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Socom 4 Multiplayer Preview – Part 1 : Media Day Redmond, WA


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Thanks to the continued support of Jeremy Dunham, Community Manager for Zipper Interactive, we had the pleasure of going to the Socom 4 media Day at Zipper headquarters in Redmond, WA. So part 1 is my take on our preview of multiplayer. Part 2 will come after our visit to PAX East where we will be preparing a future episode of UFreqTV for Playstation Home and visiting some more of the shooters out there that make Urgent Fury what it is today.

 

Now let me set the bar here, the game was not in anyway a finished product and even in the time that I have taken to publish this, many changes have been made. In addition our video that we compiled has not been approved by Sony PR, so I am going to release the written version. I do apoligize as we had some great gameplay footage as well as some great Q & A with one of the Dev team members.

 

So with that being said, here is Part 1…

 

Socom 4: The renewal of Tactical Gaming

 

SOCOM_4-600x319-300x159.png

 

Socom in my opinion was the beginning of tactical multiplayer gaming for consoles. Originally launched on PS2, Socom set the stage for one of the greatest phenomenon’s in console gaming. You and fifteen of your friends could group together online and with team work conquer another gaming team. You did this from your gaming lair. Friendships have been forged, and in many cases members of your team known as clans would put their gaming clan ahead of their wife and family. Many players such as I have been playing with our clan mates for many years.

 

The community of Socom fans is by far one of the most critical in the business. You can visit the Socom forums at Socom.com and read thousands of posts asking for different functions and game options in Socom 4. Community managers Jeremy Dunham and Chris Roper have spent the last several months answering questions and gathering intel for the dev team at Zipper interactive Studios.

 

Recently I had the privilege to visit Zipper Interactive to preview Socom 4 as the release date of April 19th approaches. As hoped we were treated to a first look at Socom 4 Multiplayer and a new Single player level. Our visit started with the true experience of the security required at a development studio. It was nothing less than expected.

 

So we started with a presentation by Travis Steiner along with a demo of both a single player level and some multiplayer game play, but I have to be honest, I kept eagerly awaiting our turn to get our hands on it. I played Socom 4 at E3, but it was a very short demo. I was excited to play multiplayer as that is the staple for Urgent Fury, so I was like a starving boy in front of the desert buffet. You can find more about the presentation from Commander Fury on Urgent Frequency http://www.urgentfury.com/podcast.

 

So we take position at our Playstation setup, no sharing, no taking turns, just one on one with a Playstation 3, Socom 4 and me. First let’s talk about what multiplayer has to offer in this version of Socom. I will admit this is truly a new version of Socom. Zipper has been taking notes on how the giant shooters out there are attracting hundreds of thousands of gamers to play. Unlike the latest release by Slant Six had horrific load times, to the point I spent many a night grilling dinner between rounds, but Socom 4 is a true improvement. If you want to jump on and get your game on, you will only have to wait a few minutes max. You choose a game from the list and you get to work.

 

 

Now I won’t lie, there are grumblings by the Socom faithful saying this type of setup is not true to the series, and I will say you are right it isn’t, this is called innovation.

 

 

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Nice article but stuff like this is my problem

 

"So last defense definitely had a MAG flavor to it, as the attacker, you are looking for three Satellites and once you have control the defender’s base is located and you have two minutes to get there and plant an Airstrike beacon."

 

The whole 2 minute thing shows that these new gamemodes are made with respawn primarily on their mind. Imo demo,extract,breach etc. were not put in because they would not work well with respawn. I have no problem with zipper pandering to the 12 year olds with respawn etc. in standard mode, but when it dilutes classic mode I have a problem with it. I just dont get why they cant just give the 12 year olds what they want in standard mode and give socom fans what they want in classic mode.

