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Unreal Tournament III Review

Thanks to IGN for this review about Unreal Tournament III

Epic’s fast, fun and beautiful fragathon makes its final appearance.

by Nate Ahearn—IGN
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July 3, 2008 - Epic Games created a little series known as Unreal Tournament back before the Y2K bug was supposed to ruin life as we know it. Now, after several iterations spanning multiple platforms, Xbox 360 owners are getting their first taste of Unreal Tournament 3, the latest entry in the series, released winter of last year on PC and PS3. Luckily those patient enough to hold out are being rewarded with a more fully-featured experience right out of the box, despite lacking some of the customizability of the competition.

The Unreal Tournament franchise has always been rooted in fast and furious gameplay and that doesn’t change with UT3. Despite being confined to two analog sticks rather than the keyboard and mouse afforded to both PC and PS3 players, the dual sticks handle the action very well. There’s a slight aim-assist that kicks in when tracking an enemy, but it’s never enough to make you feel like you’re not in control. The few times when the controls become frustrating are when maneuvering vehicles in close-quarters and trying to switch weapons in a heated firefight.

Make go boom.

Vehicles were something that made their first appearance in Unreal Tournament 2004 and the roster has only grown with Unreal Tournament 3. Sadly all of the vehicles utilize a control style similar to Halo, meaning that you point your targeting reticule to an area, push forward on the left stick and your vehicle will try to make its way there. It’s when doing battle in small areas that this can be a bit clunky due to the lack of finite movement. It’s also a bit disconcerting to not be able to swivel the cannon on the Goliath tank while moving the treads in an opposite direction.

Changing weapons, something that is handled swimmingly by the mouse wheel and numeric keys on a keyboard, is relegated to the right and left bumpers on 360. The right bumper cycles you forward in your payload, one weapon at a time, while the left bumper brings up a radial menu. The left bumper will likely be the preferred method once you get accustomed to it, but it’s still clunkier than what veterans of the series are used to and will take a split-second longer than it should in intense situations.

Don’t give me any flak!

Thankfully the rest of UT3’s gameplay translates perfectly. When you first pick up the controller things feel very old school, maybe a little too familiar for some. Delving deeper into the intricacies of the gameplay reveals some well-balanced, strategy-oriented dynamics that other, lesser titles would certainly have lacked. What’s more, all of the different abilities are easily mapped to the Xbox 360 controller, an area where others making the conversion have struggled.

If the gameplay doesn’t tickle the fancy of FPS-lovers, then perhaps the bevy of maps and modes will. Unreal Tournament 3 comes packed with all three of the maps released thus far on PS3 and PC as downloadable content as well as five exclusive levels for Xbox 360 users. Maps are tailored to specific modes, but some fit more than one. It is a bit disappointing to see that some of the maps have the same architecture with only slight modifications or changes to their color palette, but those are very few with most separating from the pack quite well.

Likewise, the modes do an admirable job of feeling fresh when jumping from one to another. Warfare is my personal favorite, as it’s typically the most strategic of the lot, but Vehicle CTF and the classic Team Deathmatch are tons of fun in their own right if you can handle the quicker paced action. Toss in the eight different bot skill levels and every FPS fanatic should be able to find something to latch onto with Unreal Tournament 3.

It’s that same bot skill level that makes the single-player campaign — something that has been a total waste of time in other UT games — more playable than it has been in the past. While there’s no question that the story is totally inconsequential and packs little punch, there are characters and you’ll learn their names as well as what’s inspiring them to fight. At least somewhat. It helps tie the missions of the campaign together for a more cohesive feeling. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that what you’re playing are glorified bot matches with added side-objectives to spice things up. Thankfully the AI of both your teammates and the opposition is solid enough to create a fun experience that’s somewhat comparable to what you’ll find online.

Beyond the campaign and multiplayer modes players will also find Instant Action which lets you jump into any of the six game modes on a map of your choosing and do battle in a practice round of sorts. You can set the time limit, goal score, the faction of the opposing bots, and whether or not players should be forced to respawn. Of course there are also a set of nine mutators (less than in the other versions) that you can flip on to mess with the limitations of the world around you. Among the other options however, is the ability to toggle the first ever split-screen mode in an Unreal Tournament game.

Flying high.


