SOCOM 3 map pack hits

Owners of SOCOM 3: US Navy SEALs looking for new multiplayer experiences can download the game's first official add-on for free until July 11.

SOCOM Map Pack #1, available online starting yesterday, enables players to add three maps - all updated versions of levels from SOCOM II - to their online matches.

The After Hours map (modeled after Seoul, South Korea) is intended for Suppression, Demolition and Control matches, while the Albanian castle level Last Bastion supports Suppression, Control, Breach and Extraction modes. Liberation, meanwhile, is set in a North African city and allows for Suppression, Demolition, Escort and Control play. All three levels have day and night versions, and they all allow for up to 16 players.

For now, players can download the maps on a free trial basis, but will be asked to pay $5.99 if they want to keep playing them after July 11. The download requires the Sony PS2 HDD hard drive - great news for those who actually bought the $99 accessory, but it kind of limits the map pack's appeal for everyone else.

June 28, 2006

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Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.