Unreal Tournament 3 is the follow-up to one of the best selling first person shooter series ever. Epic’s ever popular PC shooter makes it’s way to the PS3 with a wave of excitement. This is first time in history gamers can freely use mods in a console game. The PC modding community surrounding Unreal Tournament has always been huge, and now console gamers will get to experience what it’s like. Here is a breakdown of some of the facets of Unreal Tournament 3 for the PS3:
Presentation and Graphics: The Unreal Engine 3 really shines on the PS3. The game runs at 720p at a solid 30fps. I would have liked to have seen 60fps from such a fast moving title, but 30fps with motion blur does just fine. The graphics are on par, if not slightly better, than Gears of War, the other flagship title from Epic to sport the Unreal Engine 3. Characters are gigantic with highly detailed armor. Environments are all very highly detailed as well. Unreal Tournament 3 has a darker feel to it than previous games in the series, which works out really well. Weapons in the game all look amazing, both in form and function. Shooting the Bio Rifle and watching another character melt away like they were dipped in acid while you run by is a blast. 4.5 of 5
Sound and Music: There really isn’t any background music in Unreal Tournament 3, but that’s because it’s not needed. When you’re running around trying to frag everyone, you want to hear then coming and where the gun fire is coming from. And Unreal Tournament 3 does a good job of that. In 5.1 surround sound, you’ll hear the battles all around you, which gives you an advantage to try and flank your enemies. Each weapon has it’s own distinctive firing sounds that are nice and general sound effects in the environment work well. 4 of 5
Gameplay: Unreal Tournament 3 has both a campaign mode as well the expected multiplayer mode. In campaign, you take the helm as Reaper from the Ronin team. As the game begins, your home is under attack and destroyed by a Necris invasion. The story isn’t the greatest, and really just prepares you for the meat and potatoes of the game: online play. The controls in UT3 are very solid and can be customized to your liking. If you’d prefer, you can hook up and USB mouse and keyboard and frag your way through that way. 4.5 of 5
Multiplayer: Here’s where Unreal Tournament 3 really shines. The game features up to 16 person online play. I’ve encountered zero lag in multiple 16 person games online. Five main multiplayer modes exist: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Vehicle Capture the Flag, and Warfare. A Duel mode also exists, which is one on one play to see who’s better. Most of the modes are self explanatory, except Warfare, the newest mode. In my opinion, it’s one of the must fun. In this team game, you have to destroy the enemy’s Power Core by linking to it through various Nodes across the map. Once you link in from enough Nodes, you will drop the shields of the opposing team’s Power Core, which will leave it vulnerable to attack. The opposing team can reclaim their Primary Node and bring back the shields, which makes it a cat and mouse game of territory control and getting into their base to destroy the Power Core. Like previous Unreal Tournament games, various Mutators are available to the host for each game, such as Low Gravity, Big Heads, etc. Once the update for the Unreal Editor 3 for PC is released, mods will become available for download to add new gameplay modes, maps, and mutators. 5 of 5
Lasting Appeal: Not only does the game feature a terrific out of the box multiplayer mode, but the big deal here is mods. This is what will keep you playing Unreal Tournament 3 for literally the next few years. The modding community surrounding all Unreal Games is huge and very creative, so expect some amazing new maps, mutators, variations on game types, and entirely new game modes. 5 of 5
Final Word: If you enjoy online multiplayer and first person shooters, go buy Unreal Tournament 3. That’s all you can say. The game has a reputation for being one of the best online games, and it really shows in UT3 on the PS3. Once the modding community gets going, you can expect even more hours to be eaten up by this game.
Overall: 4.5 of 5
My friends were added to my list automatically.
@Johnno – I now see 2 of my friends automatically added. I guess it doesn’t add anyone until they play the game
I may pick this up with Toys R Us’ “Buy 3 Get 1 Free” sale.
I played it, I found the single-player lacking, but hey, it’s Unreal Tournament, it is a multi-player game. And that is where it deffinetly shines. I like how you can use a keyboard and mouse too. Not quite as good as pc, but still good.