Not only does UT3 come with a split-screen option, but it brings a few features that past FPS titles have left by the wayside. First, players can sign in as a guest with their buddy’s Xbox Live account and join in on the action. Next, you can also sign in with a separate Xbox Live account altogether and earn achievements and enhance your reputation in the online world. All the while the action stays relatively fluid with only a few framerate hiccups in rare moments of extreme action. There’s also little loss to the graphical panache of the solo experience, surprising for such a visually intensive game.

Speaking of graphics, Unreal Tournament 3 is downright gorgeous in parts. Take the gun models for instance. They’re ultra-detailed with great bump mapping and self-shadowing articulating every nook and cranny. Then there are the moments when the texture pop-in that bogs down every Unreal Engine-powered game shows its ugly head. There are also a few textures around the levels that are less than impressive, even when everything has loaded. That withstanding, it’s not nearly enough to bring down the high level of visual quality that runs throughout UT3.

Tough to negotiate.


Aurally Unreal Tournament 3 also impresses. The explosions ring true to their size and even though the character’s speech is a little cheesy, it still fits with the action. Every weapon has its own sound, as does every vehicle and faction. With so many sounds already filed away in the Unreal Tournament library, it’s no wonder that everything sounds so familiar, yet still so good in UT3.

Closing Comments
The main detractor to Unreal Tournament 3 on Xbox 360 is the total lack of customization options. Both the PC and PS3 versions allowed users to create their own maps and mutators using the Unreal Editor, but the same cannot be said here. Because of Microsoft-imposed restrictions on the sharing of user-created content, Unreal Tournament 3 lacks the incredible expandability of the other releases. Thankfully that doesn’t stop this latest Unreal Tournament 3 release from being well worth your time and money if you’re fan of either the genre or the series

The Big E3 List: 2008 Edition

Confirmed games from the biggest US game show of the year.

by IGN Editorial Staff
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June 11, 2008 - The always-popular Electronic Entertainment Expo has returned to its roots this year, with the annual game show moving back to the Los Angeles Convention Center after a solo season on the sunny beaches of Santa Monica. Kicking off on July 14 and running through July 17, E3 2008 showcases several of the year’s biggest software titles from the industry’s biggest publishers. In addition, special tie-in events like Gamecock’s BE-3 Initiative and Activision’s offsite press conference will spotlight new software as well.

To help celebrate the festivities, we’re starting our E3 coverage right here and now. Listed below is every videogame that has been “officially confirmed” to appear at the show and concurrent events happening at the same. Just remember not to go crazy if your most anticipated title isn’t on the list — after all, E3 is known for its surprises and secrets, not every company is going to let us know everything ahead of time. That means that our list will by no means be complete until the show starts. Regardless, this page will continue to be updated immediately whenever we can confirm additional titles.

Read the rest of this entry »

Midnight Club stalls again

Rockstar 360, PS3, and PSP racer won’t brake for announced September release date, blows straight past into October.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is stuck in the garage for another month. Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar San Diego’s anticipated Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 street racer has been pushed back again, this time to early October. Rockstar London’s spin-off for the PSP, Midnight Club: LA Remix, has also slipped a month.

Originally set to launch earlier this year, the game was delayed in March and later given a September 9 release date. Take-Two explained that the postponed launch was “to leverage the retail strength leading to the key holiday-selling season, and in order to provide some distance from the release of Grand Theft Auto IV.” No reason was given for today’s delay.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles features an open world planned to be nearly three times the size of Midnight Club: Dub Edition and full of actual LA landmarks. Keeping faithful to the series, it will also sport customizable licensed cars and tuner parts including rims, tires, and spoilers.

All three editions of Midnight Club are now expected to arrive in North American stores on October 7, with European launches set for October 10

SOCOM avoiding Confrontation ’til Oct. 14

After months of uncertainty, those awaiting word of the release of SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation got a firm answer in March. That’s when Sony Computer Entertainment America announced that the popular third-person shooter series’ PlayStation 3 debut would ship on September 16. The game looked set to lead a charge of first-party action games from Sony, followed by Resistance 2 around the holidays and Killzone 2 the following winter.

Unfortunately, during the week of 4th of July, the makers of SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation had some decidedly un-gung-ho news. Buried amongst various patch updates, an inconspicuous post on SOCOM.com saw SCEA director of development Seth Luisi revealed a hard choice had been made.

