Two previews based on the recent Midway Games Day

[MaXimus]

The guys could only play VCTF on one map so unfortunately the previews are as satisfying as one would hope. There are lots of stuff you already know by now too.

Beyond Unreal: Unreal Tournament 3: Hands-On
Source: http://www.beyondunreal.com/content/articles/180_1.php
The most important statement I can make about this hands-on test is this: anything and everything is subject to change. Thus, it's nearly useless to talk about things like weapon damage and rate of fire as all of those things will no doubt be tweaked in the final stages.

The other main caveat are the conditions of the test-environment. Eight high-end Dell XPS 710 (Intel® Core™2 Extreme) systems with ultra-high resolution monitors (appeared to be the 24" @ 1920 x 1200 or the 30" @ 2560 x 1600) were configured in a LAN setting, smack in the middle of a room full of other loud games and piped-in rock music. Fun, yes, but not exactly ideal for gleaning every possible nuance of the game.

It's also worth mentioning that most of the other players were primarily games jouralists and not hardcore Unreal Tournament players. Most everyone there was more anxious to get in the closest largest vehicle than to engage in heated close-up weapons combat. That's not to say that there weren't any heated matches, however, just that you'd probably learn more about the gameplay in a half hour with hardcore 'Tournament players than you would three hours with your mainstream game journalist. No offense intended, guys and girls!

I have to point out that this hands-on took place on a single Vehicle Capture the Flag map, so if you're a fan of other gametypes, then your mileage may vary with this preview. The map in question was VCTF-Corruption, an Asian-themed map similar in appearance to this one (http://www.beyondunreal.com/image.php?src=main/ut2007/hr/ut2007_43.jpg). The teams were Necris versus Axon, each side with its own brand of vehicles and even a unique map theme. For instance, both featured identical bases, but the Necris side had enormous twisted black tendrils snaking out of the ground and through the architecture, giving the appearance that the mere presence of the species had influenced the landscape - a nice touch. One fun addition to this level was the enormous spinning waterwheel on one side of the map. One pathway lead right through the wheelhouse and through the very spinning spokes of the wheel itself.

The vehicles available for the Axon side were the familiar Manta, Goliath, Scorpion, and Hellbender. The Necris vehicle list was a bit shorter: The Dark Walker (http://www.beyondunreal.com/image.php?src=main/ut2007/hr/ut2007_38.jpg), the Viper (http://www.beyondunreal.com/image.php?src=main/ut2007/hr/ut2007_42.jpg), and the Nemesis, a tank-like vehicle seen in the E3 Trailer. It's clear, at this point, that the Necris vehicles are much more powerful than the Axon vehicles. I recall only a couple of matches won by the Axon side during the three hours or so that I played. I assume this will be addressed during the tweak phase, but will allow that it may be that due to the newness of the Necris vehicles, all of the opposing strategies an opportunities may not be readily apparent. The good news is that a foot soldier with a shock rifle is no longer the vehicle killer that it was in 2004. These beasts have some new tricks up their sleeves and the UT3 weapons do not seem to defeat them as easily. As it should be, one would not expect a massive futuristic tank to be taken down effortlessly by a hand-held infantry gun.

Let's talk about each of the vehicles starting with the Necris batch:

