A brief journey through time
Just yesterday, I was able to enjoy a little exercise in time travel, courtesy of the classic series of Unreal Tournament. I’ve known the series fondly since the first instalment way back in 1999. It was a game that kept me hooked for well over two years – and I only ever got to play it by myself since the internet connectivity I had access to left much to be desired back then. Now, just under a decade later, after seeing the series go through numerous facelifts throughout its lifetime, I decide to take a look and see just how far it’s come since then.
In one afternoon, I played several matches on all three games in the series. Naturally I started off with the first game, Unreal Tournament. After dealing with some issues related to the speed of my processor, I went through a couple of rounds with a few incompetent bots. Nostalgia hit like a ten ton truck, and while the mouse smoothing and acceleration made it hard for me to aim too well I was having a blast. Then came the inevitable – I had to try and see if there were people still playing it online. Lo and behold, there were several populated servers for me to choose from. I dare say there were even more DM servers with sub 100 ping than I’ve ever been able to find in the third game, UT3. So I hop in, and after being kicked out of 5 or 6 servers I finally found one that let me in.
Going at a slight tangent for a moment here; I once read somewhere (I’m unable to cite the resource now, unfortunately) that a fad goes through several stages. In its prime, a lot of people adopt it simply for the reason that it’s so popular. Over time, however, these people tend to move on to other things, leaving only the “elite” few who stick with it to the bitter end. The more time passes from its maturity, the more this “natural selection” phase has time to separate the truly hardcore fans of the fad. Much like other products such as the yoyo and roller blades, the people with whom these items stood the test of time have the skills to show for it. UT99 was no exception, as the other players literally wiped the floor with me. I wasn’t even upset or getting into my usual sore loser mood – it really made sense that these people would be impossibly good at the game. I really should have taken a screenshot of the final score, but I believe the winner had around 72 points, myself trailing behind with a paltry 7.
Next came the second of the trifective, UT2K4. Performance on my behalf was far better than in the first, but it’s still impressive how people still stuck with the game in spite of the sequel having come out. To be fair, UT2K4 isn’t as old and dusty as UT99 is, so this shouldn’t really be much of a surprise. I also haven’t been away from UT2K4 for as long as I have been from UT99 either, of course seeing as the third game only recently came out. However, while speaking with a friend of mine who was playing on a server with me, he pointed out something rather interesting. According to some statistics, there are more people playing both UT2K4 and UT99 (separately) than there are people playing UT3. These numbers are shown on GameSpy’s website, so I’m guessing they would be pretty reliable numbers to go by.
Don’t get me wrong, UT3 is certainly far from a bad game. I think it’s a great game, actually. What it isn’t, however, is a good Unreal Tournament sequel. The way they tried to wax nostalgic and undo the drastic changes done by UT with regards gameplay and mechanics, while desperately clinging onto their precious gametypes that were never there to begin with (I’m looking at you, Warfare. Or should I say Onslaught?) in a weak attempt to pull the wool over their fanbase’s eyes. Let’s not forget the way the game was released riddled with huge issues with interface and netcode – likely the two most important deciding factors of a multiplayer game’s success. I’m almost certain that having it released as a multiplatform game was its main downfall, but what’s done is done.
I wanted UT3 to be good, really I did. Hell, I still do, what with all the patches Epic have been pumping out since the game’s release. My only source of hope is that this is just UT2K3 all over again, where Epic suddenly turn around and say “Just kidding!” while holding out an expansion pack that makes everything better again, and perhaps spark that bit of interest in the fanbase to get them to play the game again.
While they’re at it, they might as well make the patch delete the Warfare gametype.