Or so says Epic's Mark Rein who is proud that his UT3 is on PS3 hard disks

Feb 6, 2007 15:42 GMT  ·  By

Rein's impressions on hard drives is a very determining one as he claims they are "crucial" for today's gaming systems and he is telling the truth. An integrated hard-drive will expand a game's lifespan and also allow further improvements, maps, stages, characters and other new features to be added, things that will only line up to what is already there, so naturally, hard drives are good. But Rein's exact statement seems to say more than that:

"The Long Tail," (talking about a game's lifespan) "I guess you could call it. The downside is that people will say, 'we've brought PC-style patching to console.' But that's not a bad thing, to be able to fix something you didn't get quite right, or create new types of gameplay.[...] I'm glad people have hard drives and the ability to download new content.We've very much applauded Sony for having the hard drive on every single PlayStation 3." He added: "We will absolutely take advantage of the hard drive on Unreal Tournament 3. So if you don't have a hard drive on Xbox 360 and you want to get the most out of your UT purchase, think about getting one."

Get what? A new Xbox 360 or a hard drive for the machine? The same interview with Wired revealed Rein's impressions about how the PS3 is doing (it has become like a trend to ask every developer and publisher what they think about the PS3). Without any hesitation, Rein said (again) that people should give it a brake and just wait and see: "I don't understand all this crazy negative backlash toward PlayStation 3. It's like, people aren't happy that there aren't enough machines, and then they're not happy that there are? Get over it! You want to be able to buy the damn thing!"

Well, is he right? Whether he is or he isn't, it's up to you to decide, but it surely seems that Rein is a pretty big fan of the PS3 as the last part of the interview reveals: "...it's not in our plans to bring Unreal Engine 3 to the Wii. It's really designed for next-gen, high-definition." So the Wii just isn't worthy of your fancy engine, huh Rein?