Unreal Tournament 3.. big disappointment!!!

So I bought UT3 and I've only been playing it for a couple hours.

So far I'm not impressed. UT2k4 was easily one of my top 5 games of all time. Where's the Assault, double domination and bombing run modes? why take them out? i can understand that some of them were not fun to play like the alien invasion mode, but the Assault mode was one of the best things about the UT:2k4, so why didn't epic include it?

What about graphics then? The lack of customization in video options is disappointing. All you get is 2 options you can change, 5 grades of texture and landscape quality. If I didn't know better, I'd swear this game had been developed for a console and ported.

The UI and main menu is huge with huge fonts. I can only assume that this is so consoles can read the fonts on standard definition TV's. It likes lousy and unprofessional on computer monitors. The menues in the UT series've allways been praised for it's simplicity and being appropiate for a pc-game, why change that?

The actual game seems to me to be gimped for better console play. Sidestep jump has been removed completely and imo that added a huge degree of skill to 2k4. You die more easily in UT3. Deathmatch in UT3 so far has just been a mess for firepower blasting all over the place. You die quick, and your enemies die quick. I think it's been dumbed down so the gap between the best players and the worst isn't as big. With so much crap plinking off the walls, no matter how good you are you're probably going to die often.

BTW, is that the single player mode whe've been promised? with the exception of the cutscenes i don't see any difference from UT:2k4, is that really something new?

It's hard to look at all this without being disappointed, especially when you compare it to UT2k4. They did the same with UT:2k3 and it turned out to be a huge disappointment for many people. You're ruining a giant pc franchise, shame on you epic

 

Sorry man, but I'm actually happy to see these go. Lets UT be UT again

 

Lack of customization makes the game playable smooth on a great range of hardware...even a p4 2800 can run UT3!(1024x768 all high settings vsync off)
This is a programming masterpiece and a powerful engine...

"When a man with a console meet a man with a mouse the man with the console die!" - Sergio Leone (or something like that)

 

I fully agree, both my 7950GTX and my x1600 can run it smoothly(of course, on different settings)

 

Are you sure you played the original unreal tournament? cause the assault mode was in it :wink:

 

Nah, I agree with the OP.

WHY get rid of features, and why dumb it down for the masses, that's what consoles and old versions are for.

Need to check out the internals a little more, and see what ini hacks can do, but sofar not impressed, and I'll be recommending my friends skip it, stick with UT2K4 and go out and buy COD4 &/or Orange Box w/ TF2 instead (alot of people have to decide right now with there being the Orange Box, Gears of War, COD4 and Crysis all launching close enough to UT3 for people to need to chose where their money goes).
I would've guaranteed this was an easy buy for all my UT2K4 playing friends, but having played all the titles, COD and TF2 are more impressive, UT3 isn't worth it and I would recommend spending the money elsewhere.

 

I was completely underwhelmed by the demo. I expected UT2k4 with better graphics and more options to be honest.

Instead I got something I don't really want. The biggest thing with it now is modding......except Crysis probably has that beat now too. UT3 needs a UT2k4 because apparently when UT has a 3 in the name somewhere it sucks.

 

i wouldn't worry too much. next year they will probably release ut2k8 or 9 or something, which will be everything we ever wanted plus a little extra, and it will be priced well.

if ut2k3 and ut2k4 history are any indication of the future...

for now, orange box.

 

man, i'm relieved i didn't uninstall UT2k4 when i bought UT3, especially with all those custom maps, mods and skins, boy it's 2,5 GB of downloads

 

Dude, don't crosspost

 

well i was thinking of getting it but now ive changed my mind. shame they took away the other features and modes. i liked those.

 

They've removed the sidestep jump? You mean the thing where you double tap a direction and you dive that way? Still there...

I'm enjoying it anyway. Team Deathmatch is as frantic as ever and I like the variety in the maps. Not a fan of regular deathmatch anyway so I haven't tried it. Had a quick go at CTF and Vehicle CTF but I had the bots up too high so it was a bit too hardcore for me.

Will have a go online in a bit...

 

Thats sad to hear. Sidestep feature was actually fun and useful in UT2K4.

 

I think the OP meant the sidestep hop + Jump comb ( double tap + jump key). I don't have the full version, only played the demo and it was missing in the demo. That was one of the nice things in the UT series. And usually what separates the good players from the average. On the fence whether I should get this now, was looking forward to this game, oh well.

 

Ah, gotcha. Never used that before.

