Unreal Tournament III Discussion *renamed*

[tabs]

Dividing your userbase is already a problem for UT as it ships with so many different modes of play.

In effect they are allowing this, but they are also allowing for people to say "I don't care who I play with". Wise decision IMO. What if you have KB+M and your friend doesn't? Are you not allowed to play with each other?

 

[wco81]

I rather they give users the choice whether to play against KBM players or not.

I've heard EA product manager types say they can't allow KBM for Tiger Woods because it wouldn't be fair.

The first one leaves it to the users.

The second one you have the publishers deciding what's fair or how users should play.

I hope the KBM is a big hit and more console games support it. Then users can make up their mind and decide if it's worth investing in KBM.

When the PS3 came out, people were trying out wireless IR and bluetooth KBM combos right away, with the browser and the XBM. So I think KBM could be more popular than a lot of publishers believe.

 

[Titanio]

why dont they divide servers? One with keyboard users and one with gamepad users?

In effect they are allowing this, but they are also allowing for people to say "I don't care who I play with". Wise decision IMO. What if you have KB+M and your friend doesn't? Are you not allowed to play with each other?

He says you'll be able to decide:

We'll also allow people to choose whether or not they want to allow mixed controller vs. keyboard/mouse games or not.

So you can go into games that are mixed, KB/M only or gamepad only.

It's the best solution.

 

[tabs]

He says you'll be able to decide:

Yes, I'm aware of that. My post was a response to the one above it.

 

[Arwin]

It's that time of year again.

Epic Games boss Mark Rein has expressed his appreciation for the extra storage space Blu-ray discs offer over standard DVDs, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting.

He was speaking about upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 shooter Unreal Tournament 3 at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, and warned that "we may have fewer maps on the 360 version ... Blu-ray has definitely given us a lot of legroom".

He went on to add: "If you think down the road - well maybe the next UT beyond this one - on Blu-ray we might fill the whole damn disc with all the cool stuff the mod makers make."

Unreal Tournament 3 will be console exclusive to PS3 this year, with the 360 version to follow in 2008. Sony's system will also let you play using a keyboard and mouse.

Epic's other big game to date was the 360 exclusive Gears of War, which sold bucket loads and was really rather a lot of fun.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=81458

 

[one]

I remember Tim Sweeney mentioned 20GB some years ago...

 

[wco81]

But Unreal hasn't sold well on consoles has it?

Gears of War is their one console hit.

Will either or both console versions outsell the PC version of UT3?

Not likely.

 

[Arwin]

@one, that's why I said 'again'.

@wco81, that version of Unreal (Championship on PS2) can't be compared to this release though. Well, except for the keyboard and mouse support.

This release even has mods on the PS3, it has both a very good single player and a huge multi-player online component, and it has last year's huge hit Gears of War as a direct predecessor in the console space.

I'm not saying it will be an automatic hit because of all this, but I don't think you can say much about this version based on previous releases.

 

[scooby_dooby]

It's that time of year again.



http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=81458

Seems this is somewhat of a red herring.

If a user is playing UT2007, they must be online. If they're online, they can easily download extra maps as a DLC package.

So...seems if Epic wanted to make it work, it would not be hard.

I do appreciate their incessent jabbing at MS. Few companies are as powerful as Epic that they can make these sorts of statements, first with regards to user mods, and now a likely jab at MS about allowing free DLC. These are all policy changes that will benefit the end users.

 

[archangelmorph]

Seems this is somewhat of a red herring.

If a user is playing UT2007, they must be online. If they're online, they can easily download extra maps as a DLC package.

So...seems if Epic wanted to make it work, it would not be hard.

I do appreciate their incessent jabbing at MS. Few companies are as powerful as Epic that they can make these sorts of statements, first with regards to user mods, and now a likely jab at MS about allowing free DLC.

They can get away with it by keeping ol' redmond sweet with GeOW2..

 

[Nesh]

Seems this is somewhat of a red herring.

If a user is playing UT2007, they must be online. If they're online, they can easily download extra maps as a DLC package.

So...seems if Epic wanted to make it work, it would not be hard.

I do appreciate their incessent jabbing at MS. Few companies are as powerful as Epic that they can make these sorts of statements, first with regards to user mods, and now a likely jab at MS about allowing free DLC. These are all policy changes that will benefit the end users.

But perhaps it is not just the extra mods that could be a problem for 360's DVD storage.

 

[Titanio]

Seems this is somewhat of a red herring.

If a user is playing UT2007, they must be online. If they're online, they can easily download extra maps as a DLC package.

Depending on the size of the overflow, so to speak, it might be less easy than you think. It wouldn't be very sustainable, with most on 20GB hard-drives, to have more than a couple of games with perhaps multi-gigabyte DLC to make up for a lack of optical disc space.

MS has cornered themselves from two ends - small optical discs, and small HDDs with pricey and limited upgrade options.

Anyway, we'll see what happens with UT3. He wasn't giving a final word on it.

 

[betan]

Seems this is somewhat of a red herring.

If a user is playing UT2007, they must be online. If they're online, they can easily download extra maps as a DLC package.

