I’ve been waiting anxiously to get into the SOCOM: Confrontation beta for PS3.  There were actually three reasons why I even bothered to buy a PS3 — 1) Blu-Ray, 2) SOCOM, 3) Metal Gear Solid 4.  Alas, the beta has been an unmitigated disaster.  By all accounts, the game is broken — and it’s yet another PS3 game without adequate friends list support.  The PS3 is a great system on a technical level, and the built-in WIFI and networking is much, much better than the XBOX 360′s (you have to buy a $100 add-on if you want WIFI access).  But without the integrated gaming service that XBOX Live has, PS3 is just a mess.

I can’t even believe they’re bothering with beta tests.  I’ve been in two XBOX 360 betas (Halo 3 and COD 4), and they both went smoothly (well, the Halo 3 beta had about 48 hours of trouble, but after that was well-handled).  I purchased the online PS3 magazine Qore to get access to the beta, and Sony has now decided not to let you download the beta through Qore, but are instead sending out codes via email.  I really don’t have a lot of faith in this crew to actually get the codes out.  And they certainly haven’t done a very good job of communicating the change in distribution method to their customers.

Seriously, the should hire me to do their communications.  My content editors at work are a lot better informed than Sony’s paying customers.

But besides this, word on the street is that the game is marginally better looking than its PS3 ancestors, and that in terms of online functionality, it actually has less than the original SOCOM games.  I guess this is what happens when you hire a PSP developer with no online gaming experience to develop a triple-a title for a major console.

Can Sony screw up the PS3 any more than they already have?