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(More customer reviews)Before I start I'm going to admit that this game is very fun and very intense. No doubt that it contains way more action than it's predecessors. The only problem is.. it's not finished. And what I mean by that is that this game needs some serious patching updates before I'd even consider it a full fledged product release. Some players have embraced it's flaws with hopes of fixes (like myself), but some people need to understand what they're getting in to before they get disappointed.
When Epic released the UT3 demo back in October it was released with GREAT anticipation. FINALLY a glimpse at an Unreal game that contained lifelike characters with bigger and badder action like never before. Created with the Unreal Engine 3, the characters and environments alike are definitely sweet eye candy.. which leads me to believe that the last several years this game has been in development have been merely to make it look good. The Beta contained a LOT of bugs, which is normal considering its a "Beta Demo," but when it was announced that UT3 had gone gold in a matter of weeks many had their doubts that the bugs that plagued the Beta Demo would be fixed in the retail version. Many of the bugs had remained. One such bug has the players viewpoint very close to the ground. It's like playing UT3 with little people instead of the proper height of the character models.
Much of what made UT2k4 and UT99 so great have been stripped from UT3. If you're a fan of the movement styles of 2k4 then you'll be greatly disappointed as the jump dodge has been removed. Jumping in itself is bad enough because some obsticles just aren't low enough for the character to jump over even with double jump. Fans of both eras will notice that the colors are washed with 100 types of gray and brown. The absense of bright colors (on players and environments) tend to make the game depressing and grundgey. Only a few levels even contain color and even so they're just lights. The game is also drowns in bloom and distance fog. Sure, the bloom and fog give the game more realism, but they also hinder sight when playing the game. At one point a players screen can get so bright (due to power ups coloring the screen) that it makes it even more difficult to see anything.
The User Interface (menu system) is very consolized and not PC friendly. Because the game is coming out for the PS3 and 360, Epic decided to give PC users a very consolized looking menu. Many areas do not have tabs or drop down menus for easy navigation. You find yourself going menu after menu then going back to a previous menu only to go forward again. It's a real hassle. Deep customization is gone from this game. PC users cannot control many of the graphic settings they could control in previous Unreal Tournament games. It's either all or nothing by sliding "World Detials" and "Texture Details" 1 through 5 with 5 being the max detail settings. If you REALLY want Unreal Tournament 3 to be truly customized you would have to go into the game's .ini files and edit the code by hand. And even when you do so, your game still needs to connect to the internet where Epic and/or Gamespy have servers that SAVE your .ini files. Yes, Epic and/or Gamespy have servers that store your game's .ini files on their servers. The mothership does call. Sometimes your changes stick and sometimes they don't.
Epic chose Gamespy, much to the "delite" (sarcasm) of UT players everywhere, as their choice of software for finding game browsers online. The browser in both the beta and retail have not changed. You MUST create an online profile for yourself in order to play online. Sometimes, when you want to play offline, the game still asks you to connect to the internet. It's very annoying. One problem is that when browsing for specific games (like having the option to not show empty servers or full servers), you finalize your decision and then when the game list shows up.. it didn't even filter out what you're looking for. So you have to go back, redo everything and try again. There are no favorites tab, you cannot see who's playing on any of the servers, and you cannot spectate any server.
The single player campaign in itself is a fun addition to those who just want to play offline. There is a story that goes along with many many battles. You play all the gametypes (except duel) with your team (Ronin). The bot AI on the enemy team is very good... but I can't say the same about any bot AI on your own team. You'll have to experience that one for yourself.
Warfare is a fun addition to the game along with the other classic gametypes. It's one big game of capture the flag mixed with Onslaught (a gametype from UT2k4) with a ball. My only gripe is that Warfare has a LOT of maps, while gametypes like CTF and vCTF (Vehicle Capture the Flag) have a handful. A small handful.
Character customization is not as deep as it could have been and there aren't as many characters to choose from. You have to play through single player mode to unlock new characters such as the Necris.
There are many problems that plague this "final" release of the game that are currently being fixed in beta patches that are being privately tested as I write this. What's disappointing is that the game should have been finished when it was released, not patched heavily within a short time. If you're that picky about it then maybe you should wait for an official patch.
Nonetheless, if you can look beyond the flaws and want a game where you can run and gun, blow things up with vehicles and lay some smack down to your friend across the country.. then this game is for you.
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Unreal Tournament III
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