Recently we've had a string of strikingly original FPS games. BioShock introduced a whole generation of gamers to Objectivist theory, and Portal taught even the most jaded of us that finding true love is a close as the nearest inanimate cube. That above clip demonstrating the single player storyline for the soon-to-be-salivated-over Unreal Tournament 3 however, seems to push us right back towards the rote run n' gun n' look surly approach FPS developers have been masturbating over since John Carmack first decided he had something against demons.
The clip itself looks gorgeous -- that's undeniable -- but I swear that plot is an amalgam of Gears of War and John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars. I wish I had something nicer to say, but when your plot resembles a film that can be best summed up as Ice Cube vs Marilyn Manson: Mark of the Millennium 2176, you might want to spice it up with a Faustian subplot, or some incest undertones. I'm hoping gaming won't immediately back slide to the lowbrow after Valve and 2K showed us a better way, but I also had high hopes for the Yankees this year.
It's amazing that they are focusing a bit on the Singleplayer aspect of UT, usually its just a multiplayer game. UT2004 had a singleplayer but it was pretty much a multiplayer with bots progressively getting harder and harder each time.
I wonder if they'll make it more interesting this time.
UT is like Quake 3, like fast paced online shooter. I remember there was like always this back story in the manuals about how it was the Liandri Corporation or something, putting on these tournaments. Why? I think they mentioned, but I don't remember at all. Also, something about miners. And killing.
And dolphins.
Well, maybe not the dolphins. Anyways, the story was always pointless, and based on the above video, I don't think anything has changed.
I don't really see a problem with this. The point of Unreal Tournament is not to draw us into a deep and compelling storyline. It's to get guns and shoot stuff. Granted, it might not be as interesting, but to its intended audience, that's all that it needs to do.
Somebody needs to force feed every single employee at Epic Games cartoons and anime until they need eye drops. And then make them redesign all the characters.
I love unreal tournament, but with all the steroids and complex armor designs, it's almost like robots fighting instead of humans and aliens. Duke Nukem should not be the paragon of FPS protagonist design!
Wdot: I don't get it. Why should they be force fed(lolwhut?) Cartoons and Anime? I don't see how you could put a FPS with Anime/Cartoon stuff.
Besides, then people would complain that they are trying to make cash out of the whole Anime thing, since Epic Games isn't exactly a Japanese company.
It's just a matter of taste in certain styles. WDot, you obviously like anime. That doesn't mean that everyone else should look to it for inspiration. I personally hate anime, what with their giant eyes, blue, gravity defying hair, having 1 metal arm for no reason...
What was I talking about again?
Oh ya.
I don't think everything should look like UT3 or Gears of War, but I don't think it should all look like Ghost in the Shell either. It's all about balance.
boylie and Kotua: Sorry about that. The point wasn't that I wanted anime-style FPS characters, the point was that Epic is so locked into their specific style of steroid packing men in armor that it wouldn't hurt to try some different styles. I obviously wouldn't want anorexic teens wielding flak cannons, but considering the UT guy and the Gears guy look almost exactly the same, there has to be some sort of creative issues there.
unreal and unreal tournament where two separate games.
unreal had a story. it was some crap about a prison ship crashing. it failed. thats why i'm the only person in existance that remembers it.
unreal tournament was the multiplayer bit. it came after quake3, when everyone realised you could make money of multiplayer alone.
i think the first one was actually called unreal championship.
I always thought the multiplayer had a better story.
then unreal 2 had a story too. but it was so bland i can't even remember it. i know it had guns in it somewhere. and i think a teleporter. and switches. i remember lots of switches.
epic always was really good at plotlines. good to see them holding up the tradition.
Yeah, that's pretty much how I remember Ulysses. Course UT2k4 had just been released the month before I started reading it. Probably not related.
Anyway, UT games have always just been fun mindless violence. And that's ok, because I like that. I also like brilliant RPGs, complicated puzzle games, and epic masterpieces like Bioshock. The point is that a lot of gamers enjoy a lot of different types of games, and variety is good. Sometimes we want the Citizen Kane of games, and sometimes we want Big Guns 3: Extra Explosions Edition.
