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The final hours of Zipper Interactive (Socom Devs).

GodofWine

Member
MAG , i feel, was before its time, the system just couldnt make the game run well enough in many aspects...graphics, movement, sound, HUUGE frame dips when 256 people were in their final push...

But is was occasionaly magical.

Confrontation I liked...it felt like SOCOM (I know it wasnt zipper), but I think no one wanted SOCOM then, they wanted COD.

Now I feel like the FPS genre is getting stale in many peoples minds, so maybe the world is ready for a new tactical 3PS.

I also think as the average console type gamer gets older (im 36 and all my friends still play games, i doubt we'll stop..its our "TV" time) that we'll want /need some slower paced think mans type shooters cause twitch games get old, and you young bucks got quick thumbs.
 

Iorv3th

Member
MAG , i feel, was before its time, the system just couldnt make the game run well enough in many aspects...graphics, movement, sound, HUUGE frame dips when 256 people were in their final push...

But is was occasionaly magical.

Confrontation I liked...it felt like SOCOM (I know it wasnt zipper), but I think no one wanted SOCOM then, they wanted COD.

Now I feel like the FPS genre is getting stale in many peoples minds, so maybe the world is ready for a new tactical 3PS.

I also think as the average console type gamer gets older (im 36 and all my friends still play games, i doubt we'll stop..its our "TV" time) that we'll want /need some slower paced think mans type shooters cause twitch games get old, and you young bucks got quick thumbs.


Where you around during launch because the game was an unplayable mess for months. Things slant six didn't fix that were problems in the public beta. It also put the socom franchise on a sour note on ps3.
 
MAG , i feel, was before its time, the system just couldnt make the game run well enough in many aspects...graphics, movement, sound, HUUGE frame dips when 256 people were in their final push...

But is was occasionaly magical.

Confrontation I liked...it felt like SOCOM (I know it wasnt zipper), but I think no one wanted SOCOM then, they wanted COD.

Now I feel like the FPS genre is getting stale in many peoples minds, so maybe the world is ready for a new tactical 3PS.

I also think as the average console type gamer gets older (im 36 and all my friends still play games, i doubt we'll stop..its our "TV" time) that we'll want /need some slower paced think mans type shooters cause twitch games get old, and you young bucks got quick thumbs.

I think Socom gameplay itself was an awesome balance between slower paced tactical gameplay and the more arcadey modern day shooter. The only thing is the lack of respawn might turn some people off. But for me, the round based shooter without respawn is where the magic really starts to happen. Idk if H-hour will ever come out, so right now I'm hoping the new rainbow six might be nice tactical shooter option.
 

antigoon

Member
If you had told me 10 years ago that another proper, good SOCOM game wouldn't be released I would have never believed it.

It's been an entire console generation and then some on both ends.
 
Where you around during launch because the game was an unplayable mess for months. Things slant six didn't fix that were problems in the public beta. It also put the socom franchise on a sour note on ps3.
Man remember that beta?
Shiiiiiiiit, 10 minutes to load into a match and by that point half the room dropped out.
 
Zipper found success at a time when there was no competition for PS2 multiplayer and not many people owned Xbox where the likes of Halo were on another level completely. SOCOM and SOCOM 2 weren't bad games, they were quite decent. But Zipper never moved beyond being decent and in such a competitive shooter market as we have now they eventually became one of the least impressive developers around
 
M.A.G was their big mistake. Never should have been green-lighted.

Socom 4 was just the final straw.

Mag was a great game. Very underrated. The odd thing about that game though was it was touted as havin 256 players and what not, but the game was at its best with 32 v 32 I believe (cant remember the exact number). Ahhh I miss sniping people parachuting in the map. Good times, good times.

Socom 4 I thought was decent, but yea it played nothing like a socom game and compared to other games in that franchise its near the bottom.
 

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
Problem with MAG for me is that I didn't find it fun on a core level, the gunplay was very poor IMO. Never really liked the weapons and thought their sound design was poor with a real lack of ooomph. Some great ideas in it though and I admire them for trying.

Unit 13s probably my favourite game of Zippers. Basically small military ops missions with no bullshit, I liked that a lot.
 

GodofWine

Member
Where you around during launch because the game was an unplayable mess for months. Things slant six didn't fix that were problems in the public beta. It also put the socom franchise on a sour note on ps3.

