Unreal Tournament III Comments by Jim Rossignol

With all the FPS games that came out.. this one is a miss for me since as a whole they seem to be doing this a million times better that UT. Demo was a rather big meh... maybe I will jump in mid 2008 when some interesting mods are available.

But I do agree with the "kewl" vehicles :) That look pretty awesome.

I can't help but feel UT3 seems a little archaic by today's standards - I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it, but the team-based deathmatch sub-genre has moved on, and I can't say the prospect of a fast-paced, enclosed shooter like this appeals.

Still, horses for courses and all that; I'm sure some folk will be craving a good ol' deathmatch.

Reviewer says demo was meh, full game awesome.

Still wouldn't buy it tho.

It's strange UT3 stands out to me in a group of class based "me too!" games.

Sure it's old skool but we've not had an old skool run and gun deathmatch a thon for a while now... at least not a good one

I just might get it because I've played everything else on the PC already, and there's nothing else coming for the rest of the year. I hope I'm wrong.

Still no UT'99 remake. ;_;

Does anyone know who composed the music this time around? Did they use Alex Brandon?

is it just shooting?

Is the unreal 3 engine an 8 magnet? :)

EDIT: remembers bioshock. idiot.

"is it just shooting?"

That will be the crux of it yes, I'm sure there will be a mod for baking somewhere down the line.

Liked the review, I'm glad I wasn't the only one underwhelmed by the demo, no warfare and a crap vehicle CTF level so it would have been harsh of me to judge it based on that alone. I'll probably pick it up in the new year once I've got through everything else that has priority.

Why are people talking as if an 8 is a bad score?

bring back the morpheus level....soooo awesome, with insta-gib!

>Why are people talking as if an 8 is a bad score?

It is not.. but lets look at the XMas options for FPS fans:

Halo 3: 10/10
Orange Box (TF2) : 9/10
CoD4: 9/10

If you have all those.. UT is mediocre at best IMHO.

Well put, but I'd say both the Orange Box and UT3 are best played on the PC.

>Well put, but I'd say both the Orange Box and UT3 are best played on the PC.

Did I say you had to play it on a specific format??? If you have no 360 then yes maybe you can add UT for the vehicle combat on your PC.

Well, yes. I thought of the 360 because it's the platform with the most available choice. Hope I didn't come across wrong though.

The UT franchise lost me the moment it becamey a twitchy jumpey rocketfest.....the original UT was so much better!

Good review, getting this from Play for £17.99! Hopefully my PC can cope!

That singleplayer does sound pretty weird, like some surrealist self-parody - but i used to like the original UT's singleplayer. Sure, it didn't have any intros, but you got all these cool little character bios of the people you were about to kill.

It's Unreal Tournament. It's pretty much the same game as before with a few additions and tweaks that really doesn't alter the game drastically enough to potentially break it. Some of the levels are stunningly beautiful, you'll end up getting hammered in the back on the space station one because you're too busy gazing at the view.

8/10 for a reworking is an impressive score however you look at it. It's a high quality title with plenty of maps to play from the off. If you loved any of the earlier titles you really want this one. It's not for me though. I've fallen in love with CoD4 Team Deathmatch. It's less twitch.

Talking about the graphics, one of the problems with these 'next-gen' games is the quality of the graphics does make it very difficult to pick people out. More stylised graphics such as (dare i say it) Halo's do make the deathmatch experience much clearer...

>More stylised graphics such as (dare i say it) Halo's do make the deathmatch experience much clearer...


Hmmm.. yes and No. CoD doesn't seem to have this problem (obviously TF2 and Halo have none of these probs due to totally different art style). TBH I don't think that UT is really impressive graphically... it all seems coated in slime and that is the reason it is hard to make out IMHO. The lack of a good color palette is also an issue.

IMHO this engine works much better in a slow game like Gears...

BTSIDI

I'm very interested in the PS3 version, mainly because the demo ran OK on my PC (1680x1050 on High detail) but not as well as I'd have liked (and certainly not as well as UT2004). Rather than spend a small fortune upgrading my PC, I think I'm more tempted to spend an extra £15 on the PS3 version... whenever it comes out that is...

"Good review, getting this from Play for £17.99!" £25 I think you'll find.

@spiny

Well, I'll think you'll find that I pre-ordered it years ago, back when the price was £17.99! So there.

"It was this very confluence of input and output that meant I preferred Quake III to Unreal Tournament in the original 2000AD battle for FPS dominance."

Boo. Hiss.

I'm interested in using the game's level editor for my scientific research, but I've played UT'99 for so long that the prospect of the same game (again) with souped up visuals is not overly enticing.

I've had great fun playing the demo, but I still prefer Team Fortress 2 for my online fix.

> Well put, but I'd say both the Orange Box and UT3 are best played on the PC.

If you have a PC then you have Crysis(9/10) to consider as well.

Best review I've read on here in a while - balanced, informative, tells me everything I wanted to know. Well done Mr Jim review man sir!

Quake III was always the better game for me, I've played it more than UT99 and UT04 put together! It's just so very pure - the absolute essentials of deathmatch with nothing to distract or dilute the experience.

Shopto.com seem to be selling UTIII cheapest (other than pre-orders), £22.99 delivered: http://www.shopto.net//page.php?page=det...

