Saturday, December 19, 2009

Cold Front DLC is out! No I'm not dead

Hey guys,

Ya it's been a while since I made a post. Been busy and SOCOM fandom was at an all time low but now with Cold Front finally hitting, I'm back.

So, like all of you probably did, I purchased the Cold Front DLC on Thursday while it's still $9.99 (price goes up this weekend to $14.99, which is way too much btw), and though I've only played Vigilance and Night Stalker so far, I'm loving it.

As I expected, it's seem to have split the community with tons of Cold Front map-only games and not a lot of mix yet between the regular maps the CF maps. This is the nature of DLC now and there really isn't a way around it sadly. Once paid-only DLC is introduced there is always going to be the haves and have nots.

What I'm hoping is for a re-issue of SOCOM Confrontation, that comes with the 1.6 patch and Cold Front DLC on it, for a Greatest Hits price of $29.99. Since Confrontation released on the wrong foot, this would be a great way to bring in more players, exposing them to a polished and full-featured version of the game. It's been done with other games (See LittleBigPlanet GotY Edition, Oblivion GotY Edition, Call of Duty 4 GotY Edition, and many others), and for Confrontation it makes the most sense as the game has evolved so much since it's initial release.

Anyways, hope you're all enjoying the Cold Front DLC. I just had a 5 kills round on Night Stalker so I'm going to get back to playing now.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

1.6 out and DLC release date announced

Finally...

SOCOM: Confrontation Patch 1.60 Available Now for Download
Posted by Mark Rogers

We have some great news for SOCOM: Confrontation fans. We’re excited to announce that the 1.60 patch is now available for download. Patch 1.60 contains a massive amount of new content and features entirely free to all players.

New Special Forces – The Dutch KCT and Italian COMSUBIN Special Forces teams are featured in this update. Each Force is provided with two new heads, a new voice and light, medium and heavy variants of their own torsos and legs (each with a unique camouflage pattern).

New Weapons – Two new primary weapons will be immediately accessible to players who select to play as the new Special Forces. The Dutch KCT will have access to the 417 assault rifle, while the Italian COMSUBIN Special Forces will receive the SPAS 15 shotgun.

Additionally, four new weapons will be made available to players regardless of assigned Special Force. New weapons include the 9mm Sub Machine Gun, M82A1A, AK-74 and SR-25.Weapon Updates – A number of weapon updates and adjustments to existing weapons have been included in the patch.

Below is an overview of the updates and adjustments that have been made:

M87ELR is given .50 cal rounds to balance it against the Mercenaries’ M82A1A.

Shotguns are balanced to do less damage at long range but more damage at close range.

Grenade launchers and rocket launchers have less delay in between shots.

Front End weapons values are updated to reflect the new Cold War DLC Pack weapons.

In addition to the new characters and weapons, the team has also added 100% Random Medleys to the patch update.

We also have some big news on the SOCOM Confrontation ‘Cold Front’ DLC Pack. To begin with, we now have an official release date: December 17th on the PlayStation Network. We want to make sure that you’re able to spend the holiday break playing ‘Cold Front’. In addition, the special $9.99 pricing will now be available from launch through Sunday, December 20.

You can comment on this post here.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

God of War 1&2 hitting PS3 in bluray re-release. Can SOCOM 2 do it?

So if you haven't heard the big God of War news recently, essentially Sony is going to re-release God of War 1&2 on a PS3 blu-ray disc. It'll be in 720p, 60fps, AND have their own set of trophies. Even though I've already played and beaten both games, it has shot up to the top of my most-wanted list. It also got me thinking, is this setting a precedent for the future?

If Sony can do this with God of War 1&2, who says they won't do it for other popular franchises too? Clearly they wouldn't want to make this a huge thing as they have plenty of new software coming down the line, but why not bring back some more huge PS3 classics. Say...SOCOM II?

Just imagine. At E3 Sony announces SOCOM 4 developed by Zipper. Since it's still quite a way off, to compensate Sony plans to re-release the most popular game in the franchise [SOCOM II] onto a set of reliable servers, in 720p and 60fps. Oh ya, and they also fix all the bugs and hit detection issues that were prevalent in that game. Undoubtedly sales for the PS3 and the re-released SOCOM II would explode, and it would generate hype for the upcoming SOCOM 4. It's a license to print money.

