Unreal Tournament 3 Review

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someone on the ut3 forums said something like "it's gotta be rescued by mods", luckily there are alot already in development (and alot already ported from the old UT's). Alot of maps too.

I haven't played it yet (waiting to early next year, but might get it next weekend), but have already read alot about how bad it is, the warfare maps being small, server browser (it sounds like it was the same as in the beta demo), the menus, no mature taunts (Eff yeah! WTF), even about Lauren now looks chubby and has a voice that makes any cow scream.. i'm not really sure if im looking forward to getting it. I do love all the UT games thus far (I like 2k3 and 2k4 equally).

It does seem like it was rushed, it doesn't sound like they took much feedback from the beta at all.

As I said, wait for the mods (or get the ones that are already out lol).
 
you say spider mines are new?

nope, ut2k4 had them. Had a single player 'campaign' too, so that is also not new. Neither is the fact that it was lame and useless even back then. 😛

agree on the resource-eating console ports that are plaguing us all.

I am also a longtime fan. Had preordered every one except this one since playing the original Unreal. Was worried about UT3 though. Loved onslaught and other gametypes. Pissed they dropped them (or 'modded' them in the case of onslaught) Hated the UI after playing the demo.

console = death of 'true' pc gaming... but not b/c of lack of sales or anything the doom-sayers have been preaching. Rather, it is b/c of the dumbing down of 'real' pc games for the retard-console crowd.


grrr, epic was one of my last refuges that I had hoped would not succumb to this tide of lame-ness.

That patch had better be some hella-secret sauce that brings them back to glory.
 
Is it me or are the graphics nothing special? COD4 completely blows it out of the water. I think the graphics are sub-par compared to whats
out right now. Opinions?
 
:pt1cable:
UT3 is the game that fans of the original have been crying for.
The 2k series was a graphical feast of garbage play mechanics
that were a true and dismal abandonment of the Unreal series breakthrough gameplay.
Its true that UT3 could use some modern things found in some of the other FPS available today. My preference would be a communication rose or "commo rose", and the "Spot" ability, both found in Battlefield 2142.
All told UT3 plays much like UT99 in many respects. UT99 was by far the most played, best selling UT to date. And this is a game that was out 8 years ago when most of the internet was still dial up, and many towns were still a couple years away from getting any where near "High-speed" internet.
I'm sorry that Ryan Lord was among the few that liked the 2k series
and that most of the posts you will read are from unsatisfied people.
The truth is that satisfied customers don't post at all usually. I won't make that mistake again after UT was hijacked for 5 years by the 2k series. I LIKE IT EPIC! THANK YOU!

LOL @ sojner and his quote about EPIC being lame. No man. EPIC was lame in 2003 when they turned
UT into Jumping Flash for the PS one. They killed the announcer, 2 of the four team options, most of the good maps, and they ruined the original play mechanic.
It would be nice if Ryan Lord had studied a little before writing his article. Most of the development time for UT3 went into tweaking the controls this time around. No more UBER dodge Batman/Kobe Bryant moves that allow any noskill button masher to fly half across the map with 3 key presses.
The fact is that EPIC has taken their best shot at fixing a broken, nearly unplayed franchise; trying to return it to former glory. I can only hope the Quake team comes around and does the same thing.
 
I prefered the 2k series because it was nuts, ut99 and quake 3 were awesome (we play quake 3 at work, but I would rather play ut99) but the 2k series brought some good stuff, I loved the different modes and the vehicles.. onslaught was pretty good although I rarely played it because all ppl played was torlan ugh hated that one. There was awesome mods too, red orchestra and a few others I tried but can't remember.

Check out the mods and stuff for ut3..
http://utforums.epicgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=341

PS where's Xan?
 
Unbelievable! Yes there are some screw ups but please!!! Reviewer has a "twisted by hype" point of view.

UI does suck... so does SP mode(for all games)... most UT'ers don't care about the SP, and can deal with the UI and browser.

What was not mentioned is this game is downright fun... more balanced than previous versions... and the graphics are beautiful. This is Unreal... not Real. I have CoD4, Crysis, BF2142, TF2 orange box, ET;QW, and I choose UT3 to play. Because (and thankfully) what was mentioned is... this is the ONLY game that offers the twitch, highspeed adrenaline pumpin gameplay an FPS should.

 
This is a great example of all that is wrong with game reviews today. You basically panned this game and still gave it an 8/10!
 
umm... I like both '99 and 2k4. 'hijacked' though? I think 2k3 ruined alot of the weapons from '99 but 2k4 moved them back closer. Liked the domination better in '99 but onslaught was brilliant, like a condensed and streamlined BF with UT speeds. Each version had good and bad points, but the 'bad' were never really BAD.

