With E3 looming on the (2 days away) horizon, news leaks are starting to sprout everywhere while rumors run rampant.  We happened upon a rather amazing tidbit today that we felt we just HAD to share before it was announced at E3.  Slant Six Games is working on SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3, which is certainly a mouthful, but it’s not their game-naming skills we’re here to discuss.  Slant Six has used some clever tricks to enhance their recently announced 4-player co-op mode from the upcoming game and when you read what we’re about to divulge, you’re going to be impressed.

Read on to see what these guys have been able to accomplish…SOCOM on the PSP has taken advantage of the PSP headset for quite some time and SOCOM fans happily use it for voice chat but there are times when packing the headset along with your PSP just isn’t that convenient (or you just plain forget to take it with you.)  If you fall into either of these categories, prepare to be floored.

We’ve learned that Slant Six has implemented a technique for voice chat in their ad-hoc co-op mode that effectively does away with the need for the headset for voice chat.  Now I know some of you (like me) are thinking “Wait, I have the PSP-1000, there’s no built-in microphone on that model!” to which I can assure you that you won’t be left out.

I guess Slant Six is currently packaging up this technology to share among other PSP developers, a technique Sony has pioneered.  By sharing the best technology between their top developers, it only serves to better their platform and the gaming experiences for customers.  We hear the technology is going to be called AirChat™.  While we don’t know the exact technology used to voice chat without hardware in Ad-Hoc mode, apparently it’s incompatible with infrastructure co-op gaming under most circumstances so it will likely be an Ad-hoc only feature for now.

When you guys see SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 demonstrated at E3, remember you heard it here first!

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