More guns, bigger maps, more enabled players of the online-multi persuasion, and the introduction of vehicles - what's not to like?! Um... bigger maps, more players and the introduction of vehicles?

The single player game for SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy Seals is flat-out cookie-cutter - solid but uninspired, cliché militaristic fair of the boy-and-his-squad of A.I.-is-for-Artificial-Idiots variety. However, the bread and butter of the SOCOM series has always been its online game, and there's a whole lotta that in here.

For the hardcore SOCOM loyalist, SOCOM 3 is inarguably great, but assumes that you have a group of guys (team, clan, support group, cell mates, etc.) to play with on a regular basis. For that sort, SOCOM 3's team tactics have been vastly improved - so much so that working together is not just a cool aspect of gameplay you can adopt to excel, it's mandatory; a base requirement whether you like it or not. Alternately, if not, expect to die six ways to Sunday from seven different angles. Often.

SOCOM 3's team-play mojo is also going to be the primary frustration for the Average Joe jumping online and going SOCOM-mando for the first time. The maps are huge, so even if you want to be a team player, said team can get so spread out and spread so thin that you'll feel like a loner anyway. And all it takes is one bastage camper or half-decent sniper to take you out and then you sit like a bored ghost waiting for the next round or respawn so you can go trudging through the desolation just to die again. Mind you, the seasoned players will love you for it. Way to take one for the team! Er, the other team. Hmm.

The introduction of drivable/ridable/shot-gunnable vehicles - as seen in the frightfully similar Battlefield games from EA - is cool but lacks polish. Considering how many fan-specific tweaks have been made for this sequel, then SOCOM 4 will most likely address the current clunkiness of 3's clueless car-warrior-isms.

Meanwhile, just like you'll find in Battlefield 2, a SOCOM 3 game overrun with newbies and/or short-form-of-Richards makes for too many myopic soldiers hopping into the nearest Humvee and full-throttling off into the sunset, seemingly oblivious to the two other players that could/should be riding shotgun and manning the turret up top, but are now left to hoof it. Moron will then crash, total the vehicle and good luck overcoming that loss.

Conversely, a rock solid SO-Clan can (and will) have a field day with anyone/everyone who is not as organised, inadvertently playing through what amounts to little more than an arcade duck shoot chock-full of undermanned vehicles and wandering Dicks trying to find the center of a too-huge map. Good for them. For everyone else, not so much.