First off I haven't bothered reading the few reviews for this game.. I heard it's been getting terrible scores based on the online problems, which is understandable considering there is no single player, but I thought I would let people know from someone who has been playing since the day it came out...

First off, the servers go down about once a night and in the morning for roughly 10-15 minutes. It's a minor inconvienance but nothing more truthfully..

I play ranked games only and experience very little to no lag whatsoever in any game mode unless I'm play 16vs16 (which has some bugs where it kicks people randomly and game freezes)..

If I play for a 4 hour period I have had about a 50% chance of my ps3 freezing... So once every other day. It does kind of suck but for the most part another minor annoyance.

The stats have had issues and are already being fixed.

The clan system seems incomplete as well (there are some extremely cool things to do with the clans, as the clan war ranking system seems to be very interesting) also you can schedule clan wars that appear on a calendar (eventually, I haven't looked in to this yet completely). 

For the game

The graphics are wonderful, I was a big fan of COD4 and I find this to be a pretty decent improvement over the graphic experience it gave me... Maybe it's just the third person perspective but i feel the game is a bit more detailed. The motion blur when turning quick is a nice touch.. I have seen hardly any pop-ins at all and nothing seems to tear on my HDTV. But who knows maybe I'm the only one.

The gameplay is solid and really gets you feeling like your in the game... The fact that it came out with a basically free headset really helps considering teamwork is crucial in a game that has no respawns (I'll get to that in a second). The maps are extrememly well done (the ones that were revived from older games have been revamped to satisfaction as well, according to the long time players I've spoken with).

NO RESPAWNS.. this might be the best part of the game for me truthfully.. The fact that ranked games don't allow respawns makes each game a strategic battle to win (and those that fail at that die quickly). It doesn't take much to kill an opponent and seems fairly realistic. There are times when your scoped in and will be shooting a wall that is frustrating, but once you get use to the control it's a blast.

I first got involved playing shooters with COD4 (I played some of the older ones, DOOM, Wolfenstein, Unreal Tournament, Quake, etc...) but COD4 got me looking forward to new ones as well.. After SOCOM, I don't really have any urge to ever pick COD4 up again, and I'm being completely honest... It offers a much better gaming experience for someone that wants to use teamwork and strategy.. If you're a run and gun guy stick to COD4 (or the equivalent) this might not be for you...

Also as a side note I counted about 125 servers about 75% which were full tonight each holding 256 people. Thats well over 24,000 people. And considering the other servers were roughly half full I could assume close to 30,000 people are online at the busiest hours...

I can understand the bad reviews given the problems but to say this game isn't great is lying to yourself.. All I could suggest is, if your an impatient person that needs to be the best and play 14 hours a day, you may want to wait a month before buying it... If you are just trying to have a great gaming experience pick it up now and enjoy it..

P.S

(I remember getting GTA IV on release day, and I couldn't get online for the first 5 days period. and after two weeks the stats were resetting themselves, games were crashing and so on...) Of course, GTA IV was the best game ever right? I only bought GTA IV because it had online.. If it wouldn't have I would have just went out and got San Andreas again and had the same amount of fun. So if you like shooters give it a chance don't like other peoples opinions ruin your chance at enjoying a great game, at least rent it.

Everyone who has played the game says that the game is great,,,,I got the game for the headset but still hasn't open the game(cause i might sell it)what do you suggest?

I would play it

I still haven't tried the headset,,,have you?how is it?I ve heard a lot of good stuff about it

The headset is really good.. I have absolutely no complaints about it.. And I don't think you'll hear any.. Although you might want to know.. you need to hold the power button during the reading of the blue tooth device to get it to work.. you'd figure it out but it might save you a few minutes

I'm really glad to hear someone without experience playing Socom 1 or 2 , got into this game and really enjoyed it. I've been playing it since launch and I was always wondering to a degree if my enjoyment was mostly the nostalgia factor.
The environments, and lighting engine look great, The character models aren't as detailed as some other games, but It's kind of a trade off with the amount of customization you can do.
I agree the whole non-respawn factor encourages lots of voice chat, more so than anything else i've ever played (Thats a good thing). And third person actually does work better, cause you have a lot more peripheral.
I'm very surprised nothing outside maybe graw has tried to copy socom yet for multiplayer.

It's pretty much a given the problems with the servers will be worked out within the next month. It's good to see IGN hold off on their review instead of dogging the game cause of the connection issues - they really aren't that intolerable in my mind.

I'd recommend you join up with a clan, there's a lot of recruit rooms you can play in to prove your worthiness, it will make the whole experience a lot better playing with the same people all the time.

The two people that got me to get Socom both have played since the original so the clan thing is not an issue..

My PSN is : Suspense304

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