SOCOM: Confrontation (Sony Playstation 3, 2008)

The SOCOM franchise is a well-known and well-loved franchise in Sony circles. Not only did it help push the PS2 into online multiplayer matches, but it's still frequently played by rabid fans that have established clans and sunk hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into their matches. Needless to say, the anticipation for the latest iteration of the game has been extremely high. Recently, Slant Six (who took over from perennial series developer Zipper Interactive) and Sony Computer Entertainment released SOCOM: Confrontation, the franchise's first steps onto the PS3. Unfortunately, the game has been plagued by a ton of bugs, glitches and server issues, and even two weeks after its release and a recent patch, the title is still severely flawed with technical problems.

Confrontation hosts battles between Commandos and Mercenaries across seven large maps that are packed with dozens of sniper nests, ambush alleys and crossfire points. Taking a page from some of the earlier SOCOM games, Confrontation includes some fan favorite levels, including Frostfire, Desert Glory and Crossroads, all of which are recreated as veterans would remember them. Skirmishes break out across these maps in one of seven game modes, such as Suppression (Team Deathmatch), Control (grabbing and holding checkpoints) and Extraction (bringing hostages from one area to extraction safe zones). Players have a number of customizable options with all of these modes, such as the option to select whether or not players will be able to respawn infinitely, a limited number of times or if there won't be any respawning allowed at all. As a result, you'll find that battles can frequently become hectic firefights as time starts running out in a round or as kill counts closely approach their round winning score.

To help you accomplish your objectives and kill your opponents, Confrontation offers a large number of options for either Commandos or Mercenaries, ranging from assault rifles and shotguns to machine guns and sniper rifles. Players select both a primary and secondary weapon, as well as additional gear such as frag grenades, RPGs and C4. Guns can be further modified with scopes, laser sights and other equipment, all of which affect the statistics of that weapon. For example, adding a scope will increase your accuracy, while suppressors will reduce your damage. What's more, players can equip themselves with body armor to further reduce incoming damage taken from fire. The armor and additional gear comes at a price, however; the more equipment that you pack on, the heavier your soldier becomes and the slower he moves on the battlefield. While you might be able to shrug off some fire, you probably won't be able to avoid incoming rocket shells or grenades, so players will need to determine their gear according to their play style.

Regardless of whether you're a sniper or a run and gun-style player, one thing that everyone can take advantage of are the new motion sensing controls, which allow you to perform leans and other moves by twisting the controller. In the past, you'd have to physically move and turn the camera, leaving you vulnerable to a headshot. Now, if you turn the DualShock to the left or right, you can lean around a corner, allowing you to crouch and take a shot and retreat to relative safety. Similarly, players can raise the controller up to peek over cover, or push the controller down quickly to go prone, allowing you to dodge and avoid incoming fire

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation (also known as SOCOM: Confrontation) is a third person tactical shooter video game for the PlayStation 3. Slant Six Games developed the game instead of the original SOCOM developer Zipper Interactive. The game was released on October 14, 2008 on the PlayStation Network and Blu-ray Disc in North America and March 2009 in Europe.[2][4] The game is the fifth title in the SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs series and the first for the PlayStation 3. An online-only shooter in the same vein as Warhawk, Confrontation came packaged the same way as Warhawk, with the retail version coming packaged with the official PlayStation 3 Bluetooth headset or as a standalone game, and also released as a downloadable title from PlayStation Network.[8] Teamwork is essential to success in the game, as this phrase says: "Alone I'm Lethal, as a team I Dominate". The player is able to customise their character, choosing from a list of pre-defined items, using mix and match. This includes armor (light, medium and heavy; both leg and torso; for commando and mercenary), camoflauge (head, shirts, pants, armor, straps and mask), and weapons attachments (two slots, weapon specific; e.g. front grip and suppressor on the M4A1 assault rifle).

I'm writing this review after owning the game for the better part of a year. In the beginning, this game had a lot of problems. Bugs and server problems plagued the first few months of this games life, not to mention missing features that were actually listed on the packaging.

Fortunately, the hard times have passed. Most features have been implemented (with the exception of in game clan ladders) and most of the major bugs have been fixed with additional game play improvements. With that being said, the game is not without imperfections. There are still issues, but nothing that makes the game unplayable. There are times of frustration when lag takes over a room, but lately it hasn't been any more of an issue than any other online game and most rooms run smoothly.

With the 1.5 and 1.6 patches coming which promise to implement the clan ladders, fix remaining bugs, and add new content, the games future is looking much brighter. That's not to mention the soon coming DLC pack which looks to add quite a bit of new content and a breath of fresh air to those of us who have been playing since the beta. Indeed SOCOMers, the future looks bright for us.

No hardcore SOCOM fan should pass this up and I think many players new to the series may find a new favorite game if they pick this up, as well.

There are no words for how great this game is. The developers are constantly responding to what the community responds and the Download-able content comes out 12-17-09. It is a 3rd person shooter that is a great gift for anyone who owns a PS3 and i would recommend it to anyone i know that has one. 5 stars all the way. Ive been playing for over a year now and play it every day. It never gets old and its always something new. Great for anyone who likes videogames.

The good= The game looks really good. There are all kinds of weapons and modifications you can make to you and your gear. The game has alot of hardcore followers. You can now finally get into an actual game. THE DEVELOPERS ARE WORKING HARD TO BETTER THE GAMES MANY FLAWS!

The bad= The game is ALMOST there as far as controls but the quirky framerate really bogs it down. For being an online game only there are very FEW stages. There are ALOT of bugs. You have to search diligently to find your friends online.

I have been gaming for over 25 years now and have worked for software testing firms and i have to be honest. This game should have never been released given the star status of the name Sony's baby shall I say. You could'nt get online at all the first month only if you were severly lucky then you might get booted off. The developers have fixed alot of the problems though but there is a long road ahead of them and even if they ever do fix all of them and add on game content from the feedback of gamers everywhere this game still will be lackluster. I have had some fun with the game but i have to say only about 10% of the time that i have owned it. I have a problem with a game that you turn on to play in hopes that it has gotten better. Somethings not right with that. I actually took the game back to the store after i had bought it and when i heard they had fixed some of the problems bought it on ebay and i still think i should of left it alone. Because of the extreme following of this game there will be alot of gamers who will disagree with me but I believe deep down inside they know this to be true.... I'm not sorry to say i would wait for the NEXT socom in hopes that the game will return to the true roots of itself and be a more solid all around game and gaming experience.

Socom Confrontation is lackluster at best and i would recommend Ghost Recon Advandced Warfighter2 as a highly recommended alternate to this type of genre.
You can buy GRAW2 for about 15 to 20 dollars now.

SC ROTIC