How Crosstalk Works (2 of 2)

One of the coolest features of the latest pair of SOCOM games is the way they can talk to each other. Your actions in the portable campaign can have interesting effects on the events of the console version, and vice versa. While the effects are still few and far between, they're interesting enough to leave us wanting more.

The process of exchanging data between the two games is very simple. Hook your PSP to your PS2 with a USB cable, fire up both games, and tell them to sync up. Even if you haven't started playing, you'll immediately unlock introduction cinematics and jukebox songs. As you progress in each campaign, you'll be able to unlock additional movies and songs on each platform, but this is hardly where the goodies are.

The real fun comes in when Fireteam Bravo (from the PSP) and Fireteam Alpha (from the PS2) breeze by each other in their mission lines. For instance, by providing support for Alpha in the Eagle's Nest mission on the PSP, you'll have less enemies to contend with when you play that area from Alpha's perspective at home. On the other hand, if you play the first PS2 mission first, you can make life easier for Bravo by taking out a troop of enemies headed their way.

The changes aren't always huge, but they're usually substantive in one way or another, and give players a tangible reason to play through both campaigns more than once. This all effectively makes these two games as a package greater than the sum of their parts. They wind up seeming more fun, and the overlapping story elements paint a bigger picture of the fictitious world. You can turn the effects off at any time, but it's hard to imagine wanting to.

The by-the-numbers story sure ain't Pulp Fiction, some more depth to the changes enabled would be nice, and heaven knows the console version needs work on its own, but Crosstalk is a compelling feature all the same, and we've got high hopes that more games will follow SOCOM's lead in the future.

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