Epic confirms UT3 expansion in works

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 20th 2008 at 4:05PM }

Epic's VP Mark Rein has put to rest any notion that Unreal Tournament III is one of Midway's underperforming licensed titles soon to be dropped by the publisher. Rein tells Gamespot that Epic's deal with Midway isn't a licensing deal, but a publishing agreement, adding that the company is currently working on a "major expansion" that will "excite and grow" the customer base. He wouldn't give any further details on the expansion and whether it was a standalone product or DLC.

Although UT3 has taken a backseat to Epic's flagship franchise, Gears of War, Rein states the multi-platform FPS has sold a million units worldwide.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

J.Goodwin @ Oct 20th 2008 4:15PM

A million over three platforms? Yikes.

dark_inchworm @ Oct 21st 2008 12:23AM

Better than Facebreaker at least... ;)

Einhanderkiller @ Oct 23rd 2008 12:25AM

Actually, BioShock still uses UE2.5. The developers integrated some features found in UE3 into the engine, but it's UE2.5 at its core. This info is coming from a guy who spoke directly with the developers and a guy who works with the lead designer on BioShock.

Gurls Play Games 2 @ Oct 20th 2008 4:15PM

This has to be one of the ugliest gaming engines ever created for games. Unreal Engine 3 = shit.

Haggard @ Oct 20th 2008 4:19PM

Depends on the developer. Bioshock looks excellent on the PC and 360, whilst Mass Effect's PC port (never seen the 360 original) looks pretty damn good.

Ludwig Kietzmann @ Oct 20th 2008 4:20PM

BioShock? Mirror's Edge?

Xoviet chiK - Gyiyg Strikes Back @ Oct 20th 2008 4:22PM

Mirror's Edge says hello.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33585.html'

Don't blame the engine, blame terrible art direction.

xFenixKnightx @ Oct 20th 2008 4:37PM

"This has to be one of the ugliest gaming engines ever created for games. Unreal Engine 3 = shit."

Uh , what? o_O

Damn, Joystiq letting crackheads in here now?

Gears
Gears 2
Army of Two
Bioshock
Lost Odyssey
Mirrors Edge
Mass Effect
UT3
RB6V
RB6V 2

and their awards all say hello, and then flip you the bird ;)

anonim1979 @ Oct 20th 2008 4:43PM

"This has to be one of the ugliest gaming engines ever created for games. Unreal Engine 3 = shit."

It is most dependend on GPU power and avilable memory for textures.
Stronger GPU = better graphics - thats even Epic own child - Unreal Tournament 3 works in lower details (like low geometry setting on PC) on PS3 and with effects cut out (lightning,motion blur,etc.).

http://i34.tinypic.com/29o0bup.jpg

jimmygotsmack @ Oct 20th 2008 4:49PM

Join date is October 20, O god, its another troll account. Failed!

Yes, despite how many people are licensing the unreal 3 engine, its total crap, that makes perfect sense. Why did you even bother making a troll account?

sk8monroe81 @ Oct 20th 2008 6:16PM

lost odyssey? infinite undiscovery? rainbow6 vegas2 ? Mass Effect? Bioshock ? Mortal Combat vs. DC ? Gears of war? endwar? strangehold ? (360 versions though, unreal was not mastered on ps3 yet) only in 2007, sony announced that they would be working to master the unreal engine for the ps3 platform.
list of developers that have licensed unreal engine 3: Atari, Activision, Capcom, Disney, Konami, Koei, 2K Games, Midway, THQ, Ubisoft, Sega, Sony, Electronic Arts, Square Enix and more.

LET ME ASK WHAT GAMES DO YOU PLAY?
the games listed above have been some of the best looking games to date.

Einhanderkiller @ Oct 20th 2008 7:00PM

In my opinion, Army of Two, Unreal Tournament 3, Rainbow Six: Vegas, and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 are ugly games. The rest aren't particularly special either. It's not just the art direction, it's this... thing with the engine. It's hard to explain. But across a lot of UE3 games, there's this particular look on some things that just throws off the graphics. I think it may be the assets that UE3 gives the developer, like shaders and textures.

