World Renowned Creative Director and Shooter Entertainment Pioneer, David Sears (SOCOM), Joins SOF Studios.

Southern Pines NC – August 7, 2012 – Independent games publisher, Special Operations Forces Studios, Ltd. (SOF Studios), is honored to announce the hiring of 22-year games industry veteran and AAA Creative Director, Mr. David Troy Sears.

David, the visionary Creative Director behind shooter entertainment’s pioneering franchise, “SOCOM: US Navy SEALs” and most recently ground-breaking Creative Director for Ubisoft’s unreleased shooter title, “Rainbow 6: Patriots“, resigned from Ubisoft Montreal last month and joined the SOF Studios team in Southern Pines, NC.

David is an award-winning creative who has designed and directed the development of shooters, racing games, brawlers, action-adventure games, and platform games on a variety of consoles for publishers/developers including Ubisoft, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Virgin Games, Zipper Interactive, Foundation 9 Entertainment, Kronos Digital Entertainment, Looking Glass Studios, and Pseudo Interactive.

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Urgent Frequency Ep. 95 – Commander Fury interviews himself. Well…kinda’.

The Nuketown Hooligans‘ Bill “Rumpo” Lavoy, longtime friend and collaborator joins

Commander Fury to help him interview himself.

As they talk about the Commander’s past, present, and future in Urgent Fury and beyond.

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Urgent Frequency Ep. 92 – The 2011 Podcast Before Christmas

We look back on 2011.

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Urgent Frequency Ep. 91 – The 2011 VGA Preview Episode

After a year of major game releases, the game industry & gamers from all over the world are set to pick the best of the best for the 2011 Video Game Awards.

Shane Bell (Urgent Fury CIO) & Doc (The Tester (Season 1) & Replay w/ Doc) join Commander Fury to preview a few of the categories & make their 2011 VGA picks.

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News from the Endurance Front Lines

We are only 2-Weeks into the first Urgent Fury Socom 4 tournament and we are already halfway complete with the first campaign. With 36 wars played, the standings are as follows: TNU leads with 10 points followed closely by 101, ReD, $K$, cKs, and 26* with 8. In the middle of the pack we have LPK with 6. Rounding out the field we have RVN, <N>, and WDA each with 2 points and IX still looking to pick up their first W. This tough field of competitors proved to be too steep as R2H never made it in by failing to submit their roster.

Going into week 3 of the first campaign, TNU looks to continue its winning ways after a rough start due to typos on their roster which cost them their only loss. Being the highest ranked clan in the tournament on the Socom in-game ladder, TNU has proven that they know how to win by leading the field with the most points.

A match between the current #2 and #3 seeds, 101 and ReD, resulted in a tie during the second night of wars when there was an glitch in the ladder system. Each team took a match in the first two but for some reason the game sent both teams back to their lobbies instead of sending them to the third match to determine the overall winner of the war.

$K$, cKs and 26* all locked up with 8 points each will be working to catch the current leader in hopes of capturing the top seed and a bid to the playoffs later this fall. After a close match against TNU and ReD, LPK looks to bounce back after a bumpy start. With only 6 wars remaining RVN, <N>, WDA, and IX hope to make up some ground after a very tough 2 weeks.

The Endurance format is much different than what most UF clans are used to. Previously each night would feature one war on a predetermined map and mode. Due to the lack of a party system, UF was forced to use the in-game ladder system to conduct the wars. When asked about the best-of-3 format for wars a few of the clan reps had this to say. darth_cedaus from Canadian Killing Squad said, “Love the best of 3 format. Much better than the 1-map wars back in the day.” ShadowOfaSolja from Threat Neutralizing Unit said, “Best of 3 is the only way to go :)”

With a party system just around the corner, we will found out whether or not traditional 1-map per war formats will ever be possible again.

