There was no real surprise when Sony announced that the much-loved SOCOM franchise would be coming to the PlayStation 3, but this time around, battle is being approached slightly differently. Developer Slant Six was on the show floor to give us a look at what it's doing with the game.

　　Developed as an online-only multiplayer game, SOCOM: Confrontation will let 32 players duke it out across seven maps. Day and night variations of the locales have been thrown in for good measure, as well as both 16- and 32-player variants.

　　This is not the good guys up against terrorists scenario we've seen played out so many times before, but rather mercenaries versus commandos. Players will be able to select from teams such as the British SAS, US Navy Seals, French RPIMa, Spanish UOE, and German KSK. Each side features a unique special-forces weapon exclusive to that side, and the lack of a class system means that you're able to customise your weapons loadout without restricting yourself to a defined role on the battlefield.

　　The game is still in a balancing stage, but the company did confirm that it will feature some form of both individual and clan unlockables via a persistent point system. Unlike Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which increases the range of selectable weapons as you progress, everything will be unlocked out of the box for SOCOM. Ammunition bonuses will be the suggested reward once you've received the required number of points.

　　The game seems to be tracking quite well visually, with highly detailed character models and chunky particle effects adding to the street shoot-out experience as our guide ducked and weaved in and out of crumbling buildings. The environment on show was dusty and did a good job of conveying the game's African setting.

　　Audio plays a big role in this game, and the team is hard at work on nailing something that they're calling Acoustical Environmental Modelling, which in a nutshell gives you a greater range of sounds to represent distance. It has also been confirmed that the game will support 7.1 surround sound.

　　SOCOM: Confrontation is due to ship exclusively for the PlayStation 3 in September 2008.