SOCOM 4

[Cookyman]

Ok I know this is old news now but thought I would post info in more detail:

 

From Playstation Blog

 

I wanted to drop in and deliver some truly exciting news – on behalf of everyone here at Zipper Interactive, I’m pleased to announce that SOCOM 4 is indeed in development and is slated for release exclusively on PlayStation 3 this fall.

 

 

Of course, as with any new announcement, what you really want to know are the details: Who’s in your squad? Where have they been deployed? What kind of threat are they up against? Though we’ll be revealing the answers to all these questions and plenty more throughout 2010, we don’t want to leave you completely in the dark, so what we will tell you is that a militant revolutionary has unexpectedly seized control in an important South Asian country. As the Ops Com, your mission is to command an elite five-man squad charged with stopping his aggressive agenda before it’s too late. In only six days, you must lead your team through a hostile jungle and urban environments against an army of well-armed rebel insurgents that completely outnumber you.

 

If that setup doesn’t whet your appetite enough, you should also be pleased to know that in addition to the SOCOM’s single-player operation, players will also be able to enjoy a 32-person multiplayer mode that boasts more Special Forces units than ever before!

 

If you crave even more information, then the guys at IGN have you covered with their exclusive first-look preview at what we’ve shown so far. Editor and shooting game fanatic, Ryan Geddes, dropped by our studio earlier in the week to check out SOCOM 4 for himself, so be sure to read the full IGN article to find out what he thinks.

 

 

But wait! There’s more! As part of our continued announcement celebration, the folks at GameTrailers TV will air the world premiere trailer for SOCOM 4 tonight at 12:30 am EST/PST. All you have to do is tune in to Spike TV when the time is right and let your eyes and ears do the rest. Don’t miss it!

 

Oh, and before we let you go, we wanted to send a message to our SOCOM and MAG fans all over the world. First, if you play MAG and wonder what this means for the game’s future, wonder no more – we’re still fully committed to supporting MAG for a long, long time and the addition of another game in our lineup doesn’t change that. Second, it’s been great to hear from SOCOM fanatics located in every corner of the globe as we led into today’s announcement. We’re extremely excited to be attached to this beloved franchise again and knowing that so many people wanted us to return to something that already meant so much to us has been both inspiring and touching – so thank you to all of you who wanted it to happen! We look forward to living up to your expectations.

 

 

 

From IGN

 

SOCOM 4 Revealed

Your PS3 is about to get tactical. We take our first look at Sony's next big shooter.

by Ryan Geddes

 

US, March 4, 2010 - In the beginning, videogames offered only one story. Survive and kill. It's the story of war, and we're endlessly fascinated by it. It's on our televisions and our movie screens. It's in our blood.

 

But there's more to the story of battle than just pointing and shooting, although for a while that's all gamers really demanded from a war game. Having a gun in your hand and a friend at your side was all anyone really needed at first. But that's changing. Games are growing up. The developers at Sony's Zipper Interactive know it, and they've taken that knowledge deep into the heart of their new project, SOCOM 4.

 

The SOCOM series is a PlayStation-exclusive powerhouse most known for delivering an intense, engrossing online multiplayer experience. Although the first three main games in the franchise did have single-player missions, the focus was always squarely on network play. The strategy has worked well for the studio over the years. When SOCOM 3 was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2005, we named it our favorite online PS2 game, and the series overall has sold 12 million copies around the world. Zipper has been so dedicated to online multiplayer, in fact, that its most recent game, MAG, didn't even have a single-player mode. So what's all this about story, then?

 

I recently visited Zipper to take an early look at SOCOM 4, and I'd hardly sat down before they started talking about the story they wanted to tell. But before we dive into those details, let's get one thing sorted out straight away. Like its predecessors, SOCOM 4 is a squad-based, realistic, tactical third-person shooter. If that sentence just made you fall slightly asleep, shake it off because this installment promises to be far friendlier to new initiates than earlier SOCOM games. Zipper wants to make SOCOM 4 "the pinnacle of tactical shooters" on the PS3, says lead designer Travis Steiner, but it also wants to build a rich narrative around it.

