Software:SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs

From HandWiki
Short description: 2011 video game

SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs
Developer(s)Zipper Interactive
Publisher(s)Sony Computer Entertainment
Director(s)Seth Luisi
Producer(s)Tom Rigas
Designer(s)Travis Steiner
Programmer(s)Troy Mason
Artist(s)Phil Knowles
Writer(s)Rafael Chandler
Composer(s)Bear McCreary
SeriesSOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs
Platform(s)PlayStation 3
Release
  • NA: April 19, 2011
  • PAL: April 21, 2011
Genre(s)Third-person shooter, tactical shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs, known as SOCOM: Special Forces in PAL regions, is a 2011 tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Zipper Interactive and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It is the sequel to Software:SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Combined Assault and the final installment in the SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs series.

Online multiplayer servers were shut down on January 28, 2014, along with the servers for Software:SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Confrontation.[1]

Plot

Set at an undisclosed date somewhere in Malaysia, NATO Operations Commander Cullen Gray arrives at a NATO operations command center at the request of Area Commander James Gorman. A rebel movement calling themselves "Naga" have rallied and taken up arms against the country's government, and have hijacked ships belonging to Clawhammer Security, a private military company that was featured in the previous SOCOM title, Fireteam Bravo 2. Weapons and supplies were seized by Naga rebels, and Clawhammer has decided to withdraw from the region before losing any more assets, limiting the capabilities of NATO forces operating in the area. Under constant attack from Naga, Gray is given command of U.S. Navy SEALs (or other NATO special forces team members depending on which version of the game is being played) Eric Schweitzer and Dion Wells are tasked with aiding NATO in seeking out and destroying the insurgent threat by removing their leader.

While patrolling the NATO ops center's perimeter, the command center is attacked and Commander Gorman is presumably killed. Commander Gray leads his men through the city with aid from an off-shore command asset code-named "Oracle", an MI6 liaison and engages Naga forces before fleeing from the city in an attempt to meet up with other NATO forces operating in the region. Gorman had ordered members of the South Korean 707th Special Mission Battalion to conduct recon on a supply point, but their transport aircraft is shot down en route by anti-air guns. OpsCom rescues two survivors, Park Yoon-Hee and Chung Kwan, and continues in his mission to remove the threat from Naga.

Conducting guerrilla warfare actions and special recon operations against Naga forces, the NATO team destroys Naga assets and hunts down their leader, Sibak Razad. As the team draws closer to locating him, they find Clawhammer secretly moving arms and supplies into the region and establishing command posts - it is also revealed that ten years earlier in the same region, Cullen Gray was assigned to a special forces team tasked with capturing the country's warlord dictator Chen, but executed him instead, causing the destabilization that led to civil war and the eventual formation of the Naga insurgency.

The team locates Razad and attacks his base of operations and secures him, and upon interrogation, he reveals that it's Clawhammer that was supplying his forces with arms and equipment. The team attempts to flee, but Clawhammer forces ambush the team and Razad is killed by sniper fire. The team is forced to fight through them, narrowly escaping. Clawhammer begins engaging the remaining Naga forces in the region, and with Naga crippled, the NATO team now focuses on finding out what Clawhammer is up to the region. Lt. Park carries out reconnaissance operations against Clawhammer to learn their motive for treachery and discovers Commander Gorman not only alive but leading the Clawhammer forces. Their plan is to sink a ship, the "Kurtz" in a strait in the region. As the ship is carrying several tons of explosive materials a well placed missile strike would equal a nuclear yield blast without the radioactive fallout. The NATO team battles against Clawhammer and secures the missile. Gray sends his team to secure an evacuation while he disarms the missile but he is mortally wounded by Gorman, who reveals that the operation was meant to be a major economy boost for Clawhammer and the region. Gray manages to stab Gorman in the neck with his pen and Gorman flees. The team checks on Gray but it is too late. Gray passes his command position onto Park and orders her to find and arrest Gorman before dying.

Park leads the remaining members of the NATO forces into the capital and hunts Gorman and his remaining body guards down before they can flee the country. "Oracle" tracks him in a convoy of Clawhammer vehicles heading to a train station used as an evacuation zone. After fighting through the remaining Clawhammer forces, and destroying the convoy, Park tracks down Gorman, cornering him and holding him at gunpoint - the player is given the choice to either execute or spare his life. In choosing to spare Gorman's life, it is implied that he is brought to justice and spends the rest of his life in prison. If the player kills Gorman, however, Park removes her headset, discards her weapon, and walks away.

Multiplayer

One of the main features of this game is the ability to play the co-op mode, replacing the AI Special Ops team with players via online play. Players can play instant action missions. Players can also unlock "Character Skins" for online play.

SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs does not have lobbies like previous installments. Instead SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs has a Quick Match system along with a Party System to meet up with friends before creation of a game. The Party System was implemented in patch 1.03. SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs's Online Multiplayer comes in three forms: Standard, Classic, and Custom.

Unlike previous SOCOMs, SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs does not include many classic modes: Breach, Escort, Extraction, Control, and Convoy game modes. Instead, it features mainly all new game modes, with one classic mode, Suppression, available out of the box, and another, Demolition, available as DLC.

