Hands-on Unreal Tournament III

by Andrew Yoon { Jul 13th 2007 at 8:04PM }

We got to see Unreal Tournament III running side by side on PC and PS3. Both versions obviously looked fantsatic, and it was great to see how nearly identical they look. However, the incredible resolution of the PC version made it the clearly superior offering. A representative from Epic told us that the PS3 version is still being tweaked, and that details about the resolution and framerate it will run at won't be revealed yet as they're still trying to optimize the performance for the console.

UTIII will feature the return of many fan-favorite weapons, but we saw a couple of a new additions. Of particular note had to be a weapon that generated a time-warping field. A cube can be created, and within that cube, all time gets slowed down significantly. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the field, we saw the Flak Cannon shoot into the field. As the spray entered the field, it came to a crawl, and the player was able to run past the flak and see it exit the other side, at full momentum. We don't know if this will make a significant change to battles, but it certainly was a cool effect, nonetheless.

In addition, UTIII will feature a greater variety of vehicles. The coolest addition has to be the hoverboard, which is readily accessible at all times. This allows players to move much more quickly, and can be used while holding a CTF flag. A new single player mode was briefly demonstrated, and it shows a lot of potential. The offline single player from previous Unreal Tournament titles were slim on story and options. In the newly updated single player campaign, players will be able to watch a story unfold, and choose a non-linear path through various missions.

Gallery: Unreal Tournament III

The new Warfare mode combines features from Onslaught and Assault mode from Unreal Tournament 2004. This mode encourages cooperation between the players to capture a set number of nodes. When a node is captured, that particular team has access to an increased arsenal of weapons and vehicles.

Windows XP and VIsta users will be able to use an included toolset to create their own levels and modifications. According to an Epic representative, players will be able to transfer their creations from the PC to the PS3 seamlessly. However, when we asked if PS3 owners would need to purchase the PC version of the game to use the tools, the Epic representative was unable to comment. We'd love to see the tools made available for free for all players, regardless of system. Considering the incredible wealth of modifications in previous Unreal Tournament games, we think the mod community would agree.

Unreal Tournament comes out on PS3 and PC later this year.

Tags: e307, epic, unrealengine, unrealtournament, unrealtournament3

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kratos @ Jul 13th 2007 8:13PM

Cant wait for the game. I pray that it runs at 1080i, 1080p would be nice but my tv is only 1080i. This game will be totally sick. The mod support on the ps3 is friggin wicked.

Kratos @ Jul 13th 2007 9:33PM

I would prefer better detail as long as there arent those jaggies in nfs carbon and alot of other games. I know the rsx has the ability to do 8x aa. If they could get the game to run at 720p 30fps with 4x aa i would be extastic. I didnt know about that it had been confirmed it wouldnt run at 1080. 720p is fine with aa enabled.

BestOfBothWorlds @ Jul 13th 2007 9:55PM

Finally the PS3 is getting a game first and not some lesser xbox garbage poorly ported after several months (caugh Ubisoft/MircoWhore caugh rainbow six but love the free content) gone are the days the PS3 is looked at last. Thanks epic for starting us first. Now only if we can interest you in porting the PC GoW to the PS3 since you have gained new tools and info from sony on how to deal with the PS3s Arch.

Dahk @ Jul 13th 2007 10:57PM

Careful with abbreviations in this PS territory =) GoW also stands for our outstanding God of War!

Anyway, eh if you download the trailer from the PS Store, it looks super actiony and all, but graphics-wise, it could just be me, but they seemed way-off-par.

... but really I watched that trailer RIGHT after Killzone 2 AND Metal Gear Solid. heh.

Stellarpimp @ Jul 13th 2007 11:10PM

I love the UT series...I've been rapin' face on the PC for years. UT 04 being my favorite thus far. I must say I'm really impressed they are able to come close to the PC version. Yes the PS3 is an awesome machine...but UT latest engine brings 90% of the PCs to their knees.

I'm going to pray this version kicks ass. If it doesn't I'll be spending another $2,000 on a full computer upgrade. UT series to me is the best high paced shooter out there. This is the game Halo copied imo. Anywho, can't wait for the final version. Thanks Epic! /salute

Bourega @ Jul 14th 2007 8:24AM

If this has those achievements that you can unlock in PS3 Home by the time it comes out, then I'm sold.

jtedesco33 @ Jul 14th 2007 11:31AM

@7 Home isn't even out and there is already signs of achievement whores.

