Kojima Studios' Ryan Payton dropped by the NeoGAF Forums to make some clarifications regarding the PlayStation Underground e-newsletter and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops+.

If you missed our report on this, a certain MGS Portable Ops: Infinite War announcement came in with the said newsletter. Ryan Payton clarified that this is not a new title and definitely not the name of the North American version for Portable Ops+.

"What the hell? 'Infinite War' was the codename I gave to the project before 'MPO+' was decided on. Funny how things find their ways to retailers," explained Payton.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops+ is expected to be released in North America on November 13.

Konami Digital Entertainment's Kojima Studios division has just announced that Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops Plus (Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops+) for the Sony PlayStation Portable has just gone gold and is currently in its UMD manufacture stage. MPO+ is set for a North American release on November 13, 2007.

Konami describes MPO+ as the stand-alone multiplayer addition to the acclaimed 2006 Sony PSP release Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (MPO) which follows the story of Big Boss and his FOX Unit in the events that took place after Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

Konami in states in its press release:

MPO+ includes a new single player mode, "Infinity Mission," in which players must advance from start to finish through increasingly difficult stages, gathering weapons and recruiting high-level comrades to build up their units.

It was also mentioned that "additional multiplayer modes such as the Shooting Range to test player's shooting skills in a deathmatch environment and a Training Mode to practice and sharpen their game controls will challenge even the most experienced tactical fighters."

Metal Gear Series fans will be happy to know that some of the elements included in Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops+ will bring about nostalgic bliss. Among the maps is an updated version of the REX hangar from the original Metal Gear Solid where Solid Snake and Liquid Snake fought their epic battles. Among the characters recruitable in MPO+ will be Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty hero Raiden as well as Old Snake from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Those who are thinking twice about spending for an updated version of MPO will also appreciate the affordable price point set by Konami Digital. MPO+ will sell for a suggested retail price of US$ 19.99 to make this one a sweet deal.

If you've received a recent copy of PlayStation Underground's e-newsletter, you might have skimmed over the list pictured above. Speculation or fluke - call it as you may, the newsletter listed four upcoming hotspot-compatible Sony PlayStation Portable games. The list included two SOCOM installments, NBA 09, and something new in the Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops scene: Infinite War.

Seeing as rumors over a new Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops sequel under development was overturned by Kojima Productions' Ryan Payton, there could only be one other viable option to what Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops: Infinite War is. It's probably the North American version of Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops+, of which the original was released less than a month ago in Japan.

Anyway, one would love to think that the use of "Infinite War" for a title with the "Infinity Mission" campaign is more than just a coincidence, but let's wait the details that was promised to confirm MGS fans' hopes. More on this as we get them.

Truckloads of kudos goes to NarooN for showing us the light and pointing us to the PSU e-newsletter.

We know that Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops+ has yet to landfall in North America (November 13), so this bit of news coming straight from the Makuhari Messe in Chiba City should interest fans of Metal Gear Solid. The PlayStation Portable title will soon get a sequel, as blogged by Ashley Wood himself - the concept artist to be involved in the game's development.

Wood has worked with Konami Digital and Kojima before, so this probably would be a cakewalk for the Australian illustrator. Details on the game's features and facets were not reported as of press time, and clues as the the game's continuation or focus of story was not revealed either.

We hope to get more information regarding the Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops 2 game while the Tokyo Game Show continues on to the weekend, so keep your eyes glued to this space for developments.

 

Have developers exhausted every single feature or option built on the PSP? Is there no more room for novelty that would WOW handheld gamers? Have our games reached critical point where further development would not exceed what we currently think is the maximum power of our PSP? Not necessarily, bub.

There are still a couple of unexplored areas that game developers might want to take advantage of for future game development for the PSP. And sometimes, the best solutions are the simplest answers. Look at Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. It's quite a bit of hit, for sure, as it takes advantage of the GPS peripheral device to help you recruit units as you scour around town for a hotspot.

With each hotspot, you find a different recruit. Is this a novel idea? Well, technically speaking, the way it's presented is most definitely new. But when you think about it, maybe Kojima didn't need to reinvent the wheel. He could have just revisited an almost-forgotten idea that revolutionized videogame-to-player interaction a couple of years back. Back at the time when the PSOne was riddled with gems and fantabulastic games.

Remember when we did just that a couple of weeks ago? We had revisited a couple of the "diamonds in the rough" of the PlayStation (PS1). We had gotten the following comment from X (Unregistered): "» Uhh... // How exactly is one supposed to play monster rancher on the PSP? // It would be sweet if you could use UMDs in place of CDs to generate the monsters, but somehow I don't think that would work."

Yeah, Monster Rancher was indeed one of those unique games back then. The reason why it was a hit for a lot of people was that it introduced a novel idea of your in-game interacting with your environment - your CD library, to be more specific. Your in-game content changes because of the resources around you. Monsters apparently live in your CDs. Ingenious idea. Now, it's pretty much lost in the dust and somewhat forgotten. Or was it?

So, how exactly can Monster Rancher help your PSP? Click the Full Article link below to read on...

GamesRadar alerts folks that in a recent interview with Edge magazine, the legendary Hideo Kojima, head of super-studio Kojima Productions, revealed his unlikely and unhinged vision for a zombie-themed game. According to Kojima, he's "less interested in the idea of the living dead than the fact you can turn people just by biting them." So much is his focus on "turning" people, that he even considers implementing his take on zombie-apocalypse in a massively-multiplayer online environment.

He explains:

Imagine a large town where half the inhabitants are zombies. Users would subscribe, get inside the town and get bitten. At that stage they become undead and can't control their character - all they can do is modify the camera angles.

...They'd see their character attacking humans and have to pay just to watch! ...The only way they could end it is by opening another account, hunting themselves down and killing themselves. Of course, the problem is that your second character can get bitten as well.

Not getting to control your character if you get turned? Having to hunt your former "self" and kill it (if it got zombified it's an "it" now), just to progress the game? Get bombarded by cinematics of mindless zombies? All too silly? Well, despite Kojima's own reservations about his over-the-top and unlikely Zombie-MMO, he says that he won't rule the idea out. GamesRadar reports that should he feel that the moment is opportune, he will "take some time to prepare. Very seriously."

Well, the cinematic aspect of the whole thing is trademark Kojima.