Chance of this happening? Personally, I think it's highly unlikely simply because Sony doesn't want to take support away from SOCOM Confrontation and it's DLC which is sure to come. For God of War it kind of makes sense because the God of War 3 doesn't hit till next year and God of War 1&2 don't rely on a set of servers run. But if it were to happen, the one thing that it may do is bring those last few stragglers that are still playing PS2 online, over to the PS3 and onto the PSN.

Regardless, I have no doubt in my mind that a SOCOM II re-release would sell a million copies, and barely cost anything to make with the game already being done. But the politics of it might be too much for Sony to make it happen.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Some 1.5 issues addressed

Abigale has posted a response on the socom.com message boards to some of the issues that have come out of patch 1.5. Read it here:

Hi, All-

As I mentioned earlier, I have been passing on your feedback about Patch 1.5. This evening I was able to get some responses to some of your questions and concerns. So I wanted to pass the these reponses along to you.

Quick Match Issues
We have discovered that users who join a Ranked 8 v 8 Small quick match game are sometimes being matched into an unranked game instead. When this happens, M203s and RPGs will be available in the game and the ranking will not update as it is a unranked game even though the user selected the ranked 8v8 quick match game. We are working on a server side update to this issue and hope to have it deployed later this week or early next.

Confrontation Rating
We are looking into the Confrontation rating issue, where the rating increases or decreases by an abnormally large amount. So far, this is still in the discovery stage and we will provide more information on our progress as it is available.

Team Select Issue
For the SOCOM Confrontation 1.50 update, we did change the team select logic so that late joiners should no longer be able to switch teams. This is an intentional change in order to balance out the teams as in previous SOCOM games. However, as many users noted there are a couple of issues with this change where users can bypass this restriction by bringing up their friends list and closing it. Also, late joiners are unable to change teams even when returning to the game lobby after the match has ended. Both of these issues will be fixed in the next SOCOM Confrontation update.

Voice Chat Quality
Some users have noted that the quality of the voice chat has deteriorated and that the voice chat is significantly louder in the SOCOM Confrontation 1.50 update. We are looking into both issues. Part of this is a side effect of the bandwidth optimization made for the 1.50 update as the voice chat was using a very large amount of bandwidth which was causing latency (lag) issues for some users. We will try to improve this but we may not be able to restore the voice chat back to the same fidelity as before the 1.50 update as it would again cause latency (lag) issues for some users. We feel that the improved on-line performance is worth sacrificing a little bit of the quality of the voice chat.

Tie Breaker Logic
One item which was left off of the SOCOM Confrontation 1.50 build notes was the change to the tie breaker logic. We did intentionally change this logic to make the tie breaker decided by number of kills per team rather than objectives completed for the game type. This change was made based on community feedback in order to prevent the exploits which were happening such as players suiciding our voting out their own teammates. We understand that this is a controversial change for some but we feel that the change is the right one to make especially as the clan ladders and tournaments start to heat up. It should be noted that this only applies in the situation where there is a tie and so completing objectives is still a requirement to win some of the game modes.

Not being able to switch sides in the lobby after the game is of most annoyance to me. It's kind of hard to fathom how that was overlooked before the patch went into the approval process. Taking a look at how long it took for this patch to hit, I can only wonder how long its going to take for the next one, that fixes this issues, to arrive.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

1.5 Patch is out. No this is not a joke.

Yes, it's FINALLY here. I've been playing for the past hour and so far I can tell you that there is a huge difference. I'm finding myself having a lot more fun than I used to. The menus run smoother, the game runs smoother, the weapon selection menu is redesigned and doesn't force you to stop moving, you can join games from the clan list (and presumably the friend's list as well), the briefing rooms are set in some kind of order rather than being randomly listed, I can go on and on, and I've barely scratched the surface.

For a proper list of the fixes and changes, look here.

This might single-handedly bring me back into playing SOCOM on a regular basis.

Come back later for more impressions, and possibly a short podcast from me and [possibly] Hellman.

Monday, August 17, 2009

SOCOM Confrontation makes Greatest Hits


Starting today you can pick up SOCOM Confrontation (stand-alone) for $29.99.



Wednesday, July 29, 2009

SOCOM Confrontation - Biggest online game on PS3 says Sony Producer

This doesn't really come as a surprise to me at all, given the dedication of the SOCOM fanbase.

