Following requests for more PSP related content on the site (which makes sense seeing as we are ThePlayStatioNetwork) I have decided that all of the PlayStation Store’s PSP content will be added to the weekly update from this week onwards. It makes sense too, as this week sees the release of Resistance: Retribution on Sony’s, hard done by, handheld. Also this week there’s the FIFA 09: Ultimate Team DLC, the late arrival of Power Up Forever and the recently rumored PsOne Classic, Silent Hill and the digital release of SOCOM: Confrontation. Oh joy. Hit the jump for the full list.PS3 Stuff

• SOCOM Confrontation full game – £19.99
• PowerUp Forever – £6.99
• Silent Hill PS1 game – £3.99
• Call of Duty World At War map pack 1- £7.99
• FIFA 09 Ultimate Team pack – Free! (paid for upgrade in game)
• Midnight Club Los Angeles South Central map pack – Free!
• Midnight Club Los Angeles South Central premium upgrade – £7.99
• LittleBigPlanet Killzone 2 costume kit – £2.39
• High Velocity Bowling “Jill’s Totally Straight” pack – Free
• Street Fighter IV Shadaloo pack – £3.19
• Rock Band DLC – Click Here
• Guitar Hero World Tour DLC – Jimmy Hendrix Pack 02 & European Track Pack 04

PSP Stuff

• Resistance Retribution – £24.99
• SOCOM Fireteam Bravo – £14.99
• Twisted Metal: Head On – £14.99
• Splinter Cell Essentials – £15.99
• Everybody’s Golf - £14.99
• Ratchet And Clank: Size Matters – £14.99
• Spinout - £14.99

Other Stuff

• God of War III launch trailer – Free!
• FIFA 09 Ultimate Team trailer – Free!
• FIFA 09 Ultimate Team tutorial video – Free!
• Midnight Club Los Angeles South Central trailer – Free!
• FIFA 09 Ultimate Team theme – Free!
• 2x MotorStorm Pacific Rift themes – Free!
• Crash Commando wallpaper – Free!

Slant 6’s SOCOM: Confrontation has finally been given a European release date. The question is…is anyone arsed? I think not. Those living in North America have been able to play the game since late last year. Although it looked promising at first, it didn’t live up to what it could’ve been and it’s ‘problematic’ release didn’t help either.

Either way, if you’re living in Europe and, even with the above comments and the less than impressive review scores (click here to to see Giancarlo’s verdict), you want to play it’s coming out on March 13th…and subsequently going up against Resident Evil 5. I guess it was going to flop anyway, releasing it then gives Sony an excuse.

[By Anthony]

The patch many thought was gonna be the saving grace of SOCOM: Confrontation has been delayed again. The 1.30 patch, which adds ‘Quick Match’ and ‘Party’ modes to the game (really, it didn’t have these?) will unfortunately not be available until 2009. Here’s what Sony had to say:

“Unfortunately, due to the Holidays the update will not be approved by SCE Format QA until early next year. Our QA staff will be here, testing the game over vacation, but the SCE QA teams which must approve the update before release will not.”

Shame. Seriously though, anyone who hasn’t given up on this game yet, enjoy what the patch brings. I just don’t think this’ll help bump up the numbers though.

[By Anthony]

Slant 6′s SOCOM: Confrontation has been under much scrutiny since it’s release in North America last month and the general verdict isn’t good. A rumor has surfaced from Arena 51 that the game will be delayed in Europe until 2009. I actually thought the disc based version has been released in Europe, but I guess that’s not the case. The game had been dated for a November 28th release in Europe, but has now slipped off many a schedule prompting this rumor. There has been no word, as of yet, if the game has indeed been delayed but if it has could it be that Slant 6 are trying to fix everything else before leting Europeans in, or are they waiting out the busy ‘holdiday’ season? Both of those are quite likely, especially with it’s pretty poor performance. Of course if you’re desperate (and I mean desperate) then import it, it shouldn’t be too hard to find.

[By Anthony]

Slant 6 will be some of the first to admit that the launch of SOCOM: Confrontation was less than successfull. The game was marred with bugs, which left many unable to play the game a week after launch. Not good. Patch 1.20 fixed the majority of these problems and now the devs have announced that the 1.30 patch is on the way, and it’s bringing trophies. Hit the jump for details.

New Features

• SOCOM Awards and PSN Trophies
• DTS audio support
• Add HUD and scoreboard opacity
• Scoreboard invocation improvements (tap select for persistent scoreboard, hold for temporary)
• Spectator mode HUD turns off after brief interval
• Spectator camera look now respects user invert on/off setting
• Spectator camera pan now consistent with in game camera
• Add dive-to-prone
• Add lean control to d-pad
• Gear items stackable
• Extend post-round period
• Restrict RPGs and grenade launchers in ranked rooms
• Increase prone movement speed
• Adding support for lefty control configuration (analog stick functions swapped)
• Increase frag grenade effectiveness
• Prevent incorrect reload interruptions

Bug Fixes

• Fix animation issue when prone rolling near certain objects.
• Fix remaining issues with statistics gathering and display
• Fix bugs related to equipping of C4 in breach mode
• Fix occasional audio drop outs
• Fix last remaining framerate hitch when other clients late join
• Fix remaining stability issues
• Fix hostages being affected by smoke

We’ve been told that the features above are not all guaranteed but trophies are a definite inclusion. There’s a number of new features and bug fixes promised, if Slant 6 will deliver is another question entirely.

