Come on, how do you really feel:)
I've not got the game (having played it on a mates pc, I decided not to), but a friend had similar thourghts/problems as yourself, he binned it.
Maybe the patch would have helped, but he really couldn't be bothered dloading it.
I agree with this review wholeheartedly. I already knew that it was just UT2K4 in a new dress (a nice, shiny dress non the less) so my expectations were slightly different but the whole Gamespy thing annoyed the living crap out of me! It's almost as bad as MS live (and that recent game that mandates a gold account to play on-line).
I too didn't want a gamespy account so why do I need one to play on-line? Of course its a nice tie in with IGN and I'm sure the money was worth it.
I would also like to understand why Epic deemed it necessary to remind me where I downloaded the patch from every time I start the game? Of course this is a small thing and I know that it shouldn't bother me but it does :)
Anyway - I play UT3 and I like its new shiny dress. I like the new vehicles and I like the new maps but the tie-ins impact what is otherwise a good release.
I did download the patch and, in fairness to the game I sooooo wanted to like, I replayed it once patched and, sadly got just as wound up by it. My experience of the patched version is summarised in the HEXUS.afterburner on the page after the awards.
I spent all weekend thinking about the review before publishing it, to make sure this is how I felt about Unreal Tournament 3 and, sadly, my feelings haven't changed. Perhaps I'm of the mind that by number four in a franchise we should be seeing something new?
I wasn't all that impressed with Quake 4 but it did at least give us a decent enough, if slightly formulaic, single player game but Unreal Tournament 3, aside from the fact there's that ludicrous shoe-horning of a ‘story’ to try and justify a bunch of single player bot-matches, gets so much else wrong that it's just frustrating and annoying.
Ok, Crysis is mainly single player game and the whole ‘Aliens invade the Earth’ storyline is as tired as an insomniac after a seven day caffeine binge, at least it's mildly engaging despite some of the games bugs and flaws.
Unreal Tournament 3 had me nearly chucking my mouse at the screen with that daft FLaG explanation… rather like George Lucas' introduction of Midichlorians to explain The Force… daft and unnecessary.
TBH, it's even worse than the review mentions once you get into multiplayer..
Some of the maps have terrible glitches (which the patch doesn't address) - for instance the recreated deck level crashes the game on about 40% of people's machines for no apparent reason, another is some of the warfare maps where you get stuck in the scenery, and appear to half-fall through the level and end up back in the level with random non-responsive controls before the game crashes..
The real problem is that the weapon balance has been fiddled yet again to account for the consoles - which ends up a case of breaking stuff which wasn't broken in the last game, and makes everything feel rather “dumbed down”. :(
Hopefully some of the companies playing with engine will cobble together a better game as at least it seems like they've put a decent amount of effort into the engine - which is sadly lacking for the game.
Maybe after a few more patches and the modders get their teeth into it it'll be better - but I'm not holding my breath..
Cheers for that input Stoo.
I did suffer some of the ‘stuck in scenery’ stuff you mentioned but it only happened occasionally and just for brief periods of one or two seconds, so I put it down to me being a numpty and not jumping at the right time etc…
As to multiplayer, I'll take your word on it and I do believe you. I just can't experience it for myself as, 14 days on from installing the damn game I STILL can't log in with my fully working GameSpy account and I'll become French and change my name to Henri Le Clicke before I sign up yet another email address to GameSpy. :)
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