Everyone who owns a Playstation Portable is probably waiting for next week's launch of SOCOM Fireteam Bravo. And, as a beta tester, let me tell you it is very much worth the wait.

One of the biggest issues for the shooter was how they designed the targeting system, which relies on a locking system. While that sounds like it completely destroys the skill involved in a shooter, Zipper managed to figure out a way to craft target locking in a way that still takes skill into account.

Today's post over on the SOCOMBLOG explains how they did it:

Our primary goal when we started last year was to create a killer control system that would allow players to experience SOCOM with one analog without making it cheap or too easy. To do this we implemented a system that took all sorts of elements into account and gave feedback to the player through the size and position of the crosshair reticle. So here s the lowdown on how this system works before you get to use it next week:

Target locking and visibility: most of the beta testers realized this after a while, but just because you have someone target locked, doesn t mean you ll get a kill, or get one quickly. There are three main factors that determine how lethal you are when you have an enemy locked:

Accuracy
Hit location
Distance

The article goes on to detail how these three factors work to make locking a thing of skill instead of something that involves a bunch of button mashing. The system takes things like your position, movement, cover, and even the weapons recoil and accuracy into account. It truly is a thing of beauty and something that I think will help turn portable shooters around.

I'll try to post up my impressions of the entire game later today.

< a href=" http://socomblog.typepad.com/socom/2005/11/the_truth_about.html">The Truth About Target Lock [SOCOMBLOG]