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Unreal Tournament (GT Interactive) Those of you who enjoy a good First Person Shooter (FPS), (and who doesn't now that the weather is starting to get cold) and who have been keeping abreast of the gaming news know that the latest trend in the FPS genre has been the Deathmatch. No more fighting Lizard Men or Robots or Cute Bunnies, just one on one (on one on one...) battle to the death with the occasional respawn. The first FPS game to rely exclusively on deathmatch-styled play, Unreal Tournament, is a true triumph. The concept is that you are a competitor in a futuristic gladiator-style tournament, trying to climb your way to the top over the dead bodies of your competitors. This is accomplished through both the traditional Deathmatch, and in other team-styles of play using a sophisticated range of AI players. The game maps ain't your daddy's Deathmatch Arenas. They're tight, circular, and there are no places to hide. You move or you die. The controls are very smooth, and even a novice can accomplish a successful circle-strafe. Each opponent has their own different personality and tactics, and they are constantly on the move as well. Very intoxicating stuff. However, the game isn't perfect. First off, the lack of a real large-world adventure could turn people away who prefered the puzzle-solving aspect of games like Quake II and Unreal. Meanwhile, you tend to lose your first game at every new map becuase you are spending your time learning the terrain while the AI is busy finding weapons and killing you. And with these maps, you don't have time to breathe. Both those points are minor. The real reason I gave Unreal Tournament a 4 is because the daddy of all FPS, Quake III (a similar game), hasn't been released yet. Therefore, I need to save space just in case the boys at ID do their usual masterful work again. |