Written by Chris Rah Osiris

[caption id="attachment_3423" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="I loved this game"][/caption]

I loved this game when it was first released. Then I had the dreaded misfortune of running into all sorts of bugs when attempting to play online. (You can ask Jamie Slaughter about our last attempt to play this online. It definitely wasn't pretty). Epic has heard our cries. I am sad that this patch will likely be overlooked due to the onslaught of big name titles on the way. UT3 is still a lot of fun in my book, but it is not going to get too much play when R2 and Socom make it into my PS3.

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In both cases I have a central idea, a theme, that I'm aiming for and will come up with a general outline of the desired structure. Once I get started with the actual creation I work in an organic and iterative manner. I'll get the broad strokes of characters, and areas down first and build a complete work in very rough form. Then I'll go back and refine each element.

Often I'll find a character is acting inconsistently, or an area doesn't fit in a functional or aesthetic sense. In those cases usually the character or the area will tend to tell me how they want to develop, I'll let it grow accordingly, adjust the original structure to fit. If the new direction is powerful enough sometimes even the theme itself will change.

Over time I keep refining and adding more detail, adjusting the overall structure to compensate for new discoveries about how a character or an area is developing.

Even though I'm working on a vanilla deathmatch level it's interesting to see how I go about building a narrative into the environment in terms of architecture and texturing and how willing I am to allow the emerging shape of the level guide subsequent iterations. The overall layout of the level is similar to the original concept but a number of areas have changed dramatically as certain initital assumptions have been proved incorrect. I've scrapped entire areas because they simply weren't adding anything to the level, in the same way that I've had to rewrite entire scenes because they didn't make sense given the way the characters had developing since my original outline

At some point the level and the short story, take on a life of their own and I have to let that happen or they just fall apart.

It's fascinating to see how much I let the work itself influence future iterations; how subsequent iterations can see the finished form emerge in a way I didn't expect but that always seems to work better. No matter how attached I might be to a line of dialogue, a specific scene, or a specific area if they don't fit they don't fit and I have to cut them. Almost always the work is better for having made that sacrifice.

I'm sure my personal biases have some bearing on how I work, still it's strange to consider how closely the processes of two superficially dissimilar mediums match up.

Addendum: I've been considering including more of these style of posts, ones focused directly on things I'm currently working on and the processes I go through with each one. I don't know if I want to turn this into a progress diary, I'm not sure how interesting that really is to anybody besides myself. At the same time I do feel it's about time I validated my claim that I'm a Programmer, Designer and Writer.

When it comes to writing, many a hand-smacking has been given out by an overzealous literary teacher for making use of clichés in articles.  I try to avoid it as much as I can, but there is one serious problem with trying this; clichés only became clichés because they're pretty much always right - the grass is always greener on the other side, the game was rather obviously of two halves (okay, that one is always annoying)...

And, at least in the case of Unreal Tournament III, things have most definitely remained the same, despite a couple of rather cosmetic changes.

The big difference is naturally in the graphics; UT3 uses the Unreal Engine 3 (coincidence?!), to amazing effect, and manages to graphically surpass every third-party game release that has used the powerful engine.  All the graphical bells and whistles are present here, and even better it all runs at a very nice frame rate on the console versions; the game also scales very well on PC, and like previous games in the UT series will play perfectly alright on systems that really have no right to run it at all (I ran the game on a rig well below spec at low-ish details simply as a test, and it consistently ran at over 30fps, which is purely amazing).

The art direction is also particularly impressive, resembling Gears of War (which isn't surprising considering it's made by the same studio) but with a brighter palette and more organic looking levels.  However, while the grungy industrial areas, desert ruins, and oriental-esque temples are a sight to behold, there isn't anywhere near the same amount of variety that was apparent in the old games, which seemingly ignored theme in favour of sheer coolness; it was quite common to have a game of the original UT and go from a sci-fi weapons plant to some contemporary-looking slums to an alien forest, with nary a familiar looking map to be seen.  It isn't a big criticism really, but it feels as though some of the character of the franchise has ironically disappeared in the attempt to make the levels more characterful.

The game sounds like, well, it sounds like a UT game really; the commentator is back, shouting "PANCAKE" and "MONSTER KILL" with wild abandon; the bots will taunt you with the typical "you be dead" comment that you've been hearing for four iterations of the game, and I swear the guns still have the same sound effects playing as well.  Things sound good enough, but there is little variation, and certainly not much of the entertainment value inherent in the soundscape of other multiplayer FPSs of the moment (with TF2 being the obvious example).  The voice-acting in the story mode, however, is a whole other kettle of poorly thought out sentence structure.

