Asking someone their favourite Metal Gear Solid is a lot like asking their favourite Police Academy film. Each one fits into the series, yet is a masterpiece on their own (for the record, the best Metal Gear Solid is the first one and the best Police Academy is Police Academy 3: Back in Training).

The series that revolutionised action-adventure gaming, with its reliance on stealth, rather than shooting anything and everything in sight, which was the standard that had come before. Heavily stylised and visually stunning, the Metal Gear Solid Games are masterpieces in their own right.

In no way trying to flog their cash cow within an inch of its life, Konami are releasing The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, featuring three Metal Gear Solid games: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and two of the original Metal Gear games released on Microsoft's 1980s MSX console.

Here's a quick rundown of the three Metal Gear Solid games: MGS2: Sons of Liberty sees you control Raiden as you must infiltrate an offshore facility taken over by a terrorist group named 'Sons of Liberty' although that's an oversimiplified version, as the story repeatedly flips on its head, which frustrated gamers at the time.

MGS3: Snake Eater, set in the Cold War-era Soviet Union, as Naked Snake attempts to rescue a weapons designer and sabotage an experiemental superweapon, which is mostly based in a Soviet jungle.

Peace Walker has Big Boss (formerly MGS3's Naked Snake) running his own mercenary unit in 1974 Central America. He must save Costa Rica which has been taken over by a group of soldiers.

Unfortunately the orignial Metal Gear Solid, the game that kicked off the franchise is missing from the collection, many regard this as the best Metal Gear Solid game and its absence will no doubt spark outcry from MGS purists.

For the HD overhaul, obviously the original PlayStation's MGS2: Sons of Liberty is going to be the most dramatic. The HD upgrade has given the main character Raiden remarkably smooth, unblemished skin for a former soldier, but apart from that and other small issues like the voice syncing the HD upgrade definitely adds to the game. The fixed-room camera system in Sons Of Liberty's gets very irritating very quickly as it makes stalking around and taking out enemies unnecessarily clunky, sometimes the camera angle conspires against you just as you're about to take out an unassuming guard.

MGS3: Snake Eater feels the most complete game, with the larger selection of options such as choosing your camouflage to suit the location, as well as the picking different equipment like choosing between movement detectors or sonar to locate nearby enemies.

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