So L33tz0r and I tried out the SOCOM beta the other day and I just thought I’d tell you a few things that we noticed.

1- The loading times are horrendous!! While a map was loading, I would have had time to make myself a cup of tea, a batch of chocolate chip cookies, then maybe a small turkey dinner.

2 - Graphics are ok but nothing spectacular. Various shades of grey, green and brown. It didn’t look awful, but maybe it could have been better to make itself stand out from the crowd a little.

3 - I love the option to choose a channel, then a game to play in. There are hundreds of channels to choose from. Obviously we went into the EU channel but there was even an Eastern Canada channel which I was very impressed with!!

4 - In the game lobby, I’m not a massive fan of the way everyone has to hit start before you can actually get into a game. Now, I didn’t actually play around with hosting a game myself so I am not sure if it’s an option to do that or not.

5 - There’s an excellent range of things to customize with your character (s). You create 2 characters, one on each side and there are sooooooooooo many things for you to choose from. You even get to add facial scarring which is pretty badass!! All of your gear can be customized, as well as your weapons.

6 - Controls are a bit different but that’s just one of those things that you get used to once you play for a bit. I had a little trouble figuring things out at first but quickly got the hang of it so anyone else should be fine with it too.

There are lots of other things I could say about it but I’ll leave that for a more in-depth post once I’ve played it a bit more. Obviously there are faults, however it’s just the beta and that’s what beta testing is for. They’ve already said on the Playstation forums that the loading times are one of the things that will be addressed and that was my biggest problem with the game so I’m happy about that!!