Oh wait, that's right, we haven't gotten around to discussing the big gameplay change for this year's edition of the Unreal Tournament franchise: there's no longer an actual tournament to be unreal at! Instead we have a group of soldiers fighting a mercenary war for revenge against the evil Necris across multiple warzones...that contain respawners, power-ups, and people crotch-thrusting while standing over your bleeding gibs; yes, it is as stupid as it sounds. 

The cutscenes, at least, look amazing, and are produced with all the quality of those in Gears of War (albeit with less action), but the premise is so laughable, and the dialogue so poorly written, that it is impossible to remotely care about why Malcolm is ordering your team to play the same Warfare map for the sixth time.

What's Warfare I pretend you care enough to ask? It's a combination of the old Assault and Onslaught modes; capture power cores to form a link to the enemy node, but this time you have fancy special vehicles and missile launches and all sorts of stuff that manages to make the mode a little more interesting to play.  It's a great deal more fun than vanilla Onslaught was (and it was fun, feeling like Battlefield Lite), but it isn't a good replacement for the objective-based thrills of Assault.

This becomes a real issue when you realise that a bunch of other game modes have also been assimilated or annihilated, with Domination, Bombing Run, and a bunch of others being cut; these modes may not have been overly popular when compared to your regular modes, but why remove something that works?  Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Warfare hardly epitomise the old UT emphasis on having enough variety to suit every player.

At least the game still plays as well as it ever did.  The Unreal Tournament series has always been the smoothest, slickest FPS game going (eat that Quake 3!), and UT3 has refined things to the point where shooter novices can pick up the controller and be moving around comfortably in no time; admittedly, said novices will still get absolutely owned by enemies that teleport across the map, wall-flip over their heads, and fire a rocket into their spines, but at least they'll feel comfortable while it happens.

‘Comfortable' is a word that fits UT3 like a non-clichéd appendage-warming garment.  The changes that have occurred, barring a general beefing up of the prettiness, have petty much involved the introduction of a shonky storyline, a slightly upgraded game mode, and some baffling omissions. 

Actually the more I think about it, the more I realise that Epic have finally managed to accomplish what they started when they first started releasing yearly iterations of the game (2003, 2004): they've turned UT into a sports game franchise! In true EA-like fashion, Unreal Tournament 3 is a slight improvement over previous versions of the game in some areas, and yet some things that players liked have inexplicably gone missing. 

No doubt we'll see Bombing Run come back with a different name in Unreal Tournament 4: A New Hope, and flogged as a new feature; hell, if they bring back the old single-player Tournament mode (sans cutscenes with vomit-inducing dialogue) and Assault, I'd be willing to go out on a limb and call it the most revolutionary Unreal Tournament yet!

Graphics: 9.5/10 (A gorgeous looking game with the very, very occasional instance of déjà vu with some samey map design.)

Sound: 6/10 (Sounds the same as the previous games, and the voice-acting and scripting during the cutscenes is cringe-worthy.)

Gameplay: 7.5/10 (The perfect action FPS has been refined to the extreme, with controls so smooth that nothing else even comes close to the freedom of movement on offer here... and yet some game modes have been removed for no apparent reason, the updates to existing modes and weapons are rather minor, and there is simply nothing here that is NEW enough to grab and hold your attention when compared to many other modern FPSs.)

Longevity: 8/10 (The bots are probably the best in the business, but are still AI constructs at the end of the day.  Multiplayer is as fun as ever, but the limited modes mean you had best ensure you really enjoy Warfare and Deathmatch.  The good news, however, is that UT3 still has the legendary modding potential that has made the franchise so popular, and if you are into the modding scene (and don't own a 360) then the potential here is pretty much unlimited.)

Overall: 7/10 (It is very difficult to rate this game, as there is nothing intrinsically wrong with it; UT3 is fun, looks great, sounds alright, and has very robust single and multiplayer modes.  The problem is that the same could be said about the previous three games in the series, and for the exact same reasons.  UT3, for all the pretty graphics and woeful introduction of a story, is a very small step forward, and as such it is difficult to justify giving a high rating for a product that is pretty much just a visual upgrade.

If you buy UT3 you will certainly enjoy yourself, and you may even get a great deal of long term enjoyment if you really dig the game modes or enjoy downloading mods.  Just remember that you'll get the exact same thing from the previous version...and the next one too.)

-Tim Sweeney

It's the middle of the summer. You're bored. You've spent a month just sitting in your living room watching VHS movies and playing your favorite single player game over and over. This day, you feel that you want to try something different. You search through your game collection, tossing aside all of these games that you've played several times, and are done with. Do you know what you need? You need to be killed.

