Feb 22 2008
Now Playing Unreal Tournament 3
I’ve been playing “Unreal Tournament 3″ in single player mode for the last couple of weeks. I played “Unreal Tournament” back when the first one came out, since I enjoyed the original “Unreal” so much. I couldn’t actually play online back then because I was still on a dial-up modem, but that didn’t stop me from trying (and dying repeatedly due to lag). I haven’t played a run-and-gun shooter since those days, and there have been some upgrades since then. For example, you can now drive vehicles or ride shotgun in one (literally – you’re in the gunner’s chair while someone else drives).
As with “Gears of War”, I wanted to build up the FPS skill set before even trying to play the game online. Playing against artificial intelligence “bots” in single player is a far cry from playing against real people, but you have to start somewhere. The single player mode of UT3 is a collection of deathmatches loosely connected with a storyline. You have your standard team deathmatch (attack the enemy team until you reach a certain number of kills), capture the flag, and team warfare maps (destroy the enemy base’s power supply). Repeat ad nauseum. At least they slowly add new strategic concepts, vehicles and enemy types to make things interesting.
The story is pretty straight-forward and does a good job of initiating you into the basics of who’s who and why they’re attacking each other. Apparently, I’m part of the Ronin Team, hired by the Izanagi Corporation to fight the Axon Corporation, while we should be fighting the Necris Team, who plan to enslave the galaxy with the help of evil Krall mercenaries. It’s a lot to take in. I just got to “Act 3″, where Necris vehicles are introduced, which look nothing like the futuristic tanks and jeeps that we’ve seen so far.
The Necris Darkwalker is a “War of Worlds” tripod, pulled almost directly from the Tom Cruise movie. It makes the same trumpeting sound and everything. It’s missing the impenetrable shield from the movie, but it’s still pretty hard to kill. I’ve learned to avoid it as it stomps around in the downtown setting that the deathmatch is located in, but it doesn’t make the level any easier. I can’t wait to hijack one and use it against the Krall.
Meta-Tags:
Michael, Necris, Unreal Tournament 3, Video Games
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