Joystiq impressions: 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)

Gambit @ Jul 13th 2007 8:09PM

Did you see the ripper?

Jenova @ Jul 13th 2007 8:11PM

I still play the original Unreal Tournament from time to time. It's alot more enjoyable than the newer sequels.
Shock Rifle FTW!

FM @ Jul 13th 2007 8:51PM

Haha me too. I remember a CTF map,which I played a lot,it's called "Facing Worlds" I think. Now that was heck of a lot of fun,especially with anti-gravity and shock rifles.

REUYL @ Jul 13th 2007 8:20PM

UT3 still comes out on 360... right?

Andy @ Jul 13th 2007 8:26PM

I think its a timed exclusive on ps3 so yes :) (spoilt gits, GoW not enough for ya!)

Ordeith @ Jul 13th 2007 8:27PM

It comes out for the 360 a couple months later.

Some speculate that the wait is because Epic doesn't want to compete with Halo 3. I think it is because Son¥ wants a window of oportunity where we can't do a direct comparison between the 360 and the PS3. If it were shown right away that this game is also much better on the 360 it would hurt sales of the title on Son¥'s blu-ray player.

And they need to show 3rd parties can move numbers on the PS3.

manic @ Jul 13th 2007 8:22PM

Cool...

PC and PS3 versions look pretty much identical! Obviously you'd expect the PC version to look superior since its more powerful, but its great to hear how similar they look.

Andy @ Jul 13th 2007 8:24PM

Holy tap dancing Christ! this looks gorgeous, much better than Killzone 2. I loved Unreal T 2004 on the pc, best mutliplayer fps in the world bar none! Can't wait for this on ps3. "Wicked Sick"

J-Guy @ Jul 13th 2007 8:26PM

Never played Unreal Tournament before, but UT3 looks promising.

Billy @ Jul 13th 2007 8:34PM

Wasn't this originally called UT 2007? Did they change the name to 3 recently?

I'm really looking forward to this game. UT 2004 is my favorite online FPS ever, by far. So I'm really upset about the PS3 getting it first. I bought a 360 so I could stop playing the yearly PC upgrade game, and now I'm getting totally effed in the A because of it. DAMNIT!!!

Matt B @ Jul 13th 2007 9:23PM

So get a PS# and have the freedom to be ALL High-Def.

Matt B @ Jul 13th 2007 9:23PM

So get a PS3 and have the freedom to be ALL High-Def.

eldee @ Jul 13th 2007 10:01PM

You can't get any higher 'def' than PC. In fact, if you read the article, it even points out that the PC version looks better due to superior resolutions.

Negativecool @ Jul 13th 2007 8:36PM

"...it was great to see how nearly identical they look...the PC version made it the clearly superior offering"

Hmm...so they nearly the same but PC obviously looks hands down better...Somehow that didn't quite make much sense to me.
I would expect this, PC versions of anything are always graphically superior, it's just the nature of PC.

Anyway, I think PC's being able to share mods with PS3's is awesome. Mods are what keeps me coming back to would be tired PC games. This should be really exciting to any PS3 owner.

Can't wait for this title. I wonder when and what company will venture into the unthinkable...Cross console frag matches!!!! Just thinking about PS3 vs. 360 vs. PC all on one map makes me feel kinda funny, like climbing the rope in gym class. I was hoping it would be Epic...maybe one day.

Josh @ Jul 13th 2007 8:50PM

"Unreal Tourney has just become the typical deathmatch game, IMO."

Have you ever played Onslaught in UT2004? It is anything but a deathmatch.

Nate @ Jul 13th 2007 9:04PM

pWnt

Sonic_extreme @ Jul 13th 2007 9:11PM

I love all unreal and this news makes me want to get out UT 4 and reinstalled it on vista. But will UT get competition on consoles as so many FPS are coming out by holiday, starting with Bioshock, medal of honor, Halo 3, COD4, Half Life Orange, Haze, that other Area 51 game, they might be a few more I am missing but just to think that years ago console fans hated FPS as being same old boring shoot and run games. HA HA I wonder what those RPG boys have to say this year. And to think Halo3 on xbox FPS, Killzone2 on PS3 FPS.

madgamer @ Jul 13th 2007 9:11PM

I thought I had heard about the PS3 version having an option to use the sixaxis motion for mouselook.. anyone else hear about that? I think it could work if done right

Borat @ Jul 13th 2007 10:47PM

What "incredible resolution" was the PC version running at? 1920 X 1080? Because I can't think of anything higher than that...and obviously the PS3 version runs at 1080p too?