Why go DLC? If users have HDD and enough space just provide an extra disk for install. If not, DLC wouldn't work either.

 

[wco81]

But free content goes against the XBL business model whereas free mods is a PC tradition.

So there is a clash.

Look at the workarounds people are resorting to in order to get user-created NCAA football rosters for their X360s.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Why go DLC? If users have HDD and enough space just provide an extra disk for install. If not, DLC wouldn't work either.

True, but it's unnecessary really. If they're on live, they can DL the content, if not they don't have much use for the maps anyways. So, it seems they could save a little on the costs by just going with DLC.

But ya, they could go either way.

But free content goes against the XBL business model whereas free mods is a PC tradition

Capcom has already released a couple free map packs for Lost Planet, with another freebie on the way, IIRC.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Depending on the size of the overflow, so to speak, it might be less easy than you think. It wouldn't be very sustainable, with most on 20GB hard-drives, to have more than a couple of games with perhaps multi-gigabyte DLC to make up for a lack of optical disc space.

MS has cornered themselves from two ends - small optical discs, and small HDDs with pricey and limited upgrade options.

Anyway, we'll see what happens with UT3. He wasn't giving a final word on it.

Not really following you. What percentage of people are going to need to have "more than a few" of these games installed, at the same time??

I have 7 demo's on my 360 now, each of them is 700mb-1.3GB. Even if a game used 4GB for downloadable maps (which seems a little ridiculous) you could still have 3 games on there at any one time, which again seems a little far fetched.

I don't see how they've cornered themselves at all, at worst the 20gb HDD introduces a small amount of inconvenience.

I guesa 40gb would've made things a little roomier, but 20gb is still plenty of space for one or two games at a time.

 

[Titanio]

Not really following you. What percentage of people are going to need to have "more than a few" of these games installed, at the same time??

I have 7 demo's on my 360 now, each of them is 700mb-1.3GB. Even if a game used 4GB for downloadable maps (which seems a little ridiculous) you could still have 3 games on there at any one time, which again seems a little far fetched.

I don't see how they've cornered themselves at all, at worst the 20gb HDD introduces a small amount of inconvenience.

I guesa 40gb would've made things a little roomier, but 20gb is still plenty of space for one or two games at a time.

Only being able to keep a few games "ready to play" at any one time would kind of not be practical. That's assuming this sort of thing became a reasonably frequent occurence, of course, and that's the problem I was thinking of.

When I say they corner themselves, I mean IMO the different parts of their storage strategy don't really complement each others strengths and weaknesses. If they had a large HDD with open-ended and 'cheap' upgradeability, HDD-based solutions wouldn't be such a stretch. But as is, they're working with small discs and small HDDs.

 

[Dave Baumann]

But free content goes against the XBL business model whereas free mods is a PC tradition.

So there is a clash.

The Following is an abstract from one of the Gamefest presentations:

http://www.xnagamefest.com/talk_abstracts.htm#LIVE

Learning to Share: User-Generated Content
Speaker: Zsolt Mathe

As gaming becomes more connected and many gaming communities are created all over the world, having a rich online presence and content sharing is increasingly important. User-created content opens up a new avenue for users to customize, create, and share content, making the game their own. User-created content can take many forms, from the simple the ability to create skins for avatars, vehicles, and weapons to putting your face in the game and in user-created levels. The talk discusses different approaches that games have taken to enable user-created content, covering high-level design choices as well as technical implementation details. This presentation is intended for those who want to learn about the avenues of adding user-created content and for game developers who want to learn about LIVE services that enable content sharing.

I think the intention for things like user generated levels is to use XLSP (XBOX Live Silver Platform) where the data can be gathered from the publishers servers as opposed to Live servers.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3161957

During a Q&A session on the topic, someone asked Microsoft Software Design Engineer Zsolt Mathe whether this meant a developer could then construct a level editor for use on a PC but created levels playable that were then playable on Xbox 360. "Even though nobody has done that, I would highly recommend that," said Mathe.

 

[TrungGap]

It's that time of year again.



http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=81458

He's just a damn lazy and stupid whiner. He not willing to put an effort in learning (and is not capable) of understanding the dvd technology to fully use it. He's stuck in this mentality of infinite storage. He's not willing to do the work, I bet he hired a dev to figure how to squeeze the UT2007 on to a dvd instead of him getting his little hands dirty. He's totally a fanboy...He never liked the 360 anyway.

 

[wco81]

Well the NCAA rosters may be a legal issue. Even though content is created or edited by users, MS may have a liability issue in enabling or allowing transfer of such content through any of their infrastructure.

On the PS3, I think people are emailing or downloading on their PC, transferring to USB flash drives and then onto the PS3, so sideloading instead of downloading directly into the console.

I just remember Allard's presentation about Velocity girl creating new levels and people being able to get that through XBL. But it sounded like there would have to be a transaction.

In practice, how much user-created content is distributed now through XBL?

And were the Gears of War maps free or did they charge? That might be an indication of how much publishers have a say in whether they charge or if they charge, what the pricing would be (look at record companies clashing with Apple over iTunes pricing).