Insomniac's PS3 launch title, Resistance: Fall of Man may turn out to be Sony's premier first person shooter of 2006, but it's by no means the big daddy. That moniker belongs to Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 2007, the next evolution of the classic franchise that sports painstakingly-detailed graphics and fast-paced and brutal gameplay. It's not coming out until sometime in 2007, which for all intents and purposes may turn out to be December 2007, but several demos have left us eagerly anticipating what may become one of the PS3's most explosive titles.

The most striking thing about this game is its graphics and for great reason. Epic's proprietary Unreal Engine 3.0 is capable of some amazing visual tricks and effects that truly make the game shine, particularly on the PlayStation 3 hardware. Characters sport beard stubble on their face, have originally-modeled teeth, incredibly-detailed skin textures, and battle scars. Plus, all of the weapons that we've seen, the rocket launcher for example, contain moving parts, so as ammo gets fired you can see the individual pieces working together to load the next rocket. Other nice touches, such as smoke trails, sparks, battle-scarred armor, and the game's enormous environments, are just incredible and worth gawking at. None of it appears photo realistic (UT 2007 doesn't shy away from reminding us that it's still just a videogame), but it looks phenomenal in high definition, the perfect showpiece for a brand new HD monitor. We've noticed the game chugging along in certain spots, but Epic will hopefully iron out the slowdown, especially since the game won't debut on the PlayStation 3 until sometime next year.

We're also enamored with the levels, or at least the ones that we've seen, Carbon Fire being the most memorable. Essentially a robot factory, you'll do battle across varied terrain while passing by robots being created and shipped out. It's quite striking, but what really makes it and the other locales so interesting is how Epic (according to the developers) is stitching them all together. You won't be able to jump between them on the fly (at least from what we've seen), but the goal is to make everyone part of a much larger whole instead of just cranking out random levels like in other first person shooters. In UT2007, everything will have some purpose in the overlying story, and the draw distance should be quite impressive, as you should be able to look out and see different environments. That's quite an ambitious goal for any developer, yet Epic seems confident that it'll hit this achievement. It's one thing to just create a bunch of levels and drop them into a game, but to craft 40 or so environments and have them blend together is another feat entirely.

Much like previous Unreal Tournaments, this game has some familiar options such as deathmatch, CTF, and Onslaught, but it's also got Warfare, a multiplayer mode in which two teams slug it out, yet in an interesting twist, both teams may have completely different objectives. We haven't had a chance to really sit down and pick Epics' brains on this promising feature, but we're willing to bet that it's in some ways similar to Activision's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, which pits two opposing side against one another and asks that they complete individual goals in order to succeed.

True to form, weapons and vehicles will play very important roles. We're not privy to the official lists, but expect to see redesigned favorites such as the machine gun, flakk cannon, rocket launcher, link gun, and the shock rifle. As for vehicles, you'll be able to make use of hover boards which is sweet, the only catch being that you supposedly cannot attack while riding one, and then there's the Paladin, a transport vehicle that comes with a maneuverable (and purple glowing) shield. But there's also these giant robots called Darkwalkers, an artillery cannon known as SPMA (can hit targets you cannot see), and the Cicada, a support vehicle that fires missiles.

From what we've seen, the gameplay is fast-paced and appears entertaining. Again, UT2007 chugs in spots but all of that should be ironed out in time for release. But by and large, Epic isn't really reinventing the wheel here. The game's a sexy beast, but it's also just another Unreal Tournament, meaning that if you're at all familiar with the previous games in the series, this one will fit like a good pair of slippers.

We've yet to play the PS3 version of the game (we've mostly seen it running on a supped up PC), but Epic hopes to make both versions identical which would certainly benefit Sony and its install base. It's obviously very important to have high-profile multiplayer games in order to pimp an online network, and when it comes to well-respected names, Unreal Tournament is right up there with the best of them. We'll have more on this exciting FPS in the coming months.