His game's crashed

[By Anthony]

The release of SOCOM: Confrontation was marred by the ammount of issues the game was having when it launched a few weeks back. We’re talking a lot of issues and this has obviously hindered how the game has done in both review scores and sales. You’ll be glad to knoew that, hopefully, these issues will be a thing of the past when the 1.20 udate comes out for the game tomorrow. Hit the jump to see what the patch has in store.

• Fixed many issues which would cause the game to crash, hang, disconnect and exit to the PS3 XMB.
• Fixed an issue which would cause large numbers of players in a high player count game to be simultaneously disconnected.
• Fixed an issue which would cause players to be invincible.
• Fixed a physics issue which would cause players to occasionally “warp” around on the map.
• Fixed an issue where a “corrupt save data” message would be incorrectly displayed after updating the game.
• Fixed some player model issues related to team swapping.
  
• Client/server optimization.
  
• Fixed an issue where the scope camera had an incorrect offset from the barrel of the gun while prone or leaning/peeking.

It seems like players will actually be able to play the game now. Good times. If this patch dosen’t fix everything I guarantee there’ll be some rolling heads around Halloween at Salnt 6 HQ. Bad times. I do hope this does fix the game because it has amazing promise and hopefully this update will help it deliver that little bit more.

[By Anthony]

It has recently been announced that Slant 6′s upcoming tactical shooter SOCOM: Confrontation will not be launching with trophies. PS3 Fanboy were told by Jennifer Clark that:

“The trophies will become available via patch in the coming weeks,”

It is mighty strange that the game hasn’t launched with trophies. I suspect it was a cutback in order for the game to make it’s ship date, which I guess is fair enough. This also explains the lack of a trophy list with the game almost about to hit store shelves.

I guess the trophies could be awarded retroactively, which would be nice for all those players who’d worked their arses off in game. Then again Criterion told us that Burnout’s trophies would be retroactive and wha’dya know, they were’nt. Stay tuned for more on this in the next few weeks.

[By Steve]

Weighing in at 226mb version 1.3 for the Socom Confrontation Beta has just gone live, perhaps now I’ll no longer have the time for a sleep while waiting for the dam game to load. Full list of changes after the jump

The SOCOM: Confrontation 1.30 patch addresses the following issues:

• Abnormally long network synchronization issues when some users in a game have a poor network connection. This issue causes 4-7 minute (or longer) load times when late joining a game.
• Fixed an issue where respawn game late joiners were sometimes stuck in spectator mode and could not respawn into the game.
• Removed the latency detection network test which was causing some users with poor network connections to receive the network latency icon (red X).
• Fixed an issue where clients with different client versions (patches) could play together in a default medley game.
• Fixed an issue where if the session master leaves the game, late joiners could not “green up” and late join into the game.
• Fixed corrupt characters in the European and Japanese EULAs and Server News.
• Fixed many join game issues and made joining a game quicker. We are still optimizing this.
• Fixed an issue where if you add and then remove someone from your block list they were still unable to send you a message.
• Improved accuracy while moving (based on user feedback). Partial implementation. More improvements to come.
• Reduced the encumbrance penalty (based on user feedback).
• Changed the default round time for Medley games from 8 minutes to 6 minutes (based on user feedback).

[By Anthony]

Everyone seems to have had problems with the SOCOM Confrontation beta and many people have been unable to play it. Slant 6 hope to remedy this by patching the game. The patch will be applied sometime tomorrow and there will be service maintenance for around an hour and a half.

According to the SOCOM blog version 1.10 will “address a number of stability and late joining issues,”. They have also said that they’re going to update the game again saying: “more updates to both the server and client in the future.”

I personally haven’t enjoyed the game so far and i’m glad I got into the beta because without it i’d have probably just bought the game anyway.

[By Anthony]

The SOCOM: Confrontation European beta keys went up at 4pm today on Eurogamer and i’m happy to tell you that myself and Steve have them. The beta is downloading as I type and will hopefully be ready fairly soon. What this means is that not only do we get to play the game before it’s October release but we get to cover it for the site. Double sweet!

I don’t know how long it’ll take before we are able to get some decent impressions outta the thing, but with a month to play the game we’ll have enough time to do it.

At the time of writing there are around 3,000 keys left at Eurogamer so gon on grab one, quickly!