Unreal Tournament 3: Titan Pack Preview

Forget about it, she'll clearly have a tonne of baggage from her last fella.

The sheer power of the Titans mean that they'll have a significant presence in any match in which they're enabled. A decent player can work their way up to Titan status fairly quickly, so if one side gets one (or perhaps even two) then the opposition will usually be able to counter with their own. Titans are certainly extremely powerful, but since they're unable to pick up things like flags and skulls they're essentially forced to take the role of tank-like support characters. Still, one Titan in the right place can change the tide of a battle - particularly if one manages to get near the enemy core during a Warfare match. The size and power of the giants tends to make them a popular target for vehicles and turrets (as well as other Titans), but if one manages to survive long enough then they might manage to refill their gauge. If this happens then everyone else better start praying, because a charged-up Titan has the option to turn into a Behemoth: a 30ft monstrosity that will instantly murder anything in its vicinity. Behemoths only have a lifespan of half a minute, but that's more than enough time to send your score rocketing.

Only one of the 19 maps in the Titan Pack has been specifically designed with the giants in mind - a Capture the Flag level entitled Morbid. Here we find a series of large interconnected chambers, separated by large doors that can only be opened by a Titan. Standard-sized players can travel by the tight corridors that run above the hallways, but you'll need one of the big guys to lend a hand if you're to ever get the enemy flag out of their base. It's an interesting concept, one that makes for a fairly hectic pace as several giants stomp about the relatively cramped halls of the Morbias Station Gamma transport hub.

There isn't really enough time or space here to cover all the maps in detail, but as a whole they seem to offer a decent spread of variety in style and content. Three of the stages were previously included in another UT download, while another five have already been made available to Xbox 360 gamers - the rest are all new. Koos Barge is a claustrophobic map deathmatch aboard a boat in a storm, replete with plenty of hiding and sniping spots that suit a game of Betrayal. Then we have Cold Harbour, an impressively grand Warfare map that sees two teams fighting for control of a mountaintop missile launcher. Hold on to the prime node for 60 seconds, and the enemy core will be showered with rockets. Perhaps the most interesting scenario is Stranded - an asymmetrical team-based map that places one team in a temple at the top of the hill and the other aboard a cargo vessel that has run aground on the beach below. The former group gains the benefit of the Eradicator, a powerful new artillery turret, while the lower party gets access to a wide range of vehicles, including the Stealthbender. Other maps feature the Stinger Turret - a twin minigun emplacement with the power to knock people off their feet, just the thing for keeping unwanted visitors at bay.

Not much going on here. That ice looks nice though.

As its name suggests, the Stealthbender is a sneaky cousin to Unreal's established Hellbender vehicle. While it's fairly slow on the move, the Stealthbender gains the benefit of a cloaking field and a wide selection of armaments. In addition to an EMP mine and two spider mines, the 'bender also carries the two new deployables supplied by the Titan Pack. The Link Station is a portable repair point for allied vehicles, while the X-Ray field creates a small area in which players will take more damage when hit - the idea is that you use it to undermine people moving through choke points on a map. Anyone moving into the field is also subjected to a rather snazzy effect that makes their skeletons visible.

That pretty much wraps up the exhausting list of added content in the Titan Pack, but before I sign off I have to give mention to the PS3 mod-browser. In the past users were forced to download mods on a PC before passing the files over to their console via a USB stick, but soon they'll be able to pick from a selection of new modes, maps and models that will be chosen by Epic themselves. Given the sheer volume of content this quality control barrier is no bad thing, and completist gamers will still be able to use the old method to access the complete range of mods. The browser itself seems pretty intuitive to use, and it was easy to see the potential in the example mods that Epic showed us. Within a matter of minutes I managed to transform my character into a highly-impressive recreation of Cloud Strife; a few minutes later I was zipping downhill in SnowReal - a total conversion that transforms UT into a basic but impressive snowboarding game.

All in all, it's hard to see why any Unreal player would want to ignore the Titan Pack when it makes its debut next month. Betrayal, Greed and the Titan modifier would easily be enough to justify a charge of at least a fiver or so, but given the fact that you're also getting a whole buffet of extra maps and toys, and the entire thing will cost you nothing... well, why on Earth wouldn't you want to pick that up?

Unreal Tournament: Titan Pack will be released via free download on March 5, for PC and PS3.