Unreal Tournament

Rating:
Summary: Unsurpassed in its field
Review: Everything about Unreal Tournament simply exudes quality. Graphically, the game is beautiful and runs well on my P2-350 with a RivaTNT card. The textures in particular look stunning at the higher detail levels. However, what really sets UT above the competition (such as Quake 3) is the gameplay. The weapons, for example, are far more imaginative and interesting than Q3's. Each weapon is unique and has two modes of fire, giving UT a good sense of variety. The highly customizable bots play well at reasonable difficulty levels. If you play on servers that support ngWorldStats, you can view detailed statistics about the matches you play and the players you encounter, including their weekly and quarterly rating and rankings. But most importantly, the game is still supported by a thriving online community. A plethora of mods and maps are available for download, and one rarely has a problem locating an active game to join.

Unreal Tournament is an excellent value for the price. These days, you encounter so few games that get so much right and so little wrong. Unless first person action games don't interest you, you really can't go wrong with UT.

Rating:
Summary: wow
Review: in the words of my college aged brother, "DOOM + QUAKE COWER + SHAKE AND YOU NOW KNEEL TO THE TOURNAMENT UNREAL."

by far the best of all known first person shooting games. I swear, God himself came down and programed this oen folks.

Rating:
Summary: Owned by Quake III
Review: OK. This game is mediocre in multiplayer... but only in CTF. The deathmatch is awful, and the other lame mods that come with it are worse. Aside from sniping on the Face map, the only use for this game on my computer has been single player sniping on custom maps. While all of the newcomers to the FPS genre have been hailing this game soley because of the great AI (I'll give it that much) you should notice that most of the professional compitetitions take place with Quake III, a game that takes skills such as aim and quickness.

Now there are some pretty cool things about Unreal Tourney. For one, the maps are outstanding. The AI is the best in the industry, as I have already said, but single player can only go so far... and just because the bots are smart, doesn't mean they are good, even in Godlike.

I've been playing the Quake series for years, and until Doom 2000 comes out, I doubt any game designers will be able to match John Carmack's coding skills. If you want an FPS game that never gets old, stick with the company that eats, breathes and sleeps this gametype, id Software.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Game With Friends, And Even Alone!
Review: This game is GREAT. The modes of play that are included with it are all very fun, but one of them really sticks out in my mind: Assault. This mode takes the mission based objectives of a good single-player FPS game, and combines them with the fun of multi-player mayhem! On top of the modes of play, there are mutators that you can add to your game, which modify certain aspects. Things such as low gravity, one hit kills, high-jumping, etc. The level of customization continues even more with the immense amount of mods available on the internet for this game. The weapons are quite original as well. They each have two functions, so there is a variety of ways to rack up those frags! On top of all this, the AI is superb as well! They can put up a truly tough fight when you adjust them to some of the higher levels of difficulty! But the main sell of this game is its multiplayer mode. You can choose to play either on the internet, or your LAN. I found that getting into an online game was INCREDIBLY easy! It can all be done through the game window, and you don't have to sign up with any web sites! So, if you don't have this game, then get it now!

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Game -- But buy the GOTY Edition
Review: This has to be the best game ever. BUT WAIT! Before you buy please note that for just a couple extra bucks you can get Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition with tons of new stuff!! ChaosUT with tons of new weapons! A battle of skill in Rocket Arena! Terrorist attacks in Tactical Ops! I almost made the mistake of purchasing this one when there was an expansion available. Don't make that mistake. The new version is not an add-on and therefore you do not need this one.

Rating:
Summary: Death comes quickly
Review: Anyone who has played (or is still playing) the Quake series will like this game. More difficult to control and figure out weaponry than Quake (more options though). Once you get the hang of it you will get addicted. Easy to connect to servers so you can get killed (if you are like me) by people you don't know. Plus with games like capture the flag you can put a totally different spin on the whole thing. Just get used to the controls before joining up with a server or it won't be much fun.

Rating:
Summary: Best First Person Shooter Available
Review: This game amazes me every time I play this cause it actually is one of the few games that I own that really tests the power of my Voodoo3 3D card, and I love it! With 5 game plays (Last Man Standing, Capture the Flag, Assault, Domination, and Deathmatch) this title will always be in your cd-rom drive. The best thing about this game is the multiplayer capabilities and the fact that there are 1,000s of maps to download that will make Unreal Tournament fresh as the last time you played it. It also has mods that you can install onto your system which are very kool such as Strike Force, and many others that I will not go into. And if it doesn't sound like it can get much better there are also mods that add "skins" to your game (character skin) so you can look super fly for your murdering spree. If you like games like this deffinately check out Half-Life, Quake 3 and Deus Ex.

Rating:
Summary: CD-ROM but NOT DVD compatible
Review: Although UT is, by far, a fantastic game to play (esp. internet play), one has to keep in mind that the installation disk will only work properly with a bona fide 'CD-ROM' and not a 'DVD-ROM' player (I thought DVD were CD-ROM, but better_ I was wrong) So beware those of you who have a DVD, installation will not work properly (crash, hang etc...) I hear it's a similar story with 'CD-R' drives..... ( I tried, and failed again)

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST FIRST PERSON SHOOTER... PERIOD.
Review: HISTORY:

Since ID games invented this genre with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, there have been many entries into this market that have proven to be unworthy contenders. While most games had impressive graphics (for their time), they lack in playablity.

For the longest time, one of games that stood out as achieving a balance between innovation and playability was Duke Nukem 3D. What made this game a multi-player frag feast was that besides having a unique style and great attitude, it had cool weapon set and almost perfect balance. This is almost the central component of a good first person shooter (FPS). What this led to in Duke Nukem was almost infinite frag variability and a whole lotta of fun...

Several years after that the action-game market remain without any new titles that captured the multiplayer crown from Duke Nukem, but then finally in the Winter of 1999 along games the new master of the FPS arena...

HAIL TO THE KING BABY!

Unreal Tournament is the new king of this genre. It has a perfect weapon set that is completely balanced. Unlike Quake, where the guy with the rocket launcher has traditionally had the upper hand, UT has some great frag alternatives like the now classic "head shot".

In the end this balance leads to better game play because it fosters equal opportunity fragging with everyone having a fair chance to kill, instead of just the guy with the biggest gun. Because as we know once has the RPG, he keeps the RPG for awhile, and that is inheritly unfair.

In addition the game has well designed, and well thought-out levels especially for deathmatch. UT also offers some great alternative multiplayer games including the awesome Capture the Flag.

So heres to Unreal Tournament, the best FPS, and in my humble opinion THE BEST GAME to come along in a long long time. I suppose it will reign supreme for awhile, until perhaps Duke Nukem Forever makes its long overdue appearance on the store shelfs.

RAYHAWK.COM Web Design, Glendale, CA [e-mail]

P.S. Don't forget to download the latest patch from Epic games...and also the get the Bonus Pack 1, its got some great new levels and play options.

Rating:
Summary: This game stinks
Review: This game is one of the worst game I've ever seen in years! I know that I'll get a lot of angry reviewers against me, but I don't care. The reason I hate this game so much is because I need a killer machine and super-speed-connection to run this boring game smoothly, and the graphics and sounds aren't great at all...bunch of lame, boring game features, uninteresting multiplay, simple textures, simple maps(having lots of maps doesn't means that this has the best maps)...This game is complete trash! Don't waste your money on this, buy diablo ll instead...