  • Last Defense: An objective-based game that requires the teams to capture all the neutral sectors placed in the middle of the map to find the opposing team's headquarters. It takes 12 seconds to fully capture a sector, and if a player dies while attempting a capture, the capture bar will remain at the same point; the player will only have to fill the bar from that point. In order to re-capture a captured sector, the team will have to fill the capture bar twice: once to remove the opponent's capture bar, and again to fill their own.
  • Uplink: Uplink is similar to a typical capture the flag mode. One team attacks while another defends in this game mode. The attacking team is given the task to steal the defending team's data by downloading it off random data locations set throughout the map. These data locations are shown on both teams' HUD.
  • Suppression: A standard team deathmatch game mode.
  • Bomb Squad: Similar to search and destroy mode, but with more than one bomb site. One team must protect the bomb sites while the other team must disarm them. The team that disarms the random bomb sites has one player randomly chosen as their Bomb Technician. The technician is heavily protected and armed with two unique weapons.
  • Demolition (DLC): An objective-based game in which a Bomb is located in a central area of the map and both teams must fight to acquire the Bomb, bring it into the heart of the opposing team's spawn area, and plant the Bomb at a designated location. Either team can acquire and use the Bomb, and there is no penalty placed on a player in possession of the Bomb. If a player carrying the Bomb is killed, the Bomb is dropped on the ground at the point in which the carrier was killed and will remain for a set amount of time for any other player to acquire. Should a player not pick the Bomb up, it will eventually respawn at its starting location. Once the Bomb has been planted in a team's HQ area, they have 30 seconds to attempt to disarm the Bomb. A team wins the round by either successfully planting and defending the Bomb until detonation, or if they disarm a Bomb that was planted in their HQ by the opposing team.
  • SCRUM (Custom): A Suppression mod that offers a "Classic" rules-inspired list of features that includes no respawn, no Sniper Rifles, no Concussion, Poison Gas, or Frag Grenades, higher damage and faster character movement.
  • Sniper Alley (Custom): Another 8-vs-8 variation on "Classic" Suppression that has higher damage values and weapon restrictions that allow players access to only Smoke and Poison Gas Grenades, Shotguns, and of course, Sniper Rifles.
  • Last Defense Run 'n Gun (Custom): Fast-paced deviation from the Last Defense gametype that includes speedier player movement, reduced weapon damage, and limitations to sub-machine guns and shotguns only.

Development

The pre-order bonus for SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs includes a shotgun for both the Spec Ops and the Insurgents. Pre-ordering at Gamestop also included the code to download the classic SOCOM map "Abandoned" from the original SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs game. Zipper stated the SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs version of Abandoned will be the day-time version like SOCOM 1, unlike SOCOM 2's night-time version of Abandoned.[2]

On April 15, 2011, Zipper announced the "SOCOM Pro DLC", April 19, as any player who purchases a new copy of SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs receives exclusive access to all "Pro" Custom Game queues. Pro queues will be ranked, and they are also updated regularly. Moreover, the first set of "Pro" Custom Game types will be the same rule sets that the SOCOM fans tested during the SOCOM 4 beta period. Another incentive for SOCOM Pro players is an exclusive pair of weapons. The M16A4 (for Spec-Ops) and the AK-47 (for the Insurgents) assault rifles. Expected to be available within the first 30 days of SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs''s release. On October 18, the Demolition map pack returned the demolition game mode that was excluded from the main game. The map pack also includes four new maps, including classic maps such as Bitter Jungle and Ruins. Also included were to be two new weapons, the 552 and the HS-C3 as well as six new multiplayer skins. Also on November 1, the Evac Co-op pack was added to the PlayStation Store for $7.99. It offers the Evac mode for Co-op as well as six new skins and two new weapons, the M82A1A and the AM50. Zipper claimed these additions were just the beginning and that they had plenty more planned for SOCOM Pro down the road including access to exclusive multiplayer maps, various co-op additions, dedicated leaderboards, and more. However, the closure of Zipper Interactive on March 30, 2012[3][4] means any future support of the game is unlikely.[citation needed]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic67/100[5]

SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (July 17, 2013). "Sony signals end to SOCOM, MAG online support". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-17-sony-signals-end-to-socom-mag-online-support. 
  2. ↑ "SOCOM 4 with Bonus". Gamestop. http://www.gamestop.com/ps3/games/socom-4/77283. Retrieved April 14, 2011. 
  3. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (March 30, 2012). "Sony quiet on SOCOM dev closure rumour". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-26-sony-quiet-on-socom-dev-closure-rumour. 
  4. ↑ Reilly, Jim (March 30, 2012). "Sony Closes Zipper Interactive". Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/03/30/sony-closes-zipper-interactive.aspx. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "SOCOM 4 U.S. Navy SEALs for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/socom-4-u-s-navy-seals/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-3. Retrieved February 21, 2017. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

On February 13, 2025, Freyholtz stepped down as the site lead to move onto new projects, leaving operations to Tracy Poff, a veteran coder on the site, and Atari staff.[18]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
  18. ↑ "An update on MobyGames leadership". 2025-02-13. https://www.mobygames.com/forum/3/thread/269628/an-update-on-mobygames-leadership/#post-269628. 
  • No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata.



Template:Zipper Interactive



Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software:SOCOM_4_U.S._Navy_SEALs&oldid=3955249"