BOOM!
Sony “blows up” portable gaming with SOCOM, apparently.
Published: November 9, 2005
Certain parts of Sony’s executive branch must go to sleep at night thanking their respective deities for Zipper Interactive and the SOCOM franchise. The games have almost single-handedly supported Sony’s fragmented and disorganized online service, gelling the whole experience into a cohesive, community-driven service that PS2 owners can be proud to belong to – at least for one game.
Early on in the PSP’s lifecycle, it was decided that it would probably be a good idea to try to duplicate this success on The Little Handheld that Could’s online service. And hey, since it almost worked for Nintendo, why not try to get the PSP and PS2 to play nice with a little interoperability, eh? Thus began work on SOCOM: Fire Team Bravo and today, we have the end result of all that hard work.
"SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo gives players the classic SOCOM gameplay on the PSP system, but with original missions, features and a control scheme tailored for portable gaming," details Shawn Rettig, associate producer at Sony Computer Entertainment America. "Gamers can devote a few minutes or hours experiencing the authentic, intense team-based SEAL action in SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo. Those with SOCOM 3 can take advantage of the PSP system to PlayStation 2 'crosstalk' interoperability feature by syncing special mission data across the two platforms with a USB cable, changing the way both games are played."
That whole “crosstalk” feature isn’t the least of the PSP version’s bells and whistles, though. SOCOM 3’s context-sensitive command system is also in place, but the game was designed with short play in mind (since it’s a general rule that PSP games must be split into 10-15 minute chunks of gameplay).
Once a normal length mission is completed, an “Instant Action” version of the level, with remixed enemies and new objectives becomes available, helping to extend the game’s areas of operation in Poland, South Asia and Morocco, as well as the PSP-exclusive Chile missions.
We’ll have a full review in the coming days, but if you can’t wait until then, the game’s in stores as you read this.
Early on in the PSP’s lifecycle, it was decided that it would probably be a good idea to try to duplicate this success on The Little Handheld that Could’s online service. And hey, since it almost worked for Nintendo, why not try to get the PSP and PS2 to play nice with a little interoperability, eh? Thus began work on SOCOM: Fire Team Bravo and today, we have the end result of all that hard work.
"SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo gives players the classic SOCOM gameplay on the PSP system, but with original missions, features and a control scheme tailored for portable gaming," details Shawn Rettig, associate producer at Sony Computer Entertainment America. "Gamers can devote a few minutes or hours experiencing the authentic, intense team-based SEAL action in SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo. Those with SOCOM 3 can take advantage of the PSP system to PlayStation 2 'crosstalk' interoperability feature by syncing special mission data across the two platforms with a USB cable, changing the way both games are played."
That whole “crosstalk” feature isn’t the least of the PSP version’s bells and whistles, though. SOCOM 3’s context-sensitive command system is also in place, but the game was designed with short play in mind (since it’s a general rule that PSP games must be split into 10-15 minute chunks of gameplay).
Once a normal length mission is completed, an “Instant Action” version of the level, with remixed enemies and new objectives becomes available, helping to extend the game’s areas of operation in Poland, South Asia and Morocco, as well as the PSP-exclusive Chile missions.
We’ll have a full review in the coming days, but if you can’t wait until then, the game’s in stores as you read this.