I was going to wait until I'd written a few more but it's been nearly a week.

UT99

CTF-Pagnite By RoninMastaFX

UT3

VCTF-Kelahf By Cooloola

Both will provide some fun but VCTF-Kelahf is amazing.

Enjoy

Till then

Some good news the Community Bonus Pack 3 will be released next week.  Also new custom content on the way of meshes, textures etc is on the way from Drachis.  This popped up over on the BU forums and it looks pretty good.  Hopefully he'll release the release version soon.

Still thinking about the podcasts.  Time is my main enemy on this one.  Plus the ability to do this regularly.

Till then

Non UT Link. Retro fans will stain themselves

Yes three, one from each release.

For UT3 there is DM-MJ-Flamer by Mjpoland

and for UT2k4 flavour there is CTF-Wasnuni by Murphy

Those who prefer the original have DM-FoT-Metalwrath by Aalexanderrr

All of these maps have qualities.  Enjoy and fire some feedback backto me.

By the way every review I post I submit to Digg and Stumbleupon.  It helps get this site known as well as hooking your maps into the big social networks.

So get subbing :D

Till then

Non UT related link.  I've found another classic that will take "ages".

UT3 and original flavour today.  Both good maps and worthy of your time.  This does mean I need more maps in the review list.  I've updated the review scheme to account for UT99 maps.

DM-Bagger by kevboy 62/100

DM-Maris by Swanky 91/100

I've changed the site structure around a little.  The path through to the reviews themselves has been simplified.  I've had word from Hunter that work on the new site is progressing and I should be able to see something this weekend.

Unless maps are subbed I'll do some more work on Quatro. this weekend.

Till then

Non UT related link.  Another classic in flash form, enjoy.

A few weeks ago I got myself an Xbox 360. 3 days later I got the red ring of death and had to send it away to get fixed. When I got it back I also got a free subscription to Xbox Live and I am absolutley addicted to playing Unreal Tournament 3 online. Of course I am not any good at it. Fail to dodge bullets, fail to aim and shoot, although players do make it hard when they're jumping all over the damn place.

One day I will add Guitar Hero to games I will compete online with. At the moment I'm a complete chicken shit because I fear I will be playing against people who have been playing Guitar Hero for much longer than myself. I'm not utter rubbish at the game, I'm currently only playing on medium setting and trying to get 5 gold stars on every song. I have a lot of 5 stars but they are not gold dammit! I have tried some songs on hard and utterly fail. The moment I have to take my fingers off their designated places I fail at getting them back there again at the right time. That orange button. Damn orange. I hate orange.

If you play UT3 and have Xbox Live, my name is none other than pljunkie.

Why must I keep spelling guitar like guiatr?

That's right not one but two.  Simple but cool CTF and a more traditional DM with an oriental flavour.  Both very competent maps and should give you some fragging good times.

CTF-Zeus by ltclifff 71/100

DM-Kenchojin by Opiumunknown 67/100

No reviews tomorrow as it's back on with Quatro.  It's coming on quite well and I made real progress yesterday.

Till then.

I have also added some forums. These can be found here as well as on the right.  Normal forum rules apply but I am pretty liberal.  Just chill and be cool to each other.

Plus I have written the first UT3 map review of the site.  It's been out a while now but it gets the ball rolling and it's pretty good.

DM-Prypiat by Ed Duke-Cox 77/100

This is not the final look for UTU.  Hunter is still working on the site.  That will be hosted elsewhere but for now this is a fully functional map review site with forums.

Enjoy, it's good to be back

:D

Not really my cup of tea though. It's seems a little too low poly for me but I'll give it a go all the same.  I'll tell you tomorrow what I think.
Grab it here if you want it.

Might be moving to the new site soon. ;)

Non-UT related link time.  Do you have a Ninja Finger????

More new extra stuff for UT3 over at the official forums.  I'm downloading the Gears of War character pack for example.  It's nice to see more new content for UT3. I'll list links to relevant sections here.

Full Releases

User Maps & Mods

Gears of War Pack

I told you there would be some.  Trouble is there's no site where all this content can be focused.  I hope UTU can play that role.

Who remembers MinisterFish?  Well he can be found here at the Smiley Face Killers clan forums.  Go over and say hello.

Non-UT link today is silly inventions. Weird? :D

The Quatro08's really coming on and the end is in site.  Hopefully more screens over the next few days.

I'm also trying to come up with an interesting competition to open the new site with.  Won't say anything now for obvious reasons.

