Recent Zipline Ep 13 brings good news and "ugh" news

So, we'll be talking all about this in the next SOCAST, but I just wanted to hit on some points from Zipline Ep 13 this week. Firstly, lets break down some of the new SOCOM 4 information:

Good:

The average size of a map is about the size of Blackwoods from SOCOM 3.

SOCOM 4 will have some of the smallest maps the franchise has ever had.

It will take roughly 3 body shots from an assault rifle to kills someone.

Location-specific damage (12 different locations that enemies react to).

Sure why not:

You can kill chickens/birds.

There will be a dance feature.

Cullen Grey wears jeans because he was caught off-guard and unprepared for the whole mission.

Bad:

There are clan factions, and special weapon for each faction.

Now all the good points speak for themselves, so lets jump to the bad. Why, oh why, are they bringing in separate factions and have specific weapons for each?

Nothing good has come out of this in the past, and it prevents your fans from experiencing all of the game's options.

At least in MAG it kind of made sense because the whole game was designed around 3 large factions and it forced you to pick one and stay with it (even though it bugs me that I'll never be able to see what SVER and VALOR are like, and I think that whole design choice turned a lot of players off of MAG).

It just has absolutely no place in SOCOM. I don't even know why there are 'factions'. I'm curious what that even means for this game.

I guess we'll have to wait and see how this plays out. This isn't a deal breaker by any means, but unless I can be told a legitimate, good reason for this being in the game, it makes no sense to defend it.