Unreal Tournament III (UT3) is a first-person shooter video game and the next installment of the Unreal series after
Unreal Tournament 2004. It is being developed by Epic Games, to be published by Midway Games in
November 2007 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.[clarify] The Game will be released on the Xbox 360 game console in 2008. [2]. The PlayStation 3 version is likely to be released early in 2008[3], although the developers are still aiming for a release towards the end of 2007; the Epic Games website still states that the game will be released in November 2007.
Unreal Tournament 3 is actually the fourth game in the
Unreal Tournament series, but has been numbered in terms of the engine it runs on. The original
Unreal Tournament uses the original Unreal Engine, while UT2003 and UT2004 use the Unreal Engine 2; therefore they are considered as the same generation. UT3 is subsequently part of the third generation, because it runs on the Unreal Engine 3.[4]
Gameplay Unreal Tournament 3 - DM/CTF gameplay PREVIEW! | Veoh Video Network" target="_blank">Online Video:
Unreal Tournament 3 - DM/CTF gameplay PREVIEW! | Veoh Video Network
Similar to the previous entries of the series, the game is primarily an online multiplayer title offering several game modes, including large-scale Warfare, Capture-the-Flag, and Deathmatch. It will also include an extensive offline single-player game with an in-depth story, advancing from the simple tournament ladder to such concepts as team members with their own individual personalities. The following game modes have been confirmed:
* Deathmatch
* Team Deathmatch
* Capture the flag
* Duel: A one versus one gametype. It uses a queing system, the winner stays, and the loser goes back to the end of the queue. A typical match last five minutes with an unlimited amount of rounds.
* Unreal Warfare (formerly known as Conquest): New to the UT series, maps will be potentially as big as three Onslaught maps, and will have objectives similar to Assault maps. A limited form of resource management will exist in the form of tarydium mines or fields that must be captured; the more a team captures, the faster it can build vehicles and turrets, and the more bunkers it has the more tarydium it will need. Bunkers will possibly serve a similar purpose to power nodes in Onslaught. A similar mode of play was also in the game Command & Conquer: Renegade. A significant amount of details regarding Unreal Warfare have changed since "Conquest" was first announced, so it is possible that this form of resource management no longer exists.
* Vehicle Capture the Flag: Capture the Flag, with vehicles as part of the map; this exists as a separate game type to Capture the Flag, above.
Modes not returning from the previous
Unreal Tournament games include Onslaught, Bombing Run and Double Domination; Assault was removed from the game during production[5]. Due to the game's customizable nature these game modes could be recreated by users of the game. In addition, the flexibility of the new Warfare mode will allow level designers to create Warfare maps that play like classic Onslaught or classic Assault.
Weapons
The Bio Rifle
The Shock Rifle
The weapon arsenal in UT3 is largely similar to that of UT2004. Returning weapons include the AVRiL (which also combines the Mine layer as secondary fire), Bio Rifle, Flak Cannon, Link Gun, Rocket Launcher (which has the original Unreal's grenade alternate fire), Shock Rifle, and Sniper Rifle. There are also two confirmed superweapons, the Redeemer and the Target Painter. The Dual Enforcers and Impact Hammer based off the original UT, respectively replace the Assault Rifle and Shield Gun from UT 2003 and 2004. The Dual Enforcer fires either single automatic shot, or three round bursts. The Impact Hammer features an EMP blast alternate fire to disable vehicles. Returning from Unreal and Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict is the Tarydium Stinger, which replaces the Minigun. The Stinger's primary fires hitscan-speed rounds; the secondary fire mode has a slower rate of fire and isn't hitscan, but can nail an opponent to a wall if it's the killing blow. A new concept of weapons are the Deployables, which allows hand-held devices such as the Spider Mine trap and the Stasis Field to be deployed at will. The Stasis Field is a large gelatinous cube that slows down projectile weapons and players. [6]
Killing awards have been expanded from just three in UT2004 to nearly all weapons. Accumulating fifteen kills with a particular weapon or fire mode, and the announcer will award you a specific title. The awards are: JackHammer, Gun Slinger, Bio Hazard, Combo King, Shaft Master, Blue Streak, Flak Master, Rocket Scientist, and Head Hunter.
