Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Confrontation preview on X-Play tonight

While we are all busy playing GTA4, if you have G4TV (G4TechTV in Canada) take a break from the car jacking at 8pm to watch X-Play. SOCOM Confrontation will be one of the games they are previewing tonight, so hopefully we'll get some more footage or at the very least some commentary on the game.

Alright, back to GTA4.

EDIT:

According to SOCOM.com, they WILL have exclusive footage and interviews! So definitely tune in to watch.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Great analysis of the videos

Xuses over on the playstation.com boards has a thread where he has edited together some of the footage from the 1up show, pointing out some interesting things. Definitely check out the thread.

And here is another one where most of the clips were edited by him.

This is the kind of community involvement I like to see!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Video coming this Friday. Yup, I told ya so

1up has put up a new interview/screen shots for Confrontation, and at the very beginning discuss that they will have SOCOM Confrontation footage on the 1up Show this Friday!

This is HUGE. The 1up Show is THE best gaming video podcast on the internet, by far. Can't wait for the episode.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Closed Beta Selection- Phase 2

Abigale has posted Phase 2 of the Community Beta Selection process. This time it's your turn to sell yourself! If you weren't nominated in Phase 1 then head on over to Phase 2, give the most honest response you can (the more honest the better! They are looking for a variety of testers) and you could have a chance at getting it.

Good luck!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

No podcast this week

Just letting you all know, that we are going to try to follow a bi-weekly schedule with the podcast, which would mean that I would have had one up today. Sadly though, Hellman's computer is in the shop and I've been really busy finishing up the last week of college.

Hopefully though, if we do indeed get some video of the game this week (which is what I'm speculating), we should have a good podcast up next weekend with lots more to discuss.

Friday, April 18, 2008

First shot of classic 3rd-person view

Found in SOCOM.com's new blog post:


If you look closely at the 3rd screen you can see that it clearly looks like the classic 3rd-person view we all know and love.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Closed Beta Selection- Phase 1: Community Leaders

There is a new thread posted on the playstation.com boards from Abigale concerning the Closed Beta. If you visit the playstation.com boards, contribute, and have proven your knowledge of the franchise, all your good work has a chance at coming back to you in the form of an invite to the private beta.

So good luck!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

New videos coming next week?

According to **MoPar** on the playstation.com boards, XPlay is advertising that they'll have Confrontation featured on their show next week.

And connecting the dots only leads me to believe one thing, and that's that we're getting Confrontation videos next week.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Reminder concerning SOCOM.com and the reason for why I do this

Just so everyone who follows this site is clear, I'm not reposting everything that ends up on SOCOM.com. That website should no doubt already be bookmarked by every SOCOM fan out there so there would be absolutely no reason for me to repost it on my site every day when SOCOM.com posts something.

Of course though, it all depends on the story. If SOCOM.com is the first one to post new screen shots or a video of Confrontation, I'm obviously going to make a new post about it, and link to it. But for their normal, every day, updates, like this one on the Hk5, their gun of the week, I won't.

To remind people who may not already know the purpose of this website. It's not only to inform, but also to give a voice to the hardcore SOCOM gamer that I still believe you won't find anywhere else. Instead of regurgitating information, I try to inject my personality and a voice into everything I write and record, and I hope that comes through.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

EGM's embargo coming to an end?

Well today I was at Chapters (Canadian book store..maybe they have them in the US too, not sure) and saw the May 08 issue of EGM (the one with Confrontation on the cover, for all you people living in a cave), which can only mean one thing...all your deep and big questions should hopefully have answers coming soon.

I'm sure EGM probably has another week left on the embargo, at which point 1up.com will probably ride a nice wave of information to all it's readers before places like IGN and GameSpot can start reporting on the game as well. So my advice to you, start paying close attention to 1up.com, and of course the playstation.com Confrontation boards. We'll probably be getting some more information, screens, and possibly even video (fingers crossed), real soon.

We are now on iTunes

Right here

You requested it, so I made it happen. You can now subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.

Thanks everyone for the support thus far.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

"The Real SOCOM" Podcast - Episode 1

Right here
(Right click save as. Better yet, add my feed to your RSS reader and download/play it right in the window)


Hey everyone, I told you it wouldn't be long.

This is the very first episode of my new podcast, "The Real SOCOM" Podcast. This first episode is roughly 45min, Hellman is my co-host, I hope you enjoy the listen and all feedback here (what you liked/didn't like, suggestions, segments you'd like to see) in the comments section is welcome.

A sneak peak at the upcoming podcast with a look at the past

The people who follow the blog probably know by now that a podcast from me is in the works. What you might not have known is that I've had it on the back burner since July of last year, before this blog even existed.

Originally me and Hellman were planning on recording our first show the week before the new E3, but for one reason or another it kept getting pushed back till finally we were both back in college, the Confrontation information flow was at a crawl, and neither of us had much free time to execute a podcast.

