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February - Noticed in OPSM2 Magazine that if you wanted to take part in the official Sony Network Trials you had to sign up for beta testing via their official website. Anyone who gets in on the trials will receive a free copy of SOCOM: US Navy SEALS as a 'thankyou' at the end of the trials. Wow, never knew that, so scuttled on over.
Signed up, answered a load of questions via an online form about my connection type, who I was, what ISP I used, what games I liked, how much I played games, where I played them, and so on. Then I waited. And waited. And waited...
March - Banner pops up on the official Sony website advising that signups for Network Trials have now closed. The waiting continues. The nailbiting commences.
April 1st - WHOOHOOOOO! E-mail received from Sony confirming I've been chosen to take part in the Playstation 2 Network Gaming Trials. Advised to sit back and relax and wait for another e-mail from 7th April onwards advising where I can get hold of the Network Trials gaming kit which contains:
Network Adaptor (ethernet) for PS2
Network Access Disc, plus connection instructions
SOCOM: US Navy SEALS (online gaming mode only)
SOCOM USB Headset (for voice chat during gameplay)
Ethernet straight through cable (2m)
Meantime there's a huge section added to Sony's official PS2 website all about Networking, including indepth glossaries, broadband options, a list of their partners who sell compatible products, how to set up Internet Connection Sharing, Routers, Direct Connections and so on, basically a 'Dummies Guide to Home Networking'. It's very good, takes me 6 hours and a few coffees to read it and take it all in, and results in me ordering a home network kit so that I'll be able to play my PS2 online and keep the PCs connected to the internet at the same time.
April 4th - Set up home network, go into shock when I realise how easy it is to do and get everything working first time.
April 7th - E-mail arrives from Sony advising that the Network Trial gaming kits are now available to order (£41.98 including delivery) and provide a link to take you straight to their shop. So surfed over there, registered an account with their shop, where, after a few goes because the shop is inundated with people trying to order their kits as well at the same time, I manage to place an order.
Included in the e-mail is a little paragraph advising us that we'll be able to preview code of other games, which will be mailed to our home addresses, so might be getting to practice on Hardware: Online Arena and Twisted Metal Black: Online ages before anyone else.
April 8th - Confirmation e-mail arrives advising that my order for their kit has been placed and that my order is on its way.
April 8th - Two more e-mails received, one from the Playstation Broadband Team and one from the Trial Manager, both apologising for the problems most people had ordering from the shop, and advising that the shop has now been geared up to cope with the huge response.
April 9th - Noticed that my order status at the shop for the Network Gaming trial pack has now changed from 'pending' to 'shipped'. Am currently camping out by my front door awaiting delivery.
I'll update this thread for you as the trials continue, to give you some flavour of how the trials are going, the niggles we're overcoming, but most importantly how much fun it is to blow complete strangers to pieces in SOCOM: US Navy SEALS online.
Signed up, answered a load of questions via an online form about my connection type, who I was, what ISP I used, what games I liked, how much I played games, where I played them, and so on. Then I waited. And waited. And waited...
March - Banner pops up on the official Sony website advising that signups for Network Trials have now closed. The waiting continues. The nailbiting commences.
April 1st - WHOOHOOOOO! E-mail received from Sony confirming I've been chosen to take part in the Playstation 2 Network Gaming Trials. Advised to sit back and relax and wait for another e-mail from 7th April onwards advising where I can get hold of the Network Trials gaming kit which contains:
Network Adaptor (ethernet) for PS2
Network Access Disc, plus connection instructions
SOCOM: US Navy SEALS (online gaming mode only)
SOCOM USB Headset (for voice chat during gameplay)
Ethernet straight through cable (2m)
Meantime there's a huge section added to Sony's official PS2 website all about Networking, including indepth glossaries, broadband options, a list of their partners who sell compatible products, how to set up Internet Connection Sharing, Routers, Direct Connections and so on, basically a 'Dummies Guide to Home Networking'. It's very good, takes me 6 hours and a few coffees to read it and take it all in, and results in me ordering a home network kit so that I'll be able to play my PS2 online and keep the PCs connected to the internet at the same time.
April 4th - Set up home network, go into shock when I realise how easy it is to do and get everything working first time.
April 7th - E-mail arrives from Sony advising that the Network Trial gaming kits are now available to order (£41.98 including delivery) and provide a link to take you straight to their shop. So surfed over there, registered an account with their shop, where, after a few goes because the shop is inundated with people trying to order their kits as well at the same time, I manage to place an order.
