SOCOM 4 coming to Toronto on October 5th

Just yesterday Playstation Canada announced that they will be holding the Playstation Canada Holiday Preview event in downtown Toronto from 5pm-9pm. Among the selection of titles listed as being at the event, is SOCOM 4.

Naturally, being a resident of Toronto you can bet that I will be there on October 5th playing SOCOM 4 and everything else on display there. Of course I'll also be taking pictures, possibly video, and writing up my impressions of SOCOM 4 when I get back.

Look for that October 5th!

Hope to see you there.

No armor or encumbrance confirmed. Time to rejoice!

Last night's episode of the Zipline came with some great little tidbits of information about SOCOM 4. The most exciting of those announcements being that there will be no armor or encumbrance systems in SOCOM 4's single player and multiplayer. Travis Steiner, Lead Designer on SOCOM 4, stated the reason for this is that they wanted everyone to have the same amount of hit points and remain on a level playing field.

Which I believe is absolutely the right decision and would mark the first time that this has happened since SOCOM 2. Can you feel the excitement in my words? From the little tidbits of information and the model of "KISS" (Keep It Simple Stupid) that they are following, I'm pretty confident that SOCOM 4 will, at the very least, have the most balanced online mode since SOCOM 2.

SOCOM 4 HD walkthrough and a SOCOM documentary?

So, I'm sure you've all seen this by now, but on the Playstation Blog Zipper posted an HD walkthrough of the Gamescom build of the game (but in english). Check that out below.

I think it's looking really good and there is no doubt that Zipper is really focusing on polish and adding those last touches to make the campaign stand out more than any SOCOM game in the past.

Also, according to this week's Zipline Episode 18, Zipper is working on a documentary about the history of the SOCOM franchise, something I find VERY interesting. If you aren't already aware, I currently working at a major television news station up here in Canada, and went to school for video production. As someone big into videogames and video production, I've always loved watching those "behind-the-scenes" videos found in many videogame collectors discs. So that fact that one is being done on SOCOM is very appealing to me.

Apparently it will be posted to the SOCOM Blog once its finished, but for now there doesn't seem to be any real time frame for it. Regardless, keep an eye open for that.

The lack of updates

Hello readers,

Sorry for the lack of updates as of late. Just recently made a big move, been working a lot, and also when I've had time to breath I've been enjoying life on vacation by a lake. But now I'm back, and as time draws closer to the release of SOCOM 4 (some time in 2011), I'll be ramping up my over-analyzing and podcasting, as well as the occasional spotlight on some community members.

So look for all that in the coming weeks and months up till the release of SOCOM 4.

Regards,

David

Speculation. IGN visited Zipper Interactive last week. *Update*

On yesterday's Podcast Beyond, go to the 13 minute mark. One of the IGN editors (I think his name is Colin) stated how he saw Chris Roper last week, then another editor states "Didn't you see someone else too?", and Colin hesitates at first, sounding like he feels he shouldn't be talking about this, but then admits to seeing Jeremy as well.

I find it kind of interesting. It sounds like IGN made a little visit to the Zipper Interactive offices last week. Possibly for a new story on SOCOM 4?

Let the speculation begin.

UPDATE:

Chris Roper has replied to the speculation with this:

Mark Ryan Sallee, their guides king, went on a road trip for the week and we met up for lunch. Nothing secret going on, sorry.

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Chris Roper

Community Specialist, Zipper Interactive

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Looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer for more SOCOM 4 information.

SOCOM 4 pushed to 2011. States "additional features" as the reason

If you haven't already heard, SOCOM 4 has been officially pushed to a 2011 release window. Which, by the way, is a mighty big window, so hopefully that'll be narrowed down soon.

What I find really interesting is this paragraph:

SCEA's senior corporate communications director, Patrick Seybold, told Joystiq, "We can confirm that SOCOM 4 will be released in 2011. The team is focusing on additional features which will help to deliver the most compelling and immersion SOCOM experience yet. Please look out for further updates and announcements over the coming months."

I wonder what "additional features" is referring to. A co-op mode? More maps? More single player levels? Who really knows. But they state that we'll be getting more details within the next few months so hopefully we don't have to wait to long to at least find out what we have to look forward to in 2011.

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.