UT 3 - EU ETA 23rd Nov!

[Ruslan74]

Find them here. (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/675/675450p1.html)

Looking nice and sweet.

TG, could it be possible to add a subofurm as for OTHER GAMES or GAMING in general, please?

[TG]

It could be possible.

[TG]

And done.

You like?

[Ruslan74]

aye... i like. :)

thanks!

[TG]

Das wha' I heer fo'!

[Brawler]

OT:what can a VB moderater do?

[TG]

Um. All kinds of things? :p

[Ruslan74]

whats a VB moderator? Vibrator related? :D

[Ruslan74]

a small mini-preview of UT2007 here. (http://www.shacknews.com/extras/2006/010506_ut2007_1.x)

looking good! maybe the PC demo will be out soon?

[Darnit696]

Pretty .... VERY Pretty . hope it plays well.

[doobiwan]

cr@p. Upgrade time again . . . .

[Ruslan74]

a recent preview on Gamespot (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/unrealtournament2007/news.html?sid=6145208) has some nice feedback on the upcoming UT game.

Snippet :

"First, Morris ran us through DM-CarbonFire, a new deathmatch map set within a Liandri robotics factory. The aesthetics of the level itself were consistent with what we've come to expect from UT: dingy and industrial, lots of dim corridors, and even some robots being put together on an assembly line in the background. Morris explained to us that since Unreal Engine 3 is so good at specific lighting and surface effects, UT2K7's levels actually ended up looking a little too polished--so the artists have added "grungification" to the process of level creation, whereby they insert dirt, clutter, and other realistic elements to give the new maps a lived-in feel. From what we saw in the video, they seem to be doing a good job."

And...

"As UT2K7 is just about the best-looking game on the horizon, we couldn't help but wonder about its potentially ominous system requirements. Our plans to stave off another PC upgrade weren't emboldened much by Morris' admission that the onstage demo was running on a quad-SLI setup, either. (Yes, that's four GeForce 7800 GTXs running in a single system.) But luckily, the game will purportedly run well on reasonably powerful, middle-of-the-road hardware at the time of its release, so you likely won't have to break the bank to be able to compete. Of course, the game will have extensive graphics-customization options, so you can tweak settings to get more performance in a tradeoff for visual quality."

Plus the console question :

"Finally, we had to ask about the on-again, off-again PlayStation 3 version of UT2K7, which reportedly might make the system's launch...maybe...or not? The game is definitely going to happen on the PS3, though when that will be is still up in the air. Morris talked about the challenges of adapting a PC game to a console, mentioning that while a PC excels at first-person shooting controls, a console's controller is better than a mouse for controlling a vehicle. In light of that fact, the game may be slightly rebalanced to be more suitable to the platform, though the versions will still be kept in sync as much as possible. It's also worth noting that no Xbox 360 version of the game is planned at this point, as Gears of War is Epic's primary focus on that platform."

When is the frigging demo going to be out?

Mama mia... quad SLI setup?

[doobiwan]

I think I'll be going back to appreciating Monochrome pong for it's elegant simplicity . . . . .

[Ruslan74]

i think i might put my kidney on e-bay a month before UT2007 is out... :p

[Ruslan74]

some new screenshots here (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/693/693039p1.html), they seem new though i swear i have seen them somewhere earlier...

[Albereth]

Really difficult to get excited about this. Hopefully a new release will have some point to it all.

I can sort of see the merit in the deathball mod but really don't know why I need 6GBs of this on my HD.

[FeralBanana]

Woahly Moses... TG: you hear that, you MAY NOT BE ABLE TO RUN THIS ON MAX HIGHEST ;)

Unless you upgrade... again ;)

[Ruslan74]

omw (http://www.beyondunreal.com/daedalus/singlepost.php?id=10539)...




AMD's new quad-core technology should provide a great performance boost for today's high-end PC games," said Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games Inc. "Our Unreal Engine 3 game technology can take advantage of four and even eight processor cores, improving performance by accelerating physics and AI calculations, and increasing the realism of the game environments our artists can build. Upcoming games like Unreal Tournament 3 will truly fly on these new CPUs.