Einhanderkiller @ Oct 20th 2008 11:20PM

I just learned that BioShock is actually built on a heavily modified Unreal Engine 2.

jackal @ Oct 20th 2008 11:56PM

Einhanderkiller,

You're half right. During early and mid-development, Bioshock was built on a heavily modified Unreal 2.5 engine, but it was later rebuilt using the Unreal 3 Engine when Epic made the tools available to its licensees.

You do have to give the Unreal 2.5 Engine some credit, though; in the hands of the right developer, an Unreal 2.5 game can look just as visually impressive as an Unreal 3 title. I know you really don't care for the Unreal 3 Engine because the games built using it look "off", but, to be fair, I think we all have at least one engine we don't visually like the look of (for me, that's any iD Tech engine).

Haggard @ Oct 21st 2008 9:06AM

I do find that a lot of UE3 games have textures visibly loading up as you get closer to them (this may just be on the PC), but this also seems dependent on the developer. It's far less obvious in Mass Effect than it is in UT3 or Gears, and I haven't seen it in BioShock at all.

ExMcCloud @ Oct 20th 2008 4:33PM

Hmmm...Who bought the original game to expand upon...lmao...And the Unreal Engine can produce some gorgeous games trust son!

mismajor99 @ Oct 20th 2008 4:36PM

screw Unreal Engine 3, Devs need to start using the Cryengine 2, it's blow UE3 out of the water, and Crytek proved it can run beautifully on the consoles as well. No excuses.

ExMcCloud @ Oct 20th 2008 4:43PM

Yeah nobody is disagreeing with that...The Cry engine is GREAT....But still the Unreal engine can do some nice stuff Mass effect is one of the best looking games I've ever seen period and that used the Unreal Engine

Haggard @ Oct 20th 2008 4:55PM

CryEngine is excellent in what it can do on high-end hardware (current-gen PC graphics cards) but I've yet to see it look anywhere near as good as Valve games etc on mainstream gaming PCs and consoles.

Jakka @ Oct 20th 2008 4:56PM

Yeah but in terms of efficiency, UE3 shits all over Crysis AFAIK.

Haggard @ Oct 20th 2008 5:26PM

Yeah, should have added 'UE3 games' along with Valve given the topic.

GRID and DMC4 also look very nice considering how little they stress my 2 year-old graphics card.

sk8monroe81 @ Oct 20th 2008 6:22PM

umm cryengine has been used for what 1 or 2 games: crysis and far cry...
we havent seen how this would be used by other developers..
UT3 seemed easy to use and many developers have been able to make great games using the engine.

why dont we just start talking about EA's godfather engine also... u know the deadspace and godfather game engine that looks great...

mismajor99 @ Oct 20th 2008 7:10PM

UE3 isn't more efficient then the Cryengine 2. In fact, in the years to come, as more games get made with the engine, time will have to prove this. Right now, everyone is jumping on the UE train, and all the games have the sheen to them that I'm just sick and tired of. The fact that the CE2 jump leaps and bounds above the Current UE3, I and many others would love to see more games use the engine. Mass Effect looked great on a high end PC, but compared to Crysis, it's was dogshit. The 360 version wasn't nearly as impressive as it's PC counterpart either, using an 8800GT btw(not highend). The problem is, most people here haven't experienced both, so they only know the screenshots which are pointless.

Heyyou27 @ Oct 20th 2008 7:13PM

@ Jakka

The lighting engine used in Crysis is years ahead of any current Unreal 3 based game. Per pixel dynamic lighting with full soft shadows > shadow maps and stencil shadows

mismajor99 @ Oct 20th 2008 4:35PM

Assault mode and everything that was dropped from UT2K4, please please please. Not to mention, give the PC version the same GUI as 2K4, not the console friendly one in the current PC version.

All Epic had to do with UT3 was build on 2K4 and I think this would have been a goldmine..I don't know wtf they were thinking with going in a new direction and cutting Assault and Onslaught. Get some of the best mods from 2k4 and get 'em in that expansion, updated of course.

Oh, and I paid 40 bucks for the PC version when it came out, make this expansion 10 bucks, and done right, and I'll consider coming back.

