Unreal Tournament 3 beta demo first impressions

This article was originally posted on October 16, 2007 in 12:31 p.m.

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Epic Games recently released a beta demo of Unreal Tournament 3 (PlayStation 3, Windows PC, Xbox 360) for capable PCs, and our short weekend immersion with it was a UT3-filled excursion like no other. There’s plenty of reason to be excited about gaming history’s biggest arena shooting franchise, and Unreal Tournament 3 definitely brought out the old UT kid huddled inside.

Sporting a different look and feel, the Unreal Tournament 3 demo touted what was Unreal Engine 3’s crowning moment – improved graphics and rendering for a new generation of games. Unreal Tournament 3, for its namesake, was the flagship title for UE3 technology, and the game did have more of its share of visual appeal.

Despite a few exceptions specific to the core community, the beta demo’s graphics stood out, almost imposing itself visually beyond former installments UT2004 and UT99.

Gameplay was fluid enough to keep in pace with UT3‘s predecessors (though they would feel much faster than UT3), and bot skills were heightened to mad levels even on lower settings. We can still survive on Adept skills, but not long enough to run a decent killing spree. That’s even saying how talkative the the AI is this time around. Enemy locations, enemy vehicle locations, and the a freelancing bot’s destination – they’re all confirmed via radio message. UT99 bots Loque, Malakai, Visse, and Kragoth are back, though hints of a sultry, femme-fatale Lauren have also risen from content.

We were also treated with rhythmic beats to Unreal Tournament‘s original theme, enhanced with deeper, dynamic bass and remixed with a sinister feel. Audio was impressionably dabbed with vengeful malice, because the announcers voices were deeper, more serious and with a hint of bloodlust. There was also only one bot voice-pack included in the game – the husky voice and the angered tone reinforced our beliefs that a serious UT was coming up.

Find out what else is coming up when you read our impressions at the full article!

This article was originally posted on October 16, 2007 in 12:31 p.m.

Banner - Image 1  

Epic Games recently released a beta demo of Unreal Tournament 3 (PlayStation 3, Windows PC, Xbox 360) for capable PCs, and our short weekend immersion with it was a UT3-filled excursion like no other. There’s plenty of reason to be excited about gaming history’s biggest arena shooting franchise, and Unreal Tournament 3 definitely brought out the old UT kid huddled inside.

Sporting a different look and feel, the Unreal Tournament 3 demo touted what was Unreal Engine 3’s crowning moment – improved graphics and rendering for a new generation of games. Unreal Tournament 3, for its namesake, was the flagship title for UE3 technology, and the game did have more of its share of visual appeal.

Despite a few exceptions specific to the core community, the beta demo’s graphics stood out, almost imposing itself visually beyond former installments UT2004 and UT99.

Gameplay was fluid enough to keep in pace with UT3‘s predecessors (though they would feel much faster than UT3), and bot skills were heightened to mad levels even on lower settings. We can still survive on Adept skills, but not long enough to run a decent killing spree. That’s even saying how talkative the the AI is this time around. Enemy locations, enemy vehicle locations, and the a freelancing bot’s destination – they’re all confirmed via radio message. UT99 bots Loque, Malakai, Visse, and Kragoth are back, though hints of a sultry, femme-fatale Lauren have also risen from content.

We were also treated with rhythmic beats to Unreal Tournament‘s original theme, enhanced with deeper, dynamic bass and remixed with a sinister feel. Audio was impressionably dabbed with vengeful malice, because the announcers voices were deeper, more serious and with a hint of bloodlust. There was also only one bot voice-pack included in the game – the husky voice and the angered tone reinforced our beliefs that a serious UT was coming up.  

Unreal Tournament 3 posed seriously radical changes to the player’s available arsenal, altering both look and mechanics to certain extent. Double Enforcers have finally returned from seven years of dormancy since UT99, and the Tarydium Stinger Minigun was revived from the game that started it all: Unreal.

The scoped Sniper Rifle also got a new facelift and doesn’t spew smoke like a NASCAR muffler anymore, while the classic Redeemer arrived with a sophisticated new look. Newer weapons such as the Longbow AVRiL are still in the game from UT2004 but with a more complete name, though the Plasma Rifle of UT99 origin is still called the Link Gun.

The massive, treaded Goliath, the plasma-shielding Paladin, the hover-hopping Wraith, the spine-snapping Scorpion, plasma-firing Hellbender, and the high-flying Raptor returned with new looks and similar weaponry. But with the addition of physics (via AGEIA‘s PhysX accelerator card or software support), they were handled more realistically. The Wraith for example, handles with better mid-air responsiveness.

But with all things labeled as Beta, this demo had a significant share of issues involved. It was released with the intention of capturing hardware issues prior to the game’s release next month, but no one expected the wealth of other feedback that was reeled in from all the beta players. First and foremost, the console-like menu design and server browser page found disapproval in the eyes of many fans.

Also, investigation of demo content lead many to believe that the demo served to the loyal PC community was actually the PlayStation 3 version made executable over the PC. Yikes. Directories which readily identified “PS3” not to mention HDR/SM 3.0-only settings for AA capable cards, gained momentous negative feedback.

Bot AI was questionably failing at the most crucial at times of a CTF match and you may find a bot occasionally standing around doing absolutely nothing. Mouse aiming seemed to have been handled with a view acceleration mechanic (used to make console controllers feel more subtle at aiming) – which couldn’t be turned off.

In addition, the demo would not allow fully customized match settings, and one notable deathmatch map sported an almost unstoppable Necris Darkwalker that could easily turn the tide of the match toward the side of the owners. UT3 (or at least the PC, PS3 versions) has but a few weeks to address all these problems before release, and it appears that some players wouldn’t mind another delay to set the records straight with the community.

These impressions overlooked, however, the game does stand well on its own. There’s a lot of promise with the new mood of the game and there’s a bit of anticipation on how Warfare would play out, so we’re looking forward to this game’s release. If anything, UT3 plays a lot closer to its real home: the original Unreal Tournament of 1999.

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