Socom 4 is having a very difficult time. Not only did it release in the middle of the fabled psn outage but it also faced allegations of bieng noobified and dumbed down for the Call of Duty crowd. A series that was once a console mover that sold millions of copies is now struggling to break a million. Does that mean its a failure?
Socom 4 is a third person tactical shooter for the ps3. It has a campain of 14 missions, online co-op with 5 people, and up to 32 player online.
The entire campaign takes place in the jungles of southeast asia. You will lead a squad of 5 through many different levels consisting of bunkers, a shipyard, jungles, and ancient ruins. There is a typical story of fighting rebels from overthrowing something or blowing something up. Its not very compelling despite how hard they try to make you feel for the characters but lets be honest, nobody plays socom for the story. We play for the difficult fireights where stealth and thinking are required, no run and gun here folks. The main bulk of the gameplay is commanding a 5 person squad through many firefights. It has the typical cover system with the ability to crouch, go prone, knife your enemy, and even call in airstrikes at certain points. You can command your 4 teammates to take a position, attack an enemy, and follow you. There are some very good opportunities to flank enemies and set up ambushes and its a must to use good tactics on higher dificulties. There are also stealth missions at night where you take one sniper throughout a level usually to gather intel or plant bugs. These are hit or miss. I found them very fun although basic. If you stay in tall grass and in shadows your good EXCEPT for one mission where enemies seem to know where you are at all times. It can be a tad frustrating and can ruin the flow of the game. There are a few twists and it definately has its big scripted moments like a battleship blowing up cargo containers while you try to stay alive and fight the enemies. In all its a very fun campain.
The co-op is very well done imo. You have the ability to take parts of levels, change them up and mix and atch how you see fit. They are all bite sized and either have your team gathering intel or eleminating commanders/leaders. Its 5 person online only though, i wouldve loved to see splitscreen but whats there is fun and has great replayability. Il be payin this mode for a long time.
The multiplayer. There are a few modes here split into 3 catagories, classic, custom, and standard. In classic i you die your out till the match is over. Its VERY intense and slow methodical team tactics are a must. Ive heard complaints that it can be a campfest due to noobs who ae scared to die but i havnt experienced it yet. I usually play standard though because its faster paced but working together still is a big part of it. You can get airstrikes for a 5 killstreak i believe and unlock weapon mods as you level up for objectives or kills. There are the usual modes like team deathmatch, capture the flag, and a few others. The biggest new mode is bomb squad where one teammember is in a bomb suit and you must escort him to defuse bombs while the other team protects the bombs. Its very fun. There are custom gametypes and zipper put in a few where there is special things like faster movement, no explosives, and sniper rifles and shotguns only. There is also clan support and a party sytem. In all theres enough modes to keep fans happy.
Ive heard alot of talk on forums that zipper turned socom into cod and while it definately plays faster and has a bigger respawn community its still socom. Its the evolution of socom imo. It plays very well and still has the cover and teamwork which rewards the smarter tactics. Oldschool vets may be a bit put off but this is still the most polished, deepest, tactical tps on ps3. This is a superb game and its a shame it isnt doing better. It launched at a bad time and was met with a giant MEH. I personally find it refreshing after every fps released lately thats basically run around shoot rinse and repeat. It is far more rewarding than other games out there and the community while VERY small right now, its very good. I encourage anybody with a ps3 who enjoys tps or even fps to give it a go. It can be had new for under 40 dollars.
*****I have to mention the socom pro pass thing. If you buy it new you get a code for socom pro which adds a new map, some new guns, and i believe extra modes. If you buy it used the pass is 15 dollars but not needed to play online, ITS NOT AN ONLINE PASS where you cant get online.
Alex S. from Link-Cable writes: "Gaming’s past is full of wonderful memories, many of which include some of our favorite moments in all of video games and helped shape our current gaming habits. And, thanks to the awesomeness that is the PlayStation, many of these memories can be found in Sony’s franchises. But what happens when a great franchise or IP just disappears? While sometimes its just forgotten, never to be heard from again that’s not something that we here at Link-Cable can bear the thought of. So for this week’s Top 10 we are taking a look at the Top 10 Forgotten Sony Franchises and also crossing our fingers that someone with the power to bring these back just happens to stumble across this list."
