Ok, I checked out the forum rules before posting... so I don't THINK I'll get in trouble, apart from the obvious communal irritation that posting a blog link as a new member will cause

Ayway... I'm a newbie Unreal fan (a year old, maybe?), and I thought you might be interested in reading my impressions of the game, given that I just played it for the first time last year. 

http://videogamepotpourri.blogspot.com/2012/02/review-of-unreal-gt.html

I also did a more recent review of Return to Na Pali

http://videogamepotpourri.blogspot.com/2012/02/review-of-unreal-mission-pack-1-r...

And yes, I totally intend on contributing to the community.  I'm not just joining to post this

Don't worry about that, we're happy to see content like that Since for most people it has been a very long time since the first time they played Unreal, it's always interesting to see the reactions of other people playing through the game for the first time!

As Buster mentioned, due to the nature of Unreal, you can extend the game a whole lot by the current developments, namely patch 227 that brings stability and visual improvements, and most of all, S3TC textures from http://unrealtexture.com/ (from the screenshots, it seems that you're not using them - try it, and you'll be surprised to see how the game really looks I do believe that no other game in existence has that detailed textures!)

Veteran nitpick: "Unreal III" should be "Unreal Engine 3", since "Unreal III" is the name of the third game in the Unreal series (currently doesn't exist, but might very well exist in the future!).

Quote:

Heh, funny you should mention that - originally the alternative fire of the Rifle was to shoot three bullets at once They removed it in favour of the zoom function, however. But yes, Epic did put a lot of work into the unique design of the weapons. All of those things you mentioned there they called the "Unreal twist". They added crazy modifications to the vehicles in UT2004 in a similar vein.

Quote:

Again funny you should mention that, since historically most enemies were in fact inspired by movies, so they are kind of ripped And yeap, to this day I can hardly tell the difference between Skaarj Assassins and Skaarj Lords, for instance.

Quote:

True that, too. ISV Kran, in my opinion, is the most bland portion of the game... Very low visual variety, and even very low musical variety. It could have done without decks 2 and 3 and it would have been better...

As for Na Pali Haven, yeap, the Krall are surprisingly easy. They are not any harder than Brutes (most of the time easier). I'm not sure why that is (I think originally they were supposed to be more difficult to deal with?)

Agreed about the inventory items, too. I hardly ever use them, even the Amplifier.

About RTNP: Here's some history. It was created mostly from the unreleased Beta material of Unreal - that's why some parts are somewhat unconnected. And it was made mostly by a part of Legend Entertainment rather than Epic Games themselves. Mind you, they also made really good games like The Wheel of Time and Unreal II, so I know they could have done better here as well, but I think they just didn't really try too hard. That also shows in some of the coding (you noticed how awkward the Marines are - their coding really is odd). Though personally I liked a few things quite a lot about it - mostly the Cloak pickup (multiplayer only) that is invisibility done right + infinite jump boots, so it's super fun to use it. And the Combat Assault Rifle that shoots from both barrels at the same time, making it really something else (although I'm not sure that it was intentional!).

So yea, overall that's how I feel about the game as well. An interesting read there!

Sly. wrote on 02/28/12 at 19:24:58:


Unreal II definitely wasn't a flop. UT2003 was more like a flop (Epic are trying to forget it ever existed), but U2 is generally regarded as a decent game, just that is not very faithful to the original, that's all. But very many people would rather see Unreal III rather than Unreal Tournament 4.

Yea, the Skaarj AI is really awesome. They dodge everything - it's nearly impossible to kill one with a Stinger, and they try to dodge even hitscan weaponry.
I wouldn't say that UT3 bots are so bad - I get murdered by Skilled bots, while in UT2004 Masterful bots are just fine with me... Though it's probably all due to practise. Also, in Unreal, I get murdered by Average bots, so yeah

GreatEmerald wrote on 02/28/12 at 21:07:16:


Not on this planet. U II had decent critics because it runs properly most of the time. Go talk with players that are not Unreal Addicts : they are almost unanimous in qualifying U2 as the blandest least interesting game since Rock Throwing 1.0. Most people would rather see UT4 because UT, no matter the version, is always at least decently cool. Let's be a little bit honest - I have the same unrequited love relationship with U2 has you must be having, but there's no saving the actual game.

My ultra quik reply.. I agree with Great Emerald in that I'd rather see an Unreal III before another Unreal Tournament.

I haven't read the reviews yet but will as I'm keen to see what someone new to Unreal thinks of it.

Lord_Porksword wrote on 02/28/12 at 23:51:32:

Same here.
My Unreal 3 "placeholder" is Bulletstorm.

I liked the review. Makes me think of how much I would kill for an Unreal 3. UT has just been overdone, and they gotta do SOMETHING new. I mean Gears is ending, UT3 didn't go over well, etc.

They can't just get rid of their franchise, I mean the Unreal expansion pack and Unreal 2 both were made by legend and were both poorly received, they should realize that it's because they weren't as good, not just because Unreal wasn't as "interesting".

IMO Unreal 3 as an SP/Coop game with multiplayer that functions like UT would be a perfect way to continue both games.

I didn't think the first mission with Skaarj was that bad. But the rest was ugh. The weapons weren't even Unreal-ish.

Blu3Haz3 wrote on 02/29/12 at 01:44:15:


This is quite strange, and quite scary too, as it is true, they never speak of it, I mean, if they have no pride in the original, then I doubt we will get Unreal 3. Heck, they dont even speak of UT anymore.

But they MUST make it....my sanity depends on it.

I always imagined that the weapons in Unreal I (Besides the upak weapons) were cheap, low performance productions, because no one was expecting any heavy armed conflict, the Skaarj thought they were only going to deal with Nali..
The Humans only though they were going to deal with Prisoners.. and the mercs though the planet was uninhabited.

I bet the high tech skaarj weapons are much more effective than seen in the game, seeing as the human UMS weaponry seems to be both more advanced and effective the the skaarj weaponry. (Which to me, makes no sense, since the Skaarj are supposed to be so high and mighty)

However Unreal II wasnt a bad game because of lack of atmosphere, slowness,weaponry, or because the skaarj were fat and lame looking (although these greatly increase the value of the game), it was a bad game because the gameplay was absolutely uninteresting, with nothing to back it up. All you could really do was move, shoot, and crouch, and walk through corridors. The gameplay was extremely simplistic and repetitive. This is all based on the fact that I have never played XMP.

The game would have been boring to me even if it had unreal Styled weapons and maps, imo.