I hate... HATE the consolized UI though in this one. I like the return of the '99-style music and sounds and the 'feel' is definitely more '99... wich is a good thing.

also hate the way the unreal engine is 'supporting' widescreen. BOOO! vert- is NOT the way to do it.

the patch is bringing FOV changes to help with that but c'mon, EPIC has always released a solid game out of the gate and not one that needs patched right away for things that should have been fixed at the start. (UI, FOV and server browser all getting fixed there)

@deranged: Graphics in all the UT games were great. They are all just solid and smooth-running. Never at the 'top' of the heap but nowhere near the bottom. The engine could always do more but speed and smooth play is more important than eye-candy in UT. (not that there is no candy, just it is not as important) I like the look of it honestly, new and old at the same time. :)
 


just noticed this addition... missed it first time around.

I am not saying that Epic is lame... did you notice my comment that they were a favorite of mine? That I have preordered all the UT games before this?

I agree on your take on ut2k3... more bad than good... They tried it and it bombed (tried to make it more 'quake-like'), then they made 2k4 and it was great. It had alot of the stuff promised for 2k3 (like vehicles) and added some brilliant gametypes while bringing back some of the older ones from '99.

It also shipped with all the mods necessary to make it play just like '99. Your complaint about the 'uber dodge' stuff is invalid b/c you could set that w/ or w/o it. simple as that. I still play 2k4 today.

'unplayable'? If you look at the numbers in sales and players as well as all the support and additional content that epic put to 2k4... new maps, vehicles, mods etc... it is the clear winner of any argument over 'glory' and 'playability'.

honestly, you are the one that sounds unsatisfied. I am merely pointing out that epic has stumbled where they have usually triumphed. Perhaps the patch will give us the PC-centric game that we have always expected from them.
 
What this game is missing is the same as what was missing from the 2k series. The visceral fast insanity of the original. It seems simple enough to return the movement speed and jumping height of the original, but they won't do it for some reason. Do they have the modifiers? I don't remember seeing those in the 2k series, but I admittedly didn't play it all that much. The low gravity modifier was hella fun.

BTW, all of the UT games have had single player "campaigns" in which you played all the multiplayer maps in succession to win some tournament (thus the the game name).

Oh, and how does a game that you basically hated get an 8 out of 10? Reading the review, I was expecting a 6, max.
 
As a long time UT player myself, I was really looking forward to this one. I've been there since the Unreal multiplayer matches back in the day. Each brings something fun and different to the franchise. My favorite being 2k4, but I love UT99 as well. I think this reviewer hit the real problem with this game dead on the head, the network browser. It's absolutely terrible. Admin'ing a server is a nightmare particularly without any webadmin and redirect support. Sure the beta patch adds the ability to spectate but it's still got some serious issues when it comes to actually listing servers. He's also dead on that this is a game that people look forward to play online. If they're going to gut that ability right out of the gate, why play the game? Especially with the release of the fantastic COD4 and TF2 to satisfy multiplayer FPS fragging? It's just really disappointing that Epic obviously was focusing on the console versions of the game over the PC one. Well let's hope that those on their Xbox Live network get a better browser than us PC folks.
 
Until they bring back ol-school low-grav, instagib CTF, I'm not interested... 😉

Seriously though, I fell off the Unreal bandwagon after my addiction to UT fizzled, but I bought a copy of UT3. Any true FPS fan needs to give this game a shot... like PCanalyst said, it's downright fun and exactly what an FPS should be.
 
I'm with the dude up higher. What the hell? The reviewer bashes it to ****, then gives it an 8.0. I actually chuckled at that. I have UT3, still needs to be installed though,.... I've been busy.
 
Could someone PLEASE explain to me what is so terrible about the UI?!? I just dont see it. I hold no opinions for any UI. I use them as a way to select my options then get into a game...thats it. The only time I have a problem is when they DONT WORK. As in the case with BF2 when it first came out. I fail to see any real problem that is worth truly being disgusted with the game over. Oh and I love the game...all aspects...all the way around.

For the person who said CoD 4 blows this out of the water graphically. It sure does, but they aren't the same type of engine. CoD 4 focus' on Photorealism...where as you can plainly see that UT3 is not...I like UT3's better, but that is just the way I like my games...I LOVE big weapon models. lol...just my 2 cents.

Best,

3Ball
 
I played the demo and was rather surprised... after expecting some sort of reaction out of myself, I felt nothing. No part of the game really jumped out at me as good or bad, and I'm so used to good graphics that the game doesn't jump out at me in that respect. I was hoping for something special or new.
 
Looks nice (though the desaturation of colours is really poor) and the important thing is it plays well. Kinda like COD4, you can pump the graphics and it still goes nuts. Cryris requires you to either run expensive hardware or run low graphics to get a good framerate for the multiplayer.

EDIT: Also, are you saying the ingame UI is bland? Because that's a good thing. I don't want my attention to be on the UI all the time, I want it to be on your left eyeball 😉
 
Hey guys - first, I want to thank you all for your feedback of my review, whether it was positive or negative. Per the submission rules here, I have to keep my reviews somewhat limited in word count (around 2,200), so I did the best I could to cover all of my concerns, and beliefs as to why Unreal Tournament 3 turned out the way it did.

Regarding my score of 8.0, I thought about it for some time, but came to the conclusion that I couldn't have given it less than an 8 when focusing primarily on the multiplayer. The truth is, an 8.0 is an above average to good game, and that's where UT3 falls as it is right now.

