Posted Apr 19th 2008 9:30AM by Andrew Yoon Filed under: News
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.
It's all very well being able to play as Master Chief or Marcus Fenix in Unreal Tournament 3, but what about Nintendo fans? Who can they play as? Thankfully, one skillful modder has created a Samus Aran character model to placate the UTIII playing Nintendo mob. The model itself looks excellent and we can't wait to try it out. You can find more information as well as links to the mod (cooked for the PS3, naturally) at ut3mod.com. Go check it out and let us know what you think.
We don't know about you, but we've had trouble going back to Unreal Tournament 3 for online play due to the broken VOIP feature. It really is a game-killer. Thankfully, a new post on the official Epic forums lets us know that the upcoming Unreal Tournament 3 patch for the PS3 will fix these issues -- and much, much more. Check out the full patch list after the break to find out exactly what's included.
The patch will affect US versions of the game more than the European version as the latter had many of these fixes added to the retail version, thanks to the two month delay. Notable fixes include the VOIP feature (so important, it's worth mentioning twice), mod adding/downloading (we're assuming this means we can have more than one mod on our memory stick at once?) and plenty more miscellaneous features. For the full list check after the break.
Love playing Unreal Tournament 3? Love LEGOs? Then you're going to be thrilled by this bit of news. A talented gamer has created a LEGO-inspired UT3 mod for the PS3 version of the multi-platform shooter.
The coolest part of this mod has got to be watching the LEGO blocks break apart when you fire at them. It would've been equally fun to have the ability to build stuff back up, but that would probably distract players from killing each other like they're suppose to.
Hit the jump for another video clip or, if you're already planning on getting this mod for yourself, you can download it here. Make sure you thank the creator, too!
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 official PS3 "cooking" program that allows PC mods to work on the PS3 hasn't been released yet. But, that hasn't stopped Epic from taking things into their own hands. They converted Thomas Browett's DM-Shrine and made it available for PS3 play. Feel free to download it here or here.
Unfortunately, the process of getting these levels to your system are a bit cumbersome. Provided you have some external USB memory card/stick (the PSP works well in this situation), you'll be able to transfer the files to your system. Be warned, however. You'll have to follow a specific directory layout in order to get this new level onto your machine. Hopefully, a more elegant in-game solution will be made available in the future.
Unreal Tournament III finally gets released in the US tomorrow and one of its developers, Art Production Manager Chris Mielke, has posted some tips on the PlayStation.Blog. So if you're picking the game up at any point, make sure you take note of Chris' advice. While the main bulk of his post is a walkthrough of the level "Suspense" he also includes some random pearls of wisdom. Check out the blog post and try to osmose as much information as you can in readiness of tomorrow.
We love the idea of developers coming online and giving tips about their upcoming titles. We've seen this before with "things to try" lists for demos and would be happy to see the trend continue. Not that there are many other games coming for the rest of the year - which is fine by us. We're swamped with all the great releases over the last two months.
Mark Rein has once again kept his word. After saying that we'd receive Unreal Tournament 3before the year ends, last week, Rein proclaimed the game would be in stores as early as Dec. 11. Today, Midway confirmed that as it announced the game will be shipping to retailers on Dec. 10.
After the unfortunate delays of The Orange Box and Haze, it's great that we'll have a decent FPS to look forward to this holiday season. We're pretty confident that, unlike EA and Valve, Epic will ensure its game runs as smoothly as possible on the PS3.
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This weekend, we're focusing on Epic Game's upcoming PS3 title Unreal Tournament III.
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.
Posted Oct 3rd 2007 12:45PM by Nick Doerr Filed under: News
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.
We recently checked out the official site for Unreal Tournament 3, because we love all our PS3 exclusive games equally, and noticed there have been a series of updates that loyal fans may be interested in checking out. Previously only found in a plethora of different places, all the high-res screenshots and videos of the game are listed in one convenient location, saving you the trouble of searching different places for different videos.
Their latest updates deal with interviews as well as the videos shown at Leipzig, which are impressive in their own right. There's not really much else for us to say except to check it out if you haven't before, because if you're looking for an all-things-UT3 site, this would be the place. Come November, we'll gladly accept any challengers willing to test their mettle against the PS3Fanboy staff! And we'll gladly get our bums kicked, too.
For the Unreal devotees, it shouldn't come as surprising that Unreal Tournament III is shaping up quite nicely. Already far along in development, this PC/PS3 first person shooter is pushing the boundaries of the already-impressive Unreal Engine even further. Not only are the weapons demonstrated in this video, but the vehicles are, as well. Some of them are quite creative, we have to admit.
While we're impressed, we're worried that the current popularity of Warhawk may deter fans from switching to yet another multiplayer shooter. While UTIII and Warhawk have very different approaches to the genre, we hope that gamers don't get too burned out from their endless Warhawk sessions.
In a recent interview with Joystiq the Vice President of Epic, Mark Rein, makes it clear that PS3 mods for Unreal Tournament 3 will have no limits. "Anything that can put into a level" can be included. ""Level" is a little deceiving now because, with the streaming system that we have, a level isn't just one map anymore. But anything you can put in there, which includes maps, models, Unreal Kismet scripts, Unreal Script, textures, shaders, matinee instructions." So total conversion mods will easily be possible, when utilizing all those tools.
Rein summed it all up by saying that "Anything that we can do, you can do." Sounds good to us. Check out the full interview at Joystiq.
One of the main reasons why Epic decided to stick Unreal Tournament 3exclusively on the PS3 until the end of the year (we think Sony meant fiscal year, so really, until the end of March) was because of Sony's willingness to allow modifications of the game via the PC build. They call these "mods" in the crazy land of hardcore gamers, or so we've heard. It's sort of a mystical place -- a place no one has ever truly been here in Consolevania. Even with the promise of having mods on the PS3 version of the game, Epic has not decided to allow cross-platform play yet.
Everything isn't dark and gloomy, though. Mark Rein of Epic gives us hope that they will probably consider it in the future: "We're not 100% sure that users want that feature but if we get time we'll play around with it and see how it works. In the mean time we plan to be able to serve the PS3 from PC servers so that should help us gets lots of great servers going." No word on any cross-platform play between the PS3 and 360, let alone the Games for Windows LIVE service. Just the PS3 and PC at this point. Would you guys like cross-platform play, since the PS3 version does, in fact, support keyboards and mice?
