiers I find suck. :(
    Edited by 1 at 25/05/07 @ 11:21

  • SBfistfun #10 5 years ago

    If you have a PSP, buy this game. It's awesome.

    Surely you mean download?

  • chupachups #11 5 years ago

    "What is it, Sebastian? I'm arranging matches."

    Eddie Izzard?

  • AcidSnake #12 5 years ago

    @chupachups:
    Indeed...The great executive transvestite! Genius...

  • oldschoolsoviet #13 5 years ago

    Good soldiers ? Stick to the prisoners mentioned in reports and the FOX grunts (headsets + berets). Good stats are more important than HP/stamina, as these values can be increased by using them in story missions.

  • afghan_jones #14 5 years ago

    um.. I still have no idea how EG and the rest of you actually enjoyed this game.

    It was very well presented and a lovely idea but was atrocious to play. It featured one of the most stilted, tortuous, unintuitive control systems I have ever seen. Basically it should be good but it is actually unplayable.

    (And dont start any guff about blaming the PSP button layout. Syphon Filter had to cope with the same buttons and that was grand.)

  • SeesThroughAll #15 5 years ago

    It featured one of the most stilted, tortuous, unintuitive control systems I have ever seen. Basically it should be good but it is actually unplayable.

    I don't really see what problems you might have had. Basically, control in MPO is a case of "getting used to", just like Syphon Filter. The big difference is that the SF tutorial mode is a much better introduction to the controls than the MPO storyline.

    All round, it controls fine.

  • lambtron #16 5 years ago

    The controls aren't perfect but they are no worse than many, many games out there (and I'm not talking about just on the PSP either).

  • phl0w #17 5 years ago

    Had the chance to play it to death since it was released in April over here. Not at all awesome. Sure, it's a MGS game and not some kind of comic strip and all, but it sure gets boring. Missions are very repetitive, what with the scenarios looking all _exactly- the same and cutscenes are too damn long for a handheld game. Some of them last longer than a ride on the tube and there's no theater to re-view them, which I'd appreciate very much. Controls need getting used to but even then it can get frustrated at times and you'll trigger an alarm or get seen because your stupid character moves into the wrong direction due to bad camera placement...again. Another thing is the A.I. After 3 MGSs I somehow got bored of the stupidest "Soldiers" ever. You are seen - you are followed - you run into some house or room and hide under a desk(!) or somewhere - they follow you into the room - they lose track of you. How stupid is that? You'd think that elite soldiers (as many of them are called) would turn everything upside down in that very room if they S A W you run in there. Nothing.
    If you don't need to upgrade firmware I'll give it another chance via online play though. Usually real people act more reasonable, although I am worried about the balancing since there are pretty strong weapons to be found in the game and recruited soldiers' stats vary to a degree that a player's skill may become obsolete. Which means that the one farming the best soldiers (yes, farming access points is possible) and weapons will most probably win the match. Well, we'll see.

  • tiddles #18 5 years ago

    It featured one of the most stilted, tortuous, unintuitive control systems I have ever seen. Basically it should be good but it is actually unplayable.

    I thought this too when I first played it, but now I think it's fine. It's still quite fiddly, but no more so than any other MGS game, or Syphon Filter.

    The trick is to get into a rhythm - look around on the Dpad, move where you want to go (using L to centre the camera behind you if you need to), stop and look around again. Initially you do run into enemies by accident, but that's what the sound scanner is for, to give you warning when people are nearby. Controlling the character and the camera in this way soon becomes second nature.

    I've become very addicted to the side missions you get from the spies - even though you never really need another combat knife or whatever, it's fun trying to complete the objectives - the "rescue this soldier" missions can be a bitch when you have to find a key that somebody has somewhere in the level...

  • afghan_jones #19 5 years ago

    Dont get me wrong, the game feels slick and well presented, the menus are nice, the recruiting is cool and its all very engaging. It just feels like actually playing the missions is one of the worst bits.

    someone playing this game shouldnt have to be wrestling the controls and camera around every five steps their character takes.

    Plus the environments are drab and dull as anything. I am sure that a more optimized PSP game could be made along the same lines. A more zoomed out viewpoint akin to the older games would have been good. or go the whole hog and pull the camera back to Killzone liberation levels. That would have been far more suitable.