With Unreal Tournament 3 only weeks away, there has been a flood of news covering everything from the supposed demise of the 360 version to the censored German edition. Here are some of the highlights:
– The Xbox 360 version of UT3 is well into development and on track for release next year. Gameplayer.com.au recently visited Epic HQ and were given some time to play around with the latest 360 build.
– German fans will be receiving UT3 a full week before their US counterparts and just under 2 weeks before the rest of Europe. The trade-off is that the German release will feature reduced violence and gore in order to comply with Germany’s games rating board.
Some of the changes include not being able to shoot or gibb dead players and ragdolls being disabled for dead bodies. Thankfully the game will be fully compatible online with the PC version.
– A Mac version of the game is definitely still on the card and Mark Rein reassured fans on the official Epic Games forums, saying "We’re still working on the Mac version. We don’t know the release date yet. The good news is that the game has gone gold on the PC side so at least it is no longer a moving target for Ryan"
– In a similar vein, whispers coming out of Midway are pointing towards the PS3 version of UT3 being pushed back to 2008. Mark Rein again posted on the forums, saying "I was playing the PS3 build for a few hours tonight and it is really, really fantastic. Amazingly smooth and solid. I think you PS3 users are in for a huge treat with UT3."
– EBGames have a special deal in their US stores, whereby customers who pre-order the Collector’s Edition of UT3 automatically get a free copy of the Unreal Anthology! The Anthology pack includes Unreal, the Return to Na Pali mission pack, Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition, Unreal 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004 Editor’s Choice Edition with the Mega Pack download included on the disc! The Collector’s Edition comes with a character figurine, UnrealEd tutorials, Art Book, "History of" and "Making of" videos, so there’s more than enough to keep you happy for a long time.
– GameStop also have a special deal for their customers with an exclusive bonus character given to gamers who buy the Collector’s Edition of UT3.
– MCV has confirmed with Midway that the European release date for UT3 is indeed November the 23rd, two weeks after the censored German release and 4 days after the US release. Interestingly enough, the Australian release date is unconfirmed, though few stores are reporting the release date as November 15th! EBGames Australia however, has the release date as a slightly more realistic November 30th. Only time will tell.
Well I think that just about covers it and should give you enough information to read up on until the release of the game!
