PS3 Fanboy

While nowhere as successful as Gears of War, Epic Games is working on an expansion to their multiplayer shooter, Unreal Tournament III. "We're working together on a major expansion that we expect will excite and grow our UT3 customer base," Epic Games' VP Mark Reins told Gamespot.

No other specifics were provided, such as release date or format (DLC? Expansion pack disc?). Considering the game debuted on the PS3, we're going to keep our eyes peeled for any more info.

[Via Joystiq]

The tardy Xbox 360 version of Unreal Tournament III comes with a few features missing from the PS3 original. The most notable new feature is split-screen multiplayer. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this will come as a downloadable patch any time soon. Epic's Mark Rein told videogamer.com "I don't think so, because this is what's in this (the Xbox 360 version) game. I think it would be a big job to go back and retrofit that game for split-screen. I just don't think we have the resources to do that unfortunately."

"We heard from the PS3 guys they really wanted split-screen. Maybe if we'd spent eight more months on the game like we have here," he added. Of course, the PS3 version of UT3 will still sport a key feature the Xbox 360 version will never see: unrestricted access to fan-created mods.

In spite of Microsoft's announcement of the XBL community arcade, there's apparently no progress on making Unreal Tournament III mods available on the Xbox 360. In an interview with Joystiq, Epic Games' VP Mark Rein noted that there's still no set release date for the 360 version.

More interesting than that bit of news comes from what Rein has to say about the PS3 version. He acknowledged the current mod system is "less than stellar." The cumbersome process of having to download files to a PC, properly format them on a Memory Stick, and transfer them to the PS3 is certainly an annoying one. Unfortunately, no specific details about what "improvements" will be made, or when they'll be available, have been announced yet. Considering how broken the current system is, we'd like to think that anything is going to be an improvement.

The ever-chatty vice president of Epic, Mark Rein, has posted on the official Unreal Tournament III forums to let us know that they're in the final stages of testing the public code that allows for "cooking" mod code for the PS3. Rein believes that testing should be finished sometime next week and the update can then be immediately released. This will open the flood gates and we will then see a huge amount of user generated content being played on the PS3. We can't wait.

Once the "cooker" is finally released, we at PS3 Fanboy will be running a new feature showcasing the best UTIII mods available for PS3. More on that next week, hopefully!

[Via N4G]

In a massive interview with Gamasutra, Mark Rein sat down to discuss pretty much everything that makes him, him and Epic Games, Epic Games. For the sake of space and your sanity, we'll close the gap on the wide array of questions and focus on Mark Rein's stance on the PSN. It's a good one. The PSN is open-platform, meaning it will allow us to utilize user-generated content.

Rein's thoughts? "It's fantastic! I can't understand why people are so nervous about what Sony... no, Sony's wonderful. When they embrace user-created content, that's what it means to be an open system. That's why we're on PlayStation 3 first -- because they are embracing user-created content." We sure are with Unreal Tournament 3 hitting this December. It'll be very easy to load up the mods from the PC and transfer them onto the PS3 and if it's any indication how future titles will utilize the open platform, then we're in for a treat.

It seems Epic's Mark Rein has remained true to his word that the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament 3 would release before the end of the year in North America as he announced the game has gone gold and is now in the hands of North American manufacturing.

Although an exact release date probably won't be set until next week, Rein did say the game will hit shelves early next month. "My guess is that Midway will start shipping the title to North American retailers on Monday December 10, and it could show up in stores as early as December 11, but more likely toward the middle of that week," he said in a statement.

"I think PS3 owners are going to really enjoy UT3 this holiday so make sure you get it on your shopping list!" he said. While this is welcomed news for North American PS3 owners, we're sorry to say but our European friends will still have to wait until January or February for the newest entry into the series.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Another interview took place where Mark Rein, the man behind Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 3, chatted about the PlayStation 3 version of the game as well as some other bits. A lot of the information is redundant, such as keyboard and mouse support and the lack of cross-platform play (unless you own the PC and PS3 versions, you can use your PC as a dedicated server and move all the mods and such from the PC to the PS3).

What Mark hadn't talked about before was the Sixaxis. It will be used, but only to steer the hoverboard and Redeemer. He didn't say if there was an option to turn the controls off, but we'd imagine so. Another thing he mentioned was the reason for the PS3 version's delay. The PS3 version has to go through a lot of certification processes, and those are taking longer than anticipated. Nothing wrong with the code or any difficulties working with the PS3.

There's a lot more information in the interview, especially if you're predominantly a PC gamer. Talks of PhysX ensue and the jargon started to go over our heads. Still, we know our readership isn't solely Sony supporters, thus our heads up to you guys to check out the interview if you're curious about that.

Does it still count as flamebaiting if the one making the claim is responsible for both games? Either way, Mark Rein of Epic Games has expressed how proud he is of Unreal Tournament 3 and really hopes it can still get a release this year in Europe, but probably won't. The game boasts amazing graphics, so amazing he said, "It's a really high end experience that pushes the graphics bar up even higher than Gears of War. There's more polygons, there's more stuff going on, there's more explosions and there's more things happening." Draw your own conclusions.

How about programming difficulties? Rein says such things had no effect on them in the end. "I don't think the PS3 was any more of a challenge than any other new piece of hardware that we've used. Remember, we've been making PC games for years and the PC isn't one platform, it's hundreds of platforms. There's no two PCs that are completely identical in many cases." The game also seems to go at just the right speed for a console, he said, lending itself well to controller ... controls. Though you can still use a keyboard/mouse if you'd like. Which will you guys use?

We were wondering what had happened to Mark Rein - it's been quite a while since we've last heard word from him around the internets. However, an Unreal Tournament III event without him would just be plain wrong, so it's no surprise to hear another load of quotes from him surfacing from a event held in Birmingham yesterday. Eurogamer were there to ask him a few questions but, more specifically, they wanted to know the likelihood of the game being released this year.

In early October Midway revised their annual estimates with the expectation that Unreal Tournament III would ship in 2008, instead of late 2007. Mark Rein then went on record to say that Epic was still intending to get the game out before the end of the year and it seems like that will be the reality - for America. Rein told Eurogamer yesterday that Epic are "very close to a release candidate" and they "should have it finished by the end of this week." After that, it heads off to manufacture and distribution.

As for Europe, he suspects the release may slip into 2008. But it's not Epic's fault! It's all those pesky languages us Europeans speak. "Europe's a problem because the certification process in Europe takes longer." Rein says, "They're testing all these different languages in all these different countries, so I doubt it'll be released this year in Europe. But I don't know. We'll have to cross our fingers and wait and see." So there's a chance - but we won't hold our breath.

A big hubbub has been made due to the announcement that Unreal Tournament 3 has gotten delayed into 2008, coinciding with the PC and 360 releases. But has it, really? First up, Mark Rein tried to comment on the delay announcement at the Epic Forums, but apparently Midway had the thread deleted. He's created another thread repeating what he said, which is basically "Midway felt an obligation to its shareholders to let them know about the possibility of a delay. Our goal is still to get the PS3 version of UT3 in stores before the end of 2007. However, we will only ship it once it's ready and is the best game we can deliver."

The good news, he says, is with the extra time the PS3 version will have all the maps the PC version will offer -- so complaining is neither here nor there. You can check out the quote on ThreeSpeech in case Mark's second post gets knocked off the forums again, due to unnecessary flaming on other members' behalf. In any case, the game has not officially been delayed, but it's a warning to expect a delay. For extra dev time, though, we don't really mind. We've got a lot to play this holiday season already.