We also got to take a look at a new version of the SPMA (affectionately referred to as the SPAM), which UT veterans will know is able to deliver artillery fire far outside its visual range. You'll be able to deploy an aerial camera that will give you a bird's-eye view of the area you're trying to target, but the big difference in UT2K7 is that you'll be able to use the mouse to fine-tune your aiming for precision strikes (previously, you had to aim somewhat clumsily with the arrow keys). Finally, Morris said the team wants to emphasize aerial combat in the next version of onslaught, so he showed us the cicada, a new flyer that's intended for ground assault. This fairly quick vehicle has a cluster missile attack of sorts that lets you lock onto a target and then hit that target, even if you fire your rockets while facing the other direction.

Vehicles will play an even bigger role in UT2K7, with the lineup topping out at a whopping 18 different types. Speaking of onslaught, Morris used the power core from that mode as an example of the way UT's interface will evolve with UT2K7. For those unfamiliar with this mode, destroying the opposing team's power core is your team's ultimate objective in an onslaught match (along with protecting your own core, of course). In UT2K4, you gauged the core's damage level via a basic meter that hovered over the unit itself. But with UT2K7, the designers want to move as much relevant information as possible out of abstract HUD elements and into the game world itself. So you'll now see the power core taking damage, losing parts, and generally breaking down in a realistic fashion as it's attacked, and from the looks of the massive UT2K7 version of the core, that ought to add a nice, hectic element to the action.

As UT2K7 is just about the best-looking game on the horizon, we couldn't help but wonder about its potentially ominous system requirements. Our plans to stave off another PC upgrade weren't emboldened much by Morris' admission that the onstage demo was running on a quad-SLI setup, either. (Yes, that's four GeForce 7800 GTXs running in a single system.) But luckily, the game will purportedly run well on reasonably powerful, middle-of-the-road hardware at the time of its release, so you likely won't have to break the bank to be able to compete. Of course, the game will have extensive graphics-customization options, so you can