Mood:  on fire

Wow. So, After reading this, if you all have any questions, you can post comments and I will try to answer them. I'm not going to go into details about weapons or game modes just yet, this first update is mainly in regard to just how everything seems at first. Keep in mind that this is a beta, and when i point out a glitch I'll let you know whether i think its a beta glitch or something more. First up, the interface. Much smoother. Theres like 5 tabs, one for servers, one for clan, one for stats, one for community, and one for options. The options and servers are pretty self explanatory. Stats is as comprehensive as ever, and now by the way its easy to tell whether you are in a ranked room, because it says so in the room info section. The clan interface allows you to check and join clan mates directly from this menu, a very nice feature. It also allows you to post messages, which is nice as well. The biggest, and by far the best, new feature is the community tab. This tab has forums, feedback, and other features unlike anything I've ever seen in an online game. Theres general discussions, clan forums, game issues, and a special forum (which may just be for the beta) that is designed to send feedback or report bugs to zipper. This is all done from within the game, which really has to be played with to be truly appriciated.

Gameplay

Imagine....Socom 1 hit detetion, Socom 2 design, and a host of whole new features thrown in to boot. I was worried that 32 people would make things difficult, but some basic rule changes have helped to make 32 players more fair. For example, at the end of a suppression round, whichever team has more members alive wins the round, no draw unless each team has the same number of people. Vehicles are also not that big of a deal, the turrets ARE nasty, and will tear people up, but foot soldiers can easily find cover, or move in (thats right MOVE) with an RPG and take out the vehicle. You move slowly while carrying an RPG, but you dont reset to your gun anymore either. Hit detection, even in the beta (Socom 2's beta hit detection was worse that the final copy, fyi) is spot on. You shoot, they die. Headshots kill people. Speaking of headshots, heres a quick little weapon note: Certain sniper rifles can be equipped with huge scopes AND silencers, a great thing for snipers.
I also got to play a round in the dark. At first, it seems like shadow falls, but the night vision is amazing, and you can now seamlessly go into a scoped thermal vision (If you equip it, and like 75% of the guns do support the thermal scope), and hit R2 to change into night vision. Its very cool. Driving vehicles is somewhat similar to halo, all control is done with the analog sticks, which i suck at. Also, if you arent driving you can hold down square and hit up or down to change positions, so if you're riding shotgun and begawk gets killed while on the turret, you can take his position.
Be sure to check back in a couple of days for info on Guns, the beta map, the new gameplay modes, and anything else i can think of!