After various delays and obstructions one of the most anticipated titles for PC gamers finally arrived in November 2007 with a follow up of a Playstation 3 port a few months later. Uproar started due to the announcement that UT3 would be exclusive to the Playstation 3 for the console generation.
A 360 version which was scheduled for a release at around the same time was delayed due to Microsofts’ Xbox Live team were holding back some areas of production. The review cites “Microsoft’s strict rules for Xbox Live, which in its current form won’t accept user-generated content for the game as the source of the delays.
The issue over Microsoft’s closed membership system and points cost for many downloads has sparked a debate over how the Xbox release will be handled.
Now the wait is finally over but was it worth it? I’ll first off give you the run down of the Unreal Tournament III then supply you with the negatives and positives of the 360 version. The 360 version will have 5 Exclusive maps, 2 Exclusive Characters, a 2 Player Splitscreen Multiplayer mode and all the downloadable content released by Epic already on the Disc.
Similar to the previous entries of the series, the game is primarily an online multiplayer title offering several game modes, including large-scale Warfare, Capture-the-Flag, and Deathmatch. It also includes an offline single-player game with an minimal story, advancing from the simple tournament ladder to such concepts as team members with their own individual personalities. You follow the story of Ronin, a team of mercenaries out for revenge on those who destroyed their home colony. The team is compiled of four member, you take on the roll of James “Reaper” Hawkins and fight along with your younger sibling Sarah “Jester” Hawkins and friends Bishop and an old favorite Othello.
Unlike the previous Unreal Tournament games, the single player campaign does not follow a plot based around the Tournament Grand Championship, and therefore several of the teams within Unreal Tournament III are not Tournament competitors. Furthermore, what’s in store online is an experience worth savoring. In addition to playing your campaign co-op with online friends, you’ve got your list of other online modes which include: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Duel, Warfare, Capture the Flag, and Vehicle CTF.
Capture the flag is a team-based game. Invade the opposing team’s base, grab their flag and bring it back to your own base to obtain glory. If your own flag has been stolen from the opposing team you will need to kill the flag carrier and restore the flag for it to be returned to the base. To score a point with the other teams flag you need to have your own flag at your base. You also have the extra of Vehicle CTF which is the same an original CTF but with the addition of Vehicles.
The vehicles have been split into two factions, the Axon vehicles (made by the Axon corporation) and Necris vehicles. The Axon vehicles are the same from UT2004, but several have significant gameplay changes. In addition, every player is equipped with a personal hoverboard, which is a skateboard-like device that allows players to traverse large maps and get towed when they grapple onto other teammates’ vehicles. However, the hoverboard is very vulnerable to attack and any kind of hit will knock the player off the board and disable him or her for several seconds. Additionally, the player cannot use any weapons while on the board.
Duel is a one-on-one test of Deathmatch skill. Whoever wins the round will take on the next spectator watching the carnage. And finally the Warfare mode which is based of the original formerly known as Conquest.
Warfare is a new all game mode which is strategic, moving-battlefront, team game. The object is to destroy the enemies Power Core by linking to it through controls points called Nodes. Once a link is established the enemy Power Core’s shield drops and it becomes vulnerable to an attack. Power Cores are found in each team’s base. They start at 100% health and cannot be repaired. At the start of a match, you can see the shield protecting the Power Core. That shield will drop however if the enemy successfully controls a series of Nodes leading up to your Prime Node, your Power Core will become vulnerable to attack. Once a Power Core reaches zero health, the match is over. Should a game reach overtime, the Power Core will start to drain.
Controls do their job, they can feel a little chunky at first but after a few hours of gameplay you will be pulling head-shot’s without giving it a second thought. Sadly there is no Mouse/Keyboard compatibility like the PC and PS3 versions but you still have the option to configure your own button layout.
While I was browsing through the menu’s I noticed that in order to talk online you must push the D-pad, this can be good in one way, it will stop trash talkers from constantly talking throughout the game this could of been sorted with a Mute Player feature and the downside is with Unreal Tournament being such a fast paced shooting game you will not have the time to keep pushing it.
The HUD is layed out nicely and minimal giving you more scope to locate enemies, you are also given the option to turn these on and off. You have some options to tinkering around with the video such as brightness, post processing and gore. The ability of changing the voice announcer to the sexy female and a few others has also been removed along with the potential to reverse music.
The ability to create your own character has been scrapped for this version and replaced with 60+ presets made by Epic. This was quite a let down since everyone will now look the same online and with lack of the ability to create user content on the PC and port over Epic did bad with this choice.
The visuals of this game are stunning, the game still keeps the same structure and futuristic design from previous titles. Weapons from the previous titles are still in with major updates both design and functionality. Frame rate drops didn’t occur once even with maximum players and super speed mutators added.
Online includes everything from offline play, match types include ranked and player with the option of choosing from listen or dedicated server hosting, either way wont be disappointed with the online as it delivers fast action with very little lag.
Mutators are back once again, Mutators are to add fun to the default look and play of the game you get options to speed the game up to or to allow players to equip with a one shot kill Instagib Rifle. Leader boards make an appearance which allow you to view stats for yourself and other players. You can sort Leader board information by server type and use filters to limit the statistics to just the information you want.
Overall if your the hardcore fan of the Unreal Tournament series you probably own this sequel for the PC, if you own both the 360 and PS3 I suggest picking up the PS3 version. This is due to the 360 version lacking in the major features which Unreal Tournament evolves around such as user created maps and mods.
If you’re the gamer looking for an extremely fun online game which has good replay value, excellent visuals and an exciting co-op mode to play with friends you need to check this out. Otherwise there isn’t much which would interest you other unless you’re an achievement fanatic and need to get that 10,000 kills completion.
Great selections as always and they are...
Final Fantasy
Metal Gear Solid
Super Smash Bros.
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Unreal Tournament
Advance Wars
Payday 2
Default Prime writes: "It turns out that the people who make Gears of War also make some other game series called Unreal. Or at least they used to. You wouldn’t really know it, considering that it has been five years since they actually released an Unreal game. Killing locusts with chainsaw bayonets is all well and good, but now that the Gears trilogy is done, maybe Epic Games can get back to the franchise that put them on the map in the first place."
The Unreal games are pretty awesome, well, all but Unreal 2. I'm not much of a fan the way they had no ladder in UTIII too, UC2 is also great and backwards compatible on 360.
I always found that Gears was a step back from what Epic previously achieved.
I remember my jaw dropping the first time I walked out of the crashed ship and saw the outdoor landscape.
And also that first time in that hallway when the walls went up and the lights went off one by one. Man what a great game that was
Up until this generation of consoles, virtually every multiplayer game out there offered split-screen play. Now, local multiplayer games are an endangered species. This article examines why local multiplayer is worth saving.
Absolutely... We used to have this choice with almost every multiplayer game but not anymore.
