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Field Commander is one of the best online games on the PSP and it's now available on the PC PlayStation Store as a 896-Meg download for $14.99. (Remember, for those of you who have a PS3 and don't have a Windows computer you can buy it using the website and then download and install it using your PS3.) I was lucky enough to find this in UMD form on a clearance rack for about $13 around a month ago so I'll be sparing my memory stick from the heavy hit of the download.

I rented this game a while back and even though I didn't manage to make a dent into the naval warfare part of the game, I knew then that I'd have to keep my eyes open for when this game eventually got a bit cheaper. It took a long time for me to find it, and lately I've been so busy that I haven't yet broken the shrinkwrap on it, but it's worth running down the feature set to give you an idea as to why I like this game so much.

It's a turn-based war game that folks familiar with Advance Wars on the DS have said is similar to it with the possible exception, if memory serves, of the ability to stack units. In addition to a lengthy campaign it also features robust multiplayer modes. You have ad-hoc play, you have online multiplayer using a profile and SOE's matching servers, and you also have play-by-email. This last bit is something that floored me when I first heard about it. You basically hook it up to your email account and you and your opponent send encoded turns back and forth whenever you have the time to play. I'm a huge proponent of games that let busier gamers play online and this is really a great feature to have in a game like this.

While I haven't had the chance to try play-by-email and frankly I'm pretty bad at strategy games even if I admire them, my brother and former frequent site contributor James did play it online and really enjoyed the freedom it gave him. Even if he wanted to play realtime with someone he could just hang around a few minutes while waiting for the return moves to come back.

Throw in some snappy online leaderboards accessible on the web and you have something really special to play on Sony's handheld, hopefully with people you know. But that's another story.

Learn more at the Field Commander product page on the Store, the 8.4 GameSpot Review, the 8.4 IGN Review, or the official site.

From Aeropause.