Review: Unreal Tournament 3

ZenDog

92%

It’s hard to please everyone when it comes to FPS games, especially when some like realistic combat games, and some people prefer futuristic environments. Sometimes you just need to split wigs with interesting weaponry such as semi-automatic missile launchers and handheld railguns. Some like more traditional vehicles like jeeps, tanks, and jets, and still others like rolling ion charged hamster balls that morph into spiders mounted with laser turrets, and jet propelled hover boards (yes, like the ones from Back to the Future II.)
  
  If you’ve played any of the Unreal games, don’t buy this game thinking that everything is going to be totally different, because it’s not. Far from it. These games have been pretty much the same idea for about the past decade. But honestly, who cares. All we expected from UT3 were some sick graphics, some new weapons with which to pwn, excellently designed, beautiful maps, and some vehicles that make James Bond spunk in his trousers. And that’s exactly what Epic Games did.
  
  I would say that UT3 is to UT2004 as Halo3 is to Halo2. As long as you liked the previous version, you’re probably going to like this one. If you hated them from the start, then don’t expect to get your mind blown. If you want realistic combat, buy Call of Duty 4, if you want sick combat and graphics, get Crysis. If you want to run people over with electrified hamster balls and pop skulls with laser-guided nuclear missiles, buy UT3.

EuroTrash

94%

With Unreal Tournament 3 Epic games has brought their FFA shooter into the modern era. The engine is a lot of fun and really, really smooth. I haven’t had any problem finding good servers to play on in Europe and graphically this is Gears of War Online.
   The single player mode is very good in this game, and I recommend everyone get some experience vs the AI in the “instant action” mode before venturing into cutthroat multiplayer matches. The difference between the old UT and this one is immense, so it takes getting used to, but if you give it enough play time you will grow to like UT3 more and more.
   The number one negative I found in the game is that it doesn’t have in game voice chat like Counterstrike. I have to laugh because the PS3 version doesn’t even have text chat, so there is virtually no way for players to meet each other. Not everyone is in a server full of random noobs. Some of us are more serious with our gaming.
   I don’t really love the stinger weapon. I find a lot of players overusing this because it’s noob friendly. You don’t even have to aim the thing, so people will grab it and use it every chance they get. It kinda annoys me, but I guess that’s what custom rules are for. If stats come out online as to which weapon is getting the most kills, similar to what came out for Team Fortress 2 last week, this gun will be exposed for how stupid it really is and probably get altered.

Newton

89%

Unreal Tournament is an FPS game you are probably familiar with. Players run around using futuristic super weapons and Mutators change the gameplay. It’s fast and unpredictable and appeals to a certain type of player in contrast to a game like Counterstrike; where camping and strategy are rewarded.
   The problem is that death matches are boring and way less interesting then the alternatives. You can play CS as a death match, and its fun for about 10 minutes. How is it appealing to memorize levels and spam rockets at empty hallways playing the odds? Unreal seems to me like it would appeal more to little kids, with hover boards as direct marketing to the younger crowd.
   Maybe I have not played enough yet and simply need to give this game more time to grown on me. These games always are tons more fun when you are good, and I’m below average. It’s really just a quickly thrown together showcase of the UT3 engine though. In a few more months custom levels should have come out that are far more fun. The game lacks modes of play, which will be solved over time as variations emerge.
   It would be nice for the communities on the different platforms to be able to play with each other. There is a large following on PS3, as this is one of the best PS3 games, but on PC the population is small. Many players blame this on COD 4, and a lot of others say many UT3 copies are wrapped up under trees right now. Either way if the PC players could compete against the PS3 players it would be a huge boost in the PC box’s appeal.