Unreal Tournament III review (PS3)

I'm a bit of a nut for the original Unreal Tournament. Back when it appeared the choice was between that game and Quake III Arena. I preferred Epic Game's offering, the levels, the gameplay choices and the weaponry seemed all-round superior to id Software's shooter. I dabbled in some level design, played lots of UT mods and was big into the game.

But the various sequels never really caught my imagination in the same way. Until UTIII arrived on PC that is. As the name suggest Epic feels it time to return to the classic numbering of the franchise instead of those yearly numbers and I can see why. The feel is very much like the original game.

Single Player for Noobs

Now the PC game has been out for a while now and I'm not going to bore you with a discussion of all the various game modes. James has already explained this beautifully in his review of the PC version of Unreal Tournament III. The PlayStation 3 iteration of UTIII is pretty much the same in gameplay terms with the same modes and single-player section of the game.

Single player isn't that engaging. Just a tour through the features of the game and exists more as a tutorial for beginners to the world of UT. That's not to say it isn't fun, the story may not make much sense, but it's engaging and does give you a well rounded view of all aspects of the game.

Instant Gratification

A much better single-player experience is Instant Action which allows you to choose game modes, number of bots, map rotations and lets you get on with it. When playing offline this is where I spent most of my time in the PlayStation 3 version. Just as I have in the PC game.

It doesn't take much play to realise that what we have is the PC game on your HDTV. That makes a welcome change from many PC port experiences where everything seems a little dumbed-down for the console generation. This parity with the PC game includes the ability to use custom mods and maps and while at the time of writing this hasn't been something I've been able to explore, it ranks as a great feature here on PlayStation 3 and a real bonus compared to the future Xbox 360 game.

Jag-me-do

Where Unreal Tournament does feel like a let down on PlayStation 3 is in terms of graphics. Don't get me wrong, all the geometry and detail from the PC game is right there on your screen. You would have to play both versions side by side to really see any differences in the maps.

The PS3 version is damn smooth too, with hardly any slowdown to speak of. Yet to my eyes at least the game often appears rather ugly. Perhaps I'm too used to playing the game at 1280x1024 and the lack of vertical resolution on my HDTV at 1280x720 is skewing my view. But more likely it's the continued problem with poor anti-aliasing support on the console. With some more AA on there UTIII would look great, but as it stands the detail in the textures and map geometry often looks messy thanks to some nasty jaggies.

Classic

Apart from those display issues there's a lot to like about Unreal Tournament III on PlayStation 3. The game offers fast-paced action offline and online against human opponents. There are a vast array of maps and many ways to play the game. The use of vehicles in CTF and Warfare matches expands what is already a great package. I must admit, like James, I'm not so fond of the Warfare mode - it seems too big battle scenario for a game that thrives on the medium to small setting, but other than that it's a hoot.

Using those familiar weapons such as the Flak Cannon and Translocator brings back very happy memories of the first game in the series. Epic Games has done a great job in returning the series to its roots, and while there are plenty of new additions in there, the core gameplay remains fast, frantic and as action-packed as ever. Great to see new versions of classic maps too, now if only epic would bring back the Assault maps from the original too.