Unreal Tournament III PS3 Cooker Beta Released

A select amount of Unreal Tournament III mod developers received an e-mail today stating that the mod cooker update for the PLAYSTATION 3 is available for beta testing. Those who got into the beta were asked not to "distribute it or make it generally available to the public." But the mods are distributable.

The PLAYSTATION 3 tools comes with a documentation stating what types of mods are supported and not supported.

What Is Supported
The following types of mods are supported. See the Not Supported section for
any restrictions.

Maps
These mods are created and saved with UnrealEd..
These are new maps that are intended for Epic supplied game types, or for
your own game types.

Mutators
These mods are programmed with UnrealScript.
These can be activated optionally during matches. These can range from
replacing all weapons to changing gravity in odd ways to affecting player
movement.
These can be auto-downloaded from a server running the new game type
without needing to install the mod on the client PS3s. Note that this is
just to play as a client; to run a server (or offline) with the mutator,
you will need to install the mod the standard way. Auto-downloaded mods
are put into a temporary cache only.

Game Types
These mods are programmed with UnrealScript. This is a new set of game rules that use existing maps (see Total Conversions for game types) These can be auto-downloaded like a mutator, above.

Custom Characters
Character pieces are simply building blocks for the custom character system in UT3.

Total Conversions
A Total Conversion, or TC, typically means replacing all of the content that shipped with a game with completely unique content, including the main menu.
On the PS3, the main menu cannot be replaced, but it can be used to load another level that is the TC’s main menu. This can then branch off to load the TC’s maps, etc.
These are generally a combination of new game types, new models, and new levels.

Other modifications may work, but these are what we have tested and planned for.

What Is Not Supported
Naturally, given the limited memory on PS3, etc, there are limitations to what you can do.

Mutators and game types must consist of UnrealScript code only. This means that you cannot have a mutator that turns all UT3 weapons into a space cow model that you import.

This is because they need to work with shipping maps, and too much content added on will cause the PS3 to run out of memory.

Importing sounds is not supported. This is because UT3 uses a proprietary
version of ATRAC3 and we are unable to release the tool that is needed to
convert .wav files to the format required by the game.

It is unknown if we will be able to have some system for sound conversion in the future.

We understand the limitation this places on mod developers, and will rectify this if at all possible in a future version.

If any mods are distributed using this beta, we will let you know.

[Via PSN@Home]

Turok: Demo, PS3/360 Comparisons, Online Co-Op

Thanks to a new post on NeoGAF, we have some new information on a demo of Turok and also some of the problems they had working with the PLAYSTATION 3.

They state it's tough working with a new console, but it's like that for every console they are first starting with, not just the PLAYSTATION 3. They have extremely talented coders at Propaganda who are going to give the owners the best PLAYSTATION 3 game possible. They state "So to make a long story short, the PS3 game rocks as hard as the 360 version." Thats good to hear.

Regarding a demo, they said one is coming to the 360 very soon with a PLAYSTATION 3 demo as well.

They are supporting online co-op as well! They have 3 distinct maps telling aspects of the SP campaign from a different perspective. The AI is suitably tougher, as you'd expect from a mode which supports 4 players working together.

[Via NeoGAF]

New Line Cinema Goes Blu-Ray As Well

Following the Warner Bros. blu-ray exclusivity announcement, it seems New Line Cinema has gone blu-ray exclusive as well. In an article in Variety yesterday, buried under the Warner's announcement was one line that was very important to the Blu-Ray cause:

Warner sister company New Line confirmed it will shift allegiance to Blu-ray only as well.

It seems this is the end of the HD-DVD format, all in two days.

[Via Kotaku]

Rayman & Street Fighter Alpha Coming to PLAYSTATION Store

The latest ESRB ratings on their official website reveal two new PSone Classics are coming to the PLAYSTATION Store. Two games that we may remember as the beginning of the PSone.

Those games are Street Fighter Alpha and Rayman. Rayman was released by Ubisoft back in 1995. Yes, I remember those days. Capcom's Street Fighter Alpha had multiple characters including a few new additions such as Dan, Rose, and Charlie.

Let's hope we see these titles next Thursday.

[Via ESRB]

FIFA Street 3's Exotic Locations

FIFA Street 3 is coming packed with a load of exotic locations to get your street soccer on. Some include shipyards, beaches, rooftops, samba, mediterranean, and more.

Hit the jump to see what all these places look like. Whats your favorite? Ours is the rooftop.

[Via FIFA Street 3 Locations]

PLAYSTATION 3 Reaches Xbox 360 Sales in France, Wii Still Leads

ZDNet of France has released the official sales figures of gaming consoles in France as of December 31, 2007. The results? Wii tops a million, and the PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360 both sell an equal 500,000 systems.

PLAYSTATION 3: 500k
Xbox 360: 500k
Nintendo Wii: 1m
PlayStation 2: 5.5m
Nintendo DS: 4.2m
PlayStation Portable : 600k

As you can tell by this and the last sales report we've had, the PLAYSTATION 3 is starting to begin it's reign.

[Via ZDNet]

Michael Bay Talks Blu-Ray Superiority

Michael Bay, a high supporter of Blu-ray who was crushed when Paramount forced his Transformers movie to released on HD-DVD, posted his thoughts on Warner going Blu-ray exclusive.

"Well another studio down. Maybe I was right? Blu ray is just better. HD will die a slow death. It's what I predicted a year ago. Now with Warner's down for the count with Blu Ray. That makes it easier for Wal-Mart to push Blu Ray. And whatever Wal-Mart pushes - wins. Hd better start giving out those $120 million dollars checks to stay alive. Maybe they can give me some so I can give it to my Make-A-Wish charity, just to shut me up. Have faith people Transformers will come out in Blu-ray one day!"

Faith we will have. First day that comes out, I'm picking it up for myself.

[Via Shoot for the Edit]

Rumor: Rockstar Exclusive PS3 Franchise Is Red Dead Revolver Successor?

Remember that exclusive Rockstar Franchise Sony mentioned that will be coming to the PLAYSTATION 3 a while back. Surfer Girl claims to know what it is, and she says it's the successor to Red Dead Revolver. Is it true? We hope not. But as for now, it's a rumor.

[Via Surfer Girl]

onAXIS Changes: Advertisements

If you guys may have noticed, we've added Google Adsense to the page. This new addition to the site is a small one, and we are only putting it up to enhance the site further as the year moves on.

Thanks for the support from all the readers!

Mad Catz Making Rock Band Accesories

Mad Catz has obtained the rights to manufacture, market, and sell Rock Band peripherals such as new guitars and drums.

Mad Catz are going to produce instrument controllers for the PLAYSTAITON 3, Xbox 360, and PS2, with guitars coming in wired or wireless varieties.

“The addition of the Rock Band license is consistent with Mad Catz’ stated goal to align ourselves with the most attractive brands and highly-anticipated software releases while seeking additional accessory opportunities to further diversify and grow our revenue base," said Mad Catz CEO Darren Richardson in a statement.

[Via Next-Gen.biz]