PC gamers have been getting free updates for their video game Unreal Tournament 3 since earlier this month. Now it’s PlayStation 3 owners chance. Epic unleashed its Titan Pack expansion for Unreal Tournament yesterday.You can just go the PlayStation store and download it. How much? Free. How cool is that price? Very much.
The Titan Pack’s content includes new gametypes Greed and Betrayal, 19 maps, fresh weapons and vehicles and a host of other goodies.
The best part might be its namesake: the Titan mutator. Fill up your Titan meter by slaying enemies, grabbing flags or nodes, and just generally being kick-a$$. When your meter is full, time for fun. You can blow up into a behemoth with a mega-strong rocket launcher and some nasty punching ability.
Steven Horton, leader of the UnWheel 2 development team, discusses the progress of the new mod and his thoughts on UT3. UnWheel 2 is racing mod for UT3 and a sequel to UnWheel for UT04.
How is development going? Any ideas on a release date?
Development is going slow, I am the only one working on content. The sVehicle code has changed, and we have yet to import a vehicle correctly yet. We have a coder who goes by the name Optimus who is doing research on the code. We have about 10 all new vehicles models ready to import. We are no where near even guessing at a release date.
How will UnWheel 2 be different from the original UnWheel?
I have talked with the coder about the possibility of making an UnWheel lite that could be played on conventional UT3 servers.
Does your team have any plans putting this game on the PS3?
That question hasn’t been addressed at all.
UnWheel has always stood out as a UT3 mod because it’s a driving game. Are there special challenges making the mod on a first-person-shooter engine?
There was for me, because I didn’t want to use the stock UT2004 game meshes or textures, so I had to learn to do these myself. I am sure the coding aspect was pretty time consuming; it took Shrimp months and months of code work.
Have you been playing UT3 much? Any thoughts on the game?
Not much. I like the look, the graphics are ok, but the maps look like they only use about 4 different themes. There are alot of maps, but so many look alike. I can tell you UnWheel 2 will not have ANY tentacles in any maps
Thanks to Steven for taking time from his busy schedule to talk with us.
I finally got a few days to put in some serious time playing on the PC version of UT3 and my estimation of the game is climbing. The game didn’t wow me initially. The single player campaign is lackluster, the new vehicles are mostly a disappointment, and parts of the game (most obviously the user interface) were clearly watered down for the console releases.
That said, after playing more online, the game is growing on me. I’ve mostly been playing Warfare mode, which is very similar to the Onslaught mode of UT04. I’ve now found myself in more than a few closely fought and very enthralling battles, where after each death I grew impatient just waiting the couple of seconds to respawn.
UT3 is on its way to becoming a very solid game with some more patches to iron out kinks and added content. More apparently is on the way. Mark Rein said over on the Epic forums yesterday that “Lots of cool stuff coming for this game.” Good to hear.
As a person writing a blog about a video game,I am, by definition, a nerd. But even I have boundaries. Some products are simply too lame, even for me. One thing I would never buy is a modded computer case. My computer is a functional tool, not something I want to play dress-up with.
Of course, I have no qualms about being given a modded computer case. If it’s free, sign me up. Hell, I would take a doll house or a DVD of Barney & Friends if somebody was giving it away. Who doesn’t love free crap?
So that’s my roundabout way of introducing a contest the guys over at bit-tech are throwing. Answer a ridiculously simple question to have a shot at winning the case above. See the contest rules after the break. By the way, if you win, we split the prize 50-50 since I told you about it.
A big selling point of the PS3 version of UT3 is the ability to play community-created mods. While that’s nothing new for PC, it’s a revolutionary step for notoriously proprietary consoles. Just one thing though. You can’t actually play mods on the PS3 version yet.
“The PS3 mod tools aren’t quite ready yet. We are working through some final legal/release issues,” says Josh Adams, an Epic Games programmer. A link provided for PS3 mods in the game manual doesn’t even work.
GameZone has posted one of the first full reviews of the PS3 UT3. They give it fairly high marks. One thing that struck me reading this review is that it is nearly indistinguishable from many of the reviews for the PC version. That adds some credence to the lament of many PC players who say that the latest Unreal Tournament was cut down to fit on consoles. Its definitely not a bad thing for console players though. While the initial reception to the PC game has been underwhelming, this game looks like it has the potential to a be a console hit.
The PS3 version is hitting store shelves today. ShackNews got an early peak at the game. They’ve posted some early impressions, hardly a full review, but it’s still one of our first looks at the PS3 version. One interesting bit, the slower gameplay didn’t bother the writer:
It doesn’t quiet feel as fast as the PC version of UT3, though–Epic commented prior to release that the speed of the PS3 version was slowed down slightly, and that seems to be the case. It doesn’t bother me at all.
There was one sour note, some difficulties getting the PS3 mouse and keyboard to work.
I had no problems getting my keyboard recognized, but I had to unplug and plug in the mouse and change the USB port I was using several times before it was recognized, so watch out for that. You can use the keyboard for basic menu navigation, but you can’t actually fully navigate all menus with it, which smacks of laziness.
That’s a bit disappointing to hear because if you’re going want a mouse and keyboard for one PS3 game, this is probably it. Read the full article here.
Well, another week is upon us. The weather is growing colder, the sun rising later, and Newegg still has the cheapest selling price for the PC basic edition of any major retailer. They’re selling the game for $44.99 and have free three-day shipping.
The PS3 version comes will hit shelves Tuesday and none of the major retailers are offering a discount from the MSRP of $59.99.
Here’s one thing worth a shot though for those looking for a deal on the PS3 UT3. The guys over at the Cheap Ass Gamer forums have posted a Best Buy coupon good for 10 bucks off any PlayStation3 game. It’s good until January 31st. Some people on the forums have confirmed they have had success printing out the coupon and using it.