Looks like we'll have to take out a home loan to get a PC for this game's full potential to be exploited when its released. Ouch.

[gus]

For those of you that still have UT 2004, install it and set all the graphics settings to max, (something one could only dream about doing 3 years ago) and see what the game says when you set up the last one. :D

[rainy]

I have it and will try ;) I wanted to check UT2004s widescreen capabilities anyway.

[Ruslan74]

Some fresh info from an interview :




PCGH: How do the general hardware requirements look like?

Epic: Since optimization work is still ongoing, these details may change every day. Generally speaking, the game runs quite smooth with DX9 hardware released by NVidia and Ati since 2006. On high-end cards, including the DX10 models, UT3 runs incredibly smooth already. Additionally, we also support shader 2.0 graphics hardware, with only a few technical limitations.

PCGH: How exacly are you utilizing the functions of Direct X 10?

Epic: Unreal Tournament 3 will ship with full DX10 support, with multi-sampling being the biggest visible benefit of the new graphics interface. Additionally, with DX10 under Vista we have the possibility to use the video memory more efficently, to be able to display textures with a higher grade of detail as it would be possible with the DX9 path of Vista. Most effects of UT3 are more bound to the fillrate than to basic features like geometry processing. That's why DX10 has a great impact on performance, while we mostly forgo the integration of new features.



Read the whole forum thread here. (http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=571019)

No upgrade required for the X360. Yes, we are cheap. :p

[Ruslan74]

PCGH: Are there any things you learned while developing Gears of War for next gen consoles that you can now benefit from when finalizing UT 3 for the PC?

Tim Sweeney: The Gears of War experience on Xbox 360 taught us to optimize for multi-core, and to improve the low-level performance of the key engine systems. This has carried over very well to PC. The division of UE3's rendering and gameplay into separate threads, implemented originally for 360, has brought even more significant gains on PC where there is a more heavyweight hardware abstraction layer in DirectX, hence more CPU time spent in rendering relative to gameplay.

Also, the 360 work we did resulted in an engine that also runs well on low-end and mid-range PCs. This is very important for games today; the high-end PC gaming market alone is not big enough to support next-generation games with budgets in the $10-20M range. You need to run on ordinary mass-market PCs as well. In reading PC gaming websites, one might get the impression that everyone owns a dual-core PC with a pair of $600 GPUs in SLI configuration, but the reality is very different. More than 80% of PCs sold today are still single-core, and have very low-end DirectX9 graphics capabilities. Unreal Engine 3 supports those configurations well.



Read the whole burrito here. (http://www.pcgameshardware.de/?article_id=602522)

[Ruslan74]

A recent preview on Eurogamer is out :




Unreal Tournament 3's most eye-catching new feature is a two-metre-square block of pink gelatinous wibble that Epic is currently calling the "slow bubble". Once deployed, it slows the pace of anything that passes through it to a crawl. You can fire a rocket into one end and then run round the side and watch it slowly carve through the centre, before resuming its breakneck pace as it exits. More usefully, you can also dump it in a corridor that chokes your enemy's progress and use it like a flytrap, snaring the opposition and then blasting them at will. And, brilliantly, anybody stuck inside also gets to watch your bullets seep towards them at the same gradual pace that prevents them getting out of the way. Surely this is the best deployable since Armed & Dangerous' rarely mentioned shark that leaps out of the ground and eats you when you walk over it, if not the can of Red Bull I just found in my desk drawer.

Not that the blobosquirm is the focus of Epic's presentation at E3, of course. That would be silly. But, having been up for 48 hours at the point it creeps across producer Jeff Morris's screen, it was the thing that jolted me back to life, and thus deserves celebration.

Unreal Tournament 3 (it's "3" rather than "4" because Epic considers UT 2003 and 2004 to be part of the same "series") is the latest instalment in the arena-based multiplayer shooter series that gave us the asymmetric "Assault" team-play principle, the pilotable Redeemer mega-weapon, the concept of "mutators" and a viable alternative to id Software's 1990s FPS monopoly. "We're keeping this one to a set number of game modes, and making sure we pack as much into them as possible," says Morris, introducing the game in a crowded corner of Midway's suite at the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica, when asked to explain the thinking. To that end we've got Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Warfare. Gone (to some extent) are Assault, Double Domination, Invasion, Bombing Run and Mutant, although vehicle-CTF is reportedly still in there. "Streamlined" is the word.