Don’t forget Dark Cloud, Rogue Galaxy, Legend of Dragoon, Freedom Wars, Invisimals, Lemmings, Modnation Racers, Pursuit Force, Resistance, Siren, Soul Sacrifice, Mark of Kri, & Wild Arms
To be fair, many of those are not forgotten. They just ran their course while others were not given the respect they deserved to garner a continuation. Games that are one-offs probably had no intention of making them into series but I do wish they would rethink that. Some deserve to be given a follow-up.
Agreed. Maybe Sony can contract Bluepoint to remaster Heavenly Sword, see people's reaction to the game and decide wether to give the go for a sequel.
Also Lair can be remastered es as a PSVR game and take it from there.
Legacy of Kain would fit right in there, although sony has no rights to that IP as far as I'm aware.
Ah later instalments were not sony exclusive, so dont mind me sir :p
To be fair, Wild Arms did run its course, was effectively run into the ground, going by example of last entry using characters from all games. Being an STG title on the PSP.
Could always revive the western/steampunk setting.
I know right! I'm still waiting for someone at Sony to make the Getaway 3 lol
I always wondered what the PlayStation 3 version was going to be like.
Finally someone mentioned Soul Sacrifice, Siren, Legend of Dragoon, and Freedom Wars. Those games are in desperate of a new installment. Especially with Folkore.
Lemmings was a franchise waaaaay before even the PS1 saw the light of day. Nobody's forgotten it.
I'm not sure single games would be considered franchises. If you want to say Heavenly Sword is one, I'd also put Enslaved on the list. Loco Roco is in the same boat as Patapon. But things like Tomba are certainly missed.
There was going to be a sequel to Enslaved. Unfortunately it never left the drawing board. Hopefully someday it will be realized.
How can you all something a franchise if it only has one installment?
At that point it’s just an IP. You can only call it a franchise when there’s multiple installments.
you should look up the definition of a franchise.
If there is more than just a game, say merchandise its already a franchise.
I understand what the Fallen is trying to say, simply saying how could you suggest a game with only one installment as a franchise in regards to a series in terms of multiple games.
Even though, yes franchise can be considered what you stated in this context that's not really what's being talked about.
Sly Cooper is not forgotten. They even making a TV show, I am hoping they Remake the first 3 games from scratch like Ratchet & Clank did.
@DJK1NG_Gaming I didn't mention the movie because probably got cancelled since Ratchet & Clank movie flop and Sony might not take another chance but Sly Cooper is having it own TV series.
Last year I wrote an article titled, The State of SOCOM. I discussed my
love and history for the beloved third person shooter that helped pioneer
online multiplayer on consoles. It has been six years since we last had a
new SOCOM game.
Baffles me as to why they have not done anything with this franchise. Seeing as how it was #1 on the official PlayStation poll.
With all the trash put up weekly on the App Store why has nobody done a clone of this yet. I've been playing Defiance as my go to 3rd person since 2013 but still nothing like that old school Socom/Socom 2 up all night gameplay.
the only game on that list that's like socom is wild land if you want socom type games then you will have to invest in a PC
You are looking at the view point I.e 3rd person view. Rainbow six siege is probably most like socom aside from H-Hour
RAINBOW SIX: is the closest you'll get to Socom.
Also, in response to @lookatthisi
They let go the creators, and I think socom is a game that's hard to clone even the creators had a hard time making Socom 2, Socom 3.
No way man. The devs at Trion made Defiance. I know different genres different games but this could have very easily turned into a war game rather than a kill the mutants/aliens games. Ghost recon actual gameplay is about the closest to the old Socom feel due to the squad format and team commands but it was still clunky at times. Using the wheel was cumbersome to command teammates and strategies on how you approcahed a scenario.
FFS you could control your teammates with a microphone in the ps2 days. You can't tell me that it is that hard when people throw up mods on the pc all the time that mirror the original games using random game engines. These are professionals with money/tech that most people don't have access to.
(Seth Luisi was the problem at zipper, he tried capturing ghost recon/cod fans with Socom by slowly turning the Socom series into Frankenstein GR/COD lite games)
Getting that feel, that rush being the last one alive, Rainbow Six is the closest I got to that feeling since Confrontation. And we all know that was a horrible Socom, but looking back at it, SC was a great game just had a horrible release.
I didn't play defiance, but ghost recon is and was trash.
A lot will defend Seth saying he was a puppet, but his inactions or actions didn't help. He helped ruin the franchise.
Sean @ FG: "Dear Sony, We need to talk about SOCOM."
to which one? You wouldn't like to be able to use the aim controller for socom? Using a dual shock is more believable?
