I finally caved and bought UT3 on sale on Steam. I don't regret it. But I both rue and lament it.
They have an ugly and awkward partnership with GameSpy that makes playing online, which is the entire point of the game, a pain in the butt. And for some functions it simply doesn't work. I tried to add a "friend" from the PA boards in the game, and it wouldn't let me. It gave me an error message. I tried a few more times to see if I could "get through" somehow. No dice. I tried a couple hours later; still nothing.
I don't know how much money GameSpy kicked in, but I'm glad UT3 sold so poorly. I mean, having to log into GameSpy to play on the internet is a large step backward from what was offered in the original Unreal Tournament in 1999. But between GameSpy, Rockstar Social Club, Games for Windows Live, Relic Online, and Steam, it seems people are so eager to get you in their system that they don't care if it makes your very first impression of their games an annoying one.
UT3 hasn't really overcome that initial negative impression yet. It's mildly entertaining as nostalgia. Some of the maps are exactly the same as ones from the 1999 original. And there really aren't that many maps. The single player campaign involves a lot of repetition. The main difference is the glossy paint job. And by glossy, I mean the standard complaint that often things seem a little too shiny. Plus some of the character designs have gotten so Gears of Wars-y that the game seems to have lost what little identity it had.
Ah well. The worst day shooting stuff still isn't a bad day.
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