By a by an enforcer, stinger minigun, flak cannon, or a rocket launcher. Perhaps you need to be run over by a hoverboard. Or maybe you're lucky enough to be flattened and mutilated by an impact hammer.

Unreal Tournament III is the equivalent of taking a bath in blood and bullets and explosions. It's a first person shooter from Epic Games, and it's a way to spill some red drink all over the place. It is easily the most brutal first person game I have ever laid my eyes on. Blood is spilled convincingly in a sexified manner. Does that make the game any better than it is? Perhaps. One thing's for sure: Unreal Tournament III is one hell of a thrill ride. It brings to the table addictive multiplayer, something everyone enjoys just a little more than performing surgery on living beings.

There are several multiplayer modes online, which support up to 12 players. Epic has implemented intelligent AI controlled bots to fill the empty space, so there is always 12 players in a game. There's the standard Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch (My personal favorite. There's nothing like going on your own.), but there are a few team based game modes as well, like Capture the Flag and Warfare.

The Xbox 360 version of the game supports 2 player split screen for online and off, something that the Ps3 version misses out on. However, the Ps3 and PC versions have user created mods, something the 360 version misses out on. The 3 versions are near identical in a lot of ways, with the PC getting the slight edge due to the availability of a mouse and keyboard. The Ps3 version has this option, too, but you'd have to purchase it.

As a single player game, there is a solo campaign that you can go through. The protagonist looks exactly like Marcus Fenix from Gears of War. His story is about revenge on an alien race that killed his family. The story is nothing special, other than an excuse to go to places and kill aliens. When the word "respawner" is used, then you know the developer didn't intend the story to count. And it doesn't.

The single player game is roughly 4 hours, which isn't bad, as it's mostly practice for online. The levels are the same ones from multiplayer. If this is your first UT game, as it was my first, then the single player game is a great place to start off. The story isn't captivating at all, and finishing it won't be a priority on your list.

Unreal is a very speedy first person shooter formula. Players move at increased speeds, and it goes well with the level designs, which are mostly just a series of room or squared connected by a series of narrow hallways. You're going to need high reflexes, as your reaction time needs to be to the split seconds, if even. I'll set the scene for you, as this is what most of your encounters will be:

- You spawn

-You see a weapon on the floor, a flak cannon

-You go and pick it up

-You turn down the hallway

-After 2 seconds, there is an opponent coming up the steps at the end of the hall

That will happen several times during each match. The player with the best aim, reflexes, and fastest trigger finger will survive.

This makes the game seem very shallow, but it's much more complex than it seems on paper. When you first enter an online match, it's surprising how fast everything moves, how intense the action is, and how steep the learning curve is.

Truth is, there is no other shooter that has this amount of polish at the speed and type of game that this plays. Every mechanic plays out well, and is a total blast to play. If this seems like your type of thing, then you are in for months of playing online that you will love. One would do best to compare it to laser tag. Who doesn't love laser tag?

Weapons are all varied and balanced well. You always start off with an automatic pistol, but you can find weapon pickups scattered throughout a level. Speed is essential here, too, considering that if you are caught with a poor weapon by somebody with a rocket launcher. You are PWn3D... lulz. Finding out which weapons are most effective at certain situations is essential, but easy to pick up on. The weapons all have alternate fires, which brings variety. They all look incredible, with unique effects and splash damage. They are all sci-fi guns that are really fun to shoot.

The best weapon in the game, however, isn't a gun. It is the impact hammer, your form of melee. Pressing the right face button pulls this sucker out, and holding down the fire button revs it up. It looks completely harmless at first, but when you press it against an opponent, the results are awesome. One second, they'll be running away, the next, they are gone. Blood is all over the gun, the walls, your arms, and the camera. Yes, that's right, the camera. The first time you do this to someone, your draw will hit the floor. It is possibly the most awesome thing in the history in videogaming.

From a presentation standpoint, Unreal fairs extremely well. It runs on the Unreal 3 Engine, and the game is made by Epic, so you know what to expect. The game looks identical to Gears of War, which looked incredible. There are a few upgrades on texture work, but the art is similar, and the main character is essentially Marcus Fenix. If you want reference to the best looking level, look at Deimos, a space station above a planet. If you gaze out long enough before you are murdered, it looks incredible. UT3 is one of the best looking games this generation, hands down. The game runs well even online, and spare a few texture pop ins, it's outstanding.

The soundtrack is very good with really cool spacey bass heavy tunes. Voice work is done well, even with the taunts you can select to have your character say. Guns sound pretty average, but they sound clear. The soundtrack is what saves the day here. The work done is superb.

