Unreal Tournament 3 release plans undecided

Speaking to Game Informer, Rein said that he expects to see a PC demo or beta first, but after that he doesn’t yet know when each version will ship.

“I would expect us to bring out a PC demo or beta earlier on than anything else, and whether or not we can ship them all at the same time is just a question of time, and we don’t really know that yet,” said Rein. “We have no idea what the order is – that’s more of a game-time decision, right?“

Rein also spoke about the imminent release of Windows Vista, noting that it’s very much a love/hate relationship.

“I love the feel of Vista, and I love all the cool power tools that are built right in this time. I love the way it organizes all your content for you. I love all the gaming features,” said Rein. “I hate the fact that there’s a 32-bit version of it, and I hate the fact that there are versions that can run without Aero Glass.“

Rein’s biggest concern with Vista appears to be Microsoft’s decision to ship a 32-bit version of the OS, something he hopes won’t hold back development of software to take advantage of the now commonplace 64-bit processors.

“I’m really going to hope that 64-bit is not the forgotten stepchild or relegated to workstations or what have you or just certain applications run on them. I think the way to accomplish that would have been not to do 32-bit. I’m disappointed in that,” said Rein.

And what specification PC does Rein recommend users pick up? Something with Vista and a DirectX 10 graphics card.

“I would absolutely go for Vista, no question about that. And I’d definitely go for a graphics card with DX10 support,” suggests Rein. “It would be silly not to. You want to be as future-proof as you can. That doesn’t mean you have to buy the most expensive one, you just want to find one that has support for it.“