None of the clan reps had too much other to say about the tournament other than they really appreciate the great sportsmanship shown by UF clans. Respecting all of the rules set forth by tournament staff, participating clan are able to play Socom 4 without having to worry about exploits, cheating, Grenade Launchers, or Double Rounding in Bomb Squad.

Time will tell as we see how the wars play out to determine the winner of the first Socom Endurance Campaign.

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Urgent Frequency Ep. #85 – Double Trouble (SOCOM 4 / Mortal Kombat Launch Party)

After taking a little “R&R“…Urgent Frequency returns with another special “live…on location” episode.

We help the rest of the world celebrate the Midnight Launch of both

SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs (Zipper Interactive) & Mortal Kombat (NetherRealm/WBIE).

Plus we have not one…but TWO exclusive interviews with

[SHO] Shadow Ops & [101] 101st Screaming EaglesUrgent Fury‘s latest set of champions!!!

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Travis Steiner Lead Designer for Socom 4 no longer with Zipper Interactive?

Suprised to see an update come across today, but Travis Steiner, Lead Designer at Zipper Interactive for Socom 4 changed his Facebook Status today. He is now with a startup. We can only assume that it is with a gaming community, Travis is sure to bring some great experience to the table. His work history also includes Sierra Entertainment working on one of my favorite PC games growing up, Police Quest: SWAT. Good luck Travis.

I emailed Travis and received this auto reply:

Hi there,

I have decided to leave Zipper to pursue a new opportunity. If you need to contact me, you can find me on Facebook.

 http://www.facebook.com/

Thanks!

 -Travis

This comes as bit of a shock less than a week after the release of Socom 4 though. There have been mixed feelings amoungs Socom veterans about the game. Many are just not liking it, while many say if a few things are fixed it will be great and then there are the many that are very happy with Socom 4.

We do agree there are a few things to tweak, but overall, the Urgent Fury community is once again addicted to another Socom release.

Now if we can only get PSN up and running, we can get back to playing the Shooter that started it all on consoles.

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Urgent Frequency Ep. #84 – MLB Opening Day 2011 Special

PSNation’s Glenn Percival Co-Hosts this very special Opening Day 2011 special.

He gives us a complete “hands-on” break down of MLB The Show 11.

Plus, we make our picks for the “Fall Classic“, and spell out Kevin Butler’s S.H.A.F.T. Method.

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PAX East 2011 Update: SOCOM 4 & Brink

Urgent Fury Directors L to R…CIO Shane Bell, CFO Armond Compton, & COO John Ostrow at PAX East 2011.

The official attendance count for PAX East 2011 was 69,500. Breaking last year’s attendance of 52,290.

 

Brink TM from Splash Damage &  Bethesda shows off it’s final build of the game before it’s scheduled

launch on May 17th, 2011.

Don’t worry little buddy….the wait is almost over.

SOCOM 4 launches on April 19th, 2011.

Zipper Interactive’s Kevin Scmitt (Lead Designer, SOCOM 4) gives his Zipper colleagues a

crash course in the mysterious art of Parkour.

Urgent Fury covered the PAX East 2011 SOCOM 4 tournament.

Where 64 fans got to compete for a very nice trophy.

This guy has his sights set on victory. And a shot at SOCOM superstardom.

Shane Bell on the PAX East 2011 SOCOM 4 tournament…

“it  had all the intensity of classic Urgent Fury tournaments”.

The team of 8 shooters who won it all, are scheduled to be featured on a future episode

of Urgent Fury’s podcast Urgent Frequency.

This is just one of the reasons that Urgent Fury has plans for several

“live” tournament events in the coming year.

Stay tuned for more on PAX East 2011!!!

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Urgent Frequency Ep. #82- PAX East 2011 PREVIEW

Urgent Fury CIO Shane Bell stops by for a very “loosey goosey” episode of Urgent Frequency.

An episode that features the usual Urgent Fury SITREP, a complete PAX East 2011 Preview, a surprise guest, and Charlie Sheen. WINNING! Duh!

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