What's the biggest online game on the PS3? No, it's not Killzone 2. No, it's not even Resistance 2. According to SCEA senior producer Mark Rogers, SOCOM Confrontation stands above both of Sony's high-profile first-party FPS offerings by having the most simultaneous online connections on the PlayStation Network. He attributes Confrontation's success to the community's commitment to the franchise. Whereas other gamers may play an online game for a few weeks and move on,SOCOM fans have proven to be far more dedicated (despite the game's ... troubled launch).

The devotion of the SOCOM community will be rewarded by an upcoming patch, Rogers promises. While the Slant Six team has been largely quiet about progress on the patch, he says the massive scale and scope of the patch has led to an extended testing cycle. With the promise of DLC in the future, it's clear that SOCOM addicts will find even more reason to avoid playing other games for a long time.

Source Joystiq

Monday, July 6, 2009

Rumor: SOCOM 4 in development, by Zipper?

PS3center.net has posted the rumor that SOCOM 4 is in development, based off the fact that PCB Productions lists "SOCOM 4 - (motion capture direction) - PLAYSTATION 3 (in development)" on their page.

In addition to that, PS3center has speculated that Zipper Interactive are the ones in development of SOCOM 4 due to the fact that Slant Six is currently working on Fireteam Bravo 3 for PSP. I think that's a large jump to make considering that many studios work on more than 1 project at once (Zipper is currently working on MAG afterall), but at the same time it's an interesting assumption.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

SOCOM: Confrontation DLC FINALLY announced.

Not exactly a earth shattering announcement, but hey, at least it's something.

http://www.socom.com/en-us/Blog/Post?id=245

SOCOM Confrontation DLC

Posted by Confrontation Online Team

Many of you have been eagerly awaiting information on the SOCOM: Confrontation DLC pack and today we’re happy to announce that DLC will be available to the community later this summer.We'll be unveiling a lot more information on the contents of the pack in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here are the basic things you can expect to see in this huge update to SOCOM: Confrontation…

All new Area of Operation
New Features
New Game Mode
New Maps
New Characters
New Weapons & Attachments
New Music
New Voice-Over

We’ve got a lot in the pipeline for this so please stay tuned!

P.S. Here's a little glimpse of what is to come...













You can comment on this post here.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

New Blog post up, 1.50 AND 1.60 information

Finally some offical news. I'm excited, but also a little dissapointed. I'll explain that in another post. For now, I'll enjoy the news of the return of my favourite weapon... the friggin' 9mm sub!

http://www.socom.com/en-us/Blog/Post?id=241

1.50 Update:
Posted by Confrontation Online Team
The 1.50 Update for SOCOM: Confrontation is feature complete and currently in test. Due to the number and scope of the feature set of 1.50 the testing cycle has taken longer than anticipated. We remain committed to releasing this patch as soon as the remaining open issues are resolved. It is extremely important to us to make sure the 1.50 update is as problem free as possible when it is released and we are working towards that goal rather than pushing it out as is on a specific date.
A number of features in 1.50 are of such a scale that it will not be possible for us to fully predict how they will behave before public deployment. An example of this is the tournaments, each of which can accommodate 1000s of players. To account for this, we will ramp the size and number of tournaments during the first weeks after release to monitor and address any issues which may arise. We have also been working on a 1.60 Update which will incorporate any fixes that are required as Tournaments and Clan Ladders become fully populated.
FREE Downloadable Content:
We are happy to announce that the 1.60 Update will also contain additional features and content. We’ve heard your requests for new content and we are happy to provide free downloadable content with the 1.60 update. The following free Downloadable Content will be available to all players:
New Special Forces: The Dutch KCT and the Italian COMSUBIN Special Forces. Each Force includes new heads and voice + a light, medium and heavy variant of their own torso and legs (each with a unique camouflage pattern).
Two new primary weapons will be immediately accessible to players who select to play as the new Special Forces; the 417 assault rifle for the Dutch KCT and the SPAS 15 shotgun for the Italian COMSUBIN Special Forces.
Four new weapons will be available to all players regardless of assigned Special Force. These are the 9mm Sub Machine Gun, M82A1A, Ak-74 and SR-25. The 1.60 will also include a number of weapon updates and adjustments to existing weapons.
In addition to the free DLC included with the 1.60 update we are also working to add 100% Random Medleys in the 1.60 update. We know this is a highly requested feature and we really want to get it out to you.
More DLC coming! - We can also confirm that we have been working on a major content release/pack. Look for an announcement later in the month.
We will release more information on Patch 1.6 after 1.5 has been released.
You can comment on this post here.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Some info on the 1.60 patch

Blog reader Adam Halliwell was gracious enough to email me this info from the European Playstation Message Boards about patch 1.60.