Dark Walker - these lumbering tripods were easily the crowd favorite and for good reason. Their tendril-like legs allow them to climb major rock formations, menacing unsuspecting vehicles and foot soldiers below. The primary weapon is a twin laser that fires a burning line of plasma, making short work of vehicles and soldiers alike. The secondary fire is an awesome "scream" that knocks infantry off its feet, making them easy prey for the primary weapon. A second gunner can sit in the underbelly and issue rapid-fire bursts, making this one terror of a vehicle. It's truly frightening to be stalked by a Dark Walker because, given its ability to climb, if you're caught out in the open - you're probably gonna die. The only drawbacks to this baby is its plodding speed and the brief delay between firing the primary weapon.
Nemesis - Continuing with the reptile-like theme that runs through the entire Necris line-up, the Nemesis is a tank-like vehicle that kneels awaiting its passengers and then pops up when entered. It looks and feels very organic. The main weapon here is a twin-beam that fires and connects instantly which, coupled with the secondary fire zoom, makes it an ideal long-range killer.
Viper - I guess you could think of this as the Necris' answer to the Axon Manta. This single-passenger speeder reels off rapid-fire projectiles that can bounce off of walls which, with a fair amount of time invested, can take down a vehicle or foot soldier. The real strength behind this vehicle is its speed and mobility. You begin to understand its name-sake when you press the space button and the vehicle spreads apart like a viper's hood, allowing you to hover high in the air. And the Axon vehicles:
Goliath - Fans of the original Goliath will be thrilled with the visual makeover. It's definitely a much more manly-looking tank these days. The driver/main gunner will enjoy the two fire modes: primary yielding a single booming projectile much as in the last version, and secondary deploying a wider infantry-killer shell. The second player gets to shoot the machinegun - whee! This is a good place to note that all of the vehicles have received an upgraded suspension giving them much more believable handling. It's now less like driving a brick on four wheels than ever before.
Scorpion - in addition to the upgraded appearance, this little buggy-that-could fires off an electrified bouncy ball that rolls and explodes either on contact or after a moment or two lying on the ground. If you can manage to get in close to a vehicle, such as the Nemesis, a barrage of super-balls will make short work of it. The secondary is the familiar twin-blades. You can also send the vehicle itself on a kamikaze mission by holding down the C button.
Hellbender - not much to say here, other than the visual upgrade is quite striking. It looks less like your mother's Humvee and more like the militaristic killing machine that it's meant to be. The driver, however, has taken control over the popular skymine gun. Player two controls the twin beam o' death.
Manta - even less to say about the Manta, though it's certainly been the recipient of a graphical overhaul. It plays pretty much the same as it did before. The final thing I want to mention about the vehicles are the hoverboards. Striking your Q key will result in your player pulling up a hoverboard that allows you to travel a good deal faster than on foot. You can speed things up by using a grapple to latch onto vehicles. While in hoverboard mode, you can perform a few fancy aerial tricks but, to balance things out, you cannot draw a weapon. This seems like a good time to point out that you can, in fact, carry the flag on your hoverboard. The same flag-carrying rules that were implemented in 2004 seem to have been applied here - no flags in flying vehicles (i.e. Mantas, Raptors, Vipers, etc).

The weapons available in this demo were:

Enforcer - your default weapon, a pistol that fires a fairly rapid single shot or a triple-burst in secondary.
BioRifle - Yes, the rumours of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. This lovable little bundle of goo has enjoyed a significant facelift, as seen in the latest released concept art. The fire modes are exactly the same, though the sludge has a new odd-looking glow about it.
LinkGun - The recipient of a major visual overhaul, now an odd whitish color, this weapon returns, in functionality, to its Unreal Tournament state. That is to say, it still retains its healing abilities towards vehicles, but the primary fire is smaller and faster and the secondary is pretty much an arrow-straight beam of finite length.
Stinger - Essentially a projectile version of the minigun. In fact, the modes are exactly the same: a fast, inaccurate wide-spread and a slower firing higher-powered shot. I was told that it can nail opponents to the wall, though I saw none of that. It too can be seen in the latest trailer.
ShockRifle - Other than the visual upgrade, this weapon remains largely the same in terms of firing modes. The primary fire beam seems slightly slower than that of the 2004 version and the secondary cores seem a little faster and smaller.
FlakCannon - As have the rest of the weapons, this one has received a transformer-like makeover. The weapons in UT3 are visually very interesting. Nearly all of them have quite elaborate animations. The primary is the same, though the secondary has a much shorter arc.
RocketLauncher - The biggest things to note about this iteration of the weapon are the slower rocket speed and the much more useful lock-on. The lock-on probably won't be useful against people, but against some of the slower vehicles, it is tremendously more effective. As I noted initially, the test conditions weren't optimal for determining some important factors such as weapon balance and damage, so I can't comment too much there. Unfortunately, the SniperRifle was not in this build and it seems to be the final key to maintaining a proper balance. The other weapons seem to be a step in the right direction to move this series away from the hide and seek long-range affair that it had fallen into. You're gonna want to get close to make your kills it appears. The weapons sounded and felt more powerful up close, though I'll leave final judgement on that to a later date when things are closer to completion.

One hotly-debated element of the series is movement. I can tell you that double-jumps and wall dodges are in at this point. Though, I'm not sure why. In my limited testing, they didn't seem to make much of a difference. I think you probably won't even notice they are there. As has been promised, the gravity of the player seems to have been increased. Dodges yield a much shorter distance, reminiscent to the original Unreal Tournament, and jumps, in general, don't seem to take you as far. I think it's safe to say that the fighting will be on the ground instead of in the air.

