Universe At War Patch Lets Xbox 360, PC Players Duke It Out

Sega and Petroglyph's real time strategy sci-fi game Universe At War: Earth Assault was all patched up today, bringing with it an exhaustive list of changes, tweaks and fixes. The most notable? The saucer's build time was reduced from 30 to 28 seconds. Almost as exciting was the addition of Xbox 360 versus PC cross-play in Ranked, Quickmatch and Conquer the World game modes, something that should make it much, much easier to find a game for Universe At War players.

For the full list of changes implemented in patch 3, hit the jump for details.

Universe At War Demo On Marketplace

Back in Leipzig, McWhertor and I hung out at Sega's booth while Crecente played Universe at War on PC for hours. After a while, he let me take his game for a spin. I immediately blew up a non-replaceable ship. As I may have mentioned before, he was not happy.

But Universe at War looked fantastic, despite its only moderate reception. And now it's available as a demo on the Xbox 360. So if you enjoy RTSs but don't have a PC or trust console-ported controls, it might be worth giving a download. And just think: if such demos were around back at Leipzig, I probably wouldn't have to run all my posts by Tristan before publishing. And Mini Bash might have approved my raise, too.

Demo: Universe at War: Earth Assault [Major Nelson]

Console RTSs Are Good For The Genre

Petroglyph's Creative Director Adam Isgreen is an RTS veteran, having worked on loads of Command & Conquers and, more recently, Universe at War. But he isn't worried that RTS titles making their way to consoles will in some way dilute the experience. In fact, he believes just the opposite:

...you could look at the transition of RTS from PC to console as "dumbing down" of the genre, but really that's completely inaccurate. The evolution of RTS from PC to console is all about re-discovering the core fun of the genre while stripping away the redundancy, over-complication, and bloat that has been attaching itself to RTS games over the years.

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Want The Universe At War OST? It's Free!

Looking for a last minute stocking stuffer that won't set you back more than three CD-Rs? Give your loved ones (who are apparently just an afterthought) the Universe At War official soundtrack, which has been released by Petroglyph today for free. Three discs worth of music from the game's three distinct factions is sure to be the perfect soundtrack to your holiday. The OST was composed by Frank Klepacki of Dune II and Command & Conquer fame, so you know it's worth the download.

Introducing the Universe at War Soundtrack, Merry Christmas, Petroglyph Community! [Petroglyph]

Gabe Newell's dream of having every game ever published on the Steam platform has come six titles closer to reality, as Sega has upped its interest in the digital distribution network. Steam users can now purchase a half-dozen of Sega PC games like Universe at War: Earth Assault, The Golden Compass, Sega Rally Revo, Sega Rally, Worldwide Soccer Manager, and Futbol Manager. Most are available now, but Universe at War and The Golden Compass will be arriving next week. If you hate DVD cases and instruction manuals, you know what to do.

The PC version of PC versus Xbox 360 real-time strategy game, and love of my life, Universe at War won't be hitting their Nov. 2 launch date after all, instead landing in the post-holiday dead zone of January.

Sega doesn't really explain the delay, telling Computer and Video Games that it will allow the PC version and 360 versions of the game to launch closer together. I suspect Sega made the wise choice of pulling out of the holiday bedlam that will see too many games to buy or play hitting stores at the same time, and have instead decided to release the game when it will get more face time.

I saw it's a wise decision because, as with all rock solid games, Universe at War can stand on its own merits and doesn't need a Thanksgiving-to-Christmas buying binge to jump start its sales. I know it's almost blasphemy to say, but let's hope that more triple-A titles follow suit and that next year maybe publishers won't feel the need to release all of their top tier titles in the same three months.

Universe at War delayed till 2008 [Computer and Video Games]

Universe at War Faction Trailers

Universe At War Teaser Trailer

Universe at War: Earth Assault Impressions

Sega Announces Universe At War