Actually, I'd never played a UT game online before this afternoon believe it or not, just against bots. Had a good couple of games before I started getting a load of artifacting/dodgy textures so thought I'd let my lappy cool down a bit. Even came top of my team once, woo!! Good ol' biorifle

 

Wha? "Lack of customization makes the game playable smooth on a great range of hardware"

Do you actually know what you are talking about?

 

Probably he's got pwnt in ut2k4 so any changes that make ut3 NOT LIKE ut2k4 are welcome :lol:

 

Yes the dodge+jump is removed.
According to epic and whiners that it's more "down-to-earth" playing rather than flying around.

 

are you getting texture flashing?
This is a known bug.

 

I think he means even though there isn't many detailed options, you don't need them as just adjusting the 2 sliders/resolution can make it more than playable on the whole spectrum of hardware.

I'm glad of the simplification - after attempting the balancing act that is crysis just saying world 3, textures 3, 1280x800 is quite nice. I haven't even bothered raising them higher than that, looks nice enough as it is.

EDIT: Yeah, the textures were flashing in and out. I just assumed it was overheating. Maybe its something to look into then.

 

I have a feeling that UT3 is the LAST PC games that Epic will at least focus on.

 

I think you guys still don't understand:
running smoothly with a great range or hardware configurations
and
many graphic options

ARE TOTALLY UNRELATED.

Is it too hard to understand?

 

Yeah the more are options, the better. Thus you decide what you prefer. Like I can do without shadows but I want high tex but some people feel differenetly.

 

I was just clarifying what he had said. "Is it too hard to understand?" - I'm not exactly on the lowest rung of the intelligence ladder (near, but not quite).

I'm sorry, I really can't see the point in making the graphics options any more complicated than they are. It runs blindingly well for the looks of the game, it doesn't need tweaking.

I don't mean to be rude but is it just a PC gamer attitude that you must spend more time tweaking the performance/graphics than playing the game? Isn't it enough that you run up the game, change two settings and jump right in?

 

I agree with you that I do love the fact that ut3 runs amazingly well. ut3 may in fact be an exception to the rule, because the graphics settings they chose to implement do run on a variety of hardware, very fast. Obviously you can't magically tweak them higher than what they are set to by default, but having the option to lower qualities further would just make it better for people on the edge of being able to play.

However, you are totally right on your other point: it is a PC gamer thing that we want full control over tweaking the game. Thats just how it has always been, and every time the game companies take that away from us, we cry foul, regardless of how optimized a game might be.

 

if simplicity is what you're looking for then go buy a 360 or ps3 you just put the DVD in the drive and play. there's no tweaking or uppgrading to be done. PC gaming is all about customizing and modding.

 

Well having played the demo of UT2004 before and loving it but never actually buying it (I need to) I would of thought UT3 would be a step up but obviously not. I liked the huge amount of game modes on offer in UT2004.

 

You can always play with the INIs when it comes to the unreal engine.
http://www.tweakguides.com/UT3_7.html

 

I still don't understand what's the relationship of tweaking and good framerate. Why you keep linking them together?

How's choosing like texture quality, shader quality, geometry quality...etc.. is complicated? With multiple image quality choices we can still implement profiles, like the one in Crysis: Very High, High, Med, Low. This can be more than welcome! And EASY!

And what is PC gamers' attitude? Having control of how you prefer the rendered image to be is bad?? I don't understand!
You said change two sliders and jump in. How about one profile selection and jump in if you don't feel like moving more sliders, or you can adjust multiple sliders and that suits particularly to your machine and balance YOUR image quality/framerate?

Amazing...

P.S. You know what is tweaking? Editing INIs. NOT moving sliders.

 

UT is all (almost all) about customization and modding (or tweaking) in the "backend" and gameplay in the "frontend".

I don't know what the fuss about this.

 

...i bought UT3 yesterday and these posts are making me regret it >< i didn't play it yet b/c i'm gonna play it on my gaming laptop but...damn..

 

You haven't even played it and you feel regret already...why don't you install it and see it yourself? This is no one size fits all. Just like the dodge jumping thing, some people love to see it go away(mostly UT99 crowds). Some want to have it back(mostly ut2k3/4 crowds).
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=551329
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=577136

 

It's still a good fps. If you've never played ut2k3/4 then the changes probably don't matter to you and you'll enjoy it.

But being a ut2k3/4 vet myself it's just not UT without the dodge jump. Makes for a faster paced game. If I want realism I'll play Rainbow 6 Vegas. I might still go buy it tho after I'm through CoD4.

