Well, after about 24 hours of maintenance the site is once again fully functional. Here's a summary of what we did:

• The forums now run on the premium vBulletin software
• User accounts have been unlinked from phpBB3, and relinked with vBulletin
  • This means that you can use your old forum username and password to log into the new forums. Everything has remained intact. This means: private messages, post count, profile information, signatures, etc.
• Posts have been transferred from the old forums to the new forums
• The forum is still undergoing a little bit of changes, but for now it should be working 100%. Things like signatures and ranks are currently disabled, but those should be up within the next 24 hours.
• If for some reason you can not log in with your old account information, please email admin[at]socomfireteambravo3.com with your username and email address that you used to register the account. We will then reset your password for you.

Check out the new forum at http://www.socomfireteambravo3.com/forum

If you would like to read the old forums for some reason, you can find them at http://www.socomfireteambravo3.com/forum-OLD They will be set to read only in the very near future, and any posts you make there will NOT be transferred to the new forum.

We have a lot more in store for the site, so please stay tuned!

We've been seeing a lot of questions about Fireteam Bravo 3, so we decided to put together a little FAQ article. If you have a question, it's probably answered in here. If you can't find your question, feel free to ask it in the forums so we can add it.

Q) Who is developing Fireteam Bravo 3?
A) Slant Six Games. The guys behind Tactical Strike.

Q) How long has SOCOM FTB3 been in development for?
A) One and a half years as of May 2009.

Q) When will FTB3 be released?
A) FTB3 will be released on February 16th, 2010.

Q) How much will FTB3 cost?
A) $39.99 USD

Q) What has the ESRB rated FTB3?
A) T for Teen.

Q) Will Fireteam Bravo 3 be available for download on the PlayStation Store?
A) Yes, the game will be available for download, in addition to UMD.

Q) Will Fireteam Bravo 3 get any downloadable content?
A) There are no plans to release DLC for FTB3.

Q) Will FTB3 have Command Equity points (CE)?
A) Yes, FTB3 will have a Command Equity system.

Q) What will I be able to buy with the CE that I have earned?
A) Weapons, attachments and items to customize your character.

Q) Can I earn CE in both online and offline modes?
A) CE can be earned both online and offline.

Weapons FAQ

Q) How many weapons and attachments are included in the game?
A) Over 70.

Q) How many attachments can my weapons have?
A) Up to four attachments, with some being specific to certain weapons.

Q) What kind of attachments are there?
A) Silencers, scopes and M203 launchers to name a few.

Q) Are pistols in the game?
A) They are not confirmed, however, a pistol is shown in a screenshot so it is safe to assume that they will be.

Online FAQ

Q) Will Fireteam Bravo 3 have infrastructure?
A) Yes, FTB3 will include infrastructure.

Q) How many players can play in one game?
A) Up to 16 players.

Q) Will Fireteam Bravo 3 also have Ad-Hoc?
A) Yes.

Q) Will I be able to use my mic to communicate with other players?
A) Yes, FTB3 supports voice chat.

Q) Will regenerative health be optional online?
A) Yes, players will be able to choose between the health bar and regenerating health.

Q) How many maps are there in FTB3?
A) There are 8 maps.

Q) Will any maps be returning from FTB1 or FTB2?
A) No maps will be returning. One of the maps, "Market Week", was inspired by "Market Day" from FTB1 and 2.

Q) What types of game types will I be able to choose?
A) Suppression, free for all, demolition, tug of war and leader.

Q) Will I be able to alter gametypes?
A) Yes, you will be able to choose between modes such as domination or elimination. You will also be able to choose respawn types such as no respawn, classic respawn, and captive.

Q) Will FTB3 have leaderboards?
A) Fireteam Bravo 3 will feature both an individual leaderboard and a clan leaderboard.

Gameplay FAQ

Q) Will there be vehicles?
A) Yes, but they will NOT be operable to players.

Q) Does the game have regenerative health?
A) Yes, FTB3 is the first Fireteam Bravo game to have regenerative health.

Please note: this FAQ was not written by Slant Six or SCEA, but was based off of information that they have provided. This should be considered an unofficial FAQ.

Over at SOCOM.com, poster sn1p3r987 came across a video that shows blood when shooting an enemy. It had been believed before this that blood would not be returning from the original FTB. Not only had we not seen it in gameplay trailers and screenshots, but the game was rated Teen. The lack of blood in FTB2 is what allowed it to be rated Teen. While a very small feature, if this turns out to be true, it's a step in the right direction towards the best possible gaming experience.

See for yourself:

Read more to see the original video.

Over the past few days we have been preparing a feature that would allow clan leaders to set up their own forum for free @ www.socomfireteambravo3.com/forum

This is now available to anyone who would like one. However, please read the following:

To qualify your own clan forum, the leader putting in the request MUST have 10 posts at the time of the request. We personally hate to have to put a restriction, but we think that it's pretty easy to meet and that it will help keep spam accounts away.

If you meet that requirement, place your request here: http://www.socomfireteambravo3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=31

After digging around on Slant Six's website recently, I found an interesting presentation that Slant Six had posted. It was their Montreal Game Summit 2008 presentation. It was presented on November 18th, 2008. What I found interesting about the presentation is that it mentioned what they were currently working on; one of which was an "Unannounced PSP title for SCEA which is scheduled for completion in June of 2009."

We couldn't have known that this was FTB3 for sure when they made the presentation, however it was pretty obvious that a new Fireteam Bravo title was coming out soon. Since Slant Six was the only other developer to have worked on a SOCOM title, it would make sense that they would stick with this very successful series. The fact that it was a title for SCEA only strengthens that assumption.

One other thing that should stick out to you about this is that it was scheduled for completion in June of 2009. This is a deadline that was obviously not met. This is actually a good thing because it means that /6 will have longer to iron out as many bugs as possible, and add more features that they may have not initially planned.

So there you have it, the announcement of FTB3 has been under our noses for months...

Check out the section of the presentation below:

Also notable is the fact that they are working on a new PS3 concept game.