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The SOCOM series traditionally focuses on tactical decision-making rather than big action; large set piece battles become few and far between when players utilize the correct tactics to mechanically disable the opposition. In SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3, the careful execution of enemy forces still exists, but in the end, most missions boil down to the same tactic found in other shooters: survival.

In Fireteam Bravo 3, the SEALs have infiltrated an action movie and there's no turning back.

Gear up and get ready to roll out, soldiers. We've got a SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 black-ops mission that needs the expertise of veteran men and women -- those who have played through not one SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo game, but folks who have also survived its sequel, SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 2. This isn't some kind of joke or theme in some blog post; you better be ready to put some foot-mobiles down.

Intel comes courtesy of PlayStation.Blog, which reports enemy units are on the move and should enter the DMZ any minute now. By Thursday, February 11, PSN will be crawling with hostiles, so safeties off, PSPs plugged in to charge and have your screen wipes at the ready. We're going to need maximum visibility for all our troops in the field.

Hopefully, the third time is the charm for SOCOM Fireteam Bravo. After two delays, the Slant Six-developed co-op shooter is finally making its way to PSP on February 16 on both UMD and PlayStation Network.

As per usual, online multiplayer is central to the upcoming SOCOM sequel. Fireteam Bravo 3 will not only support sixteen player Infrastructure play, it also features four-player co-op -- a first for the franchise. Considering Slant Six's track record, it'll either play like the brilliant SOCOM Tactical Strike ... or like SOCOM Confrontation.

News of yet another SOCOM delay should be unsurprising to those who have been following the franchise since Slant Six took the reigns from Zipper Interactive. Fans have only recently received the long-awaited SOCOM Confrontation 1.60 patch, one that fixed crucial game-crashing bugs; after months of suffering through bugs and game balance issues, Joystiq commenter Solace went so far as to call Confrontation a "glorified beta."

For reasons not yet revealed by SCEA, the upcoming PSP installment, Fireteam Bravo 3, has been pushed back from its already-delayed January 12 release date. Considering Sony's admitted failure at marketing the upcoming tactical shooter, a later date will certainly give the publisher more time to prepare the title for retail. A new release date will be announced "in the coming weeks," according to an SCEA rep, but we wonder if SOCOM fans will have any patience left when that day comes.

Detailed a couple months back, SOCOM: Confrontation's DLC pack "Cold Front" arrives later today on the PlayStation Network for the introductory price of $10 ($15 after December 20), though we're just seeing it in action today with a couple of gameplay trailers.

The DLC includes not just five new maps, but snow effects, a new gameplay mode and ... wait, what's this? Fancy new clothes! Nothing says "tactical warfare" like goose down jackets! Get a taste for the DLC, then test your mettle against the urge to get fashionable, just after the break.

[Thanks, Edgar]

Done with the MAG beta? Bored? Well, you could always jump back into SOCOM Confrontation, especially now that the long-teased 1.60 update is live. Highlights from 1.6 include the addition of new special forces: Dutch KCT and the Italian COMSUBIN Special Forces teams, each equipped with unique weapons, and four new weapons for all players: the 9mm Sub and M82A1A for the Mercenaries and the AK-74 and SR-25 for the Commandos.

In addition to the new content, the 1.6 patch fixes a number of bugs ranging from serious "players were being booted out of the game to the XMB while loading into and during gameplay" to minute. The full patch notes can be seen on SOCOM.com.

[Thanks to everyone that sent this in!]

Hold on to your helmets, soldiers, because SOCOM: Fire Team Bravo 3 is breaching stores on January 12, 2010, and the game's dev team is excited. How excited? Excited enough to sit in front of a camera and talk about the PSP title's action-packed story and "authentic" gameplay. SOCOM: Fire Team Bravo 3 is set to continue the series' (sadly forgettable) storyline and includes online co-op and over 70 weapons to show terrorist scum who's boss.

On November 10th, Bareis Technologies, LLC filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft, Sony Computer Entertainment, Electronic Arts and Disney Interactive Studios, claiming that various games, including Tom Clancy, SOCOM and NASCAR titles, infringe upon a patent filed in 1996. "Optical disk having speech recognition templates for information access" describes a process "integrating automatic speech recognition technologies into optical disk players for command and control purposes."

As is typical with lawsuits of this nature, the plaintiff is seeking "no less than a reasonable royalty" for the supposed use of this "stolen" technology. Should the case make it to court, the plaintiff will have a few hurdles to overcome. Primarily, lawyers will have to prove how a patent largely targeted towards accessing specific music tracks on audio CDs is applicable to the video games in question.

Considering it's been over seven years since the debut of the first SOCOM game, it's surprising that the plaintiff has waited so long to file this suit. Perhaps it's telling that the company going forward with the lawsuit has done so little in the thirteen years since filing the trademark that it has no web presence whatsoever.

[Via GamePolitics]

Over at the PlayStation Blog, details for the competitive multiplayer modes for SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 have spilled out revealing the game will feature 16-player competitive multiplayer games across eight maps and seven new modes. The modes -- which are available both locally and over the Internet -- include a "Leader Mode" allowing players to designate team captains and a "Tug-of-War" mode, where teams fight for tickets similar to the Battlefield franchise.