The players are much larger and more detailed than in 2004 and are much more visible. I had no trouble, at any time, discerning my enemy from across the map. In addition to the return of the ability to feign death, the more brutal death camera roll of Unreal Tournament have returned. You can almost feel the force of impact. There was some gibbage present in the game, though I'll go on record as stating that I want more!

Visually, the game was impressive. Geometrically speaking, I don't think the game is much more elaborate than would be possible in Unreal Tournament 2004. The lighting and intricate details are where this game really shines, and it definitely adds to the immersiveness of the game. Nice little touches such as falling leaves, exhaust smoke, and mud splatters on vehicles abound throughout. The game ran very well on the high end machines mentioned above, slowing down only slightly in the more open areas with lots of activity.

I do just want to mention the streaming level technology. The way it works in-game so far is this: once the level ends, the scoreboard is shown first over the top of the ending level and then over the top of a black screen, which lasts for just a few seconds. The new level then appears and you are frozen in your spawning point (though you can move your view around) with a small message at the bottom of the screen proclaiming "wating for other players". Once everyone is connected, the game starts seamlessly.

So the bottom line is that the game is shaping up much as we've heard it would be. Gone are many of the annoyances of the previous game, returning are many of the things for which people praised Unreal Tournament. It's quite fun to play, it looks amazing, and I'm looking forward to spending some more time with it in the future, testing out Warfare and the core gametypes.

[MaXimus]

Here is the other preview:

Firing Squad Preview: Unreal Tournament 3 Hands-On

Source: http://www.firingsquad.com/games/unreal_tournament_3_preview/

It’s a game that’s been in development for quite a while but this week FiringSquad was one of the lucky few media outlets to be among the first to sit down and actually play Unreal Tournament 3 (formerly known as Unreal Tournament 2007) for the very first time. At Midway’s press event this week, developer Epic Games set up a 4x4 CTF tournament with one of UT 3’s maps and we played several rounds with other journalists while checking out the new vehicles and the revamped weapons.

UT 3’s name change came about because Epic Games didn’t want people that the game was simply a slightly improved chapter in the series but an all new title. According to Epic producer Jeff Morris, the game will have a more cohesive storyline than previous games in the series. You will be playing one pre-set character that not only has to deal with the futuristic and bloody tournament from the Liandri Corporation but also an all out war from the alien Necris. That’s pretty much all he would say about the storyline but it’s at least comforting that the single player portion will be more than just bot matches through the game’s map.

Of course, multiplayer will be the bread and butter of UT 3 and modes like Deathmatch, CTF and the new Warfare game. Morris told us that Warfare combines elements of UT 2004’s Onslaught mode with the classic UT Assault mode. However, that’s not the kind of mode or map that was set up at the Midway press event. Epic wanted to have something that people could pick up and play easily so they had a vehicle based CTF map (with an Asian art theme) ready to play. The level itself was relatively average in size, with lots of different paths for players to take to get to their objective. We saw new versions of the familiar weapons and power ups stations (power ups include the always fun double damage) and one path includes trying to go through the level’s water wheel that took out more than one unwary player.

Fans of the series will be happy to know that many of the weapons from the former game make a reappearance in UT 3, from the bio gun to the shock rifle to the rocket launcher, and all of course have alternate fire modes. Naturally, the weapons have gotten a art revamp for UT 3; one of our personal favorite UT 2004 weapons, the flak cannon, now has a anime redesign that looks almost organic in nature in first person mode. One new weapon is the stinger, a kind of replacement for the mini-gun that in its alt-fire mode fires projectiles that can impale enemies to the wall.

And what about the vehicles? The biggest additional feature in UT 2004 makes for a big comeback in UT 3. Old favorites like the big Goliath tank, the small one man Scorpian buggy, and the one man hovecraft Manta make new reappearances in UT 3 along with the two man Hellbender ATV. The new additions in our press demo map are the new Necris vehicles. There were three to choose from. One was a sleek one man hovercraft that not only moves fast but can actually fly (or more accurately float) if you are moving fast enough and push down the Space button. We used it to get from one side of the map to the other pretty quickly. It has an energy weapon in the form of a burst that actually ricochets around the levek’s walls. This is perfect if you have a target inside a rather enclosed space.

