Who says Unreal Tournament is an old title? Actually, no one, and that's not even the point here. The point is that the latest issue of OXM (snatched by BeyondUnreal.com) showed loads of new CTF and DM maps for Epic's popular FPS, UT3. More than that, some maps are shown with vehicles, as the site informs but no nodes to distinguish them as Warfare maps were found. We're talking 3 to 4 dozen maps here, just in case I didn't manage to get your attention.

Although it has been known for quite some time now that UT3 was getting a huge number of maps, the reporting site says that "one particular interesting map shown looks like the new Deck DM map," although they couldn't confirm it as Deck, "it had the signature pool of toxic sludge at the bottom of the map. The other maps shown had a wide variety of different themes and they all looked fantastic."

However, the interesting part is yet to come. Not only are we talking about 30 to 40 new multiplayer maps for your favorite FPS, but about huge ones as well: "Aside from the gameplay shown in the video," the same site informs, "it offered a few details about the game. It was said that the original idea was to make gigantic maps utilizing UE3's streaming technology for up to 64 players at once. They decided that it didn't feel like a UT game and went back to improving the original formula. Each map starts out as a basic BSP layout and is play tested until they think it is fun and then it is handed over to have static meshes and the rest of the artistic assets created. There will be 3 to 4 dozen multiplayer maps in the retail version of the game. The single player portion will have even more maps than multiplayer."

I have to say, Epic knows how to keep its fans happy. Imagine how easy it was to just release a bunch of them in the retail version of the game and then charge gamers for the rest of the goods via Xbox Live. Everyone would be hooked on the retail version maps (given that Epic threw in some of the best) and then gamers would buy the rest like crazy. Of course they didn't do that, which means a lot. Unreal fans are fortunate to have Epic bringing them what they want.

The only question that remains is: what are FPS fans going to do for, Halo 3 or UT3?