SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Combined Assault

While the PS3 is most certainly out and about doing its job, the PS2 is still being pushed as a viable system and, surprisingly, the majority of titles that are flooding to the old warhorse are of a pretty good calibre. The latest offering from Sony comes in the form of a new addition to the ever-popular SOCOM franchise, SOCOM Combined Assault. It may seem a bit much given the last SOCOM release wasn't all that long ago, but with the high price of the PS3 and the handful of titles rearing their heads on PS2, you can bet a number of punters out there are working with the old phrase "beggars can't be choosers".

Lucky for those folk, the latest SOCOM offering is anything but gruel. What we have here is a competent update to the series that acts as something of a swansong for the SOCOM franchise, and works well as a shooter coming in at the end of the PS2's life.

Everything you'd expect from the series is here. Plenty of tactical recourse for each and every terrorist impediment thrown at you, and for the first time in the series' life, like Rainbow Six, you can now play four-player co-op, which is a huge bonus. Equally, like SOCOM Fire Team Bravo, you don't follow a single narrative and instead can take on missions in any order you see fit. This is good for action junkies, but those of you who crave a direction from in-game story might be a bit disappointed. Still, having the freedom to choose your own path and play cooperatively with friends makes this already worth the price of admission.

That being said however, there are some AI issues. Unlike a game like Rainbow Six where your team-mates will always find you on command, it was pretty easy to lose your back up in previous SOCOM games, a fact that remains true for this iteration of the series as well. You almost feel like you're left babysitting your team as opposed to having them there as tactical help. Moreover, enemy AI is just as bad, often times losing themselves in the environment, meaning it's incredibly easy for you to take them out if they're stuck. Where so many other shooters out there (especially tactical ones) are advancing the parameters of enemy AI, SOCOM still seems stuck at the door.

On the multiplayer front, there are some seriously cool features here. For one, you can play multiplayer against guys who're playing SOCOM 3, provided you're both using the same server and the maps from SOCOM 3. It's really very cool to be able to buy a new version of the game but not be locked into playing only those who have also bought it. Especially given the strength and number of SOCOM games out there. 32 players can romp through the game in online multiplayer, and the maps are really well designed to accommodate for this, with huge areas and bottlenecks to keep it all fresh and tactical.

Once again you can connect the game to the new PSP SOCOM, and achieving certain goals on one, reflects in the other. So if you're a hardened Sony nut with both consoles who'll eventually own both games, it's well worth connecting the two to make the most of the experience.

On the downside, the series' look and feel hasn't changed all that much, so here's hoping the obvious and eventual jump to PS3 will see this changed, and as mentioned earlier, there needs to be some drastic improvements made in the way of AI. However, all that said, this is still a great example of how strong the SOCOM namesake is, and anyone feeling the need for some tactical shooter action (and isn't ready to invest in a PS3 yet) need look nowhere else than SOCOM Combined Assault, and with the added four-player co-op, you can't go wrong at the end of a console's life.