If you are looking for an epic (no pun intended) single player game, wait for Fallout 3, or go back and play GTA IV. If it's mindless fun and possibly endless online you seek, look no further. The core gameplay might be too fast or difficult for some, but if you get the controls down, the game is a blast. Even if you suck, take a look at it. Unlike other shooters, this is about gameplay, not stats. When's the last time you played laser tag and cared whether or not you come in first? If you've never played laser tag, why haven't you ever played laser tag? Unreal Tournament III is a prime example of a fun game.

Vast arsenal of weapons -- Unreal Tournament has always been known for brutal weaponry, and now the arsenal is even bigger and badder. Detonate your opponent from a distance with the ever popular Shock Rifle or blast away at close range with the Flak Cannon. Over two dozen weapons and vehicles have been upgraded and enhanced for maximum killing potential.

The new single player campaign will show some pretty sweet features that will make for some really good gameplay.

New and favorite characters -- Fight side-by-side or compete against new and returning characters from the Unreal universe, including two Xbox 360 exclusive characters, all with enhanced abilities, extremely detailed designs, and distinct personalities.

Después de unos meses de incertidumbre sobre la fecha de salida en el mercado europeo por fin se ha confirmado.

Por ahora se conocía la fecha de lanzamiento en USA (7 de julio) pero no conociamos la fecha para europa, lo que nos llevo a especular sobre un posible retraso del juego en territorio PAL. Al final esto no ha sido así y podremos catar los juegos en nuestras XBOX europeas antes que en el otro lado del Atlántico.

]]> http://lastshepard.wordpress.com/?p=228 Tue, 27 May 2008 20:35:52 +0000 aliengroups http://lastshepard.pt-br.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/unreal-sega/

Last May, Sega joined a handful of other Japanese publishers, including Square Enix and Capcom, as licensees of Epic Games' epically popular Unreal Engine 3. As part of its original agreement, Sega said it would be implementing Epic's game engine into several projects currently being developed in North America. While the publisher was cagey on which projects specifically would be the object of the deal, current Sega titles being developed in the New World include Obsidian's Aliens role-playing game and Alpha Protocol, Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines, and Silicon Knights' unnamed project, which has been the subject of a lawsuit between the Canadian studio and Epic for its disputed use of Unreal Engine 3. Today, Sega said it would be extending its original Unreal deal to include one more title. Details on the unannounced title are slim, with Sega only stating that the game will be a multiplatform effort and further details will be revealed on an undetermined date. Epic has received substantial support for its game engine in recent years. During this year's Game Developers Conference, the game maker drew especially large crowds thanks to a tech demo for the latest build of the engine, which featured new "fracture" animations, surface deformations, crowd generation, and a slightly revolting cube of meat. Epic's Unreal Engine 3 has powered a variety of games, including the company's own Gears of War and Unreal Tournament III, BioWare's Mass Effect, and Midway's Hour of Victory.

Isso mesmo. Um cara chamado Organ criou character mods para o Unreal Tournament III do PS3, de personagens de Halo, Gears of War e Final Fantasy. E ficou muito bom mesmo... pena que não achei nenhum vídeo decente, o melhor foi esse de alguém jogando com o Master Chief.

Clique no link abaixo para ver mais fotos, vale a pena =]

[Via Destructoid]

On ne le dira jamais assez: le pouvoir d'Unreal Tournament 3 réside dans la possibilité de créer et partager gratuitement des mods (nouvelles maps, mutators etc...) à l'infini. Tout dépend de la communauté, qui est la seule productrice de ces mods en question. Les possibilités sont donc infinies, et permettent ainsi d'allonger une durée de vie déjà très acceptable.

En attendant, petite piqûre de rappel méritée concernant le tutorial d'installation d'un mod sur une version européenne du jeu:

Décompressez le fichier dans le répertoire racine de toute carte mémoire ou périphérique USB pouvant être lu par votre Playstation 3. Normalement, il se trouve déjà dans la bonne structure de répertoires mais, juste au cas où, le chemin et le nom du fichier doit être : PS3/SAVEDATA/BLUS30086-MODIMPORT/userdata.jam
Démarrez Unreal Tournament 3 sur votre PS3
Allez dans le menu "Community"
Choisissez "My content"
Choisissez "Import Mod" (touche "carré" )

Suivez les instruction afin d'importer sur votre jeu le contenu de votre carte mémoire ou périphérique USB

Attention: Pour la version française du jeu, il faut remplacer BLUS30086 par BLES00200, si le mod téléchargé est une version US.