More Vehicles
Another new vehicle was a one man mini-tank that rolled on alien tracks and fired twin energy weapons; it also could raise its turret up in the air so it could pop up and deal out some death to the Liandi warriors. The big new vehicle in the UT 3 demo map was the two man tripod that owes a lot of its visual look to the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds remake. The three legs can actually move the tripod up and over certain natural obstacles in the map and its main weapon, two very powerful energy cannons, can take out most of the other vehicles fairly quickly. The other manned position controls a machine gun turret that can take out threats from directly below the tripod. This vehicle’s main weakness is that it’s extremely slow in movement and that the energy weapons fire for only a few seconds before they need a little time to recharge. One other “vehicle” in UT 3 is included in every player; a hoverboard that the player can switch to by hitting the “Q” key that allows for much faster movement in the map than just being on foot; there are no weapons except for a grappling hook in this mode, however (what do you mean, except a grappling hook? There’s no other weapon you’d ever need if you ever played Quake… -ed.)

In playing several rounds in the UT 3 CTF map we found that the game was a little more faster paced than previous games in the series. Having the hoverboard option helped a lot in getting around the map quickly when a vehicle wasn’t available. We do think that at least at the moment the Necris vehicles are slightly more powerful than the Liandri counterparts; we hope that Epic will do some more balance testing to rectify this. Visually UT 3 uses Unreal Engine 3 (as does many of Midway’s other upcoming games) so the game looks terrific with great looking character and weapon models and impressive lighting and visual effects. There were some nice little art touches like seeing leaves occasionally blowing around in the air and black smoke coming out of the Hellbender’s exhaust ports.


Epic is planning to release UT 3 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in addition to the PC, and Morris told us that all three versions will have the same content (the press demo was played on a Dell XPS 710 PC). There is no word yet if Epic will allow players of the PC and Xbox 360 versions to play against each other. Morris did confirm that Epic will release a multiplayer demo of the PC version before its release but could not confirm if the same will be done for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. Of course, people who don’t want to play online can always play against bots and Steven Polge is back once again to breath AI life in the bots. And yes, the “double kill” and “rampage” awards for killing more than one enemy are back as well.

Of course, there is a lot more about UT 3 that Epic isn’t discussing yet and in the months leading to its release we plan to find out and hopefully play more of the game than just a few minutes at a press event. However, based on our brief time in our vehicle CTF map demo, fans of the previous two (or three if you want to get technical) games in the series should be getting excited by the new title’s prospects. Unreal Tournament 3’s faster paced gameplay and new vehicles are just flat out fun to experience and we can’t wait to get our hands dirty playing the new Warfare mode. Look for a lot more info on Epic’s next multiplayer shooter in the very near future.

[Lord_Xan]

While I'm still very excited for UT3, I'm growing more and more worried that Onslaught 2.0 is nothing other than Warfare. Warfare sounds interesting and all, but I'd prefer not to carry balls around in my Onslaught games, nor try and complete Assault-like objectives.

Another thing is the absence of the AVRiL from the press demo. Hopefully it's still in - normal rockets just aren't as much fun against vehicles. :(

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

Any game that involves carrying around balls is starting off on a bad footing in my books. :P

[MaXimus]

An interview with Mark Rein:

Game Informer: One of the things you announced today is that you’re bringing Unreal 3 to Xbox 360. Was this something that was always happening, or is this something new?

Mark Rein: I think it was the realization that we might be able to sell a few copies on this PS3. We had a little success on Xbox 360, and we might be able to sell a few copies there.

GI: Was this something that you guys were planning on doing from day one?

Rein: Not necessarily. One of our big concerns was the ability to bring mods to the platform, and it’s still a bit of an open issue, but we’ve had some pretty clear indications that we’ll be able to do it, and we’re pretty excited about that. That was kind of the one thing, we wanted to make sure we’d be able to bring user-created content to the platform before we made a firm commitment to it. Honestly, we view Gears of War as our showcase title for the 360, and we really view UT as our showcase title for the PS3. Now that we shipped Gears, people who are interested in licensing our technology can see we have a mature title that works, it plays really well, it sold great. We’ve always felt that UT was our poster child for PS3, you know getting UT done and up and running and running well would give us the same sort of benefits that Gears has given us on 360. So that was always our focus, and now you’ve obviously seen that we have this ability to potentially sell a lot of copies. There’s a large audience, and it just makes sense to do. I don’t think it’s anything we thought we weren’t going to do–we just want to focus on UT3 on PS3 to start.

