Beyond Unreal has posted their own extensive Unreal Tournament 2003 preview, after getting a chance to play the game at Digital Extremes. Everything from gametypes to the GUI is covered.

HomeLAN Fed is the first out the gate with a full Unreal Tournament 2003 preview, based on hands-on impressions. JCal talks about the gameplay modes, the levels, the weapons, the single player mode, mod support, the physics engine, the release date (might not be June), plans for a demo and more. No new screenshots are included. Here's a bit on the levels

The build of UT 2003 that the European press got to check out a few weeks ago had only a few levels ready to be seen but at the press event last weekend, we got to play about a third of the levels that will be in the full game. Digital Extremes and Epic stated that there will be a minimal of 30 maps included in the full game and even more might be added. The levels we got to play were about the same in terms of size as those in the original UT but of course the next generation Unreal engine and excellent texture artwork in UT 2003 make the original pale in comparison. A CTF map called Citadel, for example, has two fantasy castles with huge spikes coming out of the structure as well as out of the ground as well, making it have a very deadly look. A large Domination map called Sun God resembled an Aztec or Mayan shrine. A CTF map took place entirely underground but also contains a beautiful underground river and waterfall.

Unreal Center and Unreal Ops both have their own bits of info on Unreal Tournament 2003 (thanks HomeLAN Fed). They were among several sites invited to check the game out at Digital Extremes. If you missed the news this morning, Planet Unreal has a story up as well.

Planet Unreal is the first site to report on Unreal Tournament 2003, based on impressions of the game which was shown at a press event this past weekend. There's info about a demo, physics, remade Unreal Tournament maps, the use of prefabs by the editor and more.

German site Respawn Killer has two new videos from Unreal Tournament 2003. These videos have no less than one hour of footage from the game. There's a 202mb 25 minute video and a 299mb 35 minute video. Several mirror sites carry the DivX videos.

Pancho Eekels from Digital Extremes has been interviewed on Unreal Center, answering questions about the upcoming Unreal Tournament 2003. There's Q&As about the maps, cheating, AI, and of course more.

Italian website NGI has a new Unreal Tournament 2003 video. In the video Epic's Mark Rein shows off Unreal Tournament 2003 levels, weapons, game modes, etc. Thanks Unreality.

The site Respawnkiller has links to several German sites offering a new Unreal Tournament 2003 video. The 45mb video runs for over 4 minutes showing footage from the Kalendra Icefields map. Thanks Unreality.

There's a Q&A with Dr.Sin of Epic on UnrealTournament2.net. They ask him about cheating in Unreal Tournament 2003.

For some more screenshots of Unreal Tournament 2003, you can check out Voodoo Extreme. They have four shots.

Voodoo Extreme has posted an Unreal Tournament 2003 interview. DE's James Schmalz answers questions about the name change, how happy he is with the Unreal franchise, new gametypes and a few other things.

Unreality.dk has a new Unreal Tournament 2003 screenshot, showing a game of Bombing Run in the Kalendra Icefields map from the game. Unreal Tournament 2003 should be out in June.

Preacher from Unreality let us know they have posted an Unreal Tournament 2003 preview, offering more impressions from the game which was shown to various people in London recently. The preview covers the game modes, the new HUD, improved team communication, what the maps are like, weapons and the editing tools.

Unreal Tournament 2003 was being shown in the UK and XSReality has some impressions. Not only that, but they also have an interview with Epic's Jay Wilbur about the game. They ask him about the armor system, if there's going to be a Redeemer in UT2K3, if the netcode has been improved since UT, if the game will be good as a tournament game, and plenty more. More on the game can be found at Games Domain where they have their own preview. The German site exceed-news has also an article on the game.

Epic's CliffyB will be on XGR tonight, talking about Unreal Tournament 2003 and other general game related topics. Show starts at 8:30PM Central.

Following up on their Unreal Tournament 2003 show on TV last night, German Giga Games now has those videos up for download. There are five movies in all (DivX format), showing gameplay footage as well as Mark Rein of Epic Games talking about the game. Update: A mirror for these videos is up at BonusWeb.

Action Vault has posted an Unreal Tournament 2003 Q&A. This is actually one question, but answered by several members of Digital Extremes. Question is about the favorite weapons in the game.

If you didn't listen to XGR's interview with James Schmalz of Digital Extremes last night you might just have missed the news of these three new UT2003 screenshots that went up during the interview. The interview itself should be available for download later today. Unreal Tournament 2003 should be out in June.

A new audio interview tonight at XGR. 8:30PM CST is the time when their James Schmalz interview starts. James will be answering questions about the upcoming Unreal Tournament 2003.

So I got to check out the latest incarnation of Unreal Tournament while at GDC this past week. I promised Cliffy I'd put together a little compilation of impressions of what I saw. Keep in mind that I havent played Unreal Tournament in a real long time so I cant really use that as a base for comparison. Ok well, here you go:

Cool Stuff:
- Physics is better than anything out there. watch guys tumble down stairs, knock things over and watch them interact with the environment. Neeto.
- Player models are great. Seems like it's always the same standard space marine mecho-suit style for these games lately, but they had good ones!
- World geometry actually more than 10 polys. UT kind of annoyed me in how low the poly counts appeared in the levels, looks good now.
- Terrain was great stuff. About the same quality as Team Arena but with improved texturing.
Not Cool Stuff:
- I would whine about the weapons here I'm sure, but honestly that's something that takes hours to properly understand and judge. Dunno.
- CliffyB's outfit was rather conservative and boring
- Levels from what I saw seemed to focus a bit more on aim than positioning or strategy
- Not enough visual feedback when I'm firing weapons or when I'm hitting enemies. Some had it great (Flack gun) but others... nothing I could see
- I Didnt get to play the advanced bots, but the medium bots were morons
Stuff I saw:
- Cliffy wuss out of a Soul Calibur match with Robin Walker.
What I thought:
- Felt like a very solid follow-up to UT with an exceptional step forward in technology. For people who play games because they like to see purty stuff, this will be for you. For stuff like this I'm thinking wait for the demo to judge for yourself on if you actually like it. I can confirm that it looks great, and first impressions say it feels great.. which is more than can be said for a lot of games.

For those of you who missed it, Epic has renamed their product line a bit which appears to point to plans of releasing annual versions.  Check out stories here and here.