It is amazing how EPIC so quickly killed their franchise.

[zeus]

I will write some more later...

Meanwhile, someone has a sense of humor..

http://www.beyondunreal.com/

[WHIPperSNAPper]

I know that there are some people who are hoping Steam provides some life. I just don't see it.

I think that their only way of reviving the series is to admit flat out, that they completely screwed up. Release UT3.5 in a near perfect form and offer discounts to those who purchased UT3.

I agree completely. The UT3 game play itself was good and Unreal Tournament in general is a good idea and it's been proven to be a success in the past.

The problem, however, is Epic's attitude. We know they have the ability--but do they still have the desire? They just no longer seem to care, at least not about PC gaming. What else could explain the steaming pile that is UT3's user interface and server browser (among other things)? Perhaps it's hard to blame them; after all, they did see dollar signs with Gears of War.

Perhaps after they get UT3 out for the XBox (if ever) they'll fix up UT3 for the PC, but I doubt it. Will we see another UT game for the PC? Who knows.

Maybe the real story of what happened with UT3 will come out some day (rushed by Midway against their loud protest...or maybe they really just no longer care about making a good PC game).

[zeus]

What does "completely" screwed up mean, and what would you want to see in a 3.5?

Ok... I have some time now.. I am probably going to reference some other games including CoD4 because that is what I am playing now. Keep in mind that I have only "competed" in are UT2k4 and CoD4, but I also own UT99, UT2k3, and have played FEAR, just a bit.

When I say completely screwed up, I mean in the way that they handled the release. They asked us to spend $60 for a game that was for all intents and purposes in beta mode still, if not alpha mode.

I am not really addressing gameplay. In my mind UT99 != UT2k3 != UT2k4 != UT3. Just like CoD2 != CoD4 and CS1.6 != CS2 and BF1924 !=BF2024 and Q1 != Q2 != Q3.

They are not the same games with newer graphics. They are different games. I expect the gameplay to change when I drop coin on a new game. This is not Madden where the difference between 2006 and 2007 are some players' names.

I do expect that the core of the game is going to stay the same, arena FPS vs. tactical FPS vs. arcade FPS. But other than that... It is a new game. But I expect it to work.

I am not going to rehash all of the issues that were there when it was released. I am sure that you know them in better detail than I know them. But from gamespy, to server browser, to consolation, to buddies list, to not being able to launch the game via command line, to all of the server issues, there was a whole host of problems. And Epic's response to all of this was to stick their fingers in their ears and scream "I can't hear you", like some four year old.

It took DW 3-4 years to find someone to code mods to Spam Vikings to not break the whitelist. And what were those mods? Simple stuff that has existed for years, basically brightskins and hitsounds. And why did we have those? Because skins were flat out broke in UT2k4. And instead of fixing those issues, Epic basically said that brightskins was cheating.

Why do I bring this up? Because this outline's their entire development process. Instead of working with their client base to provide a quality product, they shoved something at us that they thought was right. But, they forgot the one rule of business. The customer is always right. And it is the customer who is dropping $60 a pop on a game so that they can drive around in their Lambos.

Instead of giving us a quality product for our hard earned money, they spent 3-4 years holed up somewhere making a game that no one was happy with because of the bugs. I don't care that ONS became WAR. Great, new gametype! I could see that the AS people would be pissed. The CTF and DM people probably were pretty happy. But what pissed me off the most was their utter disrespect of the people who play the game, especially the competitive crowd. Think of all of the money that TW has spent over the years + donations keeping UT2k4 alive. Now, think of all of the other clans out there spending their money on servers and bandwidth to play these games. Epic certainly isn't doing it. When I think of the larger servers, I am thinking of DW, A.S.S., Omni, Pub, and Titan. There are no Epic servers in there. And yet, they refused to even acknowledge those people.

Now lets compare that to CoD. I don't know anything about CoD2. I know that CoD3 was developed by someone other than IW. IW worked with the CoD2 players to develop CoD4. It has some great points and some ehh points. But, what they did was release a mostly usable system. The biggest problem I have with CoD4 is the server browser, but I think that part of it was that they were not expecting to have to deal with literally 20,000 servers.

The biggest thing that they did was allow the system to be modified. There are certain things you can modify on the stock system. But they also worked with the modders to allow significant changes. This tool is used by all of the competitive communities to mod the game to provide a more competitive environment. This allows the customer to play the game the way they want to. CAL, CEVO, TGL all run a similar ruleset that has been vetted out by players, customers. TWL runs its own ruleset that they think is appropriate for their target audience.

I do think that IW screwed up a bit with the ranking system. But they offered items such as HC vs. SC. I personally can't stand HC. I know a lot of the guys around here like it and I play it to hang out with them. But, it is an option in the game. Stock. It adds a whole different playing experience.

Anyways, any game that has 600 people at the max playing it world wide is a colossal failure. Especially for a series that has long enjoyed moderate support.

What would I like to see for UT3.5?
1. A near flawless system. I understand bugs happen, but what happened with UT3 was inexcusable.

2. Embracing of the community that has supported the games for the past 10 years.

3. Balanced gameplay. This means that all weapons and vehicles are tested out by proven comp players who know how to exploit weapons and maps. This also includes not having vehicles just for the sake of having vehicles. For every strength their must be a weakness.

4. No gamespy.

5. Well thought out maps. Not maps that have the most spamming potential or gimicks, but ones that have good gameplay.

6. A variety of maps, including look. I started to think that UT2k4 looked better than UT3 because I was getting tired of looking at all of the grunge.

7. Could care less about super dooper jump moves.

8. Embrace the community (did I already say that).

I am sure that there are more, but I am getting tired of beating a dead horse. Regardless, the customers have spoken.