UT2003 is finally out!!

[DVDriven]

I've never been a fan of EB, but I am thankful for the fact that they're one of the few retailers who received early shipments to cover their pre-sold orders (needless to say, I'm one of them ).

Got a call on Satuday evening; picked it up on Sunday afternoon. Price: $40 ($20 for me, since I traded in a PS2 title towards it). As ecstatic as I was at having received an early copy, I didn't install it until after midnight this morning (was busy watching season premieres of ALIAS and The Practice). It's a hefty install - a smidgen over 2.34 GB (three CDs - 16 minutes).

I'm sure everyone who's played the demo seeing that distasteful nVidia logo on startup :p. It seems that there are replacement logos for every other graphics card manufacturer, past and present, out there. Here's an example:



I've compiled all of the competitors' links into a single location (see below for the manufacturer that appeals to you most):

3dfx old logo
3dfx new logo
ATI logo
ATI Radeon GPU Logo
ATI Radeon Viking logo
BitBoyz logo
Matrox logo
Matrox Parhelia logo
Matrox Parhelia surround logo
nVidiot logo
PowerVR logo
Spirit logo
Xabre logo

I was up until 5:00 this morning in Single Player Instant Action mode. (It's so easy to lose track of time when you're having fun ). Perhaps one of the best options is the ability to draft characters of your own choosing to compete in team-based matches, as well as being presented the opportunity to trade for other characters when certain stages are completed.

The developers have stated in the demo's release notes that the number of textures were reduced for the demo to facilitate faster, more timely downloads. The final product, with 2.5x more textures, is just stunning (any screenshots you may have seen in other forums don't do the game justice). The end result is just better in all respects.

If you want this game to run fluidly, the developers recommend having 512MB RAM (the minimum is 64MB, but expect lots of swapping with the HD to make up for the shortfall in virtual memory, which will slow the gameplay considerably). Even with 256MB, swapping may be necessary in some cases for detailed, larger scale maps, again for textures).

Was it worth the wait? As a longtime UT fan, I think this is a worthy successor. It's smooth, it's fast, it's beautiful, it's UT for a new generation.

[MoonSka0]

Me want bad!

Actually, I'm kind of having a dilemma as to whether I get this on PC or Xbox. I'm sure it will look better on the PC, but previews that I read and screenshots the the Xbox version say that it will be pretty darn near close looking like its PC counterpart. Believe me I would get both, but that whole being poor thing doesn't help. What does everyone out there think?

[elwood731]

Please note that Unreal Tournament 2003 on PC and Unreal Championship on XBOX are two different products. The difference will not just be graphics, but beyond skin deep, from what I understand. So I say keep an eye on the whole issue. Wait for reviews if you're that worried. Personally, I would almost always go with the PC version of a game over the console version, if you have the system to run it.

[DVDriven]

Originally posted by elwood731
Please note that Unreal Tournament 2003 on PC and Unreal Championship on XBOX are two different products. The difference will not just be graphics, but beyond skin deep, from what I understand. So I say keep an eye on the whole issue. Wait for reviews if you're that worried. Personally, I would almost always go with the PC version of a game over the console version, if you have the system to run it.

As elwood731 stated, we're talking about two different beasts here. I have no doubt that UC will look (and probably play) very good on the XBOX, but I'm a firm believer in playing FPS on a PC, especially if you can run it at 1600x1200 with AA and AF turned on.

I spent a good chunk of change putting together my PC specifically for playing UT2K3 (I think it's worth every penny I invested into doing so, but then again, I've been a longtime fan of UT). Relative to other games on the market, you'll need a PC with some muscle to run it smoothly. I think most folks are covered with their CPUs and video cards, but having lots of RAM is the key to making it go.

I think UT2K3 is one of those games that will be almost critic-proof, despite updates to its presentation and gameplay modes, and it drawing similarities to Quake III aesthetically. PC games will always be cheaper and are usually better bargains shortly after they're released. Two examples are Madden 2003 and Warcraft III: Madden can be found for $30 this week, as well as Warcraft (remember when it hit the stores not too long ago at ~$60 a pop for the standard edition?) Try finding a copy of Madden on the PS2 or XBOX for $30 - not going to happen now, but will next July.