I think the one thing Epic could do to save themselves is just sort of ADMIT that their plot is a joke, by going completely over the top like Serious Sam. Have the main character say things like "I'm gonna kill you all...with DEATH." Doesn't fit at all, but that's not my problem. Like a previous guy said, art style just sucks...in terms of taste and gameplay.
I'm not a big sports enthusiast either. I have a strong casual interest in certain teams, though. I'm basically the sports equivalent of a Wii gamer. "That Mario sure looks good, this year. But, uh, Bio-what, now? Gears Of who? Big words am hard talk speak difficult."
"...and this mercenary gig gets us up close and personal with the Necros, fast", oh shit!
But this looks more like an extended intro movie than anything plotwise for UT3. C'mon people, it's UT3! Open warfare with civilian casualties while soldiers just stand out in the open, pumping their frag guns and those annoying shock-rifles. You know, the true face of war..
[quote]unreal and unreal tournament where two separate games.
unreal had a story. it was some crap about a prison ship crashing. it failed. thats why i'm the only person in existance that remembers it. [/quote]
WTF are you smoking? Unreal was a huge seller and is remembered by many, many gamers including myself who stood in line on release day at the local Babbages (now known as Gamestop) with several dozen other people. There are still people playing Unreal MP to this day.
tbh, if you expected a real plot for this game, im disapointed in you. Its epic, guys! they know how to make an insane, visceral, arcade type shooter, thats for sure. But thats kind of why theyre not gonna be good at making awesome plots.
It looks like halo 3 - plot is vaguely interesting, but completely optional. The fun is that its action-packed and intense and... epic! As long as theres games like halo 3 and ut3 and crysis, AND games like half life 2 and bioshock, everyone can be happy.
It's probably in the same universe as Gears of War. Maybe they'll reveal that in the sequel or something. Really there's no other excuse for making the art design exactly the same as Gears. Not that I'm complaining cause it looks great.
Personally, if Epic is going to release a new UT that looks SOOO much like Gear of War, that kind of bugs me. I would much rather them not even have a story than to tack on some bullshit story that involves some knock off characters.
"Yea, but at least they are trying to make a single player element. Don't you always bitch about not having one??"
First, Unreal Tournament was originally created for one reason and one reason only. To play multiplayer. The single player for the first one was just training to get you comfortable online. So why even bother with a story if everyone was is going to play it to kill people online? Which brings me to my next point. I HATE, HATE, HATE tacked on stories. When a game (Haloz, Gears of War) has a tacked on story, yet is "justified" through the multiplayer and becomes a huge financial success, it "justifies" terrible story telling.
I don't really care that they re-used a lot of the character models from GoW for UT3. I love the look. They have made a BEAUTIFUL freaking game engine. UT games have always been fast as hell and they played up the whole "tournament" thing well. They felt like ultra violent sports games. So being able to run and double jump and wall jump in a GoW looking game sound fantastic.
seriously nex i thought you knew better than to bemoan the devolution of the fps. what two games have been the best sellers on the xbox? gears and halo 3, both games had essentially ad libbed plots with fill in the blank spaces for heroes and alien hordes. got yer badass space marines, check, grizzled main charactor check. and so on and so forth. now i cant sit idly back and watch without comment those who decry the campaign as derivative when the industry, reviewers and the public all line up at the trough and gorge on slop and declare it gormet. that is, i smell hypocrisy when the masses suddnly declare they have had there fill of the offal after sampling such fine delicacies as bioshock and half life so soon after blowing their loads on how awesome gears and halo are. even gabe and tycho gave into the hype declaring that the single player finally delivered on long defered promises. then no dought they and their ilk will come down hard on this games lack of originality for now better reason than the fact that the ad campaign is not telling them to �gbelieve�h or some other such nonsense. in short pull your head out of your ass. no better yet keep it there better to live in ignorance than to suffer in knowledge.
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Contest:
8:21 PM on 10.26.2007
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Gears of War 0?
And I lol'd when I heard the girl say "nice"
reminded me of getting a perfect reload in GoW.
For cereal, they seem the same to me.
...Well, I guess the bad-guy alien things came from space this time, not underground. So there's that...
I'll pick it up to play with the editor, but that's about it I think.
Couldn't have said it better.
I mean, isn't the whole point of Unreal Tournament the online play? Hasn't that been the centerpiece for the longest?