Not much else has happened since yesterday.

Non-UT related link of the day is this trippy puzzle.

Till then

In addition to my last two posts I want to introduce a site, Mod DB.  This lists lots of mods released and in development for a number of games.  UT3, as well as the rest of the unreal series, being included of course.

If you still think the UT3 scene is lacking then have a look through that site.  There's more than you think.  Plus, you'll find that something to interest you.

Till then

Rating: 8.5 Out of 10

Unreal Tournament 3 is the latest installment of the Unreal Tournament series and the first game of the series on the PS3. This game has great graphics and audio, a number of high quality modes to choose from, great frame rate, a great map design, and just awesome shooting action. They bring what you like about Unreal Tournament and then some. However, there is sometimes lag and performance issues, and there is also no way to access user created options. Overall, if you liked the Unreal Tournament series in the past, you will like this game. You can get it for PC, PS3, and X-Box 360.

Pros:

+ Exhilarating shooting action

+ A number of high-quality modes to choose from, including the intense warfare mode

+ Great map design encourages early, exciting action

+ Fantastic visuals that generally run at a consistently smooth frame rate

Cons:

- Some occasional performance and lag issues

- User-created content options not yet implemented

Extras:

# Unreal Tournament 3 Cheat Codes

More finalists in the MSUC announced. Again C&P'ed from Beyond Unreal.

Unfortunately it seems that the Map Factory is dead or rather, non-existent.  The URL currently returns a "403 forbidden".  I hope it's only temporary.

Non UT related but funny.  try this page for a laugh.  I found it through Stumbleupon. I'm really liking that.  I know it's been around a while but it's the first time for me.  I was stuck in a rut of only visiting a few sites.  Broaden your virtual horizons.:D

Till then
Stumble It!

More finalists of the Make Something Unreal Contest have been announced.  This list has been posted here originally over at Beyond Unreal.  I've C&P'ed for those to lazy to go there :D.
The Best Game Type finalists:

• Battle Team/ Freezetag Arena by Nico “BattleMode” de Vries
• Cubes of Serenity by Anna Beck-Thomsen, Lawrence Johnson, Jens Hammerhøj, André Johansen, Martin Larsen, Janusch Häring
• UT3DOM by Team Domination
• Domination Reloaded by spl0k
• Galtanor’s Invasion by Michael “Galtanor” Wells
• Proelium by Martin “Pfhoenix” Actor
• The Ball: Pehua by The Ball Team
• Unreal Demolition 2 by Dan Weiss
• UT2D by Team Joe Bates (and various mappers)
• Written Off by David Jenkinson and Ben Moser

The Best Game Type honorable mentions:

• Attrition by “OlympusMons”
• CTF++ by Shee Labs Game Development
• Endless Falling by Yuan Shen, Kai Song Liu, Chen Huang and Tao Cui
• Fleet Wars Alpha by Martin “Pfhoenix” Actor
• Mini-Golf Tournament by Rob Howland
• UT Race by Matthew Fawcett
• Zombie Invasion by Eric Blade

The Best Tool finalists:

• Blender_export by John “Darknet”
• HMCS by David “DGUnreal” Green
• Mark4U by Andreas
• skUT3 by Nicolas “SkorpSSS” Imbert
• Ultimate Console by Matthew Fawcett
• uMax by Christian Herzog
• Unreal Visualization Toolkit by Alastair Hebson
• UnrealPackage by Sam Harwell
• UnrealRSC by Alan
• UT3 Tweaker by Brad G.
• UWindow2 by James Tan

Best Tool honorable mention:

• rK DemoWatcher by Ulrich Scheller
• UnrealScript Editor Alpha 1 by Aurélien Reeves
• UT3 Cache Converter by Brad G.

The Best Use of Physics finalists:

• Ash Gravity Gun by Aaron “Charybdis” Ash
• Cubes of Serenity by Anna Beck-Thomsen, Lawrence Johnson, Jens Hammerhøj, André Johansen, Martin Larsen and Janusch Häring
• DM-Blockland by Simeon “Lord_Simeon” Spargo
• DM-Nowhere by Remus Brailoiu
• JetPack by Martin “Pfhoenix” Actor
• Mini-Golf Tournament by Rob Howland
• Raggy Weapons by Martin “Pfhoenix” Actor
• The Ball: Pehua by The Ball Team
• Unreal Demolition 2 by Dan Weiss

Best Mutator honorable mentions (Best Mutator finalists were announced earlier this week):

• The Mutator Weeks by Shee Labs Game Development
• Gibalicious by Miles Asvachin
• VAS Volatile Ammo by Dion “KalCorp” Rentos
• Raggy Weapons by Martin “Pfhoenix” Actor
• Defector by Jeremiah Ellison
• BattleMOD by Nico “BattleMode” de Vries
• VAS Auto-Shields by Dion “KalCorp” Rentos
• Coda Sword by Denrei
• Portable Spawners by Antone Franich
• BattleTrans by Nico “BattleMode” de Vries
• Circus Mutator by James
• JukeBox by Jason Yu

Who says the UT3  scene's dead :D

Has anyone heard anything about that or can verify it in anyway?