Hyams @ Oct 20th 2008 4:41PM

Just give me split-screen play in the PS3 version. That's all I want. Give me that and I'll buy it.

sk8monroe81 @ Oct 20th 2008 6:24PM

that is the reason i bought this game for the 360.
at the time this game was released on ps3 there was no reason for me to buy the game.

when the 360 version was released with 5 new maps, split screen, and a few other things i was sold.

ps3 has mods though... that was major.

uh-oh polio @ Oct 20th 2008 4:47PM

bought it for ps3 due to the mouse/keyboard setup, played it a total of 10 times, and its been sitting on my shelf for months. Maybe if this is a really big, good expansion, ill maybe play it again. Maybe.

tsoul @ Oct 20th 2008 4:52PM

Reminds me of UT2003, and how they pretty much stopped supporting that after they re-released it to UT2004. Sorry peoples, Epic will release it for $30-40, much like 2k4 was. They lost me after 2k3 with the shit they pulled, and sending out a half-assed UT3 further shows they can't get shit right. I miss the company released the original UT and handed out a grip of new features with their FREE bonus packs :(

Phranctoast @ Oct 20th 2008 5:26PM

Except that ut2004 was the best UT ever created, and more than likely the best online fps mp game ever created.

rvkremer @ Oct 20th 2008 4:53PM

The online community for this game is D-E-A-D. If the $20 price point isn't bringing in players, what could?

I would suggest a free simple Gears of War like single player campaign expansion. It doesn't have to be rocket science, just enough of a story to bring new players into the fold. The UT3 campaign is lame.

devian @ Oct 20th 2008 4:57PM

Terrible game is terrible.

Bring back UT99 with the Unreal 3 Engine and I'm sold.

Jakka @ Oct 20th 2008 5:53PM

+ ONS. Don't forget ONS from UT2004.

zlickrick @ Oct 21st 2008 1:42PM

UT3 is a great game to pick-up and play. This is the first xbox 360 game I got my girlfriend asks me to play with her aside from Scene-It.

Simple controls, staight-forward gameplay.

Where this game failed was with its delays. Most people tend to forget that this game was heralded with being the trend-setter for next-gen games. Almost every publication marvelled at its graphics at the time....but as delay after delay hit, it settled into the middle of the pack.

maylon @ Oct 20th 2008 5:07PM

UT ceased to be relevant after 04 and no one told Epic.

Maverick Saturn @ Oct 20th 2008 5:17PM

Yayyyyuuughhh....I was about to celebrate, then I saw 'Unreal Tournament 3' in the title.

dabamf @ Oct 20th 2008 5:33PM

This is great news! I play this game for PC only. There is a ton of great DLC for it. The downloadable characters (Samus, Masterchief, Spawn, The Terminator) are fun to use, and there are some great gameplay modes that people have created:

1) The Haunting - 3rd person action (RE4 style) game where you kill zombies.

2) UT2D - Play UT3 as a 2D platforming game (Super Smash Brothers style)...pretty frantic.

Overall I think UT3 is highly underrated, and I can't wait to see what the expansions will bring!

Jeff @ Oct 20th 2008 5:42PM

UT3 is still my favorite game of all time, Epic just dropped the ball on a lot of things.

Just please give us a leveling system. It is a very difficult game to get good at, especially online. A leveling system would give n00bs an impetus to go online and get owned over and over again until they build up some skill.

Edge @ Oct 20th 2008 5:59PM

If you are playing the PC version, look for the BattleRPG mutator. It includes a leveling system and special weapons. Also, previous version had it too.

Honestly, the game is MUCH better on PC, if you have the hardware for it. It was just designed with a mouse and keyboard in mind rather than a controller.

dabamf @ Oct 20th 2008 6:12PM

Did you know you can download a custom character of the Nanosuit???

Edge @ Oct 20th 2008 5:50PM

Epic always seems to get complacent after a wild success. Same thing happened to UT 2003.

dabamf @ Oct 20th 2008 5:54PM

I don't think they got complacent; I think they just switched Gears. Oh, I went there.

Edge @ Oct 20th 2008 5:57PM

dabamf @ Oct 20th 2008 6:10PM

I'm going to check that out, thanks!

retro_ @ Oct 21st 2008 7:46AM

Play this on PS3. Mod Maps are pretty awesome and keep the game fresh. Graphics are good, i like the gritty nature of them, online is smooth and lag free if you have the bandwidth to cope with the full 16 players. Lag happens when you have slow upload and too many players, obvious really.

I welcome any update, Thanks Epic.