You know, I don't even know what the heck Unreal Tournament is. It's always sounded like a fighting game to me.
I wonder if they'll make it more interesting this time.
UT is like Quake 3, like fast paced online shooter. I remember there was like always this back story in the manuals about how it was the Liandri Corporation or something, putting on these tournaments. Why? I think they mentioned, but I don't remember at all. Also, something about miners. And killing.
And dolphins.
Well, maybe not the dolphins. Anyways, the story was always pointless, and based on the above video, I don't think anything has changed.
Is that you?
I love unreal tournament, but with all the steroids and complex armor designs, it's almost like robots fighting instead of humans and aliens. Duke Nukem should not be the paragon of FPS protagonist design!
Besides, then people would complain that they are trying to make cash out of the whole Anime thing, since Epic Games isn't exactly a Japanese company.
I like Complex armor. Even if it's pointless.
It's just a matter of taste in certain styles. WDot, you obviously like anime. That doesn't mean that everyone else should look to it for inspiration. I personally hate anime, what with their giant eyes, blue, gravity defying hair, having 1 metal arm for no reason...
What was I talking about again?
Oh ya.
I don't think everything should look like UT3 or Gears of War, but I don't think it should all look like Ghost in the Shell either. It's all about balance.
Switching it up on TF2 sure as hell did wonders for Valve after all. Good point.
with a remote mining colony
NOW...
A FALLEN HERO
WANTS REVENGE
I don't know about all you budding Hemingways out there, but to me this is transcendental art on the order of Ulysses and Anacondas: the Novel.
*haven't read Ulysses but assume it's about some muscled guy who kicks all kinds of ass.
Incidentally, is Nex a Yankees fan?
unreal had a story. it was some crap about a prison ship crashing. it failed. thats why i'm the only person in existance that remembers it.
unreal tournament was the multiplayer bit. it came after quake3, when everyone realised you could make money of multiplayer alone.
i think the first one was actually called unreal championship.
I always thought the multiplayer had a better story.
then unreal 2 had a story too. but it was so bland i can't even remember it. i know it had guns in it somewhere. and i think a teleporter. and switches. i remember lots of switches.
epic always was really good at plotlines. good to see them holding up the tradition.
Yeah, that's pretty much how I remember Ulysses. Course UT2k4 had just been released the month before I started reading it. Probably not related.
Anyway, UT games have always just been fun mindless violence. And that's ok, because I like that. I also like brilliant RPGs, complicated puzzle games, and epic masterpieces like Bioshock. The point is that a lot of gamers enjoy a lot of different types of games, and variety is good. Sometimes we want the Citizen Kane of games, and sometimes we want Big Guns 3: Extra Explosions Edition.
UT is obviously the latter.
Now I have to buy it. With quotes like that, how can I not?
But this looks more like an extended intro movie than anything plotwise for UT3. C'mon people, it's UT3! Open warfare with civilian casualties while soldiers just stand out in the open, pumping their frag guns and those annoying shock-rifles. You know, the true face of war..
[quote]unreal and unreal tournament where two separate games.
unreal had a story. it was some crap about a prison ship crashing. it failed. thats why i'm the only person in existance that remembers it. [/quote]
WTF are you smoking? Unreal was a huge seller and is remembered by many, many gamers including myself who stood in line on release day at the local Babbages (now known as Gamestop) with several dozen other people. There are still people playing Unreal MP to this day.
It looks like halo 3 - plot is vaguely interesting, but completely optional. The fun is that its action-packed and intense and... epic! As long as theres games like halo 3 and ut3 and crysis, AND games like half life 2 and bioshock, everyone can be happy.
"Yea, but at least they are trying to make a single player element. Don't you always bitch about not having one??"
First, Unreal Tournament was originally created for one reason and one reason only. To play multiplayer. The single player for the first one was just training to get you comfortable online. So why even bother with a story if everyone was is going to play it to kill people online? Which brings me to my next point. I HATE, HATE, HATE tacked on stories. When a game (Haloz, Gears of War) has a tacked on story, yet is "justified" through the multiplayer and becomes a huge financial success, it "justifies" terrible story telling.
Plus EPIC VEHICLE BATTLES!