Those of you who have played UT3 will probably agree that Epic was perfectly capable of creating a higher quality product, and subsequently earn a better score from most reviewers. I believe that had Epic dropped the single player efforts on the PC completely, that gamers would have still purchased UT3 at near full price, and we would have had more game types to play or more features. Instead, I feel that the single player campaign, along with the high quality and expensive cinematics, were developed with the intention of adding value to the console platforms.

Usually single player efforts in a mostly pure multiplayer game are done at the demand or expectations of the publisher, with the goal of justifying the value of the title to those who approve games at Sony and Microsoft, along with retail chain executives and marketing gurus in charge of bulk buying. I have a background as a Producer in game dev, so I understand the hurdles that developers often need to take when pushing a game on a console, it's much much different than a purely PC release. Developers are sometimes forced into promising things like X amount of single player missions, and a full fledged campaign where you conquer the world. So what happens in those cases? Typically developers sacrifice and make cuts elsewhere, to deliver on the contract, even if poorly. This is just speculation in this case though, I do not work for Epic or Midway.

With that said, I was somewhat torn between a 7.5 and an 8 for a couple days. If you play UT3 enough online, you'd probably agree that an 8 is fair, as it's not a bad game. The series isn't dead, it just seems that Epic stripped away some things while only adding very little to take the place of the missing. While I may have seemed to complain about UT3 a lot, I also did mention there were things that I did enjoy as well. I just expected more of an evolution.

Regarding the original UT, it was definitely one of the greats of its time, and I spent many hours playing it each and every week for a good year, but my favorite of the series did become UT2004, which I thought was excellent.

In terms of quality games lately that other developers should try to learn from, I think Infinity Ward did an excellent job showcasing how to make a very solid single player and multiplayer experience with Call of Duty 4. They were able to accomplish a multi-platform release to boot, and still keep things very enjoyable. I understand that they're different games with different engines, and even styles, but I think that for UT3, and the time spent working on it, the sky should have been the limit.
 


Sure can. Mainly I was referring to the menu tree UI more than anything else, as it is pretty obnoxious. The in-game UI could have been a little better too, but you're usually too busy fragging people to notice the flaws. :)
 
fair enough, and I agree... with 2k4 (I really see 2k3 as the red-headed step-child, and so does Epic as they ignored it by calling the new one #3...) they removed alot of stuff from 99 but added so much to make up for it. This one is almost like they were gonna add much more and then passed... ironically much like 2k3 was on release and then they gave us 2k4 which delivered on all the hype that came before 2k3...

of course, then the 'console' version was Unreal Championship and its sequel. Honestly not a bad console shooter at all and really what they should have done here as well.

but I digress...

rock on.
 


very good point!

Best,

3Ball
 
One thing that has't been mentioned in the review, but that has set the UT series apart from most other FPS's, is the bot AI. It probably wasn't mentioned because it is so ubiquous in the UT franchise that we don't even notice it is there. You'll notice the AI when it is missing though.

Crysis, CoD4, are both great games, but they have no multiplayer bot support. I haven't played TF2, but from what I've read it looks like it is lacking bots as well. Yes obviously most FPS games have bot support for the single player missions. Any idiot can script a seemingly intelligent AI in an objective based single player mission. The challenge is creating one that can deal with a free form game types, and still manage to challenge the player.

Online gaming is not an option for everyone in the world, so being able to set up maps with dozens of bots all over the place makes an awesome frag fest. Plus if you decide to LAN with a couple of friends, bots fill in the gaps to make the game more enjoyable. For instance playing onslaught with two players is not really that enjoyable, but with 16, that becomes interesting.

The other thing that sets the UT franchise apart from other games is its mod community. Epic started nurturing its mod community a long time ago and has some loyal followers and modders. There has been some seriously awesome content created by the mod community.
It became apparent a while ago that the UT games ('99, 2k3, and 2k4) were slightly more than game engines with a bit of content. Don't get me wrong that "bit of content", has been really good, and I'm a fan of all the UT games in their original forms, but it seems Epic's emphasis is on getting something that modders can work with, rather than trying to pile a game full of content.

Most of the complaints listed by other posts are content based and can be easily changed by either mutators, or a little bit of scripting. Ultimately it is the mods that make UT the game it is, and only when the modders start complaining then I'll get worried.. When you read the review, notice that there weren't issues with the basic game itself. Most issues were about content, although having said that, the issues about the UI, esp the server browser are a bit worrying. Hopefully Epic will fix those.

Again Epic probably ditched Assault, because there didn't seem to be a lot of support for it from the modding community. I personally struggled to find a lot of decent maps for UT and UT2k4. There was more support for Onslaught than for Assault. So I can understand the shift in emphasis from Epic.

Lastly regarding the single player campaign. It is Unreal TOURNAMENT. The PGA doesn't have much of a storyline either. UT3 is not an adventure game, nor is it a RPG. It is a tournament FPS, and I think Epic has remained faithful to that in it's latest incarnation.

Carl.
 
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