The next Metal Gear Solid isn’t Metal Gear Solid 4. In fact, it isn’t even on PlayStation 3 - or PS2, for that matter. It’s called Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, and, as its title suggests, it’s for Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP).

What you don’t get from the title of the game, due to arrive this Winter, is the fact that it is a true sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and is considered by Metal Gear creator, Hideo Kojima, to be part of the main series (unlike the “side stories” that are Metal Gear AC!D and Metal Gear AC!D 2 ).

The game picks up six years after the events of Snake Eater. It takes place in 1970 and stars the genetic forefather of Solid Snake, Big Boss (who’d still rather be known as “Naked Snake,” despite the snickering of his comrades). Abbreviated as “MPO,” the game will see Big Boss (we like that name better) hunting down rogue members of his former unit FOX in South America. He will be able to recruit allies and fighting alongside them in battle, or control them directly. Favorite characters including Ocelot, Eva, Major Zero, Para-Medic and Sigint are set to return. The story itself leads up to the creation of FOXHOUND, the Special Forces unit introduced in the original Metal Gear, at which time Solid Snake is a member of.

MPO will also feature online multiplayer built on the groundwork laid by Metal Gear Online in MGS3: Subsistence on PlayStation 2. The title will also retain the user-controllable 3D camera system introduced in Subsistence.

Much more detail on Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, including an interview with Hideo Kojima, exclusive screens and chapter one of the game’s development diary can be found in the upcoming July issue of PSM: Independent PlayStation Magazine, on sale in just two weeks!

May 9, 2006