I hope it'll play on my machine.

You're the one who got me fixed on those games, anyway. I don't think I've ever played a more gratifying shooter for the PC.

I was hooked by Unreal in the late 90's, Unreal 2 and then by Quake III Arena. The guy that did the AI on the latter based his Masters Thesis on it.pdf Link. I love that this genre is scriptable and modable. Young programmers can get their feet wet.

I hope it'll play on my machine. You're the one who got me fixed on those games, anyway. I don't think I've ever played a more gratifying shooter for the PC

Well, if there is one thing I can say for sure, it is Epic knows how to build an engine.  The Unreal engine is just about the most scalable I have ever seen.  Better even than the much venerated Quake 3 engine.  Unreal engine games could scale to a huge level of hardware.  I assume this version will be the same. 

I love that this genre is scriptable and modable. Young programmers can get their feet wet.

I also love the Epic encourages this.  The "Make Something Unreal" competition comes to mind.  Big time prizes and support to the modding community to use the tools to make something impressive.  The UT2004 special edition comes with a full DVD of "How to's" for modding, level design and character design.  That is the sort of thing that encourages community involvement.

Yes I'm excited about UT3 too! But I disagree with the comment about shooters on consoles. Really when compared to their PC counterparts console shooters just have a watered down feeling to them. Let me be clear, I am not talking about graphics. Its true that consoles will probably never be equal to PCs in terms of graphics quality, but thats not my complaint, most graphics now are good enough for me to be happy. Its the game play, the feel, the immersion, and the presentation that I feel is truly lacking in console shooters. I'll probably get it, but it will certainly be for the PC.

@Bleudev

I really hope they don't just concentrate on the X-box 360 'player'. And 'forget'the pc,(PS3=non-existend) player. And I really hope your expectations are not to highly hyped. Because it could lead to disaffecttion.

And I hope you enjoy your game.   

Really when compared to their PC counterparts console shooters just have a watered down feeling to them.

Hmm, I don't know about that.  I have played shooters on both consoles and PC and the only difference I see is the controls.  But, to each their own.

I really hope they don't just concentrate on the X-box 360 'player'. And 'forget'the pc,(PS3=non-existend) player. And I really hope your expectations are not to highly hyped. Because it could lead to disaffecttion.

I'm sure they won't ignore the PC player.  Epic knows they are their "core" audience.  However, with the success and brilliance of Gears of War, I think they also are very well aware of just what an audience they have with consoles.  And as far as expectations, I doubt they will blow it.  All I need is the same style of UT gameplay, with updated graphics and a new game more or two, with the same awesome network code, and I will be set.

Actually Bluedev, PC players have been getting ignored quite a bit lately! Ubisoft is a great example. Their roots are in PC games, but to accommodate the growing console fan base the PC games have been of surprisingly low quality. Its been tough to see some of my favorite games run into the ground in the name of catering to consolers.

You're right of course that it is all in the eye of the beholder, but having played shooters from both sides of the fence, I can say that the PCs tend to have more depth, more original game play, are able to provide more than twitch based gaming sessions, and tend to have a better connected community.

Console gaming will do nothing but increase in the future, I'm sure we can all agree on that. But I wish that studios would cater to either consoles or PCs... While its fun to see games come out across the board, I think that both sides are missing out on new ideas and new genres because developers are buy trying to make their games work on every possible platform.

Actually Bluedev, PC players have been getting ignored quite a bit lately!

That is very likely, and something I wouldn't know much about.  I used to be a 100% PC gamer, but then got tired of the hardware upgrade cycle and the constant need to track down the latest patch, tweak ini files, etc.  So I stepped away from gaming all together.  I only got back in when my wife gave me a 360.  So now I am principally a console player. 

But, hopefully, UT will stay true to its roots and be designed with the PC in mind.

I agree with the sentiment that console shooters seem watered down. The control scheme is part of it, but also it seems to me they need to slow down the gameplay slightly to match the controls. I could take a nap during a firefight in Halo and wake up before it's over...

The only shooter that worked great and the one that worked the best on consoles was DOOM on Playstation. And that was solely since you couldn't aim vertically. In every consoleshooter where you have to aim vertically it doesn't work....it's always too slow (if it would have been too fast it wouldn't have been precise enough. And a button to increase the speed increses the nr of buttons you have to use at the same time.

I played a little Halo and directly thought that the controls were way to cumbersome. Takes way to long to switch weapon and snipe someone. I would never, ever win against an equally skilled player on the PC.


Ooooh what I hope that some shooter will connect both consolers and PC players to the same server....