[edit] Vehicles
The vehicles have been split into two factions, the Axon vehicles (made by the Axon corporation) and Necris vehicles. The Axon vehicles are the same from UT2004, but several have significant gameplay changes. [7][8][9] In addition, every player is equipped with a personal hoverboard, which is a skateboard-like device that allows players to traverse large maps, and towed when they grapple other teammates' vehicles. However, the hoverboard is very vulnerable to attack, and any kind of hit will knock the player off the board and disable him for several seconds. Additionally, the player cannot use any weapons while on the board.
The returning Axon vehicles include the Editor's Choice Edition of
Unreal Tournament 2004 and are relatively more traditional. Included are the Manta, which is a fast hovercraft which is more maneuverable in UT3, the Raptor (air superiority dogfighter), Scorpion (light assault buggy, now equipped with grenades and has a speed-boost option which can be used to kamakazi itself into another target), Hellblender (armored jeep), Cicida (a two player air support vehicle), Hellfire SPMA[10] (remote bombardment cannon with a significant improvement in handling), Paladin (infantry support), Goliath' (battle tank), and Leviathan (weapons platform).
Axon vehicles
The Hellbender
The Paladin
The Leviathan
The Manta
The Raptor
The Cicada
[edit] Necris vehicles
The Necris, are mutated humans(including some of the best tournament and champion competitors)that resemble vampires that exist in the Unreal universe , will have a rival set of vehicles. There will be 9 new Necris vehicles with very different styling and unusual behaviors. Although they will not parallel Axon's vehicles, they are intended to make a good balance against them.
The following vehicles have been confirmed:[11]
* Viper (Quick Strike Ground-Skimmer)
Designed to be highly maneuverable. It has a couple of small wings you can use while running to make a little jump and then softly hover to gain the ground of elevated platforms or the like.It will feature a kamikaze function which will allow the pilot to bail out and turn it into a sort of flaming projectile that will inflict much more damage than the turret weapon it has. The main weapon, turret, shoots energy shots which bounce around the environment.
* Nemesis (Mobile Energy Turret)
Will have snake-like treads which adapt to the ground below it as it moves. Its main gun is very similar to mounted energy turrets. This vehicle has a zoom function. This vehicle looks strikingly similar to the Scion Titan battle tank from Battlezone II
* DarkWalker (Heavy Walker)
The main weapon will be a powerful twin laser beam which can fire in short bursts; secondary fire produces a tremendous "scream", which knocks opponents off their feet, making them easier targets. It will also have the ability to bend down or pop up in order to surprise the enemy, and as a walker will be capable of negotiating terrain too steep or uneven for a wheeled/tracked vehicle. Judging by screenshots, the Darkwalkers somewhat resemble the "Striders" in Half-Life 2, and more strongly resemble the tripods from H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. The second seat of the darkwalker is a powerful turret that projects plasma in a beam capable of instantly vaporising an unarmored target.
* Fury (Air Superiority - dogfighter)
A Necris aircraft that uses tentacles for a jellyfish-like method of propulsion through the air. Has the ability to boost and barrel roll to escape enemy fire.[12]
* Nightshade
"This Necris stealth vehicle can go invisible while it moves around. By uncloaking, the Nightshade gains the ability to drop deployable objects such as spider mines and stasis fields. The stasis field unleashes a large, green tinted cube that slows anything inside of it down to a crawl."[13]
* Scavenger [14]
A Necris ground vehicle with the ability to roll into a ball and travel through levels at high speed. The Gamespot website recently stated "It looked like a big, rolling hamster ball, except it had whip chains it could lash about. We don't know what it's called--just that it hurts." [15] An IGN article adds, "This energy orb with three long tendrils attached runs along using the tentacles a bit like a spider. The arms can be pulled in to start rolling and then whipped out to attack. It may not be the most effective ride, but it looks quite swanky." [16]
Necris vehicles
The Viper
The Dark Walker
Teams
Single player mode will allow the player to select from competitors from all races, and compete against a selection of preset teams, including:
* Necris, appearing in several previous titles, are the re-animated dead and the antagonists of UT3; white-skinned, gothic-looking beings with advanced technology.