 

That starts with the main character. His name, well, I don't have any intel on that yet. Zipper simply calls him the Ops Commander. He's the leader of a 5-person NATO special forces squad deployed near the Strait of Malacca, a key global shipping lane that connects the Pacific and Indian Ocean between Malaysia and Indonesia. He quickly finds himself in a world of pain when the rest of the NATO forces in the area are annihilated. It's up to his team to sort it all out. At his side are two Westerners -- Schweitzer and Wells -- and two South Korean operatives, Chung and the mysterious Forty-five. The latter is the first female combatant in a SOCOM game. Here's hoping she got her nickname from her weapon of choice.

 

Zipper assures us Forty-five isn't just a pretty face. Ed Byrne, SOCOM 4's creative director, says she's a "vital character" in a story that aims to go beyond the typical bounds of military shooters. Byrne and company aren't releasing too many specifics about the tale just yet, but they did spill a few details. The mission unfolds over a six-day period in two main acts. In the beginning, the squad faces an indigenous revolutionary group called Naga. But as the story progresses, the characters discover there's more to the conflict than meets the eye.

 

The events take place in Southeast Asia, but Zipper is quick to point out that you'll see more than jungles and beaches in SOCOM 4. Expect to train your sights on mountains, small towns and massive cityscapes as well. And unlike previous SOCOM games, the single-player mission is designed to be a seamless in-the-field experience. That means there's no choppering out to a cushy battleship in-between missions to load out your team and regroup. The weapons and supplies you have with you at the beginning of the mission are all you get from HQ. Like a true special forces team cut off from the outside world, you'll need to requisition supplies in-theater. Hooah.

 

To help build a believable story, Zipper put the SOCOM 4 actors on a sound stage together and captured their movements and dialogue digitally as they performed each scene. Naughty Dog used a similar approach with Uncharted 2 in order to achieve more natural interactions among on-screen characters. The Zipper devs didn't show any acted scenes during my demo, but they did say that all cinematic scenes are in-engine. That means you won't see sharp cuts to flashy pre-rendered cutscenes; story moments will blend in and out of gameplay.

 

The SOCOM 4 single-player campaign is built around 14 missions that unfold over about 12 hours of play time. And although Zipper is trying to make SOCOM 4 more accessible to new audiences, that doesn't mean it'll be a cakewalk. The team says they've focused intensely on artificial intelligence this time around. Don't expect dumb enemies to present their heads to you for easy popping. They're programmed to use suppressing fire, flanking and bounding maneuvers, and cover. Enemy commanders will even call in airstrikes on you (if you leave them alive long enough).

 

Luckily, you'll have tactical options of your own. In SOCOM 4, all your orders are handled through the new Command Mode. Hold down a button and choose a direction on an analog stick, and you'll be able to set waypoints for your team members, issue squad commands, set behaviors and even command your squad to take out multiple targets on the way to an objective. All of these choices are no more than two clicks away, and there are no sub-menus to take you out of the action.

 

All the commands in SOCOM 4 are given in real-time and are issued based on what your Ops Commander can see – so you won't be bringing up full-screen maps and ordering your squad around as little colored squares and triangles. As the Ops Commander, you'll be able to see points of tactical interest in Command Mode that you might not see in regular mode. Things will slow down slightly, and the screen will go a bit gray as you make your choices, but the bullets will still be flying. Zipper wants to keep you on the field and in the action at all times.

 

Sometimes that action will be in the form of a full-on firefight. Other times, you'll go in silent and undetected. And just because your team is alone on the battlefield, that doesn't mean you won't have support. You'll be getting intel along the way, and you'll even be able to call in airstrikes and strafing runs on enemy targets.

 

In a brief demo of a mid-game level of SOCOM 4 called The Slums, I saw a strafing run in action, and it devastated the poor enemy saps holed up in a cluster of wooden buildings. The environments in SOCOM 4 are destructible, and building materials flew in all directions as a series of explosions ripped into the landscape.

 

When they weren't exploding, the enemies were behaving fairly intelligently, moving from cover to cover and attempting to flank the Ops Commander and his squad. Zipper only showed a small taste of SOCOM 4, and I didn't get to kick the tires. But for being in a pre-alpha state, the game looked sharp. The audio effects and environments were impressive, and the screen was refreshingly clear of clutter.

