UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2003

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Epic Games and Digital Extremes

Publisher : Atari

Engine : Unreal Engine 2

Genre : First-Person Shooter

Release Date : September 20 , 2002

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : Intel Pentium 3 Processor / AMD Athlon 2500+

Memory (RAM) : 256 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 8.1 Compatible Video Card with Memory 64 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 4 Series
ATI : Radeon 9250 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 3.5 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

In 2291, consensual murder is legalized, opening the way for a previously underground event. Smaller mining companies have been running smaller matches to channel agression, but now the Liandri Mining Corporation established a professional league, which quickly proves to be an extremely lucrative way of public entertainment. Liandri entered into the Tournament, as it is officially called, sponsoring their own team, the Corrupt. The Corrupt's leader, Xan Kriegor, quickly achieved champion status and held it for two years. In 2293, a human named Malcolm dethroned him and became champion himself. A huge media figure, Malcolm is hailed as the biggest star in human history and is worshipped as a god. His success nets great rewards for his sponsoring corporation, attracting the attention of jealous rivals both in the arenas of the Tournament and in the corridors of power a galaxy away. Liandri attempted to win back the champion title with Xan MK2 but failed (unknown to the other contestants, each member of the Corrupt is purely robotic, including Xan). Now it is 2302. The Tournament is undergoing a massive overhaul. The aging Sniper Rifle (a relic of centuries past) is removed from the Tournament as is "Assault" - a team-based event that forms a part of the competition. Many fans of the Tournament complain at these changes, with some combatants refusing to participate in the new format. Malcolm, shortly after his victory, hired two of his former opponents (Brock and Lauren, members of the former Iron Guard team) as teammates in his reformed Thunder Crash team. But the Axon Research Corporation, another of the four great corporations, entered the Tournament as well, sponsoring the geneboosted Juggernaut team, led by the brutal and savage Gorge.

The selection of game modes includes straightforward versions of deathmatch and team deathmatch, as well as capture the flag. While it's great to see those classics return, it's a real shame that the developers only took the time to include two other game modes, and not very inventive ones at that. The original Unreal Tournament's domination mode has been replaced with double domination, in which your team must hold two control points concurrently for at least 10 seconds to score. And as a replacement for the original game's late, lamented assault mode, Unreal Tournament 2003 offers a less-than-revolutionary new mode called bombing run.

One of Unreal Tournament 2003's brand-new features is adrenaline, which you stockpile by grabbing oversized pills floating about the maps. When you collect 100 adrenaline points, you can perform keyboard maneuvers that let you temporarily turn invisible, increase your speed, boost your health, or do extra damage. The game's obligatory rocket launcher, for example, was no ordinary weapon: It let you launch heat-seeking rockets, fire up to six rockets at a time, or lob a bunch of grenades all at once. Sure, this was overkill, and the same was true of the game's devastating flak cannon. Those and other weapons tended to be abused by "spammers," players who would attempt to fill up small corridors and hallways by firing blindly and repeatedly. One of the most interesting things about Unreal Tournament 2003 is the way the game "feels" when you play it. The "feel" of a shooter is a nebulous, subjective thing, but it's something you notice easily enough when you play. It's the way the physics, graphics, and audio interact to give you a sense of motion through the game's environments. It's the way the weapons look and sound and the amount of damage they can cause with each shot. It's the average amount of time or number of shots it takes to frag an opponent, the average frequency with which combat encounters occur, and so forth. While it's not all that it could have been, Unreal Tournament 2003 does deliver tons of bloody, in-your-face combat in some beautifully designed arenas.

GAME REVIEW :-

8.5/10

Unreal Tournament 2003 Trailer :-