Well now, even though I'm busy as hell trying to finish this semester, the SOCOM info is at an all-time high meaning there is so much we want to talk about.

So to give you a peak at the outline I originally conceived for, what was to be, our first show this past July, here was my design doc for "SOCOM Show 01";

SOCOM Show 01 - July 2007

1st Show Intro:
Each host will introduce themselves and their history in gaming and in SOCOM, and how we met.

My [David] Intro:
• I currently reside in Ontario Canada
• Began writing for a website called ps2clan.com
• Went on to write for CVGames
• Then went on to run Xbox.net
• Came back to CVGames where I still freelance now
• I post on NeoGaf under the name ‘Doel’, IGN as a moderator under the name ‘daviddoel’, Playstation.com forums under the name ‘daviddoel’, and finally the 1up boards under the name ‘David2Crazy’
• You may have seen my analysis of the SOCOM Confrontation trailer from Sony Gamers Day, which I posted on a few different message boards.
• And you may have heard my name mentioned on the 1up Yours podcast and the IGN Playstation Podcast a couple weeks ago where I posed the question "is the SOCOM franchise being ignored by the media."
• Discuss why I’ve decided to start this podcast
• Mention our RSVegas clan name “SBS” Spoiled by SOCOM :p

Topic of the week:
• Breakdown of what we know about Confrontation thus far
• The media’s view on Slant Six
• How its shaped up visually
• Tidbits of info on audio from the Auguest issue of EGM
• New info from IGN Q&A with Seth Luisi
• My open letter to Sony, Slant Six, and Zipper
• Discuss the Online interface
• I wonder if Confrontation will even be able to capture that feeling of being the last guy left on your team up against 4 terrorists in the 11th round...picking the first 3 guys off with an M4A1SD from a safe distance, and then getting into a crazy firefight with the last guy, with both of you dying at once and then waiting for the verdict...."SEALS Victorious!".
• Possibility of semi-destructible environments to hurt other players
• Blymik’s thread
• Match-making vs Classic lobby setup

Map of the Week:
• Crossroads
• It’s implementation in SOCOM 2
• It’s implementation in Confrontation

Keep in mind that all of that was written in July 2007; obviously a lot of this has changed, including the format. But there are some aspects of that document that I will retain for our first episode, which will be called "The Real SOCOM Podcast".

When is our first episode coming? Probably sooner than you think ;)

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Ranked (match-making) vs Unranked (classic lobby system)

This debate has been all the rage recently after the EGM article has made it clear that Slant Six is implementing both match-making with parties for Ranked games, and the classic SOCOM lobby system for unranked games. While both still track stats separately (like Resistance) there is a problem with this approach that I don't think has been recognized by many people, and is something I made a thread about on the playstation.com boards with my possible solution:

If you haven't had a chance to check out my audio discussion with Hellman from yesterday, one of the things that have been bugging us is that we are afraid that the majority of people won't take Unranked games (using the classic lobby system) seriously. Because games like Resistance have shown, even with having separate stats for Ranked and Unranked, people just generally only try and play the game properly in ranked games. And we all know by now that you can only play a ranked game if you use the match making/party system.

Well a way that might fix this is if each player has a stats page that combines their stats from Ranked and Unranked games. And I know that personally, any time I went to play a Custom game on Resistance, even though there are stats tracked for it I felt like I was wasting my time and should be playing a Ranked game. But if there is a page where I could view my combined stats then when I decide to play using the classic lobby system I won't feel like I'm wasting my time because either way those stats end up on my combined stats page.

So thats how I think it can be improved. As much as people complain, I highly doubt we will ever have the ability to play a ranked match through the classic lobby system again, so this is the solution to the whole issue. And to be honest, I hated the way SOCOM 3 did that, it made the lobby system that much more cluttered and really just made finding games a more complicated and less enjoyable experience than SOCOM 2 where everything you did (with the exception of respawn) counted.

Which is another point I want to add. I believe respawn games should not be included in the 'Combined Stats' page that I'm pushing for. This way, if people do want to mess around/practice without worrying about their stats, they can play respawn, making the whole Confrontation experience feel like the SOCOM 2 days.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

My audio discussion with Hellman...

Right Click and Save As (or even better, if you add the RSS feed link at the bottom of the page to your RSS reader with an embedded player, like NetVibes.com, you can play the file right in your window).

This is a little discussion I had with playstation.com user/poster and a good friend of mine, Hellman, about Confrontation and some things that have been on our minds.

This is NOT a podcast, but I'm not going to pretend like this isn't a sign of things to come. As you can see from the file name, I am testing the waters...

Something coming tonight... (I hope!)

I probably shouldn't post this because every time I get too enthusiastic about something it doesn't work out. But tonight I'm planning on trying something new with the blog.

P.S. No, this is not about new Confrontation info. But I hope you'll enjoy it none the less.

P.P.S. If it doesn't work out, then just forget I ever made this post. kthxbye