To clear up what mukluk said (sorry i had to read it more than once to get it), the 40 GB PS3 is NOT backwards compatable. This means, that it can only play games made for PS3. This is why it was such a price drop. And if you wanna play SOCOM, just hook up your PS2. I'm sure it's not that much trouble.
I think there is some kind of external hardware you can use to play PS2 games on the PS3 with the 40GB. But it doesn't bother me since I still have my PS2 :D
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I think there is some kind of external hardware you can use to play PS2 games on the PS3 with the 40GB. But it doesn't bother me since I still have my PS2 :D