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Whilst eager Xbox 360 gamers are patiently awaiting the release of Epic Games’ fast paced and frantic shooter, Unreal Tournament 3, PC and PlayStation 3 (in the US) gamers are already sampling the delights of the multiplayer mayhem. There is still some uncertainty surrounding the Xbox 360 version, all we know is that it’s coming, but may lack some features that the PC and PS3 versions offer.
It doesn’t seem at all likely that Microsoft will allow users to transfer mod content from the PC to the Xbox 360 platform, which is what can be done with the PS3 version of the game. I have been keeping an eye on the situation for quite a while now and the basic consensus is that Epic Games will be trying their best to add this user generated content to the Xbox Live Marketplace as free downloads. This seems like it will have to suffice, but I can’t help but wonder if it will go beyond just multiplayer maps or other kinds of content? There is likely going to be copyright issues which would delay this process for the Xbox 360 version, should these need to be added to the Marketplace. For instance, someone has created the Halo CE multiplayer map Wizard, a.k.a. Warlock from Halo 2 – I’m certain Microsoft and even Bungie would be non-too pleased with that, if they’re not able to make a profit from it. The most impressive thing I have stumbled across is a mod that allows you to play UT3 in 3rd person view, think Gears of War… the game already has a similar visual style to Gears of War but playing in 3rd person mode is uncanny. It’s like a new version of Gears, with much larger and open maps, just lacking the chainsaw and a decent shotgun; the gore is already in place.
User generated content is a big deal for UT3, so it’s obvious to see why the Epic team have focused on the other platforms first, that allow the users to have control of the types of content they want. Whilst this may hack off the Xbox 360 faithful, which no doubt is where the most interest in the game will be coming from in the console market. On the bright side, I guess we can at least look forward to a proper matchmaking system, oh and those achievements – everybody loves achievements!
I personally have not been a big follower of the UT series; though I did really get into the Xbox release of Unreal Championship, if I had broadband in my area at that point in time then I may have enjoyed playing it a lot more on Xbox LIVE, as opposed to just facing off against bots.
Unreal Tournament 3 is one pretty, yet gritty shooter and is sure to prove to be one of the must have FPS multiplayer experiences when it releases on the Xbox 360, as it has already proven on the PlayStation 3. UT3 as it stands on the PC and PS3 currently comes with a good selection of medium to large scale multiplayer maps, as well as a variety of familiar and rather diverse alien weaponry and even some means of transport, including a big tripod like thing… War of the Worlds anyone?
I expect Epic Games will currently be churning away at the Xbox 360 version of the game as I type this out. One thing that did disappoint me about the PS3 version of the game is that there is no ranked matchmaking; you just go to find a game, jump in and start shooting. That for me was a major disappointment, as I like to see my progression and my time spent playing online actually count for something. The only other negative for me was the campaign mode.
I went into campaign just expecting matches with bots, then this fantastic cut-scene kick-started, and literally moved my expectations and made me expect, just for a few moments a proper single-player campaign. I know the emphasis is on the tournament, meaning multiplayer but that was one mighty fine cut-scene and as I’m a big fan of Gears of War and the fact that the actual cut-scene looks like it’s ripped right out of Gears, well I just immediately built my hopes way too high. The campaign is just you playing against bots, though on the plus side you can play co-op online through the campaign too. It’s not completely pointless either, there are some incredible cut-scenes delivered from time to time, as well as some dialog during loading screens which help to make things a bit more clear.
While this whole user-generated content fiasco sounds like a negative spin on the Xbox 360 version, and it really is too. For those of you who just want to jump in and frag away without having to hunt down new maps on the Internet, and then transfer them to a USB storage device, and lastly download them to your console. All of that is what it takes to get this extra content on the PS3 version of the game, it’s not exactly user-friendly or even the most ideal means of transporting the content to the console. It does however pass several legal loopholes, which Epic Games obviously wants to avoid. The main thing being time, testing and having the extra content certified before these can be added to Sony’s PlayStation Store, so it’s clear to see the reasoning behind just letting the gamers manually get the content to the console from the PC. While it’s not an ideal method, it does do the trick and until Microsoft open up the restrictions on their box then things don’t look likely to change any time soon.
Regardless of what version you end up playing, the important factor is that Unreal Tournament 3 is just fast-paced and frantic shooting action at its core, which is a hell of a lot of fun to play.
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