With Warfare, we're combining the best parts of Onslaught and Assault, and including a bunch of cool things we haven't seen before," says Morris. Warfare is a team-based mode that sees bands of players working together to capture nodes on the way to the enemy's power-core. Each Warfare map has a number of nodes, and taking each over can represent the same kind of asymmetric struggle as Assault, while preserving the vehicle-based combat and equipment elements of Onslaught. One of the benefits of this node-based concept is that a large map doesn't become stretched, as individual nodes become points of focus; a sort of "moving battlefront" as Morris puts it. That comment, and the way he talks about concentrating gameplay in Warfare, echoes a lot of the sense that Valve makes when it talks about Team Fortress 2's 'Hydro' map, for those familiar with that.

Individual nodes offer other benefits too. Some are paired with turret-guns, and those suddenly rolling their eyes would do well to centre the view again, because these - if you'll forgive the phrase - are no ordinary turrets. Well, they are, but they're attached to rails. In the example we're shown, a turret can be manoeuvred the whole way around a circular fountain in a town square, giving the defending team a greater range of strategic options. You'll also be able to go after nodes slightly off the beaten track - they won't necessarily be on the path to the opposing power-core, but they will give you other benefits, like access to some of UT's meatier vehicles. You know, the Leviathan.


Read the rest here. (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=80208)

Looking hot! :)

[sirfortie]

cannot wait :bounce:

[Ruslan74]

The system specs are out :




Minimum System Requirements

Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
2.0+ GHZ Single Core Processor
512 Mbytes of System RAM
NVIDIA 6200+ or ATI Radeon 9600+ Video Card
8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

Recommended System Requirements


2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
1 GBytes of System RAM
NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space


Link (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/34620/Unreal-Tournament-3-System-Specs-Announced), wow... so this will actually even run on my work's PC! Just shows how unoptimized Crysis is! :p

[rainy]

So this game will be waiting for me to buy it until after christmas, because with these minimum requirements I can probably forget playing it on my box. I hope by then the price is down a bit as well - the PC version is selling for console prices :(

[Ruslan74]

Now that is something of a schlepp considering PC games are slowly increasing in prices as well. Bioshock was well above R300 and now this as well? Time to come to the dark side Rainy. Join us. Be consolized! :p

[gus]

I have already committed to my LAN buddies to buy it, so am a bit sad about the extra R100 price. Oh well, a promise is a promise. :)

[rainy]

Rus, Quake Wars went for R279, the Collector's was less than R400. World In Conflict also went for R300 (standard edition). It's only a few manufacturers/distributors who think they can rip PC gamers because the game is released for console as well. But I can wait. Or alternatively survive without UT3 (or Bioshock, for that matter). It's a choice. Noone forces me to buy.

[Ruslan74]

I know the prices for games, I just listed the ones which break the R300 barrier. If you check the US & EU prices PC gamers in SA are getting a heck of a good deal. So if for some reason games go up to R350 or R400 its simply what the exchange rate implies.

$60 = R420 & 40 pounds = R560

I dont see anybody ripping people off with R400 priced games in SA IMO.

[rainy]

If you take the exchange rate into account, you also have to take into account that cost of living and average salaries down here are generally lower compared to the UK or Europe in general. But that's moot - if the customary average price for a new PC game is R300, then R400 is a rip-off, no matter what the prices are overseas.

[Ruslan74]

Well, games are imported most of the time so how can that be moot? You import, pay duties and sell to people in SA. Its not like SA makes those games that gamers mostly buy? We just got spoilt with the R300 price tag, console games are more closely matched in SA to the rest of the world and expect the same to happen to PC games soon.

[rainy]

Then I will buy less games. Nuff said.

