When I played SOCOM 4 today, I controlled it with the forthcoming PlayStation 3 Sharpshooter peripheral, a shell that houses a PlayStation Move. This scheme is not mandatory, but it works. SOCOM developer Ben Jones explains how.
Jones' explanation gives you the pertinent details. It's hard to assess how good the Sharpshooter will feel during extended sessions of play. I was getting comfortable with it after a few minutes, but I didn't have enough time with it to determine if I would have to worry about arm fatigue.
The Sharpshooter alignment does make it easy to aim and tag points in the game world where the player's two fireteams can be sent to stand, take cover or fight. As Jones notes, you have to move the gun peripheral to turn. I wasn't able to try all of the settings, but the one I used gave me a good sense of how responsive this scheme can be. Without a button pressed, I had to move the Sharpshooter until it pointed to the screen's edge to start turning the camera's perspective. But with a button pressed, I was able to move the camera with even minor movements of the Sharpshooter. An alternate control mode that Jones described to me allows for 1:1 movement. As you turn the Sharpshooter, the view turns.
The Sharpshooter is an elaborate peripheral. I was skeptical about how well it would work. It handled better than I expected. Jones says its the best control scheme for the game. I can't say that yet. I'd still lean toward using the Dualshock 3 or the Move sans Sharpshooter. But I'd give this a try again. Why not?