SOCOM is a tactical shooter in its purest form where - like in most shooters - you get the choice between two camps. If you choose the Navy Seals you'll get to kill terrorists and rescue hostages while the baddies will make it difficult for you with planting bombs. A typical shooter scenario so to speak.

Contrary to the previous SOCOM games the newest breed will not contain an offline campaign and be only playable online. As such not such a bad thing as the offline single player was pretty mediocre and after a couple of hours you had already finished the story. Just like Warhawk SOCOM: Confrontation will be available in the Playstation Store for 35 euros. The Blu-ray version comes bundled with a headset which makes you 60 euros lighter after purchase.

In the public beta that's currently going on only one map is available and that's Crossroads. The SOCOM fans will probably hear a bell ringing as it's one that was already playable in SOCOM 2 and 3. The final version of the game will have "only" seven in total and the size of those will depend on the amount of players. Personally I find 7 not so many for an online multiplayer game but we'll probably see more become available later on through the Playstation Store and we shouldn't forget that in the end Confrontation is only a warmup for SOCOM 4.

Up to 32 players will be able to enter the battlefield, but according to Slant Six Games this wouldn't hurt the tactical aspect. The use of vehicles is banned and this brings the game back to its original roots: tactics and weapons. Seven different modes will be available including Team Suppression, Elimination, Control, Extract, Breach, Escort and Demolition.

The biggest addition to this SOCOM is the possibility to adjust your character, weapons and gear completely to your liking. Each side has the choice between about 35 weapons that can be modified with scopes, lasers, dampeners, arm wrists, grips and other gadgets. Also the choice of your armor has its role in the game. There's a choice between a heavy one, a regular, or a light armor which has its pros and cons. The rule applies that the less you carry along, the faster you'll move on the front, but the less damage you'll be able to take.

The community itself is enormous. A central lobby, clan support, voice chat, calendar, tournaments, leaderboards... all interesting things are present to make this the ultimate online shooter for the PS3, but the devs will only be able to realise this if they can get rid of all the irritating bugs the current version contains.

The current beta is certainly not what the game has to become. There's plenty of lag, your connection drops, it takes a long wait before starting a game, and the interface is extremely slow. Eventhough it looks like a very decent game for a PSN one, things should definitely improve still. However, it looks like the devs have never heard of anti-aliasing that makes everything look less jagged.