How do you like the new look?  I'd appreciate any opinions on it.  I want to start posting a little earlier to allow more time with the map.   I know that one of my old maps, CTF-Cyber, is missing from the maps page.  I'll fix that soon.

Thanks to Cosmix for posting a comment and giving encouragement. That makes it worth while. Thanks

Till then

I've been offered hosting for UT Unlimited. Hunter over at the Beyond Unreal site is the really cool guy who's helping me resurrect UTU. Why not visit his blog and say thanks and hi. UT99, 2k4, UT3 and GoW are games I would like to support as well as PS3. If the situation with custom content is the same for XBox 360 then that will be included as well. I will also need extra reviewers and admin. If anyone wants to help then post a message.

I found this unusual gaming news site. GameTab. Huge amount links to gaming news across all formats. Also how about a game related bookmark/blog site? GameBlogs. Not sure about the colour though :D

Did some more to the map and finished a small section mesh-wise. I'm quite happy with how it's turning out so far. More screens soon.

Till then.

I remember one where the map had to be kept inside a 1024 cubed box. There was another where only a certain number of textures were used. I've been thinking of running some competitions. The prize wouldn't be much. Pimpage all around the community which is still fairly wide by the way. I've checked my referrals. Several news sites have passed the news that I'm trying to restart UTU. My point is, the community is still alive and in several different languages :D.

I'm finding that Blogger, though good, is a bit limited. Soon I'll be moving to Wordpress. It can handle separate pages and is Digg friendly. Blogger is a bit tricky when it comes to stuff like that. This will make it feel more like a site rather than a blog. I'm hoping that I will be able to start posting reviews. The Wordpress dashboard is not the clearest in the world but beatable :D. It's more versatile generally. Untill everything is ready though I'll stick here. Plans for a main UTU site are still very much on.

Progress on the map is still happening. Nothing worth taking screenshots of yet. I'll probably wait until I've started the lighting.

I've found some new Custom models for UT3. Warhammer 40K + Warfare, oh yeah. Now if only someone would mod the vehicles to match. :D

First off I'd like to thank all those who have visited and posted comments here and at the Beyond Unreal forums. It really makes it feel worthwhile when I check the stats for this blog.
Thanks. :D

There is an ambitious project posted at those forums. The idea is to re-do almost every part of UT3. Sir_Brizz started this thread airing the idea. If you want to help get this idea off the ground then why not visit and see if you can help. It's all good news for the UT community. Lets beat Epic at their own game (pun not intended). It's nice to see the majority of the UT community trying to pull together.

Speaking of Net based projects, I'm also involved in one of a musical variety. You may have heard of Discogs.com. In March this year Discogs version 4 was rolled out much to the anger of a lot of the long time moderators, submitters and users. Discogs used to be heavily moderated for accuracy. V4 allowed anyone to submit or change anything and it would show immediately in the database. A lot of people's hard work started to unravel before their eyes. Some people have been working on that database for years.

We broke away and formed DiscographyDB or DdB for short. The aim is to have an accurate database of as many audio releases as possible. If you can help coding, ideas or anything please go to DdB. It's just a forum at the moment but this is a great chance to get in to a project from the start and make a bit of history.

Two new screens for you tonight. The lighting is more functional than final. Also there's no post processing in place yet. That's why it looks a little plain.

Thanks for visiting. :D

This blog is up and running now. Didn't get much of the map done though. The UT3 scene has been stagnating of late but there are hopeful signs. A classic mod Jail Break is being developed for UT3 as is Tac Ops. The community also needs new custom stuff like meshes and textures. Hourence has created a texture pack for UT3 over at his site. There are other teams and mappers that are producing custom content.