EDIT: Yeah, Crysis is well worth picking up. I completed it yesterday and the first two thirds are absolutely spectacular! Immense fun and a huge amount of replay value. The last third becomes run-of-the-mill but the initial sandbox maps are just so good it more than makes up for it. I haven't tried multiplayer yet.

I was just disappointed to play the PC demo to discover that it still has the same weapons from the original Unreal way back whenever. I mean, does anyone like the Bio goop gun?

Yes, the Bio gun is awesome.

Just as well for Epic that UE3 is being used in every game ever, because it doesnt look like UT3 is gonna stand out from the crowd in the slightest. It must be about the 6th or 7th worst FPS in the past 3months, not very impressive.

I quite enjoyed the demo but there's too much other stuff out at the moment, I've loved UT in the past (apart from 2K3 there was something not right about that) but I think I'll pick it up when it hits the sales, maybe they shouldn't have released so close to Crysis?

I just like to highlight the following line from the review:

"no matter what ideas you throw into a game, if the feedback loop of player to controller, to screen and back again isn't satisfactory, then it's not going to be any fun to play"

Every game designer in the world needs to burn this sentence onto the inside of their eyelids. It's quite scary how many people I've worked in the industry with who don't understand this simple truism.

So this is what Jim Rossignol does when he's not presenting ITV's Formula 1 coverage?

> Hmmm.. yes and No. CoD doesn't seem to have this problem (obviously TF2 and Halo have none of these probs due to totally different art style). TBH I don't think that UT is really impressive graphically... it all seems coated in slime and that is the reason it is hard to make out IMHO. The lack of a good color palette is also an issue.

IMHO this engine works much better in a slow game like Gears...

This is much more the case isn't it. UT'99 was a fast action game with little detail or clutter. UT3 is a fast action game with much detail and clutter. There is only so much detail at those speeds that the human eye/brain can process.
This is exactly the reason why I think that UT should go back to the basics.

More of the same but prettier and tweaked then? Hasn't harmed football games has it?
Mods are what make the UT series especially great and I can't wait to have Aliens (in Necris vehicles) battling Predators or Termintors using Halo weapons or 21st century military Earth hardware or... UT games can last for months if not years this way.
Mind you I'm getting this on PS3 as I can't be arsed to upgrade my PC every time Game X is released with Shader Y. Release date announcement soon please Mr Epic sir...

For me, the uber-macho character models in UT (and Gears of War for that matter), are just an obstacle I can not overcome :(

50% of the game, 100% of the cost

Almost anyone can make a decent enough multiplayer shooter...there i said it...you just put a bunch of people in a semi interesting map and they will Hamster on a wheel for the rest of their days, people still play multiplayer vietcong

How the world needs more than counter strike i dunno, but these should be mere add ons to singleplayer games

Shadowrun, Warhawk, This...they're just sandbox maps with a bunch of weapons and other shit thrown in...sure they tweak the balance to get it right, but full price, for these games....your havin a larf


*preorders*

wow billy, you are an absolute idiot if you think that multiplayer games happen by accident. if that was the case, then every crap tagged on multiplayer wouldnt be a pile of shite, and the multiplayer games played online the most wouldnt be multiplayer only.

> For me, the uber-macho character models in UT (and Gears of War for
> that matter), are just an obstacle I can not overcome

Are you in the closet or something?

The demo made me cancel my 12-month old £18 pre-order with Play.
Still nowhere *near* as good as UT99 :(

A no for me too.

I hate unreal tourney because of the jumpy shooty mechanics. After playing rainbow 6 and gears. I can't get around the stupid bunny rabbit play you have to adopt. I like to know my kills were skill shots or ambushes not lucky rocket strikes while someone was jumping or steal killing someone while they try to fight another person (Halo3 you know who I'm talking about here!)

How the world needs more than quakeworld i dunno

fixed.

What's EG policy on proofreading before publishing?
Just curious.

@Retrend

I don't think they happen by accident, it's just when people reply on here they always put a little spin on your post - thanks

i do however think that arena type multiplayer FPS games are probably fairly easy to make, for example with Source engine i suspect HL2 took Valve 5 years and Counter Strike Source about 8 months

If the underlying mechanics, feedback loop whatever you like to call it works, then people will play - take Gears, that's one of the most popular online games on live and is simple as you like - small maps, with a boomshot, sniper rifle etc chucked into each stage....it's not taken years of balancing to get that, it's just fun to point and shoot...same re Halo3 the Lazer will unbalance a game of territories on high ground a lot...but it's still the most popular thing on Live and people will gush on about it

By all means get 15 kills 12 deaths till the cows come home, but once you've played 10 rounds you have played them all....Battlefield, well that opened out the scope a fair bit, i can see why people might choose it over Counter Strike

Just not my type of game i guess, each to their own

@Chiz

A game with singleplayer and co op story getting a higher score than Fragfest 3000? that's a herecy for sure, march on EG towers...

Egster - "UT3 gameplay shits all over Halo's face. "

Oh for sure... particularly the single player campaign...

Apples and Oranges no?

Appleslol! You tried juicing one of them recently? Besides, Vitamin C ftmfw!

Juicing apples? I'm more inclinded to milk the lizard! ;)