I had a friend that insisted that PS3 was going to be the end all be all of life and that UT2007 was coming out exclusively for it. I wish he was hear today. As I predicted, a franchise like UT, that has already sold itself out to consoles, WILL NEVER, EVER be exclusive to any system. It is too big, too hardcore, too popular. And the developers are too greedy. But in that greed comes games that have continually whooped up on pretty much every FPS out there, argueably of course.

Much to the delight of all UT fans, UT2007 has been announced on ALL systems, PSThrizzle, X-Bizzle 3-sizzle, and PC.

Check the article out here, leeched from Gamespy.

So why all the to-do about UT? I’m still firm in my opinion that the original UT style of games (so disrespect to UC2, of course) was and is the greatest FPS series in existance. I can understand why people don’t like it, but it’s because of UT that Halo, while still an amazing series, is STILL way too slow for me. After a few months of any of the true UT series (UT, UT2003, UT2004) you start finding out why Halo is running through wet cement. Fast, accurate, and powerfully epic, the UT series has defined hardcore FPS since 1998.

A lot of UT purists hate both the idea of it coming to console and the new Onslaught mode. Honestly, consoles just won’t play as good as the PC version, mainly because of the control. You HAVE to have a mouse/keyboard combo for UT. It’s too dang fast for a controller. Though it will be nice to see the full glory of this game on an afforable console system, for the price of just HALF of a single video card that it would take to make it look this good on a PC. But I’d rather play UT on a console with a controller than not play it at all.

Onslaught mode, this is the more “alien” addition to UT ever. It still plays like UT, but instead of small, highly detailed levels in which you pwn n00bs, you are now faced with a HUGE highly detailed level in which n00bs pwn you. Actually, everyone gets pwnd in Onslaught, which is why a lot of guys don’t like it. But in this game type, it is so big, that the very nature of the gameplay provides tons of “mini” battles.

Basically, both teams have a reactor. You have to destroy their reactor before they destroy yours. But you can’t just walk in and do it. You have to form a “link” of power from your reactor to their reactor. All around the board there are powernodes, points that form power links from your reactor to their reactor. You have to fight and vie for powernodes until one team has a connection to the other’s reactor. THEN and only then can you start assaulting their reactor. But of course the other team is constantly defending.

This gametype is beautiful and genius for a few reasons. One, you get to use vehicles in UT!!! WOOHOO!! The vehicles are perfectly balanced in UT2004, the first UT game to offer vehicles. Your life span in a vehicle is just as short as if you were on foot thanks to the AVRiL, an infantry based rocket launcher that locks on to vehicles. Two, the nature of the gametype means you’ll be playing all kinds of roles. Very rarely will someone stay in one role. You CAN’T stay on defense, especially when your team is pushing ahead. You CAN’T stay on offense if your team is losing and they are getting closer to your base. You find yourself in fast paced crossfires, or wild defence of a powernode, or a last ditch saving of a reactor, or a skin-of-your-teeth assault on an enemy reactor. Three, 32 players! I’ve played a few 32 player games and on average, they are playable. On something like a console, this will shine for sure since the online services and computing resources are more standardized on consoles.

If Xbox 360 gets a hold of UT2007 and has it before PS3 is even out yet, PS3 will right away be at yet another disadvantage. Which leads to yet another post…the PS3 delay.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 at 9:59 am and is filed under Action, FPS, Online, PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.