If I’m not sucking blood in nightclubs and shooting zombies on the head, I’m spending quality time with the Unreal Tournament 3 demo, which is now available for download. I chose to prioritize it over the Call of Duty 4 demo (which is also available) because of one very important reason: size.

Size alone is a sufficient come-hither because the UT3 demo is good for a mere 777MB.

It gets even better when you run the game. Not only are you treated to the best performance of the Unreal 3 engine so far, but you’ll also be treated to a surprisingly wide range of features that’ll keep you busy for a while.

What are the requirements, you ask? Here’s your minimum:

Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
2.0+ GHZ single core processor
512MB of system RAM
NVIDIA 6200+ or ATI Radeon 9600+ video card
8GB of free hard drive space

The installation took some time, but for an unreleased game sporting top-notch visuals, performance is pretty good compared to other recent games (*cough* Stranglehold *cough*). Don’t let that 8GB of free space fool you—the demo eats up 991MB when installed.

I’ve been putting in the hours at Vehicle Capture the Flag. You can also spend time in Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Duel. There are three maps available: HeatRay, ShangriLa, and Suspense. As far as the demo is concerned, Suspense is exclusive to Vehicle CTF.

The levels are reasonably-sized and easy to remember—particularly Suspense, which is just a long bridge with two bases on each end. The weapons are familiar. These include the old Impact Hammer, the Bio-Rifle (aka snot gun), Minigun, Flak Cannon, Redeemer, and my personal favorite, the Rocket Launcher.

The UT3 demo is a fantastic download. It’s small, it’s fun, and you can squeeze out a considerable amount of time. I won’t be surprised if you play this game until Gears of War and/or the complete UT3 comes out.

Post from: EveryJoe

Unreal Tournament 3 hands-on impressions

A new FPS is coming to town for the holidays. NetDevil is launching Warmonger, Operation: Downtown Destruction, an apocalyptic (FPS) this October 16 for the PC. Warmonger uses the Ageia PhysX processor, a chip said to be capable of physics calculations faster than your average CPU.

This means that if you’re not using PhysX, then prepare for a slideshow that can make PowerPoint users blush. You can get your hands on Warmonger via digital download and from hardware makers selling PhysX-based cards and gaming PCs.

According to NetDevil’s press release, destruction in the game is done procedurally, rather than with pre-canned animations. This means that “safe cover” is no longer as safe and the large concrete slabs like the one used in Gears of War is no longer your friend.

NetDevil provided an interesting scenario: a sniper can blow up the stairs behind him to block access, but a rocket blast to the floor beneath him can also kill him off. Explosives, rockets, indirect fire, and vehicle combat can blow away walls and ceilings, opening up new pathways. Let’s just hope NetDevil provides enough pathways to keep things interesting.

Like many drool-inducing games, Warmonger uses the Unreal 3 engine.

Other features include:

• A choice of five different weapons, including a grenade firing assault rifle, an RPG launcher, and shielded and mountable mini-gun, among others.
• Six different maps including Sink or Swim; an underground staging area; The Approach, an old western “showdown”; Knee Deep, an abandoned shopping center; Black Adit, an abandoned subway station; Car Collector, a wrecked parking garage; and Needle’s Eye, an old industrial sector.

Frankly, Warmonger sounds more like a tech demo for the Ageia PhysX. It even looks a lot like CellFactor: Revolution, that other tech demo for the PhysX. The only thing going for CellFactor was that it was free. If I had to shell out money for a tech demo, then forget it.

Post from: EveryJoe

Warmonger seeks to punish your PC if it doesn’t use PhysX

It’s been a while since we last heard about Huxley, that über-pretty MMOFPS from South Korea’s Webzen. The latest hype went as far as E3 2006, and perhaps a few sporadic previews here and there. After poking around, I discovered when it’s supposed to come out.

According to the game’s forums, the game is scheduled to begin its close beta sometime between the tail end of 3Q and 4Q 2007. Huxley’s open beta will fall between 4Q 2007 and 1Q 2008, and its commercial launch would be somewhere before the middle of 1Q 2008 to the beginning of 2Q 2008. Got that?

So what makes Huxley special? Other than its spectacular visuals, we don’t know yet. Perhaps a part of us is hoping that the MMOFPS subgenre gets its marquee equivalent of Mario. No, I don’t want to see an Italian plumber take the lead role of a new MMOFPS—I was hoping for a game that achieves critical and commercial success like Nintendo’s bouncy hero.

One particular thing going for Huxley is its use of the Unreal 3 Engine. That means it’s going to be as pretty as Unreal Tournament 3 or Gears of War in a sci-fi, gun-toting way. Let’s just hope that Webzen doesn’t turn this game into a generic Asian-developed MMO that depends on some form of grind that’s prevalent today. Then again, Huxley is an FPS so it would take a special kind of inanity to pull that off.

Post from: EveryJoe

Huxley’s launch info is revealed