* The Corrupt, a team of artificially intelligent cybernetic robots, financed by the Liandri Corporation and lead by Xan Kriegor, champion of UT.
* Iron Guard, a group of hardened mercenaries, led by Brock and his girlfriend Lauren.
* Krall, serving as soldiers for the Necris army, are a veteran clan of reptilian alien warriors, slaves to the Skaarj during the time period of Unreal.
* Thundercrash, led by Malcolm, a famous team of former NEG soldiers.
* Twin Souls, a team protected by red armour, with yellow glowing LEDs and henna tatoos; due to the similarities in armor and previous articles, this team may represent the Izanagi. [citation needed]
Engine and Development
UT3 will use the Unreal Engine 3. Already known for its extensive graphical capabilities through titles such as Gears of War and Bioshock, the engine now takes advantage of third party technologies such as PhysX physics cards to provide an advanced game experience.[17][18] Also included is the ability for AI bots to respond to advanced and specific voice commands, improved from previous use of a very small number of voice commands, along with the ability to use a command menu to control bot behaviour.[19]
As in Half-Life 2, the levels of UT3 are being developed with simple building blocks, with artwork to be added afterwards, allowing the focus to be placed on improving gameplay. Lead designer Steve Polge claims, "We're not trying to make a prettier UT2K4. We're really trying to make a very new game." A larger emphasis is also being placed on AI. The bots in UT3 will be able to understand simple voice commands; while they will not understand speech as well as a human, Polge states the player will be able to "have some sort of conversational vibe with it".
Custom level editing
An early Unreal Tournamen 3 promotional screenshot.
The Unreal Editor (also known as UnrealEd and UEd) is a level editing tool that comes with the game. Unlike the editors from previous versions of the game, a "play" button has been added for mappers to test their levels from within the editor itself. There will also be a visual scripting interface, known as Kismet, allowing those with little or no programming ability to design their own mods.
PlayStation 3 version GameVideos.com - Unreal Tournament 3 '1UP PS3 Exclusive'
User designed levels will be downloadable for the PlayStation 3 console via the Playstation Store. Users of the console version will not be able to design levels without having the PC version, as the console version does not include the level editor. Keyboard and mouse controls will also be supported for the PS3 version via the USB ports on the front of the console. The motion-sensitive SIXAXIS controller will allow aiming by tilting the controller.[20] After the announcement of the DualShock 3, which includes vibration as well as motion-sensitive controls, a list of vibration-supporting titles was released, which includes UT3.[21]
[edit] PC Beta Demo
Unreal Tournament 3 Beta on PC
A screenshot of a character using his hover board
On October 12, 2007, a beta demo was made available for download [22][23][24] hours after it was leaked to the public.[25] The beta features 2 deathmatch maps (HeatRay and ShangriLa) and one vehicle capture the flag map (Suspense) [26] The demo keeps many customizable features locked as well as lowering graphics quality in order to keep the file size small. The official release of the beta was at 3PM ET on fileplanet.
System Requirements
Minimum System Requirements: [27][28]
* Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista or Linux with advanced 3D processing or Mac OS X 10.4
* 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
Tim Sweeney of Epic Games has confirmed [29] that the best quality of graphics in UT3 (i.e.: MSAA anti-aliasing with HDR) will only be available to players of
Unreal Tournament 3 if they are Windows Vista users who also have a DirectX 10 graphics card.