Today the European producer Shijima made a post on the European SOCOM boards detailing some server changes and restrictions, which will be implemented in patch 1.60.

Shijima wrote:

Well, I'm not sure how well this will be received as some people don't seem to understand exactly what goes into making a game and how complicated the process can be, but I sincerely appreciate the patience of those who do understand and who have done their best to 'enlighten' others.

I can now confirm that Slant Six Games and SCEA have agreed to implement some functionality into the game that will allow people to restrict the games they play only to the region they are playing in. The most straightforward solution to this challenge (and yes, it was a challenge to retro-fit something into the base techology) is to set-up different channels for different regions, as well as an overall global channel. Medley and custom games in the regional channels will be available to players who have chosen that region only. Medleys and custom games in global channels can be played by everyone, with all the associated risks and potential for abuse that entails (you have been warned!).

This is due for implementation into patch v1.60 because the team have been too busy working on implementing tournament and clan ladder functionality into v1.50. This is also the reason why it's taken a little time to establish a solution to the problem, simply because the team have been too busy working on resolving issues with the current patch in development and haven't had the bandwidth to focus on extra feature requests.

Perhaps people can bear that in mind in future...

Shijima.


Source

Thursday, June 18, 2009

SOCOM Home space releases tonight

The SOCOM Home space (also called the 'Tactical Operations Center') will be releasing tonight and actually looks kind of promising:



You can plan strategies on the maps using a telestrator tool, check out the latest stats and leaderboards, and also dress up in SOCOM apparel.

Now, lets hope the thing we all actually want, the new patch and DLC, isn't far behind.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Greetings from TK42OnE

Just wanted to say a quick hello to the readers of therealsocom.com.

I’ll be doing my best to come up with informative and hopefully interesting stuff for this blog in the future.

I had been on sort of a hiatus from the game for the last few weeks, partly because my PS3 died a tragic death recently, but with the return of the PS3, and SOCOM, in my life, I’m excited to get back on the horse and find stuff to put up here.

Thoughts are swirling around in my noggin about what’s “blog worthy.”

One thing I wanted to mention was how relieved I was when my (sort of) new PS3 arrived, and I fired up SOCOM, remade my load outs, and played a round, that my rank and rating returned to what they were before the meltdown of my old PS3.

All my save data from other games was gone, but thanks to SOCOM statistics being captured on the games servers, and not the PS3 hard drive, I was able to pick up where I left off. Yay! I worked too damn hard for that .75 KDR.

Monday, June 1, 2009

E3 Week!

Hey folks,

So I fully don't expect to see any real SOCOM news this week. If we're lucky maybe we'll hear about the Confrontation DLC, and obviously some more footage previews on FTB3, but 4-player co-op was already announced for that, so I don't expect any more surprises.

Regardless, if something comes up I'll be reporting on it. I'm working all this week but the moment I have time I'll undoubtedly be checking out all the E3 news and press conferences.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

SOCOM.com adds community features

http://www.slantsixgames.com/2009/05/13/socomcom-out-of-beta/

Great news! You can check out your stats, trophies, friends list, inbox, clan, etc.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Greetings from Wrath-x-

I am a new contributor to this blog, but some of you may be familiar with me from socom.com. I look forward to contributing to this blog in the near future, but for now, I just wanted to stop in and say hello. Remember, if we want this game to continue to get better, we need to continue to fight for what we want.

-Wrath-x-

Friday, May 8, 2009

Want to be a contributer to the blog? Now is your chance

Today I was struck with an idea. The whole reason this blog was created was to give a voice to the SOCOM fans. So what better way to accomplish that then to open up the blog to the community, allowing you to post about your experiences, hopes, feelings, love, and hate about the SOCOM franchise.

So how am I going to accomplish this? Send me an email at daviddoel@therealsocom.com and simply tell me why you feel you deserve to be a contributor to the blog. Right now I have no limit on the amount of people I'm willing to add as authors to the blog, as long as you feel you have something to say and can translate that into well-written sentences, then I'll add you.