And why can't VR be an option? I never said to make the game VR exclusive did I?
No to both. If Socom comes back it needs to come back in all of it's old school glory.
@Silly gameAr - so not giving people options is the way to go? I mean if you are so against the aim controller couldn't you just use a dual shock instead? Maybe I am asking too much to have choices to suit different play styles.
I agree liquid. Make it like old school socom. I wanna hide claymores in the grass again 😎
It's good to have options, but those options just wouldn't suit a game like Socom.
@Neonridr No to both.
Socom 4 allowed you to use the PS Move, it was trash and a waste of development time. They could do a VR firing range or something and I'm sure it would be alright, but if Socom is going to return then they need to stick to basics and provide what fans of the franchise liked. Pointless additions like aim controller and VR support will only bloat development costs and make a revival more risky.
SOCOM was easily the best franchise on PlayStation, it is sad what has happened to it. I do however have a bad taste in my mouth after SOCOM 4 coming out then PSN immediately hacked and offline for a month... Still to this day I do not trust Sony with my credit card information.
They did that with move on ps3, it was absolutely horrible. Then again all of socom 4 was a train wreck.
meh, would never hurt to give options. Move on PS3 was absolutely horrible because the camera sucked real bad. Fairpoint accuracy with the Aim Controller is picked up quite well.
No thanks, SOCOM 4 with move was the worst thing ever. The game was bad and that thing made it even worse.
SOCOM Confrontation was decent though.
Wasn't made by zipper it was a glitch mess and people hated on it until people didn't know what they had until it was gone. Then we got SOCOM 4. :(
Socom Confrontation was GREAT 6 months after the release of the game. Also, once they added the stupid Tilly that was when I quit. I tend to not complain about guns but the Tilly was a sniper rifle/shotgun. That gun was more broken than the IW-80 in Socom 2.
Confrontation was my first socom game and I loved it dearly...I would love a remaster of that if Sony aren't that bothered
@Liqu1d
Yeah, it was awful I remember in Blizzard you will have people camping with the Tilly and rushing with the TIlly, it was soo annoying.
That is THE worst idea for a Socom type game. You can have the option of course, but no one will use it because a controller will take you down so easily.
No, it won't. Even on Socom 4, the Move guys were owning the controller guys. It's much faster. Why would you think a controller is faster?
@WeAreLegion
HAHAH I really hope you are kidding I am sure the 20 people who were using it were owning with it lol ;)
Also, On VR I don't know how many 3rd person view games there are but I think that would be weird in VR having a guy right in front of you. If you make it 1st person you would be at an unfair advantage compared to the people who aren't.
Socom is for the hardcore/competitive gamer,focus on making a great mp game first then add the bullshit for people who want it
Yeah.....no.
OT: I'd be all for it! SOCOM is still one of those franchises that a "hidden gem" feel to it!
One of my favourite games on the ps2. Socom 1/2 got a lot of playtime by me. This one, madden football and ssx3 were my first foray into online console gaming
Yes, slant six did better than them last time. Socom 4 was horrible. confrontation was the last good socom. Well after patches .
Not just normal patches. Like a year and half worth of patches. After that it was pretty good.
Lol where you there during beta it was absolutely hilarious. GOD I miss that game.....i miss MAG too
Let's all write Sony that we want Mag 2! Let's make it happen!!! Come on people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes to this. It's time look how well battlegrounds is doing. 3rd person shooters are doing a comeback and it's the only game PS4 is missing to make my dream list complete since monster Hunter already is coming and we have crash and a few other classics coming back.
I agree the story was quite weak. I assumed you played the American Version. How was their voice acting. I found the UK version to be very weak (bad move). Its a fun game to play but you have to look past the story. It is definitely a multiplayer game and with the PSN outage I think it hurt that game. If you have Move and the sharpshooter you should play it with that. I decide to try it out about a week ago and its good. Made me wonder why I should go back to the controller.
I havent tried move yet i forgot to mention it acuaully. The voice acting was okay but def not memorable in the us version. I was really suprised by how much i liked this though, its very underrated imo. I hope more people give it a shot its got a great community and the online works great.
Lol...this game is garbage. "it's still socom"? do you even know what socom is?
socom 4 is not a socom game
Seth Luisi stole our money again, I really hate that douchebag. The only thing socom about this is the name they chose to deceive their longtime fans with in order to dupe us into buying into their garbage yet again. If patch 1.5 doesnt change the game a ton, this game is getting packed up and sent back to amazon.