While UT3 is definately not without it's faults, I have been enjoying this game a lot as of late (purchased it from STEAM a few weeks ago).

The bad: the UI (and especially the server browser) is horrible, the "consolisation effect" is definately noticable. But seriously, EPIC can make a game that pushes hundreds of thousands of polygons per scene at a stable framerate of 70+ fps, but the stupid game menu is jerky and slow? WTF?

The broken server browser might be one of the reasons for a relatively low amount of people playing this game, it's serious broken. First of all, it's only showing maybe 30% of existing servers at any given time and to top that off, it's misrepresenting ping times, when the server browser shows that I have 80 ping to a game sever, in reality when I connect I usually ping 50-55. For finding games you definately want to use SKUT3 (an mIRC addon) instead, you can download it at http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1461550

The good: actual deathmatch gameplay. One of the problems with UT2004 was the fact that it was very easy to get away from your opponent forcing a lot of fights to become long-range histscanfests. UT3 has had its movement toned down a little bit, which ironically made it into a faster game with fierce combat, the combat is a lot more about closerange all-out fights to the death.

The game is absolutely stunning for the most part (although there are obviously a few very average-looking maps), very highly configurable through the game interface and editing the .ini files and runs very well on moderate hardware. I have a C2D E6600, 2GB ram, 8600GT 512mb and WinXP SP2, which is pretty much midrange these days and I am able to play the game at 1024x768 with all world/texture details on highest settings and a stable 70+ fps framerate as long as I tone down some of the unnecessary effects like dynamic decals and explosion details. 

But seriously, EPIC can make a game that pushes hundreds of thousands of polygons per scene at a stable framerate of 70+ fps, but the stupid game menu is jerky and slow? WTF?

I bet you worthless American money that they're using Flash for the UI stuff. Seems like a new trend in gaming lately to use Flash interfaces in bigger retail games.

Willem confirm/deny? 

UE3 has it's own UI editor and system. From what I've seen, it's not flash based. 

. . . worthless American money . . .

It's not worthless - now everything I buy from steam is cheaper. 

It's probably Java, just like the shit Bluray uses. 

It's not flash. As Scampie said, we have our own system which is completely proprietary.

It's still under development so speed improvements should be forthcoming. 

if you don't have a clue, better STFU

;) 

Kept that one quiet mate :) 

So I got UT3 last weekend. I'll tell you the single most impressive thing with the game: load times.

HOLY FUCK! Those levels load in like 2 or 3 seconds. Literally. Considering that the size of the assets is probably very large, I'm truly impressed... and happy. Loading times (in games in general) have been getting pretty ridiculous even on the PC these days, so it's nice to see that they've put a lot of effort into getting those load times down to a minimal level.

I'm sure the fact that it loads in a lower LOD for stuff first helps, but even so, I can't imagine how they got it that quick. 

Do you play it online Fribbles?

I'll have to buy it! I've got the demo, and I really like it! It's the most Quake-like gameplay about at the moment.

Loading times are good, graphics are tremendous! Gameplay is fun - fast and furious.

Also I like the newer games (steam etc) just because it's so00 easy to get straight into an online game.

So hey, there's finally something we agree on! :D 

I haven't tried online play yet. To be honest I usually just play versus the bots (or LAN) in UT games. I tend not to play it online. That's not to say I won't give it a go though.

I do really like the gameplay, as always with UT. Maps are for the most part stunning visually, and the game as a whole has a much more coherent look than previous UT games (both with the maps and character designs). I have a little bit of a hard time picking players and pickups out from the background though... it all blends together a bit to be honest.

Haven't played enough to learn the maps well yet, so I can't comment in any meaningful way on layouts etc.

Tell you what though, the default mouse movement is completely fucked! It feels so wrong, acceleration is forced on and there's no way to turn it off in the game menu (this is a pretty big oversight). I had to search around and find out how to disable acceleration and change some other stuff in the config files to get the mouse to feel halfway decent. (It's pretty nice now, just gotta tweak sensitivity and stuff a bit more to my liking.)

So, in summary:

Awesome: load times.

Strong: gameplay, art.

Shithouse: default mouse movement and options. 

Yeah, games like CoD4 and UT3 are awesome when it comes to load times, I wish TF2 loaded the maps faster, it seems to take ages...

Played UT3 a bit, dunno, not really doing anything for me, think I spent more time checking out the characters in the character creation screen than actually playing. 

Checked out the demo a bit.

What a radical progression over UT/UT2/UT2k3/k5/k5/k6 eh. 

how did you fix the shitty mouse in UT3 Frib?
that was the thing that totally ruined the game for me to the point of unplayable 

more input options in the latest patch so you can turn off mouse acceleration and all that other shite.

As for the load times, I'm no expert on UT tech or anything but I think its got something to do with the streaming nature of the engine, my guess is it only loads what you see when you spawn into the world and streams the rest in and out as you move around. It was the same with Gears of war there were very very few actual loading screens, usually there would be a brief pause after a cutscene and thats all. 

Sarcasm? I haven't played it. 

The main thing is turning off the mouse acceleration:

My Documents/My Games/Unreal Tournament 3/UTGame/Config/UTInput.ini

[UTGame.UTConsoleP_layer_Input]
bViewAccelerationEnabled=FALSE

This thread could also help (some different stuff to try, not sure how much it helps if at all):

http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=605871 

....mouse acceleration. I notice v_sync more - I prefer it to be off, unless the game runs constantly above the refresh rate. Crysis it has to be off. Doom3, Quake4 and UT3 it can be on. 

thnx. mouse in bioshock was equaly bad btw, less of an issue in SP but still


oh and on the topic

played Alice - rather boring combat design due to crappy one-ammo-for-all weapons and mostly turret-like enemies. FAKK2 had pretty much the same puzzles and jumping but much more interesting combat. Atmosphere is nice but not enough to keep my interest for more than ~5hrs. next
... comes Getting up: contents under something - yeah that Mark Gekko` graffiti game. Which has some parkur (which is luckily much easier and far more forgiving than Tombrider or the insta-death-frenzy Prince of Persia); some sneaking (which is mostly unnescesary if you dont mind to fight) and ofcourse the best part of it - asskicking which is a rather solid beat'em'up with some depth. Oh and there is spraypainting the walls which is done well. 

didnt have the atmosphere to match Alice though, although I agree that Alice gameplay got old. But there was some pretty imaginative dressup of some puzzles and the level design was great. 

Was a missed opportunity for me. A real shame they didn't use the thirdperson perspective a bit more - dodging or close combat or something.

I remember I was looking at the pause screen loads of times before I noticed L-oad S-ave D-elete.

Another one of those subliminal design things.

Here's a great Portal article:

http://www.game-ism.com/?p=91 

Agreed in general. Alice had good music too. 

never played it before. 

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/32939.html 

Nevermind the game - the demo is brilliant!