These are all good signs but it's still moving slowly. UT3 has great potential but it takes a long time to do anything because of the new technologies involved. It seems to be a common misconception that you need to know Maya or 3DMax, this isn't true from a mapping point of view. It does make things a bit easier though. I don't know how to use any other 3D software other than UED. I know I should but it takes time. One day eh :)

Another problem is that there aren't many sites that review maps and skins. In the days of the original UT there were almost too many sites. This made for a great community and a very encouraging environment. The big review sites such as Nalicity are no longer around for whatever reason. I really hope this changes. If I could code I probably would run a review site.

Here's hoping.

I might have some new screens tomorrow so I'll post them if I can.

To me games aren’t art in their natural form, just like a photo can just be a picture and a building a structure although like these things - they can become art.

In my original post I likened calling an average game art to calling a mud covered man hurling himself at canvas as being art. In this case EA might well be the man hurling brands at the market until one sticks. To reverse the example, what if the man instead of dipping himself in mud took it and created a wonderful mud-based building? They do exist, believe me.

Back to the gaming analogy, that company might be Blizzard or Valve. They to at some point threw mud at the canvas until something stuck – but the difference is, when it did stick they worked on it.

A more appropriate analogy might be in a painter who tries different colour palettes in a picture – There is a time for testing out new colours but if you do so for too long you end up with brown and nothing else.

Gaming can be an art, but we must not fly this flag too high for else we are no better than the Tate Modern and two thirds of the shite they display there. Let us hail some games as art but only a precious few but let us also refuse sub-par developers the right to try and join the bandwagon.

Rant over.

Now onto more important business:

Go grab yourself the master on ET and join me in vandalising it, it’s soothing.

Also, I picked up a PC – a little under the spec of what I was looking for to save some money but I have in the process effectively bankrupt myself. I picked up Spore on predownload but found out I have to wait another 30 minutes on release day to get the last 1%. What a load of bollocks.

I have in the mean time been enjoying Medieval TW 2 for which the campaign is a bit meh but the battles are quite fun and Unreal Tourny 3 which seems solid if a bit soulless. When we get the net sorted I might hit the UT3 fansites for some awesome content but in the mean time I use it as a stress release.

I need recommendations on games to get and try, so let me know.

Regards,
JamesR.

Vista is a pain in the arse. You must give Admin Authorization to do this.

I'll bring it up if it still sounds cool in the morning.

The patch, which updates the game to version 1.3, offers a variety of gameplay changes, bug fixes, interface updates, AI improvements and more. Updates included in the 1.1 and 1.2 patches are also included.

For a full rundown of the incorporated changes, check out the full patch notes.

Download From:

When it comes to writing, many a hand-smacking has been given out by an overzealous literary teacher for making use of clichés in articles.  I try to avoid it as much as I can, but there is one serious problem with trying this; clichés only became clichés because they're pretty much always right - the grass is always greener on the other side, the game was rather obviously of two halves (okay, that one is always annoying)...

And, at least in the case of Unreal Tournament III, things have most definitely remained the same, despite a couple of rather cosmetic changes.

The big difference is naturally in the graphics; UT3 uses the Unreal Engine 3 (coincidence?!), to amazing effect, and manages to graphically surpass every third-party game release that has used the powerful engine.  All the graphical bells and whistles are present here, and even better it all runs at a very nice frame rate on the console versions; the game also scales very well on PC, and like previous games in the UT series will play perfectly alright on systems that really have no right to run it at all (I ran the game on a rig well below spec at low-ish details simply as a test, and it consistently ran at over 30fps, which is purely amazing).

The art direction is also particularly impressive, resembling Gears of War (which isn't surprising considering it's made by the same studio) but with a brighter palette and more organic looking levels.  However, while the grungy industrial areas, desert ruins, and oriental-esque temples are a sight to behold, there isn't anywhere near the same amount of variety that was apparent in the old games, which seemingly ignored theme in favour of sheer coolness; it was quite common to have a game of the original UT and go from a sci-fi weapons plant to some contemporary-looking slums to an alien forest, with nary a familiar looking map to be seen.  It isn't a big criticism really, but it feels as though some of the character of the franchise has ironically disappeared in the attempt to make the levels more characterful.

The game sounds like, well, it sounds like a UT game really; the commentator is back, shouting "PANCAKE" and "MONSTER KILL" with wild abandon; the bots will taunt you with the typical "you be dead" comment that you've been hearing for four iterations of the game, and I swear the guns still have the same sound effects playing as well.  Things sound good enough, but there is little variation, and certainly not much of the entertainment value inherent in the soundscape of other multiplayer FPSs of the moment (with TF2 being the obvious example).  The voice-acting in the story mode, however, is a whole other kettle of poorly thought out sentence structure.