Included in the e-mail is a little paragraph advising us that we'll be able to preview code of other games, which will be mailed to our home addresses, so might be getting to practice on Hardware: Online Arena and Twisted Metal Black: Online ages before anyone else.
April 8th - Confirmation e-mail arrives advising that my order for their kit has been placed and that my order is on its way.
April 8th - Two more e-mails received, one from the Playstation Broadband Team and one from the Trial Manager, both apologising for the problems most people had ordering from the shop, and advising that the shop has now been geared up to cope with the huge response.
April 9th - Noticed that my order status at the shop for the Network Gaming trial pack has now changed from 'pending' to 'shipped'. Am currently camping out by my front door awaiting delivery.
I'll update this thread for you as the trials continue, to give you some flavour of how the trials are going, the niggles we're overcoming, but most importantly how much fun it is to blow complete strangers to pieces in SOCOM: US Navy SEALS online.
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And just now : Twisted Metal Black Online!
Yay!
Yay!
Hoorah! Online set came today!
Wow - top of the leader board - you must be good.
Either that or everyone else is really bad and you're just average?!
Glad to hear your enjoying this as much as I hope I will be when Sony finally get 'round to releasing this to the general public.
Either that or everyone else is really bad and you're just average?!
Glad to hear your enjoying this as much as I hope I will be when Sony finally get 'round to releasing this to the general public.
April 16th (Checks calendar) ummm...Wednesday.
Dear Diary,
Lack of sleep due to the sheer fun of beta testing the new PS2 online gaming network is getting to me. I actually shouted at my cat today for pawing at my headset cables whilst I was organising an ambush in SOCOM: US Navy SEALs against a particularly tough opposition who were encamped around a helicopter that we were trying to extract hostages to.
I am still ranked number one in the country at SOCOM Online, although today after one particularly hard match where my team got slaughtered incessantly for 6 games in a row I did drop momentarily to 2nd place. But after some terrific battles later on I'm back up to the top spot. I've either finally found a game that I'm really good at or the leaderboard is bugged and it's all upside down. I'll e-mail a bug report and find out I guess.
I'm meeting loads of new people online, making friends with most of them, and my MSN is now so full of contact addresses that I've lost track who most of them are. It's surprising the number of people I'm meeting who've never been online before in their lives.
If SOCOM is the first title in the UK to be released available for the PS2 public to play online, I have to say that the PS2 public isn't going to know what's hit it. This is the most addictive online game. Ever. If I'm losing sleep over this one (and when I DO finally sleep I dream about it anyway), what's going to happen when Final Fantasy XI gets released over here? Some of the testers have even started playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 online as well, even though it doesn't officially have any online functions. (Which is neat, amazing what you can do with a PS2 network adaptor).
A whole new Clan culture is also developing. New PS2 Clans are sprouting up all over the place along with dedicated websites, forums and the usual paraphanalia of banner sigs, clan tags and clan mottos. Some Clans are even being set up for games that haven't been confirmed as getting a European release.
These are very exciting times indeed.
Dear Diary,
Lack of sleep due to the sheer fun of beta testing the new PS2 online gaming network is getting to me. I actually shouted at my cat today for pawing at my headset cables whilst I was organising an ambush in SOCOM: US Navy SEALs against a particularly tough opposition who were encamped around a helicopter that we were trying to extract hostages to.
I am still ranked number one in the country at SOCOM Online, although today after one particularly hard match where my team got slaughtered incessantly for 6 games in a row I did drop momentarily to 2nd place. But after some terrific battles later on I'm back up to the top spot. I've either finally found a game that I'm really good at or the leaderboard is bugged and it's all upside down. I'll e-mail a bug report and find out I guess.
I'm meeting loads of new people online, making friends with most of them, and my MSN is now so full of contact addresses that I've lost track who most of them are. It's surprising the number of people I'm meeting who've never been online before in their lives.
If SOCOM is the first title in the UK to be released available for the PS2 public to play online, I have to say that the PS2 public isn't going to know what's hit it. This is the most addictive online game. Ever. If I'm losing sleep over this one (and when I DO finally sleep I dream about it anyway), what's going to happen when Final Fantasy XI gets released over here? Some of the testers have even started playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 online as well, even though it doesn't officially have any online functions. (Which is neat, amazing what you can do with a PS2 network adaptor).
A whole new Clan culture is also developing. New PS2 Clans are sprouting up all over the place along with dedicated websites, forums and the usual paraphanalia of banner sigs, clan tags and clan mottos. Some Clans are even being set up for games that haven't been confirmed as getting a European release.
