Epic patches PS3 UTIII a week early, minus a few goodies

By Stephany Nunneley

Epic has patched the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament III a week early–but apparently the update’s not as large as planned.

Originally to be released March 5, the date was changed to March 19 due to the certification process taking time.

Now, Epic plans on releasing a second patch containing the goodies left out of this one.

The live update patches split-screen play, Trophies, and tweaks some other bits. No word on when the next one can be expected.

Original patch specs are listed below.

Patch notes (original):

• 16 environments – four Warfare, three vCTF, six Deathmatch, and three CTF maps – that are new to the PC and PS3 versions
• Three bonus pack maps, CTF-Face, CTF-Searchlight and DM-Morbias
• The namesake Titan mutator, which lets players overwhelm opponents as a 15 foot tall titan, or crush them as a 30 foot tall Behemoth
• Greed and Betrayal, two gametypes that breed new-found fervor throughout the competitive UT3 arena
• Two powerful weapons, the Stinger Turret and Eradicator Cannon artillery
• Two valuable deployables, the X-Ray Field and Link Station
• The Slow Field power-up, a portable version of the Slow Field deployable
• Stealthbender, a new vehicle that carries two spidermine trap deployables, one EMP mine, and one each of the new Link Station and X-Ray Field deployables
• Two new characters, Nova and Kana
• 57 awards attainable as Steam Achievements and PS3 Trophies
• Broad improvements for PC and PS3: Significant AI enhancements, especially in vehicle gametypes; networking performance upgrades; greatly improved menu flow and UI usability; better mod support
• Client-side demo recording, highly improved Server Browser, a new maplist system, plus mid-game mutator and gametype voting functionality for PC
• High demand PS3 features including PS3 Trophy support, two-player split-screen support, and mod browsing