Xbox - Unreal Champtionship review

GAME FEATURES |	Developer : Epic Games
A.) good graphics, the return of Unreal Tournament	Publisher : Atari
B.) 14 levels to play with in Deathmatch, however this is small comparison with UT2003's 30 levels with a growing amount of new maps on the Internet.	Released on June 22, 2002
C.) Smoothed out gameplay. This is a fun game for lan parties. It is one of the first XBOX games that will be broadband able.
D.) questionable gameplay ????	Type : First Person Shooter

I played Unreal Tournament ever since the demo came out in 1999. If you haven't already played this game and seen Unreal Tournament 2003 for the PC, you know that this Xbox game is the exact same thing. Unreal Tournament is the only game that I thought would go through with my buddies and have a blast playing. Besides some old favorites such as Diablo II, or Goldeneye 007 (N64) and Starfox (N64) This holds true with this game, but just enough, because control in this game takes some getting use too. I am really use to be able to have a mouse / keyboard when I play Unreal Tournament. The Dreamcast was set up with one when the prequel came out for it. This didn't stop me from getting the sequel. In the sequel, the graphics have improved. It was in those years that games ran in low and high resolution. In 2003 everything is in high resolution. The game plays average to above average. I have experienced the same problem with the gamecube when you don't have lock-on battle systems, it makes it harder to stay on the other teams position for that Killer shot with the use of the most important crossfire on the screen.

One thing that I dislike about the Xbox is that it has 2 buttons, black and white, and in this game they allow you to jump and crotch. Your life depends on jumping. And the annoying enemy can get an extra annoying shot off you if you don't know how to jump !!!! The railgun isn't the most powerful weapon to use. In my opinion the weapon that inflicts the most damage is the machine gun and the flak gun. Both guns shoot random bullets which helps me corner a bot and kill him (her). I can close in for the kill but a lot of the time I will be counter attacked by his friends, and that isn't good.

The level design is really good. Some of the same levels are used in UT 2003. They all have good spaces where you do sniping. The guns stay in their spots throughout the game. So everytime you have to go back to get the weapon, hence the word, camping near the best weapon. But there are exclusive Xbox deathmatch levels, and capture the flag levels. The xbox also has this exclusive mode were you go through hoops with the ball. Through it I mean. Haven't tried it out yet. It sounds that it's not that great.

While Half-life invented Capture the Flag, Unreal Tournament took it to the next level. The polygons are far superior to the PS2's Unreal Tournament. But with the blazing new faster PCs coming out every month, the UT for PC looks better on those higher priced PCs. The capture the flag is really the most popular team based operation. I personally will play the game in Deathmatch, and such is because the action is there and the solution is simple, shoot down anything in site. If your use to the Playstation controller (those of you who played Unreal Tournament for PS2) know that the xbox controller is big and bulky. It feels like a cheap Gamecube controller. Which makes me wonder if Microsoft just copied the Gamecube controller so it could bring many Nintendo developers to it. While that can't be true, I think the part where the Gamecube controller is probably the worst controller for First Person Shooters simpually because you have to aim one thumbstick to adjust while the other most right thumbstick is to aim. What the console counterpart should be used for is to play with Friends. People are starting to own their second computer. In my house, we have 4 computers ranging from 1 to 3 years old. Only 2 can run UT2003 decently.

Team Deathmatch

Team deathmatch is my favorite kind of mode (with no mods). In Unreal Tournament this is the absolute way to start your game. You can get skills in this mode to play in story mode (which you defeat bosses along the way with a gun) But Team Deathmatch you can also play with your friends, which is cool. Unreal Championship does not come with as many deathmatch maps as Unreal Tournament 2003. The reason, every map had to be good enough to be put on the Xbox. The maps are dynamic and very colorful. The game runs at 60 FPS so there are not too many slow downs. There are a lot of passageways in these Deathmatches, so you can not easily find the enemy because they do travel as a team. Once you track them down, then all hell breaks loose. The ememy can loop around the back and shoot you in the back as you advance forward and break their line, it's a squad that is lethal and you need to seek and destroy, much like Bombing Run.

Bombing Run

A new mode found only in Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Championship. Some gamers will argue that this is the best mode of the whole game. On novice setting all your squad does is seek and destroy, much is very straight forward! If you team has a ball, their be this indicator which shows who has the ball. The objective is to get the ball to the other teams place. AI is pretty good. Your the squad leader so it's your choice to either stay back and perfect your zone or go out and attack. I say definably go on Defense. The chances are that the other team is doing the same thing. It's not stealth like in Tom Clancy's Splitter Cell, but is actually the opposite.

Summing up Unreal Championship
Graphics	10.0	Excellent graphics. This game excels in the graphics department. No game looks better on the Xbox then the Halo franchise, but this game comes in a close second. It has vast environments. The character models are pretty good. However the bitmap textures has been smoothed out a little on the character models. Epic games did an exceptional job on this game in this area. No game besides Halo and a few others are able to stand up to it.
Control	8.5	The Xbox has 2 joysticks. One is to turn the character at a 360° angle, the other joystick is suppose to turn the weapon at a 360° angle. Together Epic Games created a decent gameplay experience. I don't like reaching down for the tiny black and white buttons below the diamond shaped button pattern on the xbox controller. It sucks.
Orginalism	9.0	Quake, Unreal Tournament and Half-Life are all the same when it comes to multiplayer. They all have Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag, the 3 main essentials in a first person shooter. UT Championship is no different from these. The gamer can get health packs, weapon powerups, adrenaline for his fighting fury as he progresses through the levels. First Person Shooters are such a solid concept and aren't dying out, in fact their getting more popular then ever before!
Sound Effects	9.0	The mature gamer might not be bothered by the gore in the game, or the extreme Ahhs and getting hammered with a machine gun. But the game does have bad language in it. IF you have this game at a higher volume, which I know most of you probably will, you just don't want teammates or the enemy crying out endless amounts of profanity at you. You can always turn the option "Mature Taunts"
Replayibly	8.0	The game in the end is questionable. No doubt that Unreal Tournament is a good franchise to own. But Unreal Tournament came short in maps and playable characters. What you have is well developed. You have plenty of wide open spaces to have 1:1 duels. 2:1 duels, 3:1 duels or purely mass suicide for yourself. And the enemy will outsmart you by running away. Of course a lone player controlled by the computer not wounded enough is going to find their teammates and then I say "Ouch!" Some AI controlled players in this game will stand it out and bring death to himself.

(article posted June 06, 2003 4:50 PM)