 

Zipper's already dropped a lot of info about SOCOM 4, but there are still plenty of unanswered questions. At this point, you're probably asking yourself, "Why the heck has there been no mention of multiplayer yet? Is this a SOCOM game or not?"

 

Rest assured, there will be multiplayer in SOCOM 4, but Zipper's not talking about it yet. All we know is it will be "an all new experience" that supports up to 32 players online. When asked if there would be co-operative play, Steiner simply said, "We don't have any announcements yet about further online play." So if you're a SOCOM fan who's psyched about online multiplayer, stay tuned because we're thinking the team has a lot more to say on the matter.

 

The fact that Zipper's mum on multiplayer out of the gate should tell you just how seriously it's taking the single-player, story-driven segment of SOCOM 4. The team told me their overall goal is nothing less than to evolve the series in every way, from the new narrative approach in the campaign to an innovative multiplayer experience that will satisfy series die-hards and draw in new players.

 

To achieve the latter, the development team said they've basically shaved the rough edges off the SOCOM experience. For example, the Command Mode is designed to be as deep or as shallow as the player wants it to be. On easier difficulty levels, you could theoretically go through the whole game without touching the Command Mode. But more challenging modes and approaches will require serious tactical thought.

 

Longtime SOCOM players know that Zipper put the series on the back burner somewhat after the release of SOCOM 3, handing the reins to other developers at times while it worked on other projects. Dedicated SOCOM fans will likely be glad to head that the Zipper team is back. But will they recognize their favorite series once it takes its new direction?

 

"If they were able to play it without knowing what it was, they'd know it was a SOCOM game," says Byrne.

 

SOCOM 4 is aiming for a Fall 2010 release date, and we're expecting to hear a lot more about the ambitious project in the months to come. Will the multiplayer feature classes and leveling? Will usable vehicles be back? Will we be able to tackle the campaign online with a group of bloodthirsty friends? So far, the team's lips are zipped.

[dwarf]

as with any new announcement, what you really want to know are the details

Shouldn't that be any good new announcement?

[MATtheHAT]

Awesome news, I loved SOCOM 1-3, and could actually tolerate Confrontation. I can't wait, much better news than inFAMOUS 2 or Kilzone 3.

 

Also, it would be incredible if they had the 5 player squad playabe in co-op.

[Cookyman]

I like SOCOM confrontation after it was patched.

 

The DLC for it was brilliant.

 

However Zipper being back on it will be awesome. I love MAG.

[MATtheHAT]

Reveal Trailer....

 

[Cookyman]

E3 Story Trailer

 

[Cube]

Info about the music (I've posted it elsewhere, didn't know there was a SOCOM 4 thread.

 

I am Scoring SOCOM 4

Posted by Bear McCreary on May 27th, 2010

… and one of you will get to attend the next orchestral session!

 

IO9.com recently announced a contest for an all-expenses-paid trip to hang out with me during our final SOCOM 4 recording session, at an “ultra-awesome, secret location in Northern California.†(I wonder where it could be? **cough!**cough!**)

 

The game is my second (or technically third) entry into the video game world, after my scores for Dark Void and Dark Void Zero. The most technically ambitious entry in Sony’s groundbreaking hit series, SOCOM 4 will feature a score unlike any other.

 

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve dreamt of a video game score that would feel as if it were being composed specifically for each player, adapting and shifting perfectly to capture the mood of the individual gamer. Thanks to the powerful technology available today, and the talented artists and programmers at Sony and Zipper, I was able to write a score that fulfills this promise.

 

The game will satisfy SOCOM fans and likely energize newcomers to the franchise as well. “A militant revolutionary has unexpectedly seized control in an important South Asian country,†describes Zipper Interactive’s Jeremy Dunham. “As the Ops Com, your mission is to command an elite five-man squad charged with stopping his aggressive agenda before it’s too late. In only six days, you must lead your team through a hostile jungle and urban environments against an army of well-armed rebel insurgents that completely outnumber you.†In addition to SOCOM 4’s single-player operation, players will also be able to enjoy a 32-person multiplayer mode that boasts more Special Forces units than ever before. To learn more about the game, check out IGN’s exclusive game preview.

