At Sony's GDC booth there was a Bravia running something that caught my eye. There was no mistaking the absurdly quick framerate or endless vaulted halls of shiny sci-fi conduits: There among the rest of Sony's currently available offerings was a first glimpse of Unreal Tournament 3... and the dude that was playing just walked off.
Carefully wiping the saliva from my chin so as not to shock the crap out of myself when I grabbed the SIXAXIS, I set about hitting buttons at random in an effort to familiarize myself with the controls. This demo had the weapon swap set to the R1 shoulder button, with the R2 and L2 triggers functioning as primary and secondary fire. The helpful Sony rep standing nearby mentioned that the L1 button would eventually function as a sort of weapon menu and, if held down, would open a radial smorgasbord of firearms that could be selected with the left analog stick.
Fragadelic, Baby!
While I'm on the subject, allow me to describe the weapons that were available in this demo. First up, there was a small energy-based submachine gun that would spray small plasma slugs in a fairly tight cone of fire, but the secondary fire would unleash a thin solid stream of molten plasma. "When you kill someone with that gun's alt-fire, it's pretty cool because their skin sort of evaporates away leaving a skeleton that slowly sizzles into nothingness," remarked the Sony rep. (See, I told you he was helpful... and pretty good at describing gruesome deaths as well).
For the most part, the rest of the weapons were pretty run of the mill: a rocket launcher (alt-fire would unleash a set of three rockets all at once), a shotgun (alt-firing grenades), the classic railgun (alt-firing electro orbs of some kind), a chain gun (alt-firing bulkier slugs) and an acid blaster similar to the Acid Bomb Glove from Ratchet & Clank (alt-firing a big glob of acid that splatters smaller blobs on contact). Each of these weapons was capable of dispatching enemies in a few shots, though I have no doubt that the game is still being tuned for balance at this early stage. All of them had lusciously destructive visual effects that accompanied each shot and I could really see the power of the Unreal Engine 3 in each discharge.
With only the one station up, I was battling bots that were not terribly smart -- easily dealt with. Still, I noticed that they were employing fighting techniques that I'd considered strictly the province of my fellow conniving humans. They were using my favorite moves! Once actually ducked around a corner and caught me full in the chest with a shotgun blast as I rounded the corner after him/her/it. Sneaky... very sneaky. Fortunately, the demo was set so that I was impervious to any damage, otherwise I would have been wheezing through a couple holes in my chest. During another heated showdown, my opponent collapsed to the ground and I began celebrating with a victory spin only to watch him pop back up and shower me with another salvo from his submachine gun. The damn things can feign death, but I can too (by hitting the circle button) so I guess it's fair. The Sony rep mentioned that in addition to the customizable bots, all of the classic modes that we've become accustomed to would be in the game.
For those of you hardcore PC purists, mouse and keyboard controls will be available in the PS3 version through the USB ports on the front of the machine. In addition, the Sixaxis controller will get its usual nod and the motion sensor can be used to control where you look. The Sony rep apologized for it not being accessible on the demo I was playing, and he suggested that it was actually very accurate once you got the hang of it.
As far as graphical appeal, the game looks at least as good as Gears of War or Doom 3 with glitzy lighting galore. Judging from the level that I played (a space station sort of thing), Unreal's classic quality level design is in full effect. A large map with both huge open areas and tight claustrophobia-inducing corridors was strewn with chokepoints, cover and shining neon doodads. With strange glowing tubes and other bits of high-tech machinery coating nearly every surface, the whole package was really incredibly striking. All this, the framerate was still sky-high.
While still a ways off from being finished, Unreal Tournament 3 appears to be set to take on any other FPS currently available and grind its bones into dust. With graphics and speed easily eclipsing the latest edition of its old competitor Quake, it's clear that the Unreal Engine 3 is working overtime. Look for Unreal Tournament 3 to drop sometime before the holiday season, and many virtual bodies to start dropping soon after.
