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Pre-E3: Unreal Tournament 2007
preview
game: Unreal Tournament 2007
posted by: Blaine Krumpe
publisher: Midway Games
developer: Epic Games
genre:
platform:
date posted: 08:48 PM Mon May 8th, 2006
last revision: 08:52 PM Mon May 8th, 2006



Click to read.Unreal Tournament 2007 promises to bring hardcore gaming to fans of the series with updated graphics, weapons, vehicles, and environments. Epic has been working hard to deliver content that will please both newcomers to the game and the religious following of fans that have been with this series of games from the start.

UT 2007 is supposed to be a mix of the original Unreal Tournament game and the frantic frag fest that was 2004. However, in this iteration of the series, the developers at Epic have decided to take the lessons they learned in UT 2004 and make a game that will appeal to a wider audience. Some people saw the various game types in UT 2004 as being too many and thus fragmenting the players along specific niche groups. With UT 2007, the levels, weapons, and vehicles will be built to attract many new players, but be true to what hardcore gamers expect of the series. So far, Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Capture the flag, and an evolved type of vehicle combat that builds on UT 2004\'s onslaught will be the core of this gaming experience.

Because of the larger environments, vehicles will be a very prevalent factor in UT 2007. It\'s going to be really interesting to see how they incorporate power nodes and other capture locations into the overall game. I\'ve heard that there might be ancillary capture locations that don\'t affect the overall chain that must be created to win the level. They will serve as advantages if captured, providing extra vehicles and weaponry to whoever holds them. This would be a step up in the overall experience of the game and provide some interesting strategy alternatives. The hand held weapons are also expected to be similar to older versions of the series, but incorporate new features that draw from the best of the previous armaments. I think that it would be best to keep the total number of weapons down. Personally, playing UT 2004, I would stick with a select number of weapons and completely ignore the rest. I think that this would bring a flaw to UT 2007 if there were another three or four new weapons that would be incorporated into the levels.

The levels and environments in UT 2007 will be of a much greater scale and scope than the previous iterations. Everything from diverse cityscapes to craggy outcroppings of land that seem inhabitable and deadly. I\'m really looking forward to seeing the futuristic and varied landscapes that UT 2007 will offer. I\'ve also heard that level loading may be a thing of the past. That the server and your PC will be loading the next level in the background during dead times in the game. This would be an awesome feature that would keep you and your friends in the heat of battle. However, just recently the game was being run on a quad-sli rig made specifically for the game. I\'d be very interested to see how this game will handle on the vast majority of PC\'s that aren\'t cutting edge. I have no idea how some computers would be able to actively play the game on a certain map and load another level in the background. Hopefully this will be explained more at E3.

We\'re really excited to see the demo that Epic will be showing off at this E3. Hopefully it will answer a lot of questions that gamers have been foaming at the mouth for. We can\'t wait to see the new graphics and physics that the new Unreal 3 engine brings to the table. I\'m also curious to see if anything will be said about weather the Ageia physics engine will be incorporated into the game in one form or another. There\'s a lot of questions still to be asked, more will be revealed in the coming days and I will be posting whatever I hear.

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