Among the most ambitious features in SOCOM: Confrontation is the broad palette of community tools soon to be available through the official Web site, SOCOM.com. Instead of taking the standard route of using the game's Web site to advertise a scant few bullet points and screenshots, Sony and Slant Six plan on delivering a portal for you to organize a variety of aspects relating to your personal playing time and your clan. The series is already known for having built-in clan support, but now the Web site will add even more to that. The two big features relating to clans are tournaments and ladders. With tournaments, you can sign up online and check out brackets and information on the other teams. When you've signed up online, matches are automatically set up in the game itself; you just boot up the system and the preset match options are already in place, ready for the clans to compete.

But if all this Web 2.0 business isn't your thing, you can rest assured knowing that there's still a game driving all of it. And that new game has plenty of interesting features as well. As you may have heard, Confrontation will be a multiplayer-only affair like Warhawk, available either through the PlayStation Network or in retail outlets at a reduced price. The final game will offer seven maps and seven gameplay modes. However, maps aren't exclusive to any one mode and can be mixed and matched. The map total includes five new maps scalable to 8-, 16- and 32-player matches, and two classic maps with 16-player caps. The gameplay modes encompass all of the modes featured in previous games, including classics such as team suppression, escort, control, and elimination.

Whether you're already in the match or strolling through the pregame menu, you'll be able to customize several aspects of your character. This includes being able to alter your primary and secondary weapons in addition to your sidearm. Each weapon can be modified with two attachments, whether they're suppressers, grenade launchers, sights, scopes, and so on. You can also customize your character by choosing which of five real-world elite military units you belong to, the type of camo you wear, and armor classes for your legs and torso. If you want to make a German KSK operative who looks like a lollipop due to light leg armor and superheavy torso armor, you can feel free to make that choice.