So I spent a chunk of my weekend and weekday evenings playing in the Unreal Tournament 3 demo and I have learned two things: Age has rendered me inept at killing the younger generation, and that Epic Games knows how to make multiplayer so much fun. No matter how many times I died, I kept coming back for more, because Unreal Tournament 3 was too much fun to quit.

Unreal Tournament 3 does not mess with the formula that has made them so successful all these years. The interface is pretty similar to Unreal Tournament 2004. I did like the Quick Match feature and the server browser is still a great tool for finding the exact match you want to be in. You can still have your friends and favorite servers, which is great when you find a server that plays the maps and skill level that you like.

The graphics are good, but they did not wow me the way I thought they would. Upon further inspection, this might have been due to Epic not including some of the high end textures in the demo. This was done to keep the demo size smaller for an easier download. But it would have been nice to see exactly what you are going to get in the game. It still looks good, and the fact that the game runs extremely fast without the high end textures on my gaming rig makes me feel good at the fact that it will run smooth with the high end textures. Sound is less of a factor in the game as well as it did not play as much in the game as the prior games. I really enjoyed the announcer voice in Unreal Tournament and UT2K4, but here, he sounds way toned down. Weapon sounds are solid, but not overly great.

This thing up above is one of the many vehicles that was in the demo. It is tough to bring down and lays down a ton of firepower on the badguys. This will be the item that is most sought after on levels where it is available. Vehicles are still in the game and are fun, but sometimes difficult to control. But practice will make perfect in the final game.

There are some clipping issues in the demo and some feelings of unpolished graphics. Again, they did not include the high end textures in the demo, but everything just has a glowingness to it. It just seems like everything has too much shine on it. This will probably be worked out in the final version, but it was just an observation when I was able to drive through the support bean in the above picture.

At the end of the day, the game was fun, no matter how many times I ended up like the above picture, dead and mangled. I just had a blast and never wanted to leave the game, even when things like work and the weekly podcast called. I think it was a good thing to get away from the sport like feel of the last two games and get back to the original series. Too bad they don’t use the original backstory for this game. Bonus points to anyone that can remember what the backstory was for the original Unreal Tournament. But I am looking forward to this game come November.