The Socom: US Navy Seals Confrontation multiplayer beta on the PlayStation 3 launched several hours ago. The game has been getting good impressions and opinions...if only it was playable!

The servers are under tremondous stress at the moment. Joining a game is nearly impossible. Oh, and by the way: joining games in progress? If you're ready to brave that trail, which consists of a never ending load screen, go right ahead!

Overall, I'm impressed with the beta and most people who played i...

"o Voice command (the ability to direct AI characters using voice)
o Voice animation (your in-game character mimics you during voice chat)
o Proximity chat (high quality voice playback in full surround sound to match all of the sound effects and voiceovers in the game)
o When docked in the supplied charging cradle, the Headset works as a desktop microphone while charging
o Automatic pairing of the Headset with PS3 system via a USB cable
o Exclusive PS3 on-screen indicator displays con..."

"He created a beginning and an end to the map, and then tossed the controllers to four different participants. A Killzone sack boy and a few others hopped onto the screen, and immediately they made a mad dash through the created obstacle course. A timer started as soon as the first sack boy crossed the beginning marker, and it was truly hilarious to watch the four participants fight their way to victory. Near the end, the demonstrator had placed some rocket cars (he wanted to put some normal c..."

"I'm happy to announce we have finalized our release plans for SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation. On the week of October 14th, you'll be able to pick up one of the following versions of SOCOM: Confrontation in North America."

"Among the most ambitious features in SOCOM: Confrontation is the broad palette of community tools soon to be available through the official Web site, SOCOM.com. Instead of taking the standard route of using the game's Web site to advertise a scant few bullet points and screenshots, Sony and Slant Six plan on delivering a portal for you to organize a variety of aspects relating to your personal playing time and your clan. The series is already known for having built-in clan support, but now th..."

"Did you buy Qore solely for access to the SOCOM Confrontation beta? Well, looks like you might've bitten too early. A small comment on the SOCOM official website shows that Qore guarantees access into the beta ... but two weeks after the public beta launches."

"Though Phil "Game 3.0" Harrison may have moved onto green ... err, different pastures, his flock of PlayStation 3 developers haven't forgotten his lessons. After taking a handful of upcoming PlayStation games out for a spin last Friday during Sony's Pre-E3 Judge's Event in LA, I noticed a recurring phrase in my notebook: community website. Think Halo 3 and Bungie.net; a game-specific site chocked full of additional ways to engage the title. It's like ... Web 2.0 plus ... Game 1.0 – wait, we f..."

"The intelligence on SOCOM: Confrontation has largely been under tight wraps, with bits of information leaked here and there, mostly by way of the official SOCOM site. With E3 and other events quickly approaching, that should all change soon. To get us up to speed and ready for our impending time with the game, we fired off a number of questions to David Seymour, design director over at Slant Six. Here's what he had to say."

A new batch of Socom Confrontation screenshots have been made public and as usual the French get them first (did we lose a war?) but screenshots need no translation and 15 mke there apearance. Go to the source to view the rest

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"The strong lineup of games doesn’t stop there. Many of you have been hearing rumblings about a video service that will allow you to download full-length TV shows and movies via PLAYSTATION Network for North America. While I don’t have any new announcements here for the PlayStation Nation, it’s already been confirmed that we’ll be offering a video service for PS3 in a way that separates the service from others you’ve seen or used. Ultimately the goal of the PLAYSTATION Network service will be ..."

"We've brought you several big stories on SOCOM Confrontation in the past month, but today Sony passed on one more important piece of information: a release date. The latest iteration of the popular online shooter franchise will be arriving on September 16.

To celebrate this news, tomorrow Sony will be launching SOCOM.com, an online community site devoted to the game. Pre-release, the site will provide regular news updates as well as a place for fans to get together. Once the game has laun..."

"In anticipation of the Confrontation cover story in the May issue of EGM, 1UP has posted two new screenshots. The initial reaction has been positive, and the dev team is really excited that the world can finally see some of their hard work. This has also been a huge relief to SealTeam-6, who has the unenviable job of telling SOCOM’s huge, hungry fan base every week that:

a) yes we are still working on the game, and

b) no, there is no new information we can share at this time.

We fee..."

"Location
Initial recon indicates subject is returning to previous areas of operation. "Crossroads is by far the fan favorite," Luisi says, "so we definitely wanted to show what this level would look like in the next generation. We're trying to maintain a smaller size; the largest level in this game is going to be smaller than anything we had in SOCOM 3. And so while we are going to expand Crossroads out a bit, it's not going to be this huge, expansive area. All the other maps we're going to ..."

"With Sony's press conference in the past, we've created a roundup of all the small, but significant, announcements and confirmations. This year, Sony allowed very little time for the audience to ponder and absorb, so a lot of the groundbreaking revelations were not emphasised. This was of course a good thing, as it showed that Sony had a lot of things to say. So aside from the major announcements, such as MGS4, Haze and UT3 exclusivity, here are the other tidbits:

- 200 games on Blu-ray an..."

"Hey SOCOM fans: You might want to sit down for this one. You know how you've been disappointed by how the series has drifted further and further from its roots? You know how the addition of vehicles, enormous maps, and Battlefield-style play modes have seemed to dilute the pure, tense tactical experience of the original game? You know how you've complained to Sony and Zipper about the perils of trying to make the series too accessible, too mainstream?

They were listening.

When franchise..."