Like I said, this blog was created for the fans. This is just taking that idea one step further and truly making TheRealSOCOM.com an integral part of the SOCOM community.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Zipper Int. taking SOCOM advice for the development of MAG?

In the live chat that took place yesterday on the Playstation.com blog, MAG developers, Zipper, answered some questions about their upcoming online game. This answer I found particularly interesting:
Ed Byrne - Creative Director @Zipper:
Phoniex - there aren't the traditional game modes you might expect from smaller FPS titles. Basically each map has an associated game mode. We have a more tradiitonal team v. team mode for 64 players. We have a "capture the objective points" game mode for another set of 64 maps. the 128 maps have Attackers trying to steal a vehicle from the Defending side. 256 is an all-out battle for control points.
Hmm, interesting. This is the exact thing I've been pushing on Zipper and now Slant Six, since SOCOM 3 came out. I believe the real thing that killed SOCOM 3 & CA were that each map were no longer built for a specific mode, as in SOCOM 1 & 2. And that's why the quality of the maps went down so tremendously from the first two games.

Now, don't get my wrong. SOCOM Confrontation's original maps are not as bad as SOCOM 3's, but at the same time they do not stand up to the maps in SOCOM 1 & 2, and I still believe its for that same reason. To really create the best map layout possible, you need to have it designed around 1 mode.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

MAG is NOT SOCOM - My short audio rant

As in my previous post, ya, I'm pissed that I have to keep reading this shit. So I decided to get some frustration out through podcasting! I know it's not much, but damn, I'm still so passionate about keeping this franchise alive while retaining it's own identity. Cause if we aren't vocal about it, then the same kind of people who caused SOCOM 3 will cause it to happen again.

Direct Download
RSS here
We are also on iTunes here

And I end the short rant with a great song off K-Os' new album 'YES!'

Enjoy!

MAG info pummels the net, SOCOM fans get defensive

So, a ton of information and hands-on reports on Zipper's new game "MAG" have hit the internet today. It still amazes me that "journalists" (and I use that term VERY loosely) feel the need to take a jab at SOCOM Confrontation in these write-ups that have NOTHING to do with SOCOM.

Take for example Joystiq's write up (and if you read their blog, you know they are the farthest thing from journalists, but this is worth noting as its a popular website), where they state:
Forget SOCOM: Confrontation -- this is the next-gen SOCOM, only taken to a whole new level.
I mean...why? Was that really needed. Clearly the person who wrote this doesn't play SOCOM or has any idea how many people play SOCOM on a consistant basis. Or rather, what the game is even about! MAG is not SOCOM, SOCOM is not MAG. Just because they share a previous developer does not mean they are supposed to be in competition with eachother. They are clearly going for two different things. If this writer wanted to retain any sort of integrity he could have done his research and found that out in about 20 seconds.

Do we really need to deal with this shit again?

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Fire Team Bravo 3 & I'm not dead

Yes, as you all already know I'm sure, SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3 was announced on SOCOM.com. Go check out the trailer and details. Though I dabbled in FTB2, I never really got into the PSP versions of SOCOM. Never the less, I know they have a huge following so I will be covering them.

Anyways, as you can see, no I'm not dead. The reason the blog has been so dead is simply because I've been working full-time this past month and really haven't had much time to game or think about videogames. But I'm still here and will be updating the blog more regularly as more info about patches/DLC/FTB3 comes in.

Also, most of you are also very familiar with VOODOO from the Playstation.com boards and the RMD clan. Well I've added him as a contributer to the blog, so he is free to come in and post something anytime he wants. So hopefully you'll be hearing from him as well.

I will try to get a podcast up sometime in the near future as I have been playing a lot more SOCOM recently, and once the patch hits there will be even more to discuss. So keep a watch out for that.

Friday, April 3, 2009

1.50 patch details. Finally a reason for us all to return

Details here.