Nah, i missed all that nonsense, but that probably killed off some user base
 
Zipper found success at a time when there was no competition for PS2 multiplayer and not many people owned Xbox where the likes of Halo were on another level completely. SOCOM and SOCOM 2 weren't bad games, they were quite decent. But Zipper never moved beyond being decent and in such a competitive shooter market as we have now they eventually became one of the least impressive developers around

By the time Socom 2 came around Halo was already an established and thriving franchise. Sure console shooters were not the monster they are now but let's not act like Socom was thriving because there was nothing else.
 

cuyahoga

Dudebro, My Shit is Fucked Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time
The PS4 game was a zombie thing, right?
 

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
M.A.G was their big mistake. Never should have been green-lighted.

Just as I was about to correct you, a wild Shark appears.

MAG was a great fucking game.

Brofist bro. Loved M.A.G, if only a few of those bugs were fixed within the first few weeks (shooting through walls) things could've been different. That said, had some epic 'One man army' moments that make the game my most memorable mp experience last gen.

Also, very surprised how stable the servers were.
 

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
Funny how many people liked Unit 13. I didn't mind it, but it just felt like a slower paced, watered down version of The Club.
 
Zipper were the poster child of poor management. They really needed someone at the top to guide them instead of given carte blanche. Socom on PS3 should have been Sony's 4 player co-op game with a Socom 2 style MP mode for the hardcore. I still don't get why Sony never put out a 4p co-op campaign shooter on PS3.

I loved MAG but they screwed up by splitting the user base. Seemed dumb given numbers was the big draw of the game.

Never played it but felt Unit 13 should have been branded as Socom.
 

GQman2121

Banned
They had a real shot with Socom 4 but I don't think they had the same talent at the studio that worked on S1 and S2.

Their biggest mistake was dropping the server based setup and opting for a matchmaking party system that was broken as shit in the closed beta, open beta and out of the box with the retail game. The server system allowed the community to really feel like a place were you could meet new people by jumping around from server to server. Shooters today do not have that at all. And Socom 4 suffered because of it.

The new bomb squad mode was a nice change of pace and put an emphasis on teamwork within a respawn setting. Most people thought it was a good addition to the series.

Unfortunately, the mechanics of Socom 4 still attempted to include many aspects of what other popular shooters of the day were focusing on. An ADS system with L1; open mics; maps designed around choke points and respawn.

The game was also much, much slower than previous titles in the series. I don't think it was as slow Confrontation, but it may have had a run button, which is a huge no-no. Socom didn't need a button to run because you were always running with the analog stick at full tilt.

I think Socom gameplay itself was an awesome balance between slower paced tactical gameplay and the more arcadey modern day shooter. The only thing is the lack of respawn might turn some people off. But for me, the round based shooter without respawn is where the magic really starts to happen. Idk if H-hour will ever come out, so right now I'm hoping the new rainbow six might be nice tactical shooter option.

I don't believe the original did, but every game after Socom 2 had a respawn mode.
 
By the time Socom 2 came around Halo was already an established and thriving franchise. Sure console shooters were not the monster they are now but let's not act like Socom was thriving because there was nothing else.
Xbox had a userbase less than 10 million when SOCOM 2 came out. Yes Halo was known, but not many people owned an Xbox in general.
 

coldone

Member
MAG , i feel, was before its time, the system just couldnt make the game run well enough in many aspects...graphics, movement, sound, HUUGE frame dips when 256 people were in their final push...

But is was occasionaly magical.

Confrontation I liked...it felt like SOCOM (I know it wasnt zipper), but I think no one wanted SOCOM then, they wanted COD.

Now I feel like the FPS genre is getting stale in many peoples minds, so maybe the world is ready for a new tactical 3PS.

I also think as the average console type gamer gets older (im 36 and all my friends still play games, i doubt we'll stop..its our "TV" time) that we'll want /need some slower paced think mans type shooters cause twitch games get old, and you young bucks got quick thumbs.

They needed Kill confirmed mode. Too many campers and nothing really happened in the game. Most of the people gave up because Zipper wouldn't patch it quickly. With 64 players and nice sprawling map, things would have been great if they could have encouraged every one to move around.
 

Raoh

Member
Fuck. Sony should port Unit 13 to PS4.

I liked Unit 13, felt the most like a SOCOM game.

"Were trying to recapture the glory days of Socom 1 and 2"

it burns

myemotions.gif


MAG was a great fucking game.

This

M.A.G was their big mistake. Never should have been green-lighted.

