The general comparison was easily drawn simply because both of these titles were in fact in the same genre. A lot of gamers in reaction to this have already prepared for a sort of battle between the two, and some of the earliest skirmishes I have seen were pretty pointless. Although popularity seems to be in the favor of Unreal Tournament, the number of sales doesn't always indicate if a game is sincerely good or not.

Yes, Unreal Tournament is good. Good at what though? That is the main question a lot of people are overlooking. As the genres seem to be mashing themselves together as gaming progresses, a player can find that the realm of first person shooters has branched into several different paths, with neither better than its counterpart.

The visuals in Unreal Tournament are definitely up to some of the highest standards. While the engine seems a little slower than Q3A's and there are a few less tricks in its bag, it suffers little. The overall look UT is going for is so far off from Q3A's, that most comparisons made are pretty futile. The game looks good, and most importantly the style that it employs keeps consistant with that of the first Unreal title.

Unreal Tournament takes a path which is actually a little more rocky than that of Q3A's. Although most of the game's parts are made up of a collection of familiar FPS modes and weapon designs. Most of these parts have never really been thrown together quite so well before. The title is comprised mostly of one single player mode that is split up into seperate game types which makes the experience vary from level to level.

Pratice matches can be arranged and fully modified at any time. From this menu any map, and gametype can be accessed for some quick practice/action. As far as the single player experience goes, a lot more fun can be had simply by tinkering with all the options, maps, and bots found in practice mode.

The Practice and Tournament Mode are made up of a couple modes of play. Of course Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are two of the most recognized, but innovative modes such as Assault and Domination add a refreshing new twist to the game with the help of some specifically designed maps. In Assault Mode the player is to lead their team through a set of tasks within a set amount of time. The ultimate goal usually being the shutting down or taking over of an enemy's base. Once the player wins or loses the match, they are then made the defenders of the installation. Domination involves capturing a set amounts of points on a map, and defending them.

When in a single player game the player has a load of options regarding the number of bots, how many there can be, how many teams, and how deadly the bots are. At the lower levels the bots do tend to be a bit on the stupid side. Even your teammates like to take a bullet or two in the head before figuring something out. In an effort to make your allies stronger, a person can raise the bots' intelligence level, but this in turn makes the enemies tougher. There are a lot of bot intelligence levels, so a balance for each player can eventually be struck.

Another noteable point about the bot AI is its good use of team support. Bots will sometimes support the team leader (which in most cases is the player) but they will also run to the aid of a fellow team members and leave the team leader to fend for themselves. This level of support is actually a lot better than the Team Deathmatch support found in most titles. In the past, being on a team pretty much meant half the people out there wouldn't shoot at you, and that was it. Hopefully the increased attention to even the AI's sense of teamplay will not go unnoticed.

The maps, if compared to Q3A's maps, are quite a bit different in terms of design. Unreal Tournament's maps seem to have far more breathing room, as well as atmosphere. Most of the maps have more open sniping spots, larger expanses for chase as well as an ambush. The corridors are also noticably wider than those found in Q3A's maps. What I am getting to is the idea that while Quake 3 Arena's maps have been seemingly optimized for action, and keeping a steady flow of it. Unreal Tournament's maps have been designed more for a slightly slower paced, and more strategic style of play.

Unreal Tournament has an insane amount of maps all set in very unique spots. One map is of a base at the bottom of an ocean, another is of a spaceship in the middle of hyperspace. All of this visual variety is backed up by the changes in some of the enviromental laws found in each different map. The character models are a little bland. Again I feel the models and skins used are a significant advantage in keeping the style and personality of the Unreal Universe intact. The character designs, although sharper, aren't that different from the ones used in Unreal's multiplay.

Options called 'mutators' are configured to modify the map to the players liking. For example an arena can have low gravity or only a certain type of weapon available. These variables add a lot of longetivity to the game by making the player adapt to multiple situations on multiple maps.

The weapons are also a key indicator of the differences in the approaches of the two titles. The weapons in Unreal Tournament have several factors that effect their performance in certain situations. Although the weapons still stick to a level of succession in terms of strength, their reload timing, enviromental conditions, as well as ammo depletion. Not only does the physical attributes of a weapon effect its performance in certain situations, be it close combat or distance combat, a weapon's effectiveness can also be helped or hampered by the enviroment.

It is very nice to see some enviromental rules of thumb apply to everything, and not just the physical actions of the player. This keeps things real, and the maps more unique. The 'dead rocket lobbing' secondary fire mode of the rocket launcher is almost useless underwater, while the merciless chaingun is still quite deadly.

The music in Unreal Tournament is a little flakey at times. The Gothic map for example has a pretty good track with it, but on some maps the music just fails to keep up with the action, often times just lurking off somewhere until a new arena is entered. When music is put in a title, it needs to be decided if they want to have it ambient, or part of the title.

While I have only this lowly 56k modem, I did find the multiplay in Unreal Tournament to be quite playable. In comparison with Q3A in terms of technical online performance, Q3A seems to come out ahead. The play in UT is acceptible, but the lag was less aparent in Q3A than in Unreal Tournament. This does not promise a better experience from Q3A, simply a slightly faster one.