14 DAY TRIAL // One of the highest rated FPSs in its genre, UT3 is already getting new maps, and 30 to 40 at that, before it is even launched. An exclusive interview with CVG, Epic's Jeff Morris reveals his team's intentions of further exploiting the game's potential: "While we want all of the versions to be the same that's not to say we won't do exclusive patches for each platform and that would enable us to do some pretty spectacular exclusive content. We don't know the exact number of maps we'll ship with but we want it to be between 30 and 40-that's substantially more than other games in the genre."
Although fans would die for some more info on how the maps will be available, what price and how they'll look like, they'll just have to settle with knowing they're on their way and in great numbers too. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions are following the 1st March PC release, on October 1 and October 2, 2007, respectively.
The game gives all players a skateboard-like hoverboard intended to provide a fast way to get around the larger maps of UT3, so it will surely prove useful in at least some of the 40 maps or so. While on the hoverboard, players may attach themselves to a vehicle in order to be towed and also do tricks that don't really make the object of the game. The hoverboard is meant for non-combat sessions as the player is unable to use weapons while driving them, and is extremely vulnerable to attacks.
As most of you probably know, UT3 uses the Unreal Engine 3. The engine can take advantage of third party technologies such as PhysX physics cards, to provide an advanced game experience so the engine will require a DX9 graphics card. No problem I'm sure for UT3 loving fans who will upgrade the system to the sky if they need it to play their beloved FPS.