These are very exciting times indeed.
adrian wrote:
> Any news on a likely date? Will Sony
> do what Microsoft did and allow kits to be sold on the online store
> months before the retail shops?
The answers to both those questions would contain commercially sensitive information so if I knew the answers I wouldn't be able to tell you :(
> Any news on a likely date? Will Sony
> do what Microsoft did and allow kits to be sold on the online store
> months before the retail shops?
The answers to both those questions would contain commercially sensitive information so if I knew the answers I wouldn't be able to tell you :(
I never signed up for the Beta trials, kinda wish I did as I remember how fun XBox Live was when I was on the Beta test for that. I actually havent played on XBox live for ages not since Christmas time, as I've had offline games to play. Will probably be getting PS2 online as soon as its out to buy for the public. Any news on a likely date? Will Sony do what Microsoft did and allow kits to be sold on the online store months before the retail shops?
Tony hawk 4 had loads of levels to download to your memory card so the hard drive is going to be pretty much an essential item in the future for patches, extra levels and that
Flying Pig wrote:
> Everyone who has played it seems to consider Socom to be excellent. I
> was wondering whether this was because it's an excellent game at heart
> or whether it's just the novelty of playing with and against *real*
> people?
It's a bit of both really. I've been playing against real people for many years, SOCOM is probably the most addictive shooter I've experienced yet. It beats UT and Quake purely because everything is realistic (i.e. one shot to the head, you're down, but it only takes one good shot to the chest and you're out of it as well, although if you're lucky you can take 3 or 4 hits before you go down).
Plus because the PS2 only lets broadband users play, it's VERY fast, only the occaisional spot of lag here and there which for me doesn't affect gameplay that much. I've heard that the maps in the single player section of the game are all different to the multiplayer maps, in which case this is going to be one cracking game on release.
> Everyone who has played it seems to consider Socom to be excellent. I
> was wondering whether this was because it's an excellent game at heart
> or whether it's just the novelty of playing with and against *real*
> people?
It's a bit of both really. I've been playing against real people for many years, SOCOM is probably the most addictive shooter I've experienced yet. It beats UT and Quake purely because everything is realistic (i.e. one shot to the head, you're down, but it only takes one good shot to the chest and you're out of it as well, although if you're lucky you can take 3 or 4 hits before you go down).
Plus because the PS2 only lets broadband users play, it's VERY fast, only the occaisional spot of lag here and there which for me doesn't affect gameplay that much. I've heard that the maps in the single player section of the game are all different to the multiplayer maps, in which case this is going to be one cracking game on release.
Everyone who has played it seems to consider Socom to be excellent. I was wondering whether this was because it's an excellent game at heart or whether it's just the novelty of playing with and against *real* people?
As someone who has never really been involved in online gaming on the PC, this is something I'm really interested in.
Keep up the good work guys!
As someone who has never really been involved in online gaming on the PC, this is something I'm really interested in.
Keep up the good work guys!
lalakersrule wrote:
> FM what are the maps like on SOCOM? Is there alot of variation between
> them?
Online currently includes: Oilrig, Blizzard, Mine, Swamp, Thailand Ruins, Thailand Country, Thailand Temples, Desert Night and Desert Day and an abandoned bunker called Rats' Nest. There's about 4 main themes (Desert, Swamp, Thailand, Oilrig) and the decor is pretty much the same, so if you're in the Desert maps the layout is different but everything looks brown and rocky and so on. Each map has numerous routes, tunnels, paths and ledges to clamber on and jump over and so on, which gives the players ample time to find good spots to snipe from and find cover in.
I haven't seen the offline version yet, but from the FMV intro it looks like the offline mode offers a few more levels and themes in addition to the online mode.
> FM what are the maps like on SOCOM? Is there alot of variation between
> them?
Online currently includes: Oilrig, Blizzard, Mine, Swamp, Thailand Ruins, Thailand Country, Thailand Temples, Desert Night and Desert Day and an abandoned bunker called Rats' Nest. There's about 4 main themes (Desert, Swamp, Thailand, Oilrig) and the decor is pretty much the same, so if you're in the Desert maps the layout is different but everything looks brown and rocky and so on. Each map has numerous routes, tunnels, paths and ledges to clamber on and jump over and so on, which gives the players ample time to find good spots to snipe from and find cover in.
I haven't seen the offline version yet, but from the FMV intro it looks like the offline mode offers a few more levels and themes in addition to the online mode.
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