Ok, I've had 3 days with it now, so time for some updated impressions. I have a few minor problems with the gameplay, but other than that the game itself is bringing back so many memories... in a day or so it will already pass up the amount of time I spent with Warhawk and GTA4.
I'm assuming the beta was just a stress test and the complaints about gameplay issues (and fixes for them) were put off until public release, but I'm going to mention them anyways. Some of my complaints are things I'm sure will be addressed (scopes, secondary weps), while others are just personal dislikes (stances).
Negatives:
Cycling through stances isn't as smooth as I remember it in S2. I remember being able to strafe left and right popping in and out of stances - if I want to dive down for my life, I should be able to do so rather quickly.
Secondary weapons are a pain in the ass - many times they reset from round to round and not being able to do it on the run is a bother as well. The fact that grenades don't stack if you have them in both slots is an annoyance.
It has always been a 'problem' with the series, and it's usually tied to 3rd person games, but it can be frustrating to have your cross-hairs on a target while you are up against a ledge/rail/box/etc. and have the bullets hit the object in front of you. I'm used to it now because I've been playing the series for so long, but there are some questionable heights of certain objects that cause this more often than it should.
Zooming in with certain scopes causes you to switch stances.
Bringing up the stat page during a match shouldn't stop movement - bring back the transparent stats sheet that goes over the screen.
Positives:
The mic quality is fucking amazing - besides the guy that was destroying a bag of chips over the mic, EVERYONE has been crystal clear.
Smoothest SOCOM experience so far once you are actually in the game. The slight technical issues (minor 'skips') while playing (which I assume, for the most part, will be straightened out over time) have never ruined a firefight for me. In the older games the lag interfered with not only what you saw, but how your guns fired / how the bullets reacted - not so here. I haven't seen someone skipping around the map, and what I saw seemed to register as so.
New maps are looking pretty damn good - a few seemed rather large even for 16p, but people seemed to naturally migrate to the close-quarters areas and I've already had some great moments. Too early to consider a map as a new favorite, but there is definitely potential which is something I didn't expect coming from the new devs.
Still trying to adapt to the 'look' of Crossroads (it was my favorite level, so of course any addition/tweak stands out), but they nailed Desert Glory and Frostfire perfectly if you are were a fan of those maps.
Hit detection / gunplay is some of the best I've ever experienced. I've had absolutely no cheap moments, headshots are clearly awarded as headshots, and with all the points on the body available to be shot (and varying degree of damage for each) you can still get yourself out of a shitty situation despite the fact that a few bullets will take you out.