GI: Will you launch all three SKUs on the same day?

Rein: To be honest, we don’t really have a SKU plan for it yet, so we don’t really know. I would expect us to bring out a PC demo or beta earlier on than anything else, and whether or not we can ship them all at the same time is just a question of time, and we don’t really know that yet. We have no idea what the order is—that’s more of a game-time decision, right?

GI: Do you think Sony’s in trouble?

Rein: No, god, no. Somebody asked me that earlier, and I was like, “What a ridiculous question.” People, just give them a break for crying out loud. People think it’s bad if they can’t ship enough, and then they think it’s bad if they can ship enough. It’s like, which is it? Either they can’t fulfill your order or they can, and they’re both good. Being able to fulfill your order is good news, right? Go out and buy your PS3 now. You can get one. That’s miraculous. They sold more PS3s in North America than Microsoft sold Xbox 360s in its same period of time, and they clearly aren’t going to have the shortage problems that Microsoft had. So as long as people are willing to pay the price for the machine—and I’m sure lots of people are—I think they’re hopefully in a good situation. I think they’ve done a good job with their downloadable content. There’s not a lot of games on there, but the ones that are there are really high quality, and I’m really impressed with the games. It’s a beautiful machine, it’s a great-looking piece of equipment, so I think Sony’s going to be fine.

Hopefully, they’ll have some big, hit must-have games. I mean, I was really hoping for a Gran Turismo this year. I’m a little disappointed that they’ve sort of abandoned the idea of doing Gran Turismo HD and building it out. It’s because I’m a fan, and I love that game. I’m really looking forward to Motorstorm, obviously, Resistance is a great game and I’m really enjoying it, so I don’t think that at all. I think Sony’s going to do great. People just want to say, it doesn’t matter what, people just want to say bad things. You know there were people predicting with Gears, “There’s no way it’s gonna make its release date, and Epic’s having problems and it doesn’t run well on the 360,” and all these crazy, stupid rumors. People are so negative now, it’s just turned. I’ve really noticed this over the last couple of years. It’s really turned a corner from positivity to negativity, and it’s overwhelming sometimes. It makes you want to kill yourself. It’s just crazy. I don’t get it. I don’t understand why people want to be so negative about everything. Like I said, I think there’s some really good news there and it’s a great machine, and people just want to beat them up. Same with Xbox. It doesn’t matter which one it is. Everybody’s got something negative to say these days.

GI: It’s funny that you mention that, because you said some pretty negative things about the Wii…

Rein: No, I didn’t actually. I wasn’t saying anything at all about the Wii, actually. It wasn’t a statement about the Wii itself, it was about the games that will come out for it and how people will bring games on it that are just there because of the controller, and I wasn’t exactly wrong, was I?

GI: You were actually very right.

Rein: It wasn’t a comment on the system, and I always said that Nintendo would make great games. I’m Mr. Optimism, by the way. I know people seem to think I say controversial things, but I’m very optimistic. I’m definitely a Mr. Optimism type of guy. I always said, “Nintendo will make great games.” And, sure enough, Wii Sports is frickin’ awesome. So I think they’ll do well, too. I bought Wario—it’s fun, I like the games they made for it. I really do. I don’t know if that controller works for every kind of game, though. I think that’s the one clear message of the Wii. That’s what they said all along. Rethink what you’re making for this thing, and if you do, you’ll have some great success.

GI: Will UT3 have DX10 right out of the box?

Rein: Absolutely. It’ll support DX10.

GI: What are your thoughts on Vista? Do you like it? Do you like its performance?

Rein: It’s love/hate. So, I love the feel of Vista, and I love all the cool power tools that are built right in this time. I love the way it organizes all your content for you. I love all the gaming features. I hate the fact that there’s a 32-bit version of it, and I hate the fact that there are versions that can run without Aero Glass. I think these were compromises they made for Intel, and I think those are mistakes that’ll hold the industry back. There’s no reason why every machine out there shouldn’t be 64-bit now. There’s great 64-bit processors—AMD has been shipping them for years. Intel was shipping them for years— and then, through the core processor, the original core processor into the mix and the Core Duos were 32-bit, and they shouldn’t have. And Microsoft shouldn’t have capitulated to them and said, “Oh, well Vista will support those.” They should have waited until they had the Core 2—another great processor—but full 64 bit. So, I’m a little worried that we’ll get limited support of 64 bit from the driver writers, from the application-software guys. Game guys won’t be a problem, because one of the conditions of being given the Games for Windows logo is 64-bit support. So games won’t have that problem. The question is how many game developers will exploit 64-bit and the advantages of 64-bit. It’ll be small, because the majority of systems will be 32-bit. So it’s kind of a love/hate thing. I love the OS, it’s definitely an improvement. The latest Office is a big improvement. I want 64 bit. I need more than 2 gigs of RAM. I absolutely need more RAM, and RAM is cheap now. I’m really going to hope that 64-bit is not the forgotten stepchild or relegated to workstations or what have you or just certain applications run on them. I think the way to accomplish that would have been not to do 32-bit. I’m disappointed in that.