Kvällens höjdpunkt var utan tvekan när jag, förföljd av okänd motståndare och med enbart några enstaka liv kvar, började ladda bazookans specialskott, sprang nedför en trappa, vände mig om och avlossade tre explosiva raketer rakt i ansiktet på min förvånade fiende.

Unreal Tournament III är, trots sitt simpla upplägg, underhållande och kontrollen förvånansvärt smidig. Vill ni veta mer om spelet får ni läsa min recension som publiceras på Gameplayer imorgon.

Midway eestableció el 22 de febrero como la fecha de lanzamiento en Europa de Unreal Tournament III para PlayStation 3, juego que ya está disponible en América desde finales del año pasado.

Así que paciencia, que sólo faltan un par de semanas.

- Gra roku na PC

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

2. The Orange Box

3. Test Drive: Unlimited

4. BioShock

5. Crysis/Unreal Tournament III

- Gra roku na PS3

1. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

2. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

4. Assassin's Creed

5. The Orange Box

- Gra roku na Xbox360

1. Mass Effect

2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

3. BioShock

4. Assassin's Creed

5. The Darkness

- Gra roku na Nintendo Wii

1. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

2. Super Mario Galaxy

3. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

4. The Simpsons Game

5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

- Najładniejsza oprawa graficzna

1. Crysis

2. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

3. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

5. BioShock

- Największa grywalność (oceniam tylko gry PC)

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

2. The Orange Box

3. Wiedźmin

4. Test Drive: Unlimited

5. Crysis

- Najlepsza oprawa dźwiękowa (oceniam tylko gry PC)

1. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

3. Wiedźmin

4. BioShock

5. Crysis

- Największe rozczarowanie roku (oceniam tylko gry PC)

1. Blacksite: Area 51

2. Clive Barkers: Jericho

3. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

4. Overlord/Driver: Parallel Lines

5. Stranglehold

- Najciekawsza fabuła

1. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

2. Mass Effect

3. Wiedźmin

4. BioShock

5. Assassin's Creed

- Najlepszy tryb multiplayer (oceniam tylko gry PC)

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

2. Team Fortress 2

3. Unreal Tournament III

4. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

5. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men

- Najbardziej innowacyjna gra

1. Portal

2. Assassin's Creed

3. Rock Band

4. Super Mario Galaxy

5. SKATE

Najlepsza gra na PSP:

1. Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters

2. Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow

3. Jeanne D'Arc

4. Sid Meier's Pirates!

Najlepsza gra na PS2:

1. God of War II

2. Rock Band

3. Burnout Dominator

4. Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Najciekawsi bohaterowie:

1 Team Fortress 2

2. Kane & Lynch

3. Altair z gry Assassin's Creed

4. Nariko z gry Heavenly Sword

5. GLaDOS z gry Portal

Najlepszy dodatek do gry:

1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

2. Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles

4. Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance

5. Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword

Najlepszy klimat:

1. BioShock

2. Assassin's Creed

3. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

4. The Darkness

5. Portal

Opóźnienie gry, które najbardziej zawiodło graczy:

1. GTA IV

2. Alan Wake

3. Spore

4. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

5. Alone in the Dark: Near Death Investigation

Najlepsza gra akcji:

1. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

2. Assassin's Creed

3. God of War II

4. Heavenly Sword

5. Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Najepszy FPS:

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

2. The Orange Box

3. BioShock

4. Crysis

5. Unreal Tournament III

Najlepsza platformówka:

1. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

2. Super Mario Galaxy

Najlepsza gra wyścigowa:

1. Forza Motorsport 2

2. Project Gotham Racing 4

3. MotorStorm

4. Colin McRae: DiRT

Najlepsza gra RPG:

1. Mass Effect

2. Wiedźmin

3. Eternal Sonata

4. Super Paper Mario

Najepsza gra sportowa:

1. SKATE

2. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

3. Fifa 08

4. Madden NFL 08

5. NHL 08

Najlepsza gra strategiczna:

1. World in Conflict

2. Supreme Commander

3. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

4. Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

To już wszyscy laureaci, rok 2007 można uznać za podsumowany. Zapraszam do komentowania i przedstawiania swoich propozycji w poszczególnych kategoriach ;)

Cineq

3 more maps and a new mutator for the Playstation 3 version of Unreal Tournament III. Pretty awesome news!

1 - DM-Elevation by warby
Forum Post
FileFront

2 - VCTF-Slax by Kantham
Forum Post
FileFront

3 - DM-Krodan by Hourences
Forum Post
FileFront

4 - Mutator: VASUT3AutoShields by KalCorp
Forum Post
FileFront

Additional mirrors:
gamershell
beyondunreal

Source: http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=593988

The first Mod is now available for download for the Playstation 3 version of Unreal Tournament III. You will have to either have to use a Flash Card or burn the files to a CD. At this time you cannot download the map from the game itself for some reason. i am not sure why but we shall find out soon... Either way, check out the new Death Match map by clicking below for the file...

