SOCOM But Not Forgotten

[Geo88]

Ugh, that article hit me hard. SOCOM got me into online console gaming. I still remember playing on Abandoned back in SOCOM I (by far the best iteration of the map).

Hell, I still remember the first time someone came into the game with their GameShark cheats loaded up and murdered everyone with a rapid-fire 50-cal sniper rifle on full auto while hopping around up in the sky. Of course, that was fixed for SOCOM II.

Crossroads, Desert Glory, Frostfire, they were all amazing. The games also had some pretty great clan support after a while, and don't even get me started on the lobby system. Need to warm up for a clan match? Hop into a "shotgun" room and run around no-scoping people with sniper rifles. Those were the most intense battles ever... I didn't get a PS3 because of how expensive it was, but I was always tempted to buy one just to get the newest SOCOM games. That is, until a friend who I'd played all of the PS2 games with told me how badly the first PS3 SOCOM game had been butchered. But still, I'll remember the good times, like getting the VIPs out on Fox Hunt or, conversely, simply waiting on the giant mountain in the middle of the map for the other team to bring them out into the open.

*wistful sigh*

 

[RicoADF]

Wow I had completely forgotten about my old socom games, should dig them out for a run in the campaign someday. Ah memories

 

[Serfix]

I know that feeling when the game community isn't the same as it was on "better days"

This happened to me on WoW couple of times with few guilds. I mean it was my best time in WoW when I was on those guilds, but then they died or something else and after that I didn't find guilds like them so I stopped playing it.

Other game was BF3 when I randomly applyed to some platoon and the people in it were great, but again it died and the game wasn't the same without those people playing together. Oh this sadness it brings when I look back to those "better days".

 

[juyunseen]

I have a feeling that five or six years from now I'm going to be feeling the same way about DayZ.

I've formed many a camaraderie through that game.

 

[Ghost1214]

This kind of society still survives in PC Gaming if you can make the hurdle, Arma 2 and its baby DayZ are especially good for community in the same style.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

This is what I miss in modern gaming.
It just isn't the same without the community, the brotherhood.

The larger the group of people involved, the more the cockheads shine through for some god awful reason.

Ghost Recon takes up the mantle to a degree. It's not a perfect replacement, but I've found that people work together and good tactics are rewarded as well as communication and organizing your abilities to better help your team. It's far more tactical than Battlefield.

 

[TaboriHK]

This article reminds me a lot of the golden days of Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow/Chaos Theory MP. I made actual friendships on xbox live from that, that persist years later. That hasn't happened since.

 

[G3]

That was the game that taught me to sneak. Sneaking used to be so much more fun than it is now. I almost got to the point where I just play the Hitman stuff like a shooter.

 

[Anthony Henriquez]

Thank you for such a warm, heart-felt article about a game I myself have put so much time into. I too remember the near-instant deaths on Fish Hook, when it felt like the sky was falling from dozens of grenades being thrown by the terrorist team. Yeah, I was terrible, but I got the SOCRACK feeling really quickly once I got online. In all my time on Zipper's 'real' SOCOM franchise, I've put around 10,000 hours into the four games. There are tons of forums online now dedicated to games, both past and present, of which I didn't really know existed when SOCOM was still popular. You're right that the community feeling has fallen off in recent years, due to a complete lack of those types of resources in-game. Hopefully we'll get a new SOCOM with the PS4, and if it's good, then that would be enough to make me want to buy it.

Cheers from America.