[gus]

Well, games are imported most of the time so how can that be moot? You import, pay duties and sell to people in SA. Its not like SA makes those games that gamers mostly buy? We just got spoilt with the R300 price tag, console games are more closely matched in SA to the rest of the world and expect the same to happen to PC games soon.

Well, region based pricing is pretty common for software, since it it mostly virtual goods, with the cost of the media being just a fraction. My company certainly sell their software in various countries at prices based on what people can actually pay for it. So I also do not think there is any good reason why games should cost the same here as for example in the USA. Prices above what people can pay just makes piracy more attractive.

[rainy]

Well said gkm. Indeed, media and packaging add up to 2-3 US$, depending on the amount of copies printed. The rest is distributors (quite a bit), publishers (more) and developers (less).

[Ruslan74]

Fileplanet is allowing you to reserver a download & key for the upcoming UT3 Beta :




The FilePlanet Reserve Page (http://www.fileplanet.com/features/filereserve/) now offers pre-loads of the Unreal Tournament 3 beta, and while further details are not yet available, we do know when the beta'll be released, but cannot tell you for fear of being dismembered by Midway PR.

Rest assured however, the "soon" stated in the headline is indeed near.

Update: Here's more on the beta 'demo' straight from Epic's Mark Rein:


Just wanted to give you a heads' up that we're getting pretty close to releasing the Unreal Tournament 3 Beta Demo for Windows. The Beta Demo will allow instant action play against bots as well as online multiplayer. The purpose of the Beta Demo is to test the game on a large variety of hardware configurations and get gameplay feedback from the community. The development team feels they're pretty close to being ready to release this so it could come out this week but for safety sake I'd say it should be out within two weeks.

Excellent way to try out if you current hardware is good enough!

[Ruslan74]

Downloaded it last night and thus far can only play local bots as the online keys have not been activated as yet. My first opinion of the Beta demo is quite positive, feels like GoW on steroids! :p

Not many tweaks can be done to the graphics department in the game menu but I expect some dudes to figure out the .INI files sooner or later so you can push your current hardware a tad further.

BTW, the file size is roughly 740MB!

[WingNut]

local download link (ftp://ftp.games.saix.net/unreal_tournament_3/demo/)

[Ruslan74]

Read some benchmarks on a couple of websites and it seems the 7000 series cards take a beating in this demo, perhaps the full product has more robust old gen support. The 8000 series & HD2000 series play the game best even with AA enabled.

Overall this looks like a great title to hope for. :)

[Ruslan74]

Some news on the UT3 release date for the EU (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=87112) :




Unreal Tournament 3 will be released in Europe for the PC on 23rd November, Midway confirmed this afternoon ahead of an official launch event in sunny Birmingham tomorrow.

Sadly there's no word on the PS3 version as of yet, with a Midway spokesperson telling Eurogamer that Epic Games calls the shots on that one and we'll know when they decide to tell us.

Fortunately Mark Rein will be at the event at Omega Sektor in Brum tomorrow shouting at people about how wicked he thinks Unreal Tournament 3 is, so we will endeavour to track him down and beat an answer out of him.

Unreal Tournament 3 is due out on PC in the US from 19th November, although there's no PS3 date there either. When the console version does emerge, it will be exclusive to the PS3 for at least a little while, despite the existence of a 360 version, because of an exclusivity arrangement between Epic and Sony.


Now I am unsure whether to wait for the PS3 version or dishout for the PC version seeing the X360 copy will only be out in 2008.

[SlappY]

If I go to PC route it will mean a PC upgrade, which I am not in the mood for... :(

[rainy]

Judging from the performance I get in Bioshock, my PC should be reasonably well-equipped to handle UT3. I have taken the plunge and preordered it. Got every other UT part in my collection anyway...

[WingNut]

Gamesradar review for UT3 (http://www.gamesradar.com/us/pc/game/reviews/article.jsp?articleId=20071119114016156024&releaseId=20060225151435204030&sectionId=1000&pageId=20071119114629502002)

This looks awesome, it seems as if the devs really made an effort to bring in some new and unique elements to freshen up the series. Sounds like it will be a lot of fun!

[rainy]

Release date in SA is now December 10.