Looks like Slant Six will finally be getting that patch that will bring SOCOM players back. The patch will include trophies, the prone stance and a few features to help you get in rooms with your friends. There is no word on when this patch will come out but you can be sure I (and a few other HCGers) will be on playing. For more information on the patch go the the SOCOM website.

Finally the PS3 has my attention.  I wasn’t a big fan of the Socom series before as I did not have a Playstation 2 however I heard some great things about the online play which prompted me to go ahead and buy Confrontation.

The Socom series could easily be compared to the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (G.R.A.W.) series.  The game is played in the 3rd person view, soldier versus soldier combat.  The emphasis is on tactical maneuvering and working together as a team.  Socom Confrontation is an online only multiplayer game and can be downloaded via the Playstation Network or purchased at your local game store bundled with the Official Playstation bluetooth headset.

The graphics in Socom are decent, there is not much that is mind-blowing but it certainly is not sub-par either.  What is really well done is the sound and the ease of control.  Each gun sounds realistic and each shot feels as real as the sound it makes.  Socom also uses the rumble feature of the Dual Shock 3 so making the upgrade is recommended.

There are a total of 7 maps available, each map is scalable to the size of the party you are playing with.  Some game modes allow up to 16 players on each team while the comfortable games are played with 8 players on each team.  The Playstation Network does host the ranked games while a player match is hosted by the game creator.

There is also clan support which allows you to recruit and fire players in your clan and of course play clan matches.  Socom Confrontation is an exciting and addicting experience.  It certainly is a reason for gamers to buy or keep their PS3’s.  There is a good amount of lifelike military violence and a very slight amount of language. 

This game is fantastic and is highly recommended for any PS3 owner looking for a good game for their Playstation 3.

Buy/Skip/Rent:

Buy

For those of you (like me) who are early adopters of SOCOM:Confrontation.  You may have noticed some serious server problems.  A few of us on HCG have noticed that your PS3 could freeze if you are using the chat function.  The game has gotten better over the last few days and we had a great day on Monday with no freezing issues.  They have put out a patch that should be available for download today.  The patch fixes a multitude of issues but does not add trophies.  For more information on the patch, go here.

If you had bought SOCOM:Confrontation you may have experienced some server errors that severely hampered your game play.  Reports of this have been coming in from all over the web.  Looks like the forum thread for this problem on Sony’s forums is up to 29 pages and still growing.  Sony is aware of the problems and is currently working hard to fix them.  Well at least those who bought the bundle got a headset out of the deal.

Hey SOCOM fans.  SOCOM:Confrontation was released today.  You can get the stand alone game on the PSN or Blu-ray for $39.99.  You can also get the bundle that includes the PS3 Bluetooth headset for $59.99.  This is a great deal as the headset will be release in November at $49.99 which means that you basically pay $10 for the game.

This game is coming out at a rough time as other major titles (LittleBigPlanet, Guitar Hero World Tour, Bioshock and Eternal Sonata) are coming out during the rest of the month.  That coupled with games costing $60, gamers have to choose what games they will be buying as there are only a select few of us that can afford a lot of games during the year (yet alone within one month).

Having played the SOCOM Beta I can see how I could get into this game and  getting the headset with the game makes the $59.99 price point seem worth it.  That being said this is one game that will most likely lose that battle against LittleBigPlanet when it comes to my wallet.