By far one of the most popular franchises for PlayStation fans is Sony's SOCOM series of modern-day tactical shooters. Unfortunately, ever since the first PlayStation 3 installment in the franchise--SOCOM: Confrontation--was first revealed in May 2007, updates for Slant Six's second effort in the series (its first being Tactical Strike for the PSP) have been few and far between. However, that changed earlier this month when Sony gave asset-starved fans the first batch of screenshots for the shooter.

　　SOCOM in a high-def world. With the game now in a state worthy of being shown off to the public, Sony has announced via its official blog that SOCOM: Confrontation will go hot on September 16, exclusively on the PS3. Similar to Incognito's Warhawk, Confrontation will be available at both brick-and-mortar retailers and as a digital download through the PlayStation Network.

　　To help the avid SOCOM community keep tabs on the game, Sony also took the lid off of its community site for Confrontation. Sony is planning a two-phase rollout for the community site, with its current operations that launched today dedicated to being a developer's blog, asset depot, and message board. After the game mobilizes, Sony will initiate phase two of its plan: launching a new site that "will integrate your SOCOM Confrontation experience onto the Web," with more details promised to come.

　　Given that a fully realized online component is absolutely critical to the multiplayer-only Confrontation, Sony also said that it would be drafting active and knowledge participants from the Web site's community for participation in the game's upcoming closed beta.