Xbox Gaming in South Africa

What is it?

Unreal Tournament 3 is what most would call an old-skool multiplayer first-person shooter. Not much has changed since the first Unreal Tournament. Over the last 8 years or so, EPIC has refined the gameplay and introduced some new multiplayer modes. UT3 is basically Unreal Tournament 2004 with some new visuals and maps. But this isn't a bad thing because we have never had UT2004 on any console and it is a great game! Even though there are many FPS games available on the Xbox, most of these are tactical warfare type games, with the remaining few being pretty poor at best. Finally the Xbox has its own proper fast-paced, carnage fest arena FPS game, Unreal Tournament 3! If you never enjoyed playing an Unreal Tournament/Quake type game in the past, then this new offering is probably not for you.

The Intrigue

There isn't much of a story here. In the campaign you play some burly human soldier who fights alongside other war veterans against alien invaders. The campaign consists of a series of multiplayer matches (with bots) of varying type. They add a few short cutscenes here and there that lay down the story. The campaign is more like training for multiplayer by playing all the different game modes against computer controlled opponents. You can however play the campaign with some friends over Xbox LIVE! So if you are not interested in multiplayer or you do not have Xbox LIVE, then you wont get much out of this game.

The Feel

Most PC first-person veterans always say that you cannot play FPS games with a console controller. Especially fast FPS games like these. However, UT3 on Xbox plays extremely well with the controller! The controls are simple and they have mastered the analog stick aiming. The analog aiming input has a type of acceleration on it, which works well. It makes it easy to turn around or adjust you aiming quickly. Then when you need to do those fine little adjustments to blow his/her head off, it still brings precise accuracy as you get in games such as Call of Duty 4. There is no keyboard and mouse support on the Xbox version, which isn't a big deal though. There are different control options for jumping and weapon switching so that you will never feel crippled when compared to using a keyboard and mouse.

The gameplay is fast, smooth and loads of fun! Like most UT games, it is easy to play but very difficult to master. The framerate also feels high and consistent. There is quite a large selection of weapons and vehicles to annihilate your enemies with. Most of these are the standard rocket launchers, sniper rifles, miniguns, tanks and buggies. The hoverboard is a nice addition and can be used in any vehicle enable match. The game is also well balanced so that it will never take you more than a few seconds to find some vehicle or weapon and make yourself battle ready.

Social Behavior

Muliplayer is what it is all about in UT3. You can play solo, co-op campaign with some friends or join/create team versus modes. UT3 features Capture the Flag, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes. There is also Warfare (better known as Conquest or Onslaught), where two teams battle to take control of nodes across huge maps to disable the opposing teams power core defenses and then proceeding to destroy it. This mode is more complex and strategic than the other deathmatch based ones. The host can add mutators during game creation to change or enhance the game in some way. Mutators are predefined game settings that speed up the game, allow only certain weapons, gives additional ammo etc. InstaGib is by far my favorite!

Players can quickly join and create ranked or normal player matches over Xbox LIVE. Being in South-Africa, joining an international game will be frustrating because the lag is rather terrible. It is not unplayable but you will be much happier joining some local games. In general, we could host a game with up to 12 players in a single game without any noticeable lag. Hosting a match also enables you to allow bots (artificial intelligent players) to fill up spots when there are not enough human players in the game. This is a great way of keeping the game alive and frantic while you send out invites to friends who just came online. Spots can also be reserved especially for friend invites. UT3 also allows for split screen multiplayer, so even those friends who don't have their own console or a LIVE subscription can join in the fun.

It isn't perfect though. There are some problems and annoyances. The first is the lag on international games. The second is the voice communication. It is push-to-talk only. They should have made it like Halo 3 where if there are less than a certain amount of people playing at the same time, everyone can just talk to each other without having to press a button. Once that number is exceeded (I believe it is 8), it forces push-to-talk. In a game as chaotic as UT3 Deathmatch, it becomes a real nuisance to have to push a button every time you want to spit out some trash talk after some ridiculous kill. You can't talk in the lobby either and only when the host has created the game correctly by adding additional maps to the list, can players vote for the next map.

Stimulation of the Senses

UT3 looks stunning. The models and maps are very well designed and there's a lot of variety. You will be trekking through Asian themed arenas, space stations, forested areas and snow covered installations. UT3 has a very similar look to Gears of War, the models in particular. It is however more vibrant/colourful, more detailed and the maps are a lot bigger. Particles and special effects are impressive and add a bit more satisfaction to your kills. The game runs very smoothly but you might notice a few geometry pop-ins when moving around corners.

The sound complements the visuals and weapons sound the way they look. The audio is loud and gets the adrenaline pumping. Don't expect your loved ones to get much sleep when you keep on fragging into the wee hours of the morning.

The Competition

In terms of online play, Call of Duty 4 is a fierce competitor. COD4 has a huge following and has more online functionality and features. COD4 is a present day tactical FPS. It also does not feature any human controlled vehicles or computer controlled opponents. Since COD4 has been out for a long time, people tend to 'camp' more and more in online matches. UT3 is very different from this. Instead of sneaking around, sniping from high windows and planting claymores, UT3 is about fast close quarter combat and/or large objective based combat with vehicles. More or less the same goes for Battlefield: Bad Company. Although BF:BC does have similar vehicles and objective based gameplay, it does not allow players to host their own games and focuses more on classes and squad tactics. In essence, UT3 is a lot simpler than these games and takes a step back from realism. The best game to compare UT3 to on the Xbox is Halo 3. Weapon/item/powerup pickups, jumping around, quick thinking and prediction.

Value and Longevity

With a retail price of around R700, it certainly isn't cheap. But this game can keep you busy playing multiplayer over LIVE for months. Unfortunately, playing international games with all the lag will probably not keep you interested for long. Local games on the other hand, definitely can. But the problem with that is there aren't that many South-African Xbox LIVE players. Getting a growing community for a new game is always going to be tricky.

There is the campaign/story mode but that is not worth the R700 alone. All of the multiplayer modes can be played with bots though. These computer controlled players are very smart and it is hard to tell them apart from the real human players. It is a difficult to recommend this game, as is all 'multiplayer only' games. You might think of buying it for the achievements/gamerscore but most of these require you to play online and even in international ranked games.

That said, it is an epically fun game and more online players equals more carnage!

Finale

We had to wait quite a while to get UT3 on the Xbox 360 but I believe it is the best version. The PC version might have slightly better visuals but it has technical issues and requires a monster of a machine to play properly. The PS3 version is very similar to the Xbox version but does not feel as solid and the performance is not as good or consistent. The one big let down of the Xbox version is that it will most likely never have support for user created content. So if this is a big deal to you, then look somewhere else.

UT3 is truly one of those love or hate games. When it comes to multiplayer first-person shooters, there have always been two types of players: The Unreal/Quake player and the Counter-Strike/COD player. It is very possible to like both but your heart will always be in one of the two. At the time of writing this, there are a reasonable amount of people playing this game locally on Xbox LIVE. Only time will tell if it will receive continued player support.

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