GI: If you were going to build a rig right now, would you go with a Core 2, Core 2 Extreme and get DX10 right away or would you think someone should just wait and see how Vista pans out?

Rein: I’d go for the absolute top of the line, because that’s the kind of guy I am. (laughs)

GI: You have the money to do that, too.

Rein: No, but nonetheless, I would definitely build a Vista system. Windows XP will still be around for a long time, and obviously we’re going to be supporting XP in any products we come out with for the next couple of years. I would absolutely go for Vista, no question about that. And I’d definitely go for a graphics card with DX10 support. It would be silly not to. You want to be as future-proof as you can. That doesn’t mean you have to buy the most expensive one, you just want to find one that has support for it.

GI: Unreal has always scaled really well, from low-end hardware all the way to the high end. Where do you think the sweet spot is? What do you think it takes for a rig to be able to put Unreal through all of its paces?

Rein: We always aim Unreal for systems that people don’t have yet. (laughs) Whether its UT or any Unreal game, so I think the sweet spot has yet to show up. Again, it’s 64-bit and a ton of RAM, like an NVIDIA dual 8800s and Core 2 Extreme Quad processor—you could certainly build a super rig, but UT3 with everything turned up all the way is still going to struggle on that kind of thing. A year from now, it’ll still be a game that is a showcase game for whatever hardware you happen to be getting then. That’s normal. That’s exactly the way we’ve done it every time from the original. The format hasn’t changed there. But you’re right, we try very hard to make sure it runs well on what the average gamer has. It’ll definitely be hard to reach the bottom this time, because with UT2004, we had a software renderer, so it could run on virtually anything. We’re hoping to have that capability at some point with this series, but I don’t know for sure or when.

GI: Are you shooting for something like Shadowrun, where you can play PC versus 360? Are you shooting for that with UT3?

Rein: I don’t think we’ve made any decisions there yet. It’s something that we definitely have to get up and running and then see if it’s something that we like or not.

GI: What about supporting the achievement system for Live on PC? Are you guys supporting that?

Rein: I don’t know. It’s too early to know that.

GI: Any thoughts on bringing Gears over to PC, or are you going to keep it an exclusive on 360?

Rein: We’ve always said that at some point, Gears would come to PC, or could come to PC. We demoed it. The first year at E3 we demoed it, it was on a PC. It’s not a question of if it can run, it’s a question of when’s the right time, and when do we have the right people to do it and is it the right platform for it? So there’s no final decision on that yet. Right now, it’s an Xbox 360 exclusive. If you want to play Gears, go buy a 360.

GI: Congratulations on your success with Gears. You received many nominations for the AIAS awards. Is the Gears team on vacation, or are they thinking about Gears 2?

Rein: No, they’re still working on Gears. You saw that we put one update out, and we’ve got another one coming out another any day now—I’m not exactly sure when. We have another update in the works with a little surprise in it, and we have more downloadable content. We’re still working on making Gears a better game. You’ll have to wait and see what comes from that.

GI: Do you look at Halo 3 as a complementary franchise or something that you’re competing against?