Josh @ Jul 13th 2007 11:05PM

No, the PS3 version will run at 720p. The PS3 doesn't have the power to run UT3 at 1080p.

BruceLeroy @ Jul 13th 2007 11:21PM

When did they mention it would only run at 720p? I would trust Epic would have the skills to push it to 1080p. They did mention they were going to optimize the Unreal engine to run on the PS3. And I'm hoping they pull it off. That would be sweet on my 50".

Jake @ Jul 13th 2007 11:34PM

All of the most graphically intensive games for both the 360 and the PS3 are rendered at 720p. There is absolutely no reason to believe that this game would be different. The only PS3 games that run at 1080 are ones that are easier graphically to run, like NBA. Games like this with all kinds of bloom, motion blur, shadows, physics, particle tracking, etc. are too difficult for 1080.

You can actually make a game look better on PS3 at 720p. The leftover power from outputting 1/2 as many pixels, then upscaling to 1080p, can be used in more important places. So, even though it may seem counter-intuitive, a game that utilizes all availabe power on the PS3 and 360 will look and play better at 720p.

And since when is the PS3 really THAT powerful. We have yet to see a game on it that really outdoes the best of the 360. Honestly, Killzone 2 does not look better than Gears. On the PC, Gears of War at higher resolution and framerate looks better than anything on consoles. Crysis, well, obviously that looks better than anything that will come to consoles this gen. Granted, you need a very expensive rig to run it.

Eventually you have to just drop the notion that the PS3 is the place to go for the best graphics. The 360 was when Gears dropped, enjoyed its 6 months in the sun, but has now fallen behind a few games on high end PC's. The PS3, due to its delay, never had a chance to enjoy being the king. That is just the nature of it all.

The PS3 has great graphics. The 360 has great graphics. Very expensive PC's have the best graphics. But there really isn't much difference between the two high end consoles. Just look at the games.

Jon @ Jul 14th 2007 5:00AM

PC gaming has breached the 1080p quite some time ago, but you will obviously need to invest in some pretty decent SLI/Crossfire hardware and high resolution monitors to take advantage of those extra pixels.

Rigor Mortis @ Jul 14th 2007 11:17AM

Regarding PC Resolution - a lot of games not only go higher than 1080p (1600x1200 was COMMON ten years ago), many games support custom resolution. If you got the cash for a triple monitor setup with a top notch good video card, you could easily run UT at, say, 4800x1200. If you REALLY wanted, you could seriously even go for something stupid high, like, 9000x3000. 'course, the only point to overkill like that that would be making the PS3 weep with envy.

Jon @ Jul 14th 2007 5:57PM

Er. Yes and no. While 1600x1200 was available to us PC gamers ten years ago, very rarely was a rig capable to achieving that in playable frame rates - especially in fps games. I believe it was probably only a couple of years ago it was made possible to run at above UXGA at a playable framerate with AF and FSAA turned on max.

But at least consoles has finally breached the 480p mark (well two of them anyway).

Mikeo @ Jul 14th 2007 1:17AM

Warning:
ONLY DX 10 cards will be able to use antialiasing since they usee EXCLUSIVELY software AA resolves.

Bye bye grinding PS3 version! Now, to go get 2 HD2600XTs for all the hot sexy AA love in 720p.

360 can use software AA resolves because of general/unified shaders. All that remains is that whether Epic will use it, as it isn't (rumoured) going to benefit from the EDRAM's free AA and associates a performance penalty...

Still, I hope Epic uses it. The damn sharp edges have to go before I play it.

eldee @ Jul 14th 2007 2:33AM

In all honesty, UT plays too fast for you to even notice. If you're standing around looking for 'jaggies' you're going to be fragged (I resisted the urge to use "fraggied".. oh well).