Socom 4 was just the final straw.

MAG was awesome but got ruined in the updates and people stopped working toward objectives. The game started to get popular but it got filled with the run and gun crowed.

MAG , i feel, was before its time, the system just couldnt make the game run well enough in many aspects...graphics, movement, sound, HUUGE frame dips when 256 people were in their final push...

But is was occasionaly magical.

Confrontation I liked...it felt like SOCOM (I know it wasnt zipper), but I think no one wanted SOCOM then, they wanted COD.

Now I feel like the FPS genre is getting stale in many peoples minds, so maybe the world is ready for a new tactical 3PS.

I also think as the average console type gamer gets older (im 36 and all my friends still play games, i doubt we'll stop..its our "TV" time) that we'll want /need some slower paced think mans type shooters cause twitch games get old, and you young bucks got quick thumbs.

MAG was ahead of its time. Confrontation got good after the patches but then no one was playing it.

Zipper were the poster child of poor management. They really needed someone at the top to guide them instead of given carte blanche. Socom on PS3 should have been Sony's 4 player co-op game with a Socom 2 style MP mode for the hardcore. I still don't get why Sony never put out a 4p co-op campaign shooter on PS3.

I loved MAG but they screwed up by splitting the user base. Seemed dumb given numbers was the big draw of the game.

Never played it but felt Unit 13 should have been branded as Socom.

Good one.



I also really really liked SOCOM 4. As a tps game it was pretty fucking awesome. But it was in no way a socom game. There was also poor support/patches/balancing. But I really liked the multiplayer (SP was trash). Maps needed work, the ideas and modes were cool, cover system DID work, people just needed to not skip down open paths like little red riding hood. But I repeat, outside of being a third person shooter, it had no socom dna. Its like making Resistance on Xbox and calling it Halo. The fans know the difference.

But I ultimately blame Sony for chasing the CoD/Halo crowd. Investing in Killzone was a mistake, or at least at that level. I know of several real life friends that sold or skipped the PS3 because of Sony's lack of SOCOM support. Its all they wanted to play.
 
^ that's sort of the million dollar question that I don't know if we'll ever have the real answer too. Was it sony or zipper that was chasing that crowd? Because socom 2 was a huge and popular game, yet socom 3 somehow ended up being a failed battlefield clone. I don't see why Sony would have made them shift in that direction when they were coming off such a high point with socom 2.


Edit: but you make a good point that they seem to have put all their marbles behind kilLzone instead. Idk why the hell they made that decision.
 

plainr_

Member
Zipper found success at a time when there was no competition for PS2 multiplayer and not many people owned Xbox where the likes of Halo were on another level completely. SOCOM and SOCOM 2 weren't bad games, they were quite decent. But Zipper never moved beyond being decent and in such a competitive shooter market as we have now they eventually became one of the least impressive developers around
Right on!

Socom games looked like jank compared to Battlefield 1942
 

Bumblebeetuna

Gold Member
No developer that releases that piece of shit SOCOM 4 is ever going to recapture any sort of glory days, let alone glory days as glorious as SOCOM/SOCOM II.
 
It was the same developer, though... Unless all the key people left after SOCOM I and II?

They did. It would be like expecting Rare to make a proper sequel to one of their catalog of games. Oh by the way Rare has not been trusted with Killer Instinct twice now.

Also tired of people saying the PSN outage is what killed Socom 4. That game was riddled with problems and had a very poor Beta response. Heck mics barely worked for months. Camera was awful, collisions everywhere, no shoulder swap. The shooting mechanic was not good (not much recoil, just a random spread making locating a shot difficult and headshots felt random). Throwing grenades was terrible, and hard to line up where it would land. Why is the point I am taking flashing alerting the enemy I am taking it? Bad map designs. Every weapon required time used to unlock even a basic sight. There was a pre order map that was never made available to anyone but those that preordered through Game Stop, and it was just a single playlist...for one map...Speaking of playlist, the game did not launch with party or even clan support making joining a playlist with friends difficult. Did I mention the mics were awful? And the biggest crime of all is that it wasn't a Socom game, but decided to call it Socom anyway. If you want to attract a new fan base, you create a new game. Creating a new game in a series creates a certain expectation from long time fans and those that never played the series just assume it is more of the same and have no interest anyway, and Socom 4 did not meet a single expectation and the changes made did not resonate with many newcomers.