Rein: We’re a long way from Halo 3 still, so it’s not like we’re releasing them in the same week. They’re both complementary. I mean if Gears helps build the audience for Halo 3, then I hope Halo 3 helps build the audience for Gears. I think a lot of the Halo 3 publicity they did right around the time Gears shipped probably helped convince those stragglers or fence-sitters that, “Oh, there’s Gears of War now, and Lost Planet is coming, and Mass Effect and Halo 3…” I think a rising tide helps rises all the boats. I think, hopefully, Gears of War is just different enough from Halo 3 that if you bought a 360 because you’re a Halo fan you’ll also buy Gears because, “Wow, everybody says it’s great and I want to give it a try and it’s different.” Likewise, I’m sure everybody’s the same with Halo 3. They have a huge built-in audience, and I think that helps everybody on Xbox 360, because people know it’s coming, they’re starting to see little bits of it, the TV commercial was cool. So absolutely, I think Halo 3 really helps everybody on Xbox 360, not just us. I think everybody. It’s just one of those things that you know is coming, the same way Gran Turismo is on PlayStation 3. It’s a classic, you gotta have it, it’s a gotta-buy thing. If that helps you make a decision to buy Gears early or wait until later, we’re happy about that.

GI: When do you think we’ll hear something about your next Make Something Unreal contest?

Rein: I hope not too long from now. You know, that’s typically something we organize after the game is out, which is always a moving target for us. We definitely hope to do another contest. There’s no question about that. It was very successful, and we got some great mods and NVIDIA was a fantastic partner. There will be another one, I just don’t know when we’ll be able to announce it.

GI: Last question: What are you playing now?

Rein: Gears of War, baby. And UT3, because I can. (laughs)

[MaXimus]

After reading this interview and various other previews, I've got two concerns:

1) By the sound of things UT3 seems to be very far from complete, there are too many unknowns and too many things that still needs to be done. I'm thinking that developing UT3 for all three platforms at the same time is busy eating away the actual time they are spending developing UT3 for the PC. Mark also sounds a lot more excited about the PS3 version than the PC version. I suspect that we may only see UT3 right at the very end of this year, or even early next year. Hal, from Beyond Unreal, played the sample of UT3 but was clearly not overly impressed, especially reading some of his followup posts.

2) Epic is playing with the big boys now, including Microsoft and Sony. These are also the companies with plenty of cash in their pockets. Epic being just to glad to finally get some proper recognition will be the little whore who sleeps with everyone in one bed. Which direction will the money push them, time will tell.

One final thought: I just saw a new trailer of Crysis where there is a "flyover" from underneath the oceans surface to various parts of an island. To be honest, the graphics is so #&^*#$ unbelievable it makes Unreal Engine 3 look like old technology. :P

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

Yeah, I actually got the same impressions when I was reading through this interview, particularly regarding (1).

Where did you get that Crysis trailer? I'm keen to see it.

[MaXimus]

It's on the latest NAG DVD, actually there are quite a few awe inspiring trailers on there.

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

Oh dear... I was hoping for a downloadable one.

/Opens google. :P

[Lord_Xan]

Oh dear... I was hoping for a downloadable one.

Have (http://trailers.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_crysis_flythrough_h264.wmv) at you!

[MaXimus]

Neither Google, nor Youtube will do the video any justice unfortunately.

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

Thanks Xan, busy downloading now. :)

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

Wow... those graphics are insane! I'd love to know what kind of machine they are running that on!

[Lord_Xan]

Wow... those graphics are insane! I'd love to know what kind of machine they are running that on!

That demo was shown at X06 on a Core 2 Duo system with a single 8800 GTX. Sorry, but I can't remember the exact specifications of the system. :(

[MaXimus]

Dang! Here is another Crysis video, looks freaken awesome!
Mirror 1: ftp://ftp:hgz$3E@66.90.70.67//movies/Crysis_DX10_trailer_291012007.wmv
Mirror 2: http://www.floze.de/filebase/?file=ggmania/movies/Crysis_DX10_trailer_291012007.wmv
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GorZzVKt1U

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

That demo was shown at X06 on a Core 2 Duo system with a single 8800 GTX. Sorry, but I can't remember the exact specifications of the system. :(

Hey... that's great news! My next upgrade will hopefully be something similar to that. I mean, that's great detail for such readily available hardware. :)

[Lord_Xan]

Sorry, Jaymac, but I think I got your hopes up a wee bit. I went back and checked the live demo of Crysis at X06 (exact same fly-through) and the framerate is roughly half of what you see in the video I linked to. The reason for the difference is two-fold:

* the machine used to produce the fast version is higher spec (possibly SLI)
* the developers use something akin to UT's dumpframes to ensure that the video will play back at a nice, steady fps

[GM<Jaymac>MF]

Aaw, and here I was thinking that a simple upgrade and I'd be able to have those schweet graphics.

Oh well, I guess that's the way the world works ... ;)

Thanks for the link though. I think it's going to be a great game.