This patch sounds REALLY good. One hit kill snipers and DE, sounds like old SOCOM to me :)

Monday, March 9, 2009

SOCOM patch 1.40 is up

Went up this morning, finally just finished downloading for me. Took about 6 hours...and downloads are never that slow for me on PSN. Must be a ton of people online right now, especially with the European launch this week. Anyways, below is a list of what the patch does, taken from SOCOM.com:

  • XMB presence - Medley Game information has been abbreviated, displaying all information required to identify the location of the player.
  • Late Join 'Hitch' improvements - addresses the pause experienced by players when someone late joins a game.
  • Navigating Screens With Large Clans – slow down issue fixed
  • Increased speed of fade at the beginning of the round.
  • Quick Match -
  • Increased countdown timer in Quick Match Pre Game lobby from 20 to 60 seconds.
  • Enabled Quick Match team switching.
  • Ranked, Unranked and Unranked Respawn games, each contains 6 different playlists: 3 8vs8 and 3 16vs16 players.
  • Claymores can now be detonated when player is in the prone position

Sunday, March 1, 2009

"The Real SOCOM" March 1st Bitecast

I promised you SOMETHING this week, and I held to that promise. Here is a short conversation me and Hellman had, mostly about SOCOM & KillZone 2. I'm hoping there will be more for us to discuss in the future when both of us have more time to devote to playing Confrontation along with the future potential of DLC.

Direct download: TRSMar1stBitecast.mp3
RSS here
We are also on iTunes here

Show Links:
http://www.twitter.com/daviddoel
Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack

Monday, February 23, 2009

If I can promise you one thing this week...

It's that I'm going to record and post new podcast. If Hellman is free then it will be a full podcast, if not then it will be a bite-sized podcast. Regardless, I WILL post something for you this week, but since there really isn't a lot to talk about, how about you post some questions/suggestions you might have in the comments sections below.

Thanks!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Confrontation gets a European release date

Finally, for those of you in Europe there is a solid date for when you'll be able to pick up your copy of SOCOM Confrontation.

13th March (UK), 18th March (EU) and 19th March (PSN)
Source Joystiq

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Sloooow month

Well, other than the update in early January, it was a pretty slow month for the game with not much to really discuss. We're still waiting for DLC announcements because we have to know its on the way.

Do you guys/girls have any suggestions of what you'd like to see from me and this blog in droughts like this? More podcasts? A new direction of some sort? Don't be afraid to leave a comment.

Friday, January 9, 2009

"The Real SOCOM" January 9th Bitecast

This is just a bite-sized, roughly 8min, podcast, hence the title. Hellman was busy so I did this one on my own (no, this won't be a trend. I just wanted to quickly get my thoughts out about some things). I discuss my thoughts on what happened over at EGM/1up, and of course give my impressions on the 1.30 patch.

I might try to do more of these bite-sized podcasts as me and Hellman are both really busy with our own lives making it hard to find time to record an entire podcast.

Download here
RSS here
We are also on iTunes here

Show Links:
http://www.twitter.com/daviddoel
Rebel.FM (Re-emergence of 1up FM)
1up Show 8-bit theme

Hope you enjoy!

1.30 finally out!

Yup, so download it now. Trophy support, match-making, tons of tweaks to the gameplay, all detailed somewhere on SOCOM.com.

But as of typing this, the servers are still down (presumably to reset the stats, which they ARE doing as I predicted). So you might need to wait a couple hours from now before you can play.

EDIT: Servers are up and running smooth!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Trophy list posted online

Check it out! Means it's definitely done and patch should be on the way soon.

Anything cool that sticks out to you?

EGM is Dead, 1up recieves massive firings

I know this is supposed to be a blog about SOCOM, but I just want to express how fucking pissed off I am, while at the same time depressed about what happened today. If you haven't already heard, UGO bought 1up.com, while in the process killing EGM and firing 30 people from the EGM/1up.com staff. Meaning no more 1up Show, and no more 1up podcasts.

Just a few months shy of a year ago, Mike Cruz (who at the time was Associate Art Director of EGM) personally sent me an email with the exclusive image of their SOCOM Confrontation cover story for me to post on the blog, which of course I did.

It was a completely selfless gesture on the part of EGM for me and my tiny number of followers, and of course ended up exposing this blog to a number of large traffic grabbing sites like Kotaku and Joystiq, who picked up the cover story via my blog post. If it wasn't for the kind hearts at EGM/1up, I wouldn't have got the amount of traffic or number of podcast downloads that I did.

For me, this is easily the worst thing that has happened to the game journalism business since I've been alive, and I hope as much of the core group can stay together as possible to go on and create much bigger things. Whatever they chose to do, I know their talent won't go to waste.