Oct 3, 2007

Editor’s Note: In case you haven’t heard, this baby’s been delayed ‘til 2008.

When our straining ears picked up the first whispered rumours emanating from Epic that Unreal Tournament 3 was coming to PS3, we couldn’t sleep at the prospect of getting our mitts on the game. And that’s exactly what we did on a recent visit to Epic’s North Carolina offices, where lead designer Steve Polge and producer Jeff Morris unveiled the nearly completed version of what could be one of the most thrilling PS3 titles of the year (whereby "the year" means 2008).

Unreal 3’s single-player campaign breaks with the linear mission convention that’s typical of shooters, offering instead a choice of missions. “You’ll be able to make decisions about which mission to do next,” explains Morris. “You may decide to stem a Necris assault or try to opportunistically help your corporation gather territory instead. There’ll be a detailed strategic global map, which will have branching choices as the campaign progresses.”

Time for us to get bloody. Clutching our controllers, we found ourselves in a giant space station, replete with indoor sections and outdoor low-gravity areas. Moving from one location to the next proved seamless as we hopped past fizzing bullets and strafed our AI opponents - each of which displayed a frighteningly lifelike level of intelligence - with an array of versatile weaponry.