Bourega @ Jul 14th 2007 11:59AM

@8 Damn right! It's the rason why my PS3 isn't getting half the play as my 360 at this moment in time

@9 Probably, but if the delay's too long then i'll just stick to the PS3 version. Besides, i like the idea of mods.

alexy @ Jul 14th 2007 12:35PM

Is that guy holding a Covenant Cabine? o_o(1st pic)

I really like the UT series(especially 4...awesome..)
but QuakeWars is the multi-player shooter im waiting for....

Travis @ Jul 14th 2007 4:03PM

@Jon:

How exactly does XBox Live give you a better online experience? The only real problem with Sony's online stuff right now is that inviting/starting games with friends can't be done outside of the game. If the Home demo at E3 is any indication, they seemed to have solved this problem and it'll be fixed with an update.

XBox Live has problems too. There is an annual fee ($50) and from what I've heard they do not use dedicated servers like Sony does.

I will agree with the 1080p hype turned out to be mostly bullshit. Most games, with the exception of PSN downloadables, don't do 1080p resolution. Lair might be the first game to come out that does 1080p with a lot of motion on the screen (stuff like Virtua Tennis doesn't really count since there's not much to redraw).

James @ Jul 14th 2007 4:37PM

In terms of the 1080p debacle, I think it's just that developers either haven't developed with 1080p in mind (xbox ports) or didn't have a chance to enhance the games to take that into account (any other game launched up to this point). The dev boxes for the PS3 weren't finalized until late last year, which meant that anyone trying to develop couldn't lock in the hardware specs. I think it's safe to say that over time that 1080p will become standard in PS3 games and we'll see more and more of them come out as the year goes on.

WTangoFoxtrot @ Jul 14th 2007 6:02PM

hmmm i dont know, the extremely "weird" sci-fi stuff in the UT series killed it for me long ago.

i'll wait it out for Quake wars instead...in the mean time Haze and Halo3 should keep me busy :)

blitz @ Jul 14th 2007 6:40PM

@9: Xbox LIVE works great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111oneleven

Really, when a player hosts a game, its his bandwidth the responsible of others latency, regardless LIVE or PSN. Gets your facts straight and learn how network (not PSN -.-, just the traffic on games) games work. I really hope we will get PC-PS3 connectivity, without having to pay for a bunch of nothing-at-all.

Saying Xbox LIVE gives better online performance is nothing but ignorance. First, it will depend on the netcode, clientside and serverside. Halo features clientside hit detection while GeoW has serverside hit detection, also R6V has serverside hit detection... right, you dont even know what im talking about...? Then study hard and come back in some years to argue with a bit of knowledge

I know quite a bit of network things... I have a gaming server myself.

Andy @ Jul 14th 2007 7:00PM

I agree with #14

It is too much weird creatures and weapons. Resistance is a far as I will budge sci-fi wise.

Is COD4 being devoloped on the PS3? All the videos I've seen have X instead of A

qwerter @ Jul 14th 2007 7:50PM

i hope this game meets all my expectations, i had the original one on the pc and damn its my favourite nothing beats it, not even #4 so im hopin this will be excellent on my ps3 exspecially w/ the mods

BestOfBothWorlds @ Jul 14th 2007 10:04PM

@15 i got you buddy

clientside- affected response to interaction may be more immediate (once the program code has been downloaded)Resistance:Fall of Man

serverside- affected by the processing speed of the host server (rainbow six and i think most or all fighting games)this can be affected by the hosts internet connection or really gay router :)

blitz @ Jul 15th 2007 8:12AM

@18

Clientside hit detection also needs server response, but at least, even if he starts downloading something your shooting wont be messed up by a sudden high latency (lag!) caused by a bad hoster.

Also, serverside tends to be I-win for hosters, and I dislike the fact that someone has a bigger chance to win because he isnt offering a good hosting. That's why I believe PS3 owners should have PC-connectivity, because we don't have the restrictions LIVE has in terms of network paid ownership. If we only could play on dedicated servers with the PC users... that would be good. Otherwise, clientside detection for the win.