It’s the first mission where I’ve noticed bonus enemies out of the way of the main action. In this case, a yellow-capped enemy was on a completely different map to the main action. (Enemies with yellow headgear give item bonuses when you kill them, I think.)

Possibly more interesting, though, was the sheer rubbishness of the enemy AI. I left my tank facing away from an enemy shocktrooper, its weak spot exposed and the stupid enemy didn’t even move during his turn. I hope this is just because I’m still in the very early stages and not an indication of what I can expect throughout the whole game.

I kept the first group the same, but set up a second group of reserves who have an APC, rather than a tank.

Both vehicles are equipped with the same flamethrower turret, however.

It’s just a shame that the one mission I finally ended up doing gave me a preset APC and didn’t let me take my own vehicle.

I don’t know what it is about this series, but the Valkyria Chronicles games are the only ones where I see sitting through more dialogue as a reward.

It’s very, very, very special indeed – a fact confirmed by the existence of at least one dialogue scene all about knitting. The girls involved sounded just like my wife and and her friends

Not, though, that much has been sacrificed in the transition. The graphics have take a hit (though they still look great), squads are smaller and maps are split up into separate areas. None of this seems to hurt the game. I was slightly worried by the splitting up of the maps when I first read about it, but it works very well in practice.

It seems, though, that developers worried a bit about seeming to have dumbed down the game, so they’ve added huge amounts of new stuff that I’ve not even begun to get my head around yet. New classes, a new school-based interface between missions, tons of way to upgrade classes, weapons and individual soldiers… even having played the first the amount of stuff that keeps being opened up is dizzying.

It’s going to take some time to really become comfortable with all the processes, but the game seems like a brilliant sequel based on the first three hours or so.

Not too much of a trial, though, as Ridge Racer 2 is pretty glorious. Slick, speedy and precise, it’s how a robot would dream of driving.

Or something.

The fact that it’s basically the same game as the first PSP Ridge Racer doesn’t matter in the least so many years after release, so hooray.

Only trouble is that I can’t take screenshots of PSP games, so here is a picture of my wife hugging a metal octopus that is playing chess.

My wife likes octopuses, you know.

Hastings is a strange and wonderful place.

Haven’t bought any amazing cars yet. It’s nice to drive the fast, new cars, but I’m definitely more a fan of vintage American models. Shame they’re so hard to keep on the track.

Still, it’s a glorious game – once you turn off all the horrible, fun-sapping driving aids and put the physics on Professional – and hopefully now I’ll play it more now it’s on a much nicer console.

I’d forgotten how fantastic the opening section is – it’s been over ten years, after all – but it really throws you into the game and generates a real sense of urgency.

It’s a shame that the game’s very much of its time in other areas. The reliance on save points is pretty horrible by modern standards – though the PSP’s standby helps alleviate some of the problems that causes – but it’s the time it takes to get back into the game once you die that’s the real problem, and it’s not helped by having to go through cut scenes and dialogue again.

It’s also a mark of the game’s age that I’ve had to restart – enemies fifteen minutes in don’t often kill you in modern RPGs.

I’ve played six levels now, but have done most of those multiple times, trying for better times, to open up different paths and to get some obscure ratings. For example, there might be a “Lonely” rating for a level, which you’ll get if win the level without recruiting a certain character on the map. The names give hints for how to gain the rating, but some look very difficult – can I really complete a map without any food? Do healing herbs count?

Very nice indeed, though whether it’ll keep me occupied to the end of the game remains to be seen.