 

I understand they want to innovate, but innovating is not just throwing in features from other games just because they were successful. Take the single player for example. I enjoyed it on Socom 1 & 2 you really could play it anyway you wanted. You could pretty much be stealthy or just go in guns blazing. But now there are only 4 stealth missions? And I guess the rest are like cod where hundreds of enemies just come at you with explosions and rockets and stuff that excited the young teens. I could go on all day but I do look forward to S4. I just wish socom fans were in mind more when they made classic mode

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I guess first Ruthless, it should be known that I am the author of this bog post and there is more, so be sure to click on more to read all of it...

 

As I stated in the article, there have been quite a few changes since I wrote this and we should see the changes at PAX. I will write a follow up after we get to PAX.

 

I will disagree with you on them taking modes that worked in MAG and redoing them for S4, remember MAG started as Socom, so it actually took everything from Socom.

 

As for the 2 min thing, it has nothing to do with respawn, it is just like having time to diffuse a bomb... only now if you stop the air strike, the attacking team can try again.

 

So with that being said, wait for part 2 after PAX...

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I will hold off on answering this until we get to PAX... there I plan to spend a little more time with Kevin discussing that exact Topic.

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I guess first Ruthless, it should be known that I am the author of this bog post and there is more, so be sure to click on more to read all of it...

 

As I stated in the article, there have been quite a few changes since I wrote this and we should see the changes at PAX. I will write a follow up after we get to PAX.

 

I will disagree with you on them taking modes that worked in MAG and redoing them for S4, remember MAG started as Socom, so it actually took everything from Socom.

 

As for the 2 min thing, it has nothing to do with respawn, it is just like having time to diffuse a bomb... only now if you stop the air strike, the attacking team can try again.

 

So with that being said, wait for part 2 after PAX...

 

I did read it all. As for recent changes, all I have heard is the removal of etags. What else are they changing?

 

I just dont see a 2 minute countdown in a 5-6 minute round as something that will work well. What if that countdown is triggered in the last minute of the round? Does the round go into overtime? But I hope your right and these gamemodes are better than they look on the surface.

 

By the way since you got to play does duel primarys seem like a possible balance problem? I know zipper doesnt play socom the way real socomers play so does this look like a possible problem? Is there any reason for someone not to carry a sniper rifle and an assault rifle, meaning couldnt there be a ridiculous amount of people sniping, even more so than the tilly era on confrontation?

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I cant wait for S4 myself, but they that is just me... Although I do have one major concern. Will clan wars still be able to take place like they have in the past? Or will it take a little more time, having to invite people to a private room, since lobbies are no longer around?

 

I don't see it as being any different than COD wars... and they don't take any longer to set up than S:C ware in my opinion...

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I did read it all. As for recent changes, all I have heard is the removal of etags. What else are they changing?

 

They have moved the camera back, removed etags, removed the nade trailer (don't like that) adjusted speed and some other stuff I can't think of right this second, but they posted some of it up on the Socom forums.

 

I just dont see a 2 minute countdown in a 5-6 minute round as something that will work well. What if that countdown is triggered in the last minute of the round? Does the round go into overtime? But I hope your right and these gamemodes are better than they look on the surface.

 

That is a good question about the countdown... I will ask.

 

By the way since you got to play does duel primarys seem like a possible balance problem? I know zipper doesnt play socom the way real socomers play so does this look like a possible problem? Is there any reason for someone not to carry a sniper rifle and an assault rifle, meaning couldnt there be a ridiculous amount of people sniping, even more so than the tilly era on confrontation?

 

So I will say that my recommendation for UF tournaments will be to limit what the secondary weapon can be such as smg or maybe shotty... this will play into some of the testing at PAX. But to be honest in the few hours that I played... I did not really use my secondary weapon.

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What's an etag? And a "nade trailer"?

 

Nade trailer would be the arc that was seen in earlier socom 4 vids, it shows where your grenade will go. etags are the little red dots on the radar when you shoot your weapon without a silencer or the other team has a uav or spy plane in the air.

 

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Edited by Nemesis
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