Oh wait, that's right, we haven't gotten around to discussing the big gameplay change for this year's edition of the Unreal Tournament franchise: there's no longer an actual tournament to be unreal at! Instead we have a group of soldiers fighting a mercenary war for revenge against the evil Necris across multiple warzones...that contain respawners, power-ups, and people crotch-thrusting while standing over your bleeding gibs; yes, it is as stupid as it sounds. 

The cutscenes, at least, look amazing, and are produced with all the quality of those in Gears of War (albeit with less action), but the premise is so laughable, and the dialogue so poorly written, that it is impossible to remotely care about why Malcolm is ordering your team to play the same Warfare map for the sixth time.

What's Warfare I pretend you care enough to ask? It's a combination of the old Assault and Onslaught modes; capture power cores to form a link to the enemy node, but this time you have fancy special vehicles and missile launches and all sorts of stuff that manages to make the mode a little more interesting to play.  It's a great deal more fun than vanilla Onslaught was (and it was fun, feeling like Battlefield Lite), but it isn't a good replacement for the objective-based thrills of Assault.

This becomes a real issue when you realise that a bunch of other game modes have also been assimilated or annihilated, with Domination, Bombing Run, and a bunch of others being cut; these modes may not have been overly popular when compared to your regular modes, but why remove something that works?  Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Warfare hardly epitomise the old UT emphasis on having enough variety to suit every player.

At least the game still plays as well as it ever did.  The Unreal Tournament series has always been the smoothest, slickest FPS game going (eat that Quake 3!), and UT3 has refined things to the point where shooter novices can pick up the controller and be moving around comfortably in no time; admittedly, said novices will still get absolutely owned by enemies that teleport across the map, wall-flip over their heads, and fire a rocket into their spines, but at least they'll feel comfortable while it happens.

‘Comfortable' is a word that fits UT3 like a non-clichéd appendage-warming garment.  The changes that have occurred, barring a general beefing up of the prettiness, have petty much involved the introduction of a shonky storyline, a slightly upgraded game mode, and some baffling omissions. 

Actually the more I think about it, the more I realise that Epic have finally managed to accomplish what they started when they first started releasing yearly iterations of the game (2003, 2004): they've turned UT into a sports game franchise! In true EA-like fashion, Unreal Tournament 3 is a slight improvement over previous versions of the game in some areas, and yet some things that players liked have inexplicably gone missing. 

No doubt we'll see Bombing Run come back with a different name in Unreal Tournament 4: A New Hope, and flogged as a new feature; hell, if they bring back the old single-player Tournament mode (sans cutscenes with vomit-inducing dialogue) and Assault, I'd be willing to go out on a limb and call it the most revolutionary Unreal Tournament yet!

Graphics: 9.5/10 (A gorgeous looking game with the very, very occasional instance of déjà vu with some samey map design.)

Sound: 6/10 (Sounds the same as the previous games, and the voice-acting and scripting during the cutscenes is cringe-worthy.)

Gameplay: 7.5/10 (The perfect action FPS has been refined to the extreme, with controls so smooth that nothing else even comes close to the freedom of movement on offer here... and yet some game modes have been removed for no apparent reason, the updates to existing modes and weapons are rather minor, and there is simply nothing here that is NEW enough to grab and hold your attention when compared to many other modern FPSs.)

Longevity: 8/10 (The bots are probably the best in the business, but are still AI constructs at the end of the day.  Multiplayer is as fun as ever, but the limited modes mean you had best ensure you really enjoy Warfare and Deathmatch.  The good news, however, is that UT3 still has the legendary modding potential that has made the franchise so popular, and if you are into the modding scene (and don't own a 360) then the potential here is pretty much unlimited.)

Overall: 7/10 (It is very difficult to rate this game, as there is nothing intrinsically wrong with it; UT3 is fun, looks great, sounds alright, and has very robust single and multiplayer modes.  The problem is that the same could be said about the previous three games in the series, and for the exact same reasons.  UT3, for all the pretty graphics and woeful introduction of a story, is a very small step forward, and as such it is difficult to justify giving a high rating for a product that is pretty much just a visual upgrade.

If you buy UT3 you will certainly enjoy yourself, and you may even get a great deal of long term enjoyment if you really dig the game modes or enjoy downloading mods.  Just remember that you'll get the exact same thing from the previous version...and the next one too.)

-Tim Sweeney