 

 

My approach to SOCOM 4 began with the South Asian setting of the storyline. I matched a full orchestra with Asian instrumentation, ethnic soloists, and a gamelan ensemble, producing over eight hours of original music. SOCOM 4 may be a sequel, but musically, it’s a franchise re-boot. You won’t hear patriotic soaring horn lines, or military marches. Instead, the exotic location and international band of characters are represented by ethnic percussion, virtuosic Asian stringed and woodwind instruments, and the spectacular, other-worldly tones of the gamelan. And like all my other projects, these instruments are recorded live and performed by some of the best musicians in the world.

 

SOCOM 4 not only leaps the franchise forward in terms of gameplay, but represents an unprecedented focus on the narrative storytelling. The story is compelling, and created opportunities for me to write a sweeping, thematically unified, cinematic score.

 

I’ve been working on this project for over two years, and soon you will all be able to experience it. Expect to hear more about this exciting score as we get closer to the game’s release, later this year.

 

-Bear

[Cookyman]

Multiplayer footage.

 

 

[MATtheHAT]

Looks awesome.

 

Day 1.

[dwarf]

I actually think this could be very awesome. If it doesn't have clunky menus/interface or clunky controls, and has a more understandable classes, and reduced loading times, and is generally a lot more interesting than Confrontation, I'm highly intrigued.

[Choze]

I would place my bets on this being the best shooter this year. The only weakness is how it looks but the game engine is considerably more advanced than the competition if its anything like MAG. They are bringing in new modes and they are not of the me too variety. Also these guys know how to make a killer game (MAG) and handle little issues. Can not wait.

 

Its also the best Move game I have demoed to date. Control wise this is more like Uncharted. You have alot of freedom of movement like in MAG as well.

 

Another Trailer featuring a classic map at a jungle base:

http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=77283

 

game modes tease:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cookyman]

5 player online co-op. Mmmmmm looking good!

 

[Cube]

 

It's $150 in the US. I wonder how much it will be over here.

[Daft]

Too much...

[dwarf]

I couldn't justify buying a pack valued that extortionately without expecting a gigaton console to be packed in.

[Choze]

Beta first impressions:

 

Very polished for a beta(heck for a retail game nowadays). Graphics are much improved compared to the media in this topic. Better looking and smoother than Crysis 2 lol. Still nothing compared to Killzone 3. 32 players. No slowdown even when littered with explosions.

 

By far the best matchmaking implementation in a game to date. Very streamlined, fast, does not make mistakes, superb net code etc. Experience it to believe it.

 

Game modes are divided into classic and normal modes. Classic seems to mean no respawns. Currently like the MAG betas, Zipper control what modes we play. Last night only Suppression(Team Deathmatch). Lots to unlock, from guns to attachments. Newbies not at any actual disadvantage(unlike MAG or Killzone 3).

 

Move controls are great though some tweaks needed for button placements. Other than that its flawless. I prefer this to KZ3 and MAG for Move. Bodes well for Uncharted as that is similar in control but less emphasis on guns and more on movement.

 

Need to play more as of yet.

[Cube]

Did you get the beta early or something? Plus Members get it next Thursday, right?

[Choze]

Did you get the beta early or something? Plus Members get it next Thursday, right?

 

Yeah I got it early. Plus is next week. I think it goes open at some point too.

Edited March 17, 2011 by Choze

[Cube]

Finally got round to loading this. Probably took around 5 or more hours in total to download (first the game, then the update) - the PSN servers are so slow.

 

Currently on the main menu. Music is absolutely beautiful and based on that alone I NEED this game.

[MATtheHAT]

Played through the single player campaign on this, it's a bit meh-ish. Although SOCOM is never about the single player. Damn you hackers......or Japan.....or whoever is causing the PSN blackout!

[MATtheHAT]

I finished the campaign on Elite last night. It transforms the campaign from 'meh' to a highly enjoyable tactical shooter. With an extremely high emphasis on strategic team movement and placement. This is SOCOM the way it was meant to be played. My only gripe is the occasional sudden high difficulty spikes - which can be pretty horrendous.

 

Platinum Trophy is now in sight.....

[Cube]

I've totally forgotten I have this game. The only thing I remember was how utterly dreadful the voice acting is.

[Cookyman]

Should have this in the next couple of days.