Part of what makes first-person-shooters on the PC so appealing is the ability for aspiring designers, artists and programmers to develop their own character models, levels, weapons and whatever else their mind can conjure up, often times using the same tools the developers themselves did. That' s never been possible on consoles, but Epic Games has indicated in the past this is part of their goal for Unreal Tournament 3 -- first on PlayStation 3 and PC and now, it seems, on Xbox 360, too.
Speaking to Game Informer, Epic' s VP Mark Rein discussed why the company had forgone announcing an Xbox 360 version of the game until just recently. " One of our big concerns was the ability to bring mods to the platform, and it' s still a bit of an open issue, but we' ve had some pretty clear indications that we' ll be able to do it, and we' re pretty excited about that," he says. " That was kind of the one thing, we wanted to make sure we' d be able to bring user-created content to the platform before we made a firm commitment to it."

Previously, Epic previously stated this was already in the cards for the PS3 version (and PC, natch), and appears to have been part of the hold up on confirming an Xbox 360 title, even though we' re willing to be it' s actually been in development for some time already. The difference between PlayStation Network and Xbox Live is companies can reportedly add content to Sony' s service without a series of certifications, a common criticism directed at Microsoft, which delayed the release of demos, game patches and other content.

Back in September, Epic held a Q&A session during the Tokyo Game Show, where Epic' s CEO Tim Sweeney outlined the situation pretty clearly: " Unfortunately it' s [Xbox Live] more of a closed platform," and says they' ve even been " quite negative toward user-created content."

Through Microsoft' s XNA initiatives, perhaps Epic' s found a way to get Microsoft to loosen up a bit, or maybe Epic will package user modifications and offer them on the XBL marketplace. That' d be an easy enough microtransaction, wouldn' t it? But that wouldn' t be particularly fair for console owners, considering the PC kids wouldn' t have to pay a dime.

Plenty of questions in need of answering, and hopefully it' ll all become clearer in the coming months. Unreal Tournament 2007 doesn' t ship till much later this

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Epic are once again showing the crowd how to properly develop shooters on consoles (along with Bungie and Insomniac)...

...lets hope the " gee wouldn' t it be great if we actually took an console FPS seriously?" mindset catches on...

...lets hope the " gee wouldn' t it be great if we actually took an console FPS seriously?" mindset catches on...

Indeed. I always enjoyed that in the previous PC versions of UT. A lot of people aren' t fans of the idea of consoles becoming more PC like, but honestly, its because they are becoming this way that things like Epic plans are becoming possible. HD' s and online distribution will seriously help build the console gaming industry.

...i think you' ll find that the console gaming industry is doing just fine....


...i was referring to the endless pile of botched ports, which console fps fans usually have to endure...

...some (like ]gangsta[ ) believed that it was due to... ....ahhh how can i put this diplomatically? ....errrrm .....the majority of western game developers being... ...slightly lacking in game design skills... ...whilst others (like me) placed it squarely on laziness....

...i (and A LOT of others), are very grateful to fps gamemakers like Epic and Bungie for emulating the Japanese in their appreciation of non-windows based gaming... ..more please



...btw, did you guys know that GOW broke the Japanese top 10?...

...i think you' ll find that the console gaming industry is doing just fine....

I don' t think you understood what I meant. I don' t mean that the console gaming industry needs help, I meant that with the new features of the new consoles, it will help to grow the industry.

....oh ok, my bad...

....yeah the biggest deal driving console gaming forward (no, not the wii) has to be online... ...i just hope that those same developers don' t forget about single player...

i just hope that those same developers don' t forget about single player...

I agree 100%. Online doesn' t have to mean mutliplayer. It can drive single player just as much, whether it be through addons and mods , new downloadable storylines, or dynamic content. I think XBL has done a decent job of this with its Arcade games, but I would like to see things go even further, pushing into the premier titles.

Prey, Quake 4, FEAR etc on 360 all suck ass. Even though 360 far exceeds the recommended system requirements they all either look or run worse than their PC counterparts.

Now, Prey doesn' t look or run too badly, but the texture quality isn' t as high as you get on a decent PC and it has nothing to do with only having 512 meg available as other games like Gears and CoD3 have textures that are far superior to those in Prey. Too bad CoD3 blows...

So, like Bishonen says, it' s down to laziness. In some cases the console version is handed over to another team, like the PS3 version of Half Life 2 which is being handled by EA rather than Valve (who are doing the 360 port), ...and so obviously the game suffers.

Prey, Quake 4, FEAR etc on 360 all suck ass

Compared to a nice PC yeah, but I (having never played the PC counterparts) don' t think they look all that bad.

Well... maybe Quake.

Epic are once again showing the crowd how to properly develop shooters on consoles (along with Bungie and Insomniac)...

Yep. These is still some good innovation and skills with ID software and 3d realms. I wouldn' t count them out. They live and they learn.