Crummy @ Jul 14th 2007 4:09AM

THE TIME CUBE IS REAL!

Curmeo @ Jul 14th 2007 8:05AM

even if the 360 version will have the slight graphical edge, wont the PS3 version still be more enjoyable since you can use mods?

i dont know for sure if 360 really has better hardware than PS3 does. do cross platform games perform better on 360 only because its easier/less costly to develop for, or is 360 also graphically more capable than PS3? i guess we'll find out in another year or two.

afew things ive noticed though: games that let you install their cache on the PS3 HDD load faster than the 360 version. also, extra maps are included on the Blu-ray disc so no need to download/utilize HD space. and for some reason, Rainbow Six on PS3 has better graphics *when played online*.

Tadioku @ Jul 15th 2007 4:19PM

so you admit to have seen the 360 version running side by side by the PS3 version?

DeezNuts420 @ Jul 14th 2007 10:07AM

Any word on the 360 version?

t_m @ Jul 14th 2007 10:39AM

You mean a time slowing cube just like Giants had 5 years ago???

PS/ Giants also had morphable terrain.. like that new lucasarts tech demo.

sheppy @ Jul 14th 2007 11:23AM

All I know for certain is that I've already started work on my first mod. I completely intend to resurrect The Clan Of The Fallen come November and yes, that means custom animations and models.

kevin @ Jul 14th 2007 4:14PM

it really flatters me when somebody says that pc, or 180 is more powerful than ps3, or graphically more capable than ps3, that is a joke, if this game looks so great then why doesnt it compare, and i mean either version to the e3 2005 presentation of unreal tornament 2007, that in e3 2005 is what unreal 3 engine can really look like on the ps3, a cg unreal 3 engine, but it was horribly dumbed down due to pc and 180.

also, you say that many games such as crysis and glitches of ware look better than killzone, that is the funniest jokes i have seen on many sites, how is something going to look better than a game with cg ingame? please nothing compares to killzone, killzone 2 has beaten its original trailer, how do you expect two games that come nowhere near killzone 2 the e3 2005 trailer to beat a game that has surpassed the trailer? the just dont

also, you say your pcs and 180s are more powerful than ps3, you know even if that were true, it seems very funny that that comes out of your mouth, especially considering, the first showing of killzone on actual running ps3 hardware, finallized, has destroyed anything on your most powerfull pc or 180, and also in the future the more developers like guerilla dig into the ps3, the limitless ps3, and even more games look like cg ingame, and then surpass them and we actually have running movies games, as we already do, it will just be more proficient than now, but really, your most powerful pc, and 180, more powerful than a box with a supercomputer and more, what a joke, and please come at me with crysis comparisons to killzone and other ps3 games, and i promise to make you feel bad, you can count on it

steve @ Jul 17th 2007 3:52PM

Kevin, you are retarded. The PS3 is the graphical equivalent of dual GeForce 6600's running in an SLI configuration. 6600's are from 2 PC generations ago. We're on 8800's now and it is technically possible to run 4 at a time. A bit overkill? Hell yea but it's still possible. Killzone looks like shit by the way and yes, I have seen it. You can get the same effect in say... Oblivion, a year old game, by getting some new, and free I might add, texture packs that run at a resolution of 4096X4096. Bear in mind that most console games use a resolution of between 256X256 or 512X512 for their textures.

sheppy @ Jul 14th 2007 4:21PM

Who wants to take bets the posters will tear apart kevin?

eldee @ Jul 14th 2007 5:32PM

That's a dumb bet.. his post is so full of fallacies and outright misinformation that I'll just let the public mod him down rather than waste time pointing out his numerous errors.

t_m @ Jul 15th 2007 7:54AM

I still love the original UT the best... the larger-scale games with vehicles are cool... but there was something about the simplicity and focus of the original UT.. just some guys on a simple map.

And the maps in the original UT rocked in their simplicity. Just two boxy skyscrapers.. that really is all you needed.

the newer games are good.. but much more complex to get into..