Midway and Epic Games announced today that the upcoming FPS Unreal Tournament 2007 will be heading to the Xbox 360 alongside the PC and PS3 versions, and will appear under the title of Unreal Tournament 3. The release date for the game is still sometime during the second half of 2007, and is being developed with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3. The engine will not only provide lifelike graphics, advanced lighting, and enhanced AI, but also seamless level loading and other technologies.
The game will feature the standard game modes of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag, in addition to the return of Unreal Tournament 2004‘s Onslaught, and new mode Unreal Warfare, which takes place on much larger levels, featuring objectives and base defending. As for weapons, some–such as the Impact Hammer and Dual Enforcers–will be brought back after absences from previous iterations, some dropped for other weapons (Minigun for the Tarydium Stinger featured in Unreal and Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict), and others will be simply updated (Shock Rifle, Flak Cannon, Link Gun, Rocket Launcher, and Sniper Rifle).
Accompanying Unreal Tournament 3‘s robust multiplayer mode will be a single-player campaign, which Epic Games is focusing on making more engaging and fun than what has been found in previous titles. As for the multiplayer mode, quite a bit of time is being spent to insure online play is smooth on each platform, with features like seamless loading, improved matchmaking, and co-op online play. The PC version of the game will be bundled with the Unreal Editor, so that fans can create levels and modifications–which have been confirmed to be downloadable on PS3.
Now that Gears of War is the clear winner of online fragging on the Xbox 360, will Unreal Tournament 3 be able to triumph over the third-person shooter? Both games were developed by Epic Games and feature the Unreal Engine 3, so it’ll be quite the show to see if Epic Games can out-do themselves–not to mention the forthcoming Halo 3.