Source: http://files.filefront.com/dm+shrine+ps3zip/;9293021;/fileinfo.html 

MacSoft, a leading publisher of Macintosh games, is proud to announce the Macintosh version of Unreal Tournament 3. Licensed by Midway Home Entertainment and developed by Epic Games, one of the world’s most acclaimed video game developers, Unreal Tournament 3 delivers the most frantic gameplay and stunning visuals yet in the award-winning Unreal series, as well as new vehicles, new weapons and the deepest single-player campaign in the series to date, all developed on the industry’s leading engine, the Unreal Engine 3. Best of all, it is scheduled to be available in early 2008. (+)

São óptimas notícias mas não estou a ver o meu MacBook aguentar o UT3.

The first-person shooter that started it all comes to the Playstation 3 just in time for the holidays...

I wanted to get this review out ASAP without leaving anything behind. I got my copy of Unreal Tournament III nearly 48 hours ago and I have been playing it pretty much non-stop. And before I dive right in I want to point out one small thing. I am a huge Unreal fanboy, I have been since the first Unreal hit the PC way back when. And I have seen the many ups and downs of this franchise. For me this is the franchise that got me into online first-person shooters. So way back when the Playstation 3 was announced I had a chance to see a glimpse of Unreal Tournament III behind closed doors at E3 2005. While Epic did not show very much, what I saw had me drooling for a Playstation 3. Enough about me babbling on about stuff that means totally nothing to you guys. On to the Playstation 3 review of Unreal Tournament III.

The Game:

I know like myself, a ton of you have been waiting for this game a very long time. So what exactly is packed into that nice little Blu-ray disc. 

Unreal Tournament III Game Modes:

• Campaign - Story mode.
• Deathmatch – it’s kill or be killed.
• Team Deathmatch – you work as a team to rack up the highest body count.
• Capture the Flag – the old favorite  Grab the enemy’s flag and return it to your base.
• Vehicle CTF – sort of appeared in UT2004, VCTF is now a fully-fledged gametype, bringing vehicles and hoverboards to your CTF experience.
• Warfare – an all-new massive vehicular gametype taking inspiration from UT2004’s Onslaught and Assault.

Online Play:

Deathmatch is basically a kill-fest. If you are expecting a game like Call of Duty 4 then you better be ready. Your ass will be lit up because the gameplay is super-fast. Team Deathmatch is fun as hell. You all know the drill though. Get enough team kills to win the match. Capture the Flag is another really fun game to play online. My personal favorite is Vehicle CTF. Some of the capture the flag maps are pretty huge. You can climb into the many vehicles that Unreal Tournament III has to offer. You have vehicles that can fly, some that are large like tanks, and some that are small like speeder bikes. You also have a hover board at your disposal at any time. Some of the alien vehicles are very cool as well. I really like the DarkWalker. There is also a large ball called the Scavenger that you can climb into and you roll around the level (think of a super monkey ball, but instead of collecting bananas you kill with it). And yes, you read that right folks...

The weapons all return as well. From the Shock Rifle to the Bio Rifle they are all here. The sniper rifle makes its return and can be a very valuable weapon when playing those large maps. Just find a place to camp and snipe away. My personal favorite to use is the Flak Cannon. This thing rocks and you can lite some serious ass up with it. The mother of all weapons, Remeemer, makes a return as well. This thing is a mega-bad ass weapon that is basically a missile that you guide. You can be on the other side of the map and guide this thing all the way to the other side and take out something big. The Unreal Tournament franchise has always been a game that featured awesome, bad-ass weapons and Unreal Tournament III takes it up a whole new level. 

Online play in Unreal Tournament III for the PS3  is a FPS fan’s wet dream. You can host a match as well as set up a ton of different features (Mutators) and have low gravity or big heads. You can choose the map cycles as well as the time and score. If someone is being a pain in the ass you can boot them from the game. The future Mods will also add a ton of new life into the PS3 version as well. This is pretty much a first for a console system and Epis is leading the way. The community keeps track of pretty much every single stat about your character online. It will keep track of every little detail, right down to how many times you can over somebody with a vehicle. And yes the game DOES support online chat, The button to speak is on the right D-pad but you can change this. Also make sure you have Mute Chat turned off in the audio options.