Even if the network didn't go down, there was still a bad game there, one that just had nearly a month to prove itself with a beta and failed, and failed to fix many people's issues for a long time even after the network was back up, if at all. It was a failure of a game and a prime example of a developer out of touch with not only their fan base but the current market.
 

Bumblebeetuna

Gold Member
It was the same developer, though... Unless all the key people left after SOCOM I and II?

David Sears IIRC was the creative director for either both of or at least the second of the first two games and he left during development of SOCOM 3. That's when the franchise became dog shit. Poor map design, poor gameplay mechanics, loads more glitches than SOCOM was ever used to (and it was always a glitchy franchise).

The move to 32 players and more of a "every mode on every map" design killed it. Its telling when the only popular servers on 3 and Combined Assault were the scaled back 16 player map options. Unfortunately SOCOM 4 gave fans no means to even try and emulate a decent SOCOM experience.

David Sears is helping make the so called SOCOM spiritual revival "H-Hour" or something. I am interested.
 

ThaGuy

Member
It's sad how alot of these companies are falling like this. No more factor 5, rare has been butchered, and even companies like capcom has to make what's in besides making what they want to do.

I hope the industry can correct itself.
 

pronk420

Member
MAG was one of my favorite games last gen... damn I had so much fun.... BUT NEVAH FORGET!

http://i.imgur.com/jCjFmRo.jpg?1/IMG]

I still had a ball getting my ass kicked because of this.[/QUOTE]

so true... the sver maps were just ridiculous. I think on some of the maps I never even saw a game where people managed to get past the first line of bunkers.

i loved MAG during the beta, and socom 4. i think they put some weird action mode in socom 4 or something that was garbage but if you played it in standard socom mode it was awesome.
 

Rydeen

Member
And to think I interviewed for a job there right before MAG launched, didn't get the job and now feel like I dodged a bullet.
 
It wasn't the outage, it's because your game was absolute garbage. Glad Zipper's gone after what they did to the Socom community, those backstabbing sons of bitches.
 

Coolade

Member
H-Hour still needs to be picked up by a publisher. Don't know if we could get enough support with asking Adam Boyes or something to see if Sony would pick up the game.
 
H-Hour still needs to be picked up by a publisher. Don't know if we could get enough support with asking Adam Boyes or something to see if Sony would pick up the game.

From their website, seems they have the greenlight to dev for ps4, they have been doing betas and stuff via steam I believe. Game is sbaping up nicely and gives that socom glory days feel.

If I remember correctly, someone said that sony was the one that forced them to go the COD route even when everyone from the beta was against the changes. Sad but H Hour it will be.
 

Lonestar

I joined for Erin Brockovich discussion
MAG was pretty fucking sweet, with some hiccups. The game filled in that "war-type FPS" role, inbetween Planetside 1 and 2. No regular FPS MP can match that feeling, the ebb and flow of a multi-pronged attack and defense battle.

I blame the SVER being OP as the reason the game didn't do as well. It drove tons of people into quitting.

Plus, yes, PS3/last gen might have been too early, power-wise, to try for games of that kind of scale (quantity of players)


But man, when those 256 player maps got heated up, with the defending team push back to the middle, meaning everyone's in one area. Glorious chaos.
 

Varg

Banned
I honestly do not have any sort of sympathy for zipper. They made that classic socom gameplay when they were indie. Sony were the ones that fucked this franchise up into what it is. Their was a very thorough interview where the truth came out about the incompetent supervisors at sony that lead up to the closing of the studio. I will never forgive them for what they did and I will be buying H - hour as soon as possible and ignore any attempt of Sony trying to squeeze anything more of this games tarnished name.
 

Cornbread78

Member
I'm not sure why Sony just abandoned the studio though, sure MAG Confrontation and Socom4 were subpar, but did they lose a ton of money from them? MAG was very ambitious and could still be made into a great game especially with the PS4 being starved for new games. The skelton was there, they just need to reskin it a little and create a better balance.
 

Varth

Member
I blame the SVER being OP as the reason the game didn't do as well. It drove tons of people into quitting.

Yea, but it's a testament to how good it was that you were able to get a LOT of fun out of any game, even when being mauled by SVER base frontline. I would go as far as saying that the hard mode matches were the best ones.

Also, I'd say that a MAG on PS4 would put 64 player matches from BF4 to shame in terms of sheer depth.

Really hope PS2 can bring back some of those feels.
 
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