 

Mk. The impact hammer IMO makes up for the loss of the jump after dodge. The only reason 2k4 had that feature was b/c the maps were huge and ppl needed a way to move around in a much faster way. In UT3 the maps are scaled down a bit and i like it b/c like the guy in epic forums said

scaled down=less airtime
less airtime=more control.

 

you got it wrong..UT3 is not a bad game, it's still fun and one of the best fps you can find out there, especially if you've never played the original UT or UT:2k4.

 

I'm absolutely loving the new UT game! I really don't care about the dodge jump, at first I kept trying it until I figured it was removed after about 5 tries, then about 10 seconds later got over it and now don't care. It doesn't make the rest of the game worse, just becuase one very insignificant feature was removed.

The game is amazing! There's a reason why it only has 2 graphics options, and that's because that's ALL YOU NEED in this game!!

It runs maximum settings @ 1920x1200 nicely on my 8700m GT notebook.
It can also be enjoyed on even an ATI X1300 video card..

 

You've just done it yourself there. And I meant tweaking in the sense of trying to get the best image/framerate balance using the "usual" graphics options such as texture quality/shadows etc. not fiddling with INI's, which I've never done.

And now I'm even more confused as to what you mean by tweaking after your reply to Fadi299 - you mention modding in there too? As in new levels/gamemodes/mutators etc? Yes, that is a lot to do with the whole UT package, which I love. But that's not what I meant by tweaking.

I do agree with Masterchef's point about people on the verge of the minimum specs. But then nobody here seems to be in that position (speak up if you are) so why it was brought up as a complaint in the first place I have no idea.

As long as it runs nicely then I'm not bothered. Doesn't run quite smoothly enough? Drop a slider down a level. There's only two, so try each one, maybe both. If it sorts the problem, what's there to complain about?

You mentioned Crysis' profiles - that's different. That is an incredibly demanding game even for the top hardware where each setting impacts performance a great deal so you HAVE to have all the individual options. UT3 isn't like that at all. If Crysis came out in a couple of years, even that might be able to get away with having as little options as UT3.

As for the comment about sticking to consoles for simplicity Fadi299, no. I want the deeper and more complex gameplay you usually find in PC titles. For the record, I have a PS2 which is serving me very well for the odd game of GT4 (now THATS my idea of tweaking things ).

I hope I've put my point across but I find it hard to explain things sometimes so apologies over any confusion. Maybe I've missed the point completely? I didn't want to be drawn into a detailed discussion about it so I'll leave it there.

 

I have to agree based on only the demo that I like UT2004 better. Onslaught was my favorite mode and the objective based mode was my 2nd favorite. Deathmatch is in EVERY fps game so I was glad when UT2004 did something different and did it great to the point where I say perfect.

Smooth running game, good graphics, fast paced action, having skill and stratagy meant something.

Now with the new game UT3 I feel they tossed alot of that out the door to appeal to the masses with better graphics and just claim cutting all the cool extra stuff that UT2004 had is nothing more than "getting back to the basics"

 

Onslaught is in this too (that is the mode with the nodes linking to the enemy's core at their base isn't it?)

EDIT: Unfortunately, Assault was removed though

 

Onslaught is there? good thats my fav mode. i didnt see it in the demo just some lame vehicle capture the flag mode.

 

Well, i only play deathmatch and onslaught, so this doesn't matter. As for the graphics settings, i don't know what to say. It does run pretty well indeed, but, for some reason, at least in the demo, i got some mouse lag , even though my fps was at about 30-40. The settings were 848x480 resolution, world detail at 3 and texture detail at 2, intense post-processing

 

I loved Assault mode, but it was impossible to find servers to play it on. I think they tried to respond to the actual needs of gamers based on what they've seen games play.

I only ever ended up playing Assault with bots. It was the only way I could ever find a server with it between Unreal 2K3/2K4.

 

I love ONS! And Assault. Up until UT2K4, every other fps there were rehashing the same old modes ie. DM, vanilla CTF, Team DM...*yawn*. Nothing wrong with those but UT2k4 advanced and breathed new life into a once tired genre.

Other games prior to it had combined vehicular combat but UT2K4 was the first one to pull it off successfully. Dodge jump was an absolute neccessity in CTF. And even on ONS when you're stuck with no vehicle and need to get to some place fast.

In UT3 that's been replaced with the hoverboard. While its a cool feature but the end effect is it leveled the playing field for everyone. Some might say that's a good thing, others not.

It's like shortening the fences by 100ft on every ML ball park.