The online community of UT3 also has news and it will have updates for the game. You also have a friends list where you can invite someone into a game. If you log online and see that one of your friends is playing a game you also have the option to join in their game. The bottom line is Unreal Tournament III is full of features and is A+ in the stats and options department. I do know that some people have been complaining about split-screen. I personally do not care for split-screen. I never have and I never will so this does not effect me or my review one bit. But I can see how some people are upset.

Campaign Mode: 

Unreal Tournament III has a campaign mode that you can play by your self or online with other. A nice little story plays out and you basically play the game like you would if you were playing online. You take on various maps and frag your way to the end, opening up new levels.  

How does it play? 

The controls in Unreal Tournament III are as smooth as silk. I thought that the controls for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare were amazing, but this game has in my opinion the best feel, in terms of FPS. You can pretty much change every detail of how you play. You can even change from left-handed to right-handed on the HUD. Speaking of the HUD, you can changed that as well. If you are a PC gamer at heart you can plug in a USB mouse and a USB keyboard and use them for the PS3 version as well.

Another thing that you can do with Unreal Tournament III on the Playstation 3 is you can install the whole game on your PS3 hard drive. This will cut down tremendously on the games load times and it will make for a better gaming experience. You will still need the game disc (sort of acting as a CD-key) to play though. 

So how does this game look?

Unreal Tournament III has some of the best graphics I have seen on a Playstation 3 system. You really have to be playing this game on a High Definition Television to truly experience this though. The back of the box states 720p and like most of my games I play it on a regular television and then I move my PS3 to a 42inch 1080i HDTV. The results were jaw-dropping. The water effects are amazing, the colors and the textures are well defined. The character designs are beautifully done. Maps have their own unique designs. From cold snowy levels to city levels that dark and filled with bright neon lights and subway cars passing from above you. This game looks downright amazing.

The new Unreal engine kicks ass. Just think of Gears of War but as a first-person shooter. And if you want fast-as-hell gameplay the Unreal Tournament III is your game. This game moves as smooth as silk and from the 2+ days I have played I have not seen a single drop in the frame-rate (take that you crappy-ass Orange Box port). You will get a few hiccups while playing online but that all depends on the server you choose. I try to find a game that has a ping of 0-500 to play. Anything that has a 1000+ will definitely have some lag. You can always host your own game though.

The thing that will also keep pumping new life into Unreal Tournament III will be the Modding. Once the Unreal gaming community starts kicking out some killer maps you will be able to take the PC maps, cook them with a program on your PC and then put them on a memory or flash card then upload them to your Playstation 3 so you can play the maps on your system. If you are playing someone online that has a map that you do not have, you will simply just download the map from them and it will be saved onto your Playstation 3 system for future play. If you do not like the map you can simply go into your community/content section and delete the ones you do not want. At the time of this review the Mod program was still being worked on getting ready for release. But judging from the past (Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2004, etc) with the great community there are going to be some amazing maps to be had. 

Music to my ears...

The music of Unreal has also been a huge plus for me. I love the mix of the orchestral/trance music. The original Unreal Tournament theme makes its way back to Unreal Tournament III as well as some awesome new tracks. My personal favorite is the theme to the Gateway level. The music is top-notch in Unreal Tournament III. Not only that, the sounds of the game are also top notch. I also like the sounds of the various vehicles in the game. A personal favorite is the Necris Darkwalker. This thing is huge and it looks like something out of War of the World. And when you climb into it the vehicles makes this very weird, ambient sound (it sounds like a whale crying). 

Gamers can taunt each other with pre-set voices (left D-pad). There are all pretty funny and it features a ton of different voices, depending on which class and race your character is. And also returning is the UT announcer. The guy who does the main announcer voices rocks  With one-liners like “Double Kill, Triple Kill, and Head Shot” it just add’s a little more to an already kick-ass game. To tell you how much of an icon this guy is, since playing the original Unreal Tournament for the PC, every time I get a head shot in a FPS, no matter what game it is,  I think of that damn announcer saying “Head Shot”... This dude left a mental impact in my brain from all of those nights playing UT.   

The bottom line on Unreal Tournament III.

I did not think that this game would make it out the door in 2007. When I heard that it had gone gold and was going to be released on December 11th 2007 I was pretty stoked. I love FPS, and while I love games like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, this was the game I was personally waiting for. This is to me, the name that started it all (especially for me). I spent many nights on my PC playing Unreal Tournament and modding the hell out of my character and the maps.

