Gambit
31-07-2007, 08:38 AM
Unreal Tournament 3 Beta Impressions
Rob Wright
July 30, 2007 17:18
One of the best things about Comic-Con 2007 last week was the public unveiling of Unreal Tournament 3's beta for the PC (Epic and Midway showed off a PlayStation 3 demo to members of the press at E3 earlier this month). Maximum PC and PC Gamer magazines had the game on display at their "Gamer's University" booth during the show. In fact, Unreal Tournament 3 was running on eight different Alienware desktops and the Gamer's University booth was holding hourly death match competitions for prizes, with the first player to get 30 frags being the winner (I'm terrible at online multiplayer death matches, by the way).
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z16/Gambit_ZA/ut1.jpg
I spent quite a bit of time over at the Gamer's University booth and had a chance to see Unreal Tournament 3 up close in full death match mode and even play the game for a bit. I'll confess before going any further that my experiences with the Unreal Tournament series is quite limited; I've played some UT 2004 and enjoyed it quite a bit but never became a full-time player. However, if the beta of UT3 is any indication, I will probably be spending a lot more time with the series. I can't wait to see what the finished product looked like because the UT3 beta was one of the smoothest, more polished betas I've ever had the pleasure to play.
First and foremost, this game is gorgeous. Epic did a fantastic job with the visual design and animation of Gears of War, and the developer has taken that game's look and feel and kicked it up several notches. It appears that Epic has made the most of its new and improved Unreal Engine 3, because UT3 looks like one of those rare games that look far better in action than the perfected screenshots. The map for the beta featured a large building with a hole in the roof that players could use for sniper shots (though I rarely saw anyone use the perch for such attacks during the multiple death matches that I watched). Unfortunately, there were no vehicles in these death matches, so that meant no display of the much-anticipated hoverboards.
Also, there are reportedly no new weapons for UT3; Epic simply took the best and most popular weapons from previous games and updated them for UT3. The developer has also modified some of the existing weapons by adding new functions to them; for example, the Tarydium Stinger Minigun returns in place of the traditional minigun and has a new secondary firing mode that has the ability to nail opponents to a wall. The Link Gun and Rocket Launcher are also back, and these two weapons were quite popular among the death match participants at Comic-Con. I was told by some of the players that the Link Gun's energy blast firing rate was much faster than in UT 2004. In addition, the Rocket Launcher had a slow firing rate but apparently dealt much more damage with more accuracy.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z16/Gambit_ZA/ut3.jpg
But my favorite weapon was the Redeemer, the portable nuclear missile that can take out multiple opponents in one shot. There's nothing really new about the Redeemer, but I enjoyed seeing the weapon in action - it's an amazing eruption that can completely change the landscape of the game. I came away from the UT3 beta impressed with how fast-paced the action was and how well the game's graphics and gameplay kept up with that furious pace. It was impossible for me to see UT3 and not compare it to Epic's Xbox 360 blockbuster Gears of War. But as excellent as Gears of War looks, the game itself moves slower compared to UT3; the action in UT3 is mind-numbingly quick but the beta never suffered from any glitches, lags, or frame rate issues what from I could tell.
It's not exactly standard procedure for a game developer and publisher to put a beta version of a highly anticipated game out at a trade show from thousands of people to see and play. Typically, a developer will craft a specific build for conventions like E3. With that in mind, I give Epic and Midway a lot of credit for both making a superior beta with no discernable issues or bugs (again, from what I saw) and for putting the beta out there at Comic-Con. It was tough to tell much about UT3 overall from the beta, since it was just one map for an eight-player death match with no vehicles available. Still, the beta held up remarkably well and if it's any indication, the final product should be quite a treat for Unreal fans when it's released in November. Much of the attention around UT3 has been devoted to the PlayStation 3 version of the game, but the PC version appears to in good hands.
http://www.twitchguru.com/2007/07/30/unreal-tournament-3/
Rob Wright
July 30, 2007 17:18
One of the best things about Comic-Con 2007 last week was the public unveiling of Unreal Tournament 3's beta for the PC (Epic and Midway showed off a PlayStation 3 demo to members of the press at E3 earlier this month). Maximum PC and PC Gamer magazines had the game on display at their "Gamer's University" booth during the show. In fact, Unreal Tournament 3 was running on eight different Alienware desktops and the Gamer's University booth was holding hourly death match competitions for prizes, with the first player to get 30 frags being the winner (I'm terrible at online multiplayer death matches, by the way).
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z16/Gambit_ZA/ut1.jpg
I spent quite a bit of time over at the Gamer's University booth and had a chance to see Unreal Tournament 3 up close in full death match mode and even play the game for a bit. I'll confess before going any further that my experiences with the Unreal Tournament series is quite limited; I've played some UT 2004 and enjoyed it quite a bit but never became a full-time player. However, if the beta of UT3 is any indication, I will probably be spending a lot more time with the series. I can't wait to see what the finished product looked like because the UT3 beta was one of the smoothest, more polished betas I've ever had the pleasure to play.
First and foremost, this game is gorgeous. Epic did a fantastic job with the visual design and animation of Gears of War, and the developer has taken that game's look and feel and kicked it up several notches. It appears that Epic has made the most of its new and improved Unreal Engine 3, because UT3 looks like one of those rare games that look far better in action than the perfected screenshots. The map for the beta featured a large building with a hole in the roof that players could use for sniper shots (though I rarely saw anyone use the perch for such attacks during the multiple death matches that I watched). Unfortunately, there were no vehicles in these death matches, so that meant no display of the much-anticipated hoverboards.
Also, there are reportedly no new weapons for UT3; Epic simply took the best and most popular weapons from previous games and updated them for UT3. The developer has also modified some of the existing weapons by adding new functions to them; for example, the Tarydium Stinger Minigun returns in place of the traditional minigun and has a new secondary firing mode that has the ability to nail opponents to a wall. The Link Gun and Rocket Launcher are also back, and these two weapons were quite popular among the death match participants at Comic-Con. I was told by some of the players that the Link Gun's energy blast firing rate was much faster than in UT 2004. In addition, the Rocket Launcher had a slow firing rate but apparently dealt much more damage with more accuracy.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z16/Gambit_ZA/ut3.jpg
But my favorite weapon was the Redeemer, the portable nuclear missile that can take out multiple opponents in one shot. There's nothing really new about the Redeemer, but I enjoyed seeing the weapon in action - it's an amazing eruption that can completely change the landscape of the game. I came away from the UT3 beta impressed with how fast-paced the action was and how well the game's graphics and gameplay kept up with that furious pace. It was impossible for me to see UT3 and not compare it to Epic's Xbox 360 blockbuster Gears of War. But as excellent as Gears of War looks, the game itself moves slower compared to UT3; the action in UT3 is mind-numbingly quick but the beta never suffered from any glitches, lags, or frame rate issues what from I could tell.
It's not exactly standard procedure for a game developer and publisher to put a beta version of a highly anticipated game out at a trade show from thousands of people to see and play. Typically, a developer will craft a specific build for conventions like E3. With that in mind, I give Epic and Midway a lot of credit for both making a superior beta with no discernable issues or bugs (again, from what I saw) and for putting the beta out there at Comic-Con. It was tough to tell much about UT3 overall from the beta, since it was just one map for an eight-player death match with no vehicles available. Still, the beta held up remarkably well and if it's any indication, the final product should be quite a treat for Unreal fans when it's released in November. Much of the attention around UT3 has been devoted to the PlayStation 3 version of the game, but the PC version appears to in good hands.
http://www.twitchguru.com/2007/07/30/unreal-tournament-3/