“Unfortunately, even working late into the nights and every weekend, we’ve had to re-evaluate our schedule,” he said. “Our top priority is delivering the best SOCOM online experience possible. Tough decisions had to be made and we’ve decided to push back the release date to October 14th, 2008. We just had to face the facts and do what is best for the title. Rather than sacrifice features, quality and stability, we had to do the right thing and re-adjust our schedule.”

SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation is the first PS3 title from Slant Six Games, the young Vancouver shop behind the PSP hits Syphon Filter Dark Mirror and SOCOM: Tactical Strike. (Most prior SOCOM games were developed by Zipper Interactive.) Bundled with a PS3-branded Bluetooth headset, the multiplayer-only game is also one of the first titles confirmed to support the console’s trophy system out of the box. For details on Confrontation’s ambitious clan support, community features, and gameplay, check out GameSpot’s recent hands-on preview.

Solid State Drives Reduce Battery Life?

A report from Tom’s Hardware states that solid state drives actually reduce battery life. They report that this is likely due to the fact that harddrives in laptops are often in a power saving state, unless some intensive work is being done. However, SSDs are either on or off. This means that no matter how much or little work being done, it will still use the same amount of power.

Image courtesy of GeekZone.co.nz

Tom’s Hardware seems to be confident with their findings, and they have tested their theory with 4 different solid state drives. They checked the battery life of the solid state drives and a normal harddrive and they found that they either had no change in battery life or up to 1 hour less with the solid state drive on their test system, a Dell Latitude. They performed this benchmark with MobileMark, which is specifically designed to measure battery life under ‘real world’ usage.

Of course, while solid state drives definitely do seem to use a lot more battery life, it should be noted that they still have big performance increases from normal harddrives. Also, as the price of solid state drives drops, they will likely become a lot more common.

The Random One has a new admin

Hello readers and fans of Stunich.
If you have read The Random One before, you may have noticed that I have pretty much given up on the site lately, and that I haven’t really done anything with it lately.

As a result, I have decided to make Richard Newcombe an admin there. He will be running the site from this point, and what he intends to do with it, I don’t know.

I hope you will continue to enjoy visiting The Random One, and there is a chance that I may post something on there in the future. Also, Peter Barman will continue to be an administrator there.

All the best,
Joel Nichols.

Is GTA IV really that great?

Richard Newcombe, our friend at GamerPac recently wrote a mini-review on GTA 4, discussing whether it really does have any real replay value.

I’ve completed the GTA IV story-line now and I’ve been wondering, is it all it was cracked up to be. Yes the graphics are good, yes there is a lot of fun in the shoot-outs and a lot of fun running over police and trying to escape 6-star wanted on a motorbike with no helmet, but after you’ve completed the story, there isn’t much to do, you aren’t told about any major side missions like killing these really weird pigeons or doing jobs for people, all you are told to do is drive around and have fun, which I was doing all through the story. finding all the stunt jumps to me is just stupid, you get games like Crackdown which made orb collecting fun by having them increase your skills, but pointlessly collecting items, it’s just not fun… unless you are one of those sad xbox live people who never come offline and have 1000 gamerscore on every game except King Kong.

Rockstar has said that there will be downloads coming soon to show people the side missions and secret areas to hunt down, but until then you’ll be bored out of your skull after finishing the story-line.

anyways I’ll keep you people updated on the situation about the downloads,

see you.

Richard Newcombe

Source

New STZ server

I’m building a new server for the STZ clan. This is because our server is currently running off my Macbook which I do in fact use for other purposes. The new server will likely run Debian Linux. The server will also hopefully run 24/7.

Again, you can join the clan at http://www.steamcommunity.com/groups/stuzz. Anyone can join, although we encourage members to be active on the Stuzz forums, at Stuzz.co.uk.

Ubuntu 8.10 has a new look

If you have been following the development you should know that Ubuntu Linux has a 6 month development cycle, and today they are celebrating the release of the alpha version of 8.10. This new version has many new fixes, but the biggest of them all is the look experimental look.

If you have seen Ubuntu Studio Edition, then this will be no major change for you, but for many, this will be a great fix. While I’m a bit unsure of this new look, it has the potential to look great.

But why should you trust my opinion? Look at these screenshots and see what you think:

4F29B834-998B-49E6-852C-51F078182BBE.jpg
7ADDFEAA-4641-46CE-A96B-693DF528E5D6.jpg

To be honest, I’ve never really been a fan of the quite frankly horrible design of Ubuntu, and while this still isn’t great, it looks more professional, like Ubuntu studio, and it has the potential to evolve.

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