BeyondUnreal: What kind of vehicles will be included in UT2007?
Steve Polge: We basically started off with updated versions of the vehicles that are in UT2004. We shipped UT2004 with 6 vehicles, and then we added 3 more in our bonus packs. We will basically have enhanced versions of all of those, and that's what we call the "Axon" vehicle set. For example, the Scorpion now has a Self Destruct and eject mode that turns it into a moving bomb. It makes the Scorpion something that the Goliath tank has to worry about now, because if you can get in close enough you can boost at it. It won't quite kill the Goliath, but if you're fast enough you can switch to an Avril and kill it off while you're still in mid-air. We're also adding 9 entirely new vehicles based on the Necris team, which is one of the teams of Unreal Tournament. And while these [Axon] vehicles are kind of conventional, (they're futuristic versions of current military vehicles, you got the tank, the hummer, that kind of thing), the Necris vehicles will be more creative and more "out of the box." We got some really cool ideas in the works, and the plan is that players will be able to, before their match, choose which vehicle set they want their team to use. So you can have Axon vs Necris or Axon vs Axon, and while overall the vehicle teams will be balanced in performance, each vehicle will be very different. And so depending how you like to play and what your strategy is you might want to pick one team or the other.
BeyondUnreal: UT2004 shipped with an amazing amount of maps and content. Will the number of maps to be shipped with each gametype in UT2007 be similar to UT2004?
Steve Polge: We will probably ship with something in the range of the original UT and UT2003, but that's something that could change very quickly. Obviously we're still very early now, but we've always been known for shipping a lot of gameplay with our games, and that's something that's not going to change.
BeyondUnreal: All of the previous Unreal Tournament games have featured a short tutorial that cover the the very fundamental basics of Deathmatch. Will the new Unreal Tournament include an expanded tutorial system that covers advanced gameplay as well as the basics?
Steve Polge: Oh abolutely. In fact, one of the cool things we've added to the engine is a brand new scripting system, which is basically a visual programming languange for level designers. It's amazing what they've been able to do with it, they've been making entire little mini-games without any programmer help at all. It's almost scary actually, what the stuff they're able to do. With that, it's really easy for us to do things like create tutorials and cinematics. We also have a much better cinematic tool, something that goes really well with the tools we have already. We're also really excited to see what the mod community does with these new tools we've created.
BeyondUnreal: Will Epic and Midway continue the Make Something Unreal contest and future events such as Unreal University, and what can we expect from these events?
Steve Polge: We don't have specific plans at this point, but both those things are things that we thought were very successful and that we want to do again. So I would expect that we would be doing things along those lines again, it hard to imagine it not happening.
BeyondUnreal: We have seen some amazing footage of both the PS3 and XBoX360. Will UT2007 be available on these consoles as well as the PC?
Steve Polge: We haven't announced any plans yet. Unreal Tournament's roots are at the PC games, and that's what we're focusing on right now.
BeyondUnreal: What can you tell us about the interface? For example, will patching and official content be available for download in-game, and what other tings will be available through the in-game browser?
Steve Polge: Actually, that's a really good question. One of the things we really wanted to extend, and we kind of started touching on this is UT2004, is the community section. Certainly automatic updates, we also want the ability to download mods from within the game. We want to have clan and ladder pages available from within the game. One of the things we're trying to do is make all those things more available to the new players. We already have a really good online community, but for people who aren't familiar with it, there's people that just don't know how to get into it. So what we're trying to do is provide and interface which introduces people to the fact that there are all these clans and ladders and things that are going on online. We're also going to have more of a focus on our stats system. And one of the things we want to do with stats is ranking, so that we can do is a matchmaker. So when a new player goes online we can put him in with players around his own skill level so he doesn't get absolutely crushed, and I think that's one of the most intimidating things about starting off with Unreal. All those kinds I think are really key to making UT a more successful game online.
BeyondUnreal: Thanks again for your time, we look forward to seeing more Unreal in the future.
Steve Polge: You're welcome, and thanks again for stopping by!