Exclusive content for European PSP version of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Konami reveals new additions and confirms release date
You may have already caught our review of the US version of the exquisite MGS: Portable Ops and, figuring you wouldn't be able to wait until April (the game's now confirmed UK release date), may have been thinking of importing it directly from the other side of the Atlantic like we did.
Konami, understandably, would prefer you to wait. It could have used an ecological argument, saying that employing the services of a courier to bring an additional package from America effectively contributes to the melting of the polar caps and therefore the end of civilisation as we know it.
Instead, it's bribing you with what it claims are 'a wealth of exciting additions exclusive to European users'. These, it transpires, include new elements, game maps, characters and missions.
For instance, European PSP owners get to enjoy an additional 12 characters – for once a genuinely crucial facet of the game – while the careers of the available characters have been expanded to highlight key attributes such as athleticism or physical strength, to name two.
Elsewhere, fans of online battles will find two more areas than their US or Japanese counterparts, bringing the total number of multiplayer maps to ten.
Also announced is a new Boss Battle mode, in which players are rewarded with new recruitable characters upon defeating one of the game's larger adversaries.
That's all the intel Konami is willing to share for now. It's not an insubstantial set of additions, and it's encouraging to see a publisher attempting to offer an incentive to keep people from flocking to their favourite online overseas game supplier while they wait for the later arrival of a European version. (Obviously we'd prefer a simultaneous release situation, but that's an argument for another time.)
Click back on Monday when we'll have shots of the exclusive Euro Portable Ops elements.