I am sure I will get some feedback for scoring this game a 9.5, but oh well. This is my review and this is what I feel this game deserves. I honesty love this game. Everything about it. From the modding to the graphics, from the gameplay to the music I love it. And yes, I paid for this game out of my own pocket so this is not a hallow review. I am sitting here trying to figure out what could be wrong to tell you guys but I can’t think of anything. Everything is just done so good that there really is nothing that would NOT merit a purchase. I can nitpick about the chat problem but that is something that can easily be fixed with a patch. The gameplay, the music, the graphics are all top-notch. If you are expecting a deep Halo-3 type storyline then look elsewhere though. That’s the thing, Unreal Tournament has NEVER been about storyline. It is all about getting online and lighting up some ass in Team Deathmatch or Capture the Flag. Mark Rein and his group at Epic have done a phenomenal job on Unreal Tournament III.

If you own a Playstation 3 system you need to own this game. If you want to play a first-person shooter done right, play Unreal Tournament III. This is how it should be done.

Unreal Tournament III will reach the Sony Playstation 3 before the end of 2007 after all.. The game hits stores today!

"We are thrilled to put Unreal Tournament 3 in gamers’ hands before the holidays," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "The game plays so amazingly, and I think this is the pick-up-and-play shooter people have been waiting for on PLAYSTATION 3. In addition, UT3 is the first game ever to allow truly robust user-created content - we call them ’mods’ (as in ’modifications’) - on any console platform, and we can’t wait to see what the mod community creates for this game. User-created content has always been the remarkable backbone component of the Unreal Tournament series, and we think PLAYSTATION 3 system users are in for a huge treat when the mods start to appear."

See more at the official Unreal Tournament III website here.

Il gioco si presenta in ottima forma, sia sotto il comparto grafico che, soprattutto, sotto il comparto di giocabilità. L'Unreal Engine 3 si dimostra ancora una volta come un motore altamente scalabile, in grado di offrire alta qualità grafica anche su configurzioni di fascia media. L'amico Mago dovrebbe provarlo su un sistema con doppia nVidia GeForce 6600 GT (si si, 6600), e poi vi faremo sapere.

Killing Spree

Rimanendo fedele al suo marchio di fabbrica UT3 ci propone un'esperienza di gioco Multiplayer adrenalinica e di prim'ordine, pur rimanendo ancorato ai classici Match quali Deathmatch, Capture the Flag (entrambe anche in versione Team), con l'aggiunta delle nuove mappe per veicoli, davvero apprezzate ed effettivamente unica nota originale del contesto.

In pochi istanti si viene subito catapultati nell'arena di gioco, degni di nota infatti i tempi di caricamento davvero ridotti, ed in ancora meno tempo si raggiunge il giusto feeling con il gioco, come già detto frenetico ed inchiodato ai 60 Fps (alla faccia di Crysis).

Start, Option, Credit.

Non esente da note dolenti, UT3 ha alcune pecche nella navigabilità del menù, un po' troppo console style e troppo dispersivo. Ad esempio una volta in sessione di gioco, se vorrete tornare a Windows, sarete costretti a Disconnettervi -> tornare al menù dei server -> tornare al meù principale -> uscire dal gioco. Sarebbe stato comodo un tasto direttamente dalla sessione, no?

I walk alone, I walk alone

UT3 presenta anche una campagna single player, fin troppo blasonata già dalla custodia e nel manuale, ricco di dettagli della provenienza delle armi e sulle fazioni. Ma tutto questo poi si tradurrà in una carneficina con trama, che oltre alle personalizzazioni aggiuntive per i personaggi, offre ben poco al giocatore. Ma, sinceramente, dicamocelo: chi è che gioca Single Player ad Unreal Tournament 3 :D ?

Conclusioni

Solo per i fan sfegatati? Solo per i nerd? Probabilmente si, ma ciò non toglie che UT3 sia un ottimo sparatutto online, che ha molto da offrire soprattutto sul fronte della giocabilità e dell'immediatezza. Le prime sessioni saranno disarmanti, potreste venire uccisi centinaia (e non sto scherzando) di volte, ma con l'allenamento e la giusta configurazione di velocità del mouse e riflessi, presto riuscirete a raggiungere risultati soddisfacenti.

Pro

• Grafica di prim'ordine anche con Hardware di fascia media
• Inchiodato a 60 Fps
• Editor dei livelli

Contro

• Menù angosciante
• Nessuna novità nelle modalità di gioco
• Molto difficile per i casual gamers

Voto: 8 / 10

(9 /10 per i Fan e Hardcore Gamers :D )

Midway Games Inc. and Epic Games today announced that the PlayStation 3 version of Unreal Tournament 3 is scheduled to ship to retail outlets in North America on December 10th. It is expected to begin arriving in stores in limited quantities the following day, with a U.S. suggested retail price of $59.95.