Playing SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 online also allows worldwide players to experience tournaments, clan modes, character customization and voice chat. Voice chat, you say? Finally our dream of bringing hateful language on the go can be realized.

Just when you thought those Q1 delays were over, SCEA comes in with a surprise. The upcoming SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3 for PSP will miss its original late November release, and will instead come out on January 12th, 2010, two weeks before Zipper deploys MAG on PS3.

SCEA Senior Producer Mark Rogers says that developer Slant Six is not responsible for the delay and "development is on schedule." Instead, Rogers blames marketing, saying "some high value visual assets (screens and video) have only recently been made available to global marketing and we have decided to move the release and allow time to get the word out to everyone." So, although assets have been available since April, marketing hasn't received them until "recently." We're not entirely sure how this makes sense, but the end result is clear: you'll be waiting longer for this game, as someone gets their act together.

Listen up, soldiers -- we've got new intel from the PS Blog on the enemy and it appears your unique set of SOCOM: Confrontation skills are needed in the snow-covered lands of eastern Europe. If you've got the mettle, we'll be taking the fight to the enemy in five new warzones: Uprising; Entrapment; Blizzard; Night Stalker; and Vigilance -- two of which are brand new zones of conflict while the remaining three war zones are from previous SOCOM campaigns. We'll also be needing those of you brave enough to enlist to hit the books and gain intel on Arms Run, an all-new multiplayer mode where players must destroy or activate a series of dynamically placed missile silos.

Considering we're tossing you out into these icy, blinding conditions, we're also providing you with more than the fancy white goose-down gear you see above (we pay extra for goose feather because we care): soldiers who enlist in the new Cold Front DLC pack will also gain access to a new thermal scope attachment, allowing you to spot the enemy much more effectively. You'll be dealing with the Russian Spetsnaz in these new areas, soldier -- so we're also going to give you some new weapons, ordinance and the option to choose primary and secondary specializations with unlockable equipment unique to the specific skill set you choose.

Finally, the bad news: due to the current economic conditions affecting the country, you'll need to help us recoup some of the cost of keeping the war machine oiled up trying to make a better tomorrow. As such, all soldiers who sign up for Cold Front will be required to pay an initial fee of $14.99 -- however it'll only set back our most dedicated troops $9.99 if they sign up in the first 24 hours, the SOCOM Blog reports. The information on when Operation: Cold Front DLC will deploy is currently on a need-to-know basis and we'll be sure to let you know when you need to know.

Atten-hut! Upcoming PSP title SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 has just been cleared for deployment. On November 24, several strategic retail locations will become targets of tactical invasions. These may include actual Targets. Once on the shelf, the title should be able to blend in amongst the other games. So, in preparation of Operation SOCOM Release, your orders are to form a squad and gear up. Your country needs you!

And, if you want to be all you can be, note that SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 has some incentives for pre-ordering. If you purchase early at select retails or pick up the game via PSN during the first 30 days following release, you'll get access to some specialized troops: the Kommando Speizialkrafte and Special Air Service, the former being an operative "under the Special Operations Division" and the latter being an elite British soldier who is "the template by which other Special Forces are organized." Each comes armed with the F2000 assault rifle and AS-50 BMG sniper/anti-material rifle, respectively.

After months of silence, Slant Six and Sony have finally announced the deployment date of SOCOM Confrontation 1.50. Supposedly PSN's biggest first-party multiplayer game (so far), the long-awaited 1.50 patch adds a number of key features, such as Clan Ladders, Tournaments, Calendar, Follow-A-Friend, and Private Games, in addition to fixing a number of issues. The full list of updates can be seen after the break.

Of course, this isn't all that's coming for SOCOM. After 1.50 will be the even-more-long-awaited 1.60 patch, which will add free DLC to the game. Considering the lengthy wait for 1.50, it might take quite some time before we see that one ship.

What's the biggest online game on the PS3? No, it's not Killzone 2. No, it's not even Resistance 2. According to SCEA senior producer Mark Rogers, SOCOM Confrontation stands above both of Sony's high-profile first-party FPS offerings by having the most simultaneous online connections on the PlayStation Network. He attributes Confrontation's success to the community's commitment to the franchise. Whereas other gamers may play an online game for a few weeks and move on, SOCOM fans have proven to be far more dedicated (despite the game's ... troubled launch).

The devotion of the SOCOM community will be rewarded by an upcoming patch, Rogers promises. While the Slant Six team has been largely quiet about progress on the patch, he says the massive scale and scope of the patch has led to an extended testing cycle. With the promise of DLC in the future, it's clear that SOCOM addicts will find even more reason to avoid playing other games for a long time.

In spite of previous reports, Syphon Filter 5 and SOCOM 4 are not in development -- well, at least not the games referenced on PCB Productions' credits page. The listings for what appeared to be new titles in the Syphon Filter and SOCOM franchise were actually vague references to PSP games. "Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror was recorded a few years back with Image Metrics," a representative clarified to CVG. "We recently worked on Socom FTB 3 for the PSP."

While this denial doesn't discount the possibility of a new Syphon Filter game in the future, we have to admit we're disappointed that the franchise's possible return will happen later, rather than sooner. Considering the amazing progress the franchise made on PSP, we'd love to see what's possible with the power of the PS3.