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I know I haven't been posting much lately.  There are two very good reasons for this.  The first is that I just started a new job.  My old job had barely any work for me to do, thus I left.  However, that was also when I would write many of my articles.  The second reason is Unreal Tournament 3.  I picked the game up for the PS3 with trepidation in my heart.  You see, I've been a fanboy for Unreal since the first Unreal (No tournament, no numbers) released on the PC in 1998.  It was a very fresh take on the FPS at the time.  It wasn't gritty or scary, it was colorful and fun.  The conflict was intense and the pacing was breakneck. 

In 1999, Epic released Unreal Tournament, which took some things from the original single player game and threw them into one of the most fun online shooters I've ever played.  I knew I was hooked for life.  When Epic started releasing games with Atari it went downhill.  Don't get me wrong, Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2003 were fun.  They just weren't the same as the old games.  Unreal 2 was meant to be the true sequel to the first game, but it's crappy story line and awful voice acting did the original no justice.  Thus, I had believe that my beloved franchise was going downhill.  I was wrong.

Unreal Tournament 3 is a real return to form.  It keeps to cool elements from UT 2k4, like vehicles and node capture, and return the TDM and CTF modes to their previous splendor.  The weapons you know and love are all there, with the exception of the Ripper.  The exclusion of the Ripper is not necessarily a bad thing.  You see, many of the maps are much more open, thus the ricochet effects of those spinning blades of death wouldn't work very well.

The PS3 version of this game runs like a dream.  The frame rate is silky smooth, the texture pop-in is quick and painless, and the speed is intact.  Despite being 20% slower than the PC game, this is still the fastest FPS on a console.  It is still entirely possible to have a 50 kill TDM game end withing 5 minutes.  Which is what we Unreal die hards want.

The PS3 version also supports mods.  If you are not a PC gamer, this may not mean much to you.  Just consider this, Counter-Strike was originally a mod of Half-Life 2.  For years, PC game developers have been shipping their in-house development tools alongside their games, allowing the user community to create new maps, gameplay modes, and even full games.  Unreal Tournament built it's name on this.   A year after the original Unreal Tournament was released it was almost impossible to find a server running the standard maps.  I often enjoyed playing on a user made map that was designed like a kitchen, but scaled up.  You felt like a bunch of Stuart Little's, except that you had massive arsenals.  Thus, this feature should keep the console version fresh for years to come.   Many console owners don't seem to understand this, but mods take time.  They can take months or even years to develop.  This is not like DLC, there are no day-one modifications ready for the game.  Heck, the developer tools can't currently make stuff for the PS3.  Due to some legal issues, the developer tools will be updated in the near future to "cook" the files for PS3 use.  However, the promise of mods is an amazing features.

So, as you can see, I love this game.  However, there are a few issues.  Voice chat is supposed to be included, but it is broken.  For one, the design of it is push-to-talk.  This does not work with a fast paced FPS like UT3.  Second, when you push the talk button nothing happens.  This should be fixed.  The game also doesn't take advantage of the PSN "Players Met" list, which is a tad annoying.  Finally, the server list is backwards, with highest pings appearing on top.  Simple to fix, but should have been correct out of the box.

Luckily, Unreal Tournament is a series that is always a promise at launch.  The base game is great, but you know there will be many patches, new maps, and mods to expand the game into unbelievable.  If you are a fan of the FPS genre and own a PS3, you must own this game.

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