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jargonaut,<br><br>why on earth would i take offense? lol ... i know well enough that there are many different reactions to the game and the "it looks/feels like it's just quake4" is not a new or original criticism -- heard it many, many times before, so i'm not surprised nor offended at that reaction at all. In fact, when i first fired up the demo i had a similar feeling in regards to the way the weapons look and the pedastals they sit on in the maps. What follows isn't a flame or anything, just a different reaction to various points you raised. So, now it's my turn to say "hope you won't take offense" at my opinions! <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br><br>As I read it anyway, your criticism of UT2K3, in the end, amounts to saying you wanted UT to stay as it was but with beefed up graphics. That's fine, and everyone is susceptible to bouts of 'nostalgia' (i wish it could have stayed how it was in the "good ole days") I suppose. There were aspects of it that initially bothered me too ... thought it was too jerky, didn't "feel" right. Now, after adjusting to it, I find that it actually flows better (you respawn faster for example so there's less downtime when you get fragged) and overall it's faster, more tense, more intense, richer, deeper in gameplay and skill, and prettier as well. The gameplay *is* different and obviously not to everyone's taste. Surely no one likes to feel like a newb all over again and UT2k3 is different enough that even some of the best UT instagibbers (which you would think would be the game style that would change the least!) I've ever seen are terrible at UT2k3 ... they pop on occasinally, get owned, and leave quickly, slinking away with a lame excuse or a "UT2k3 sucks!" ... many of them continue to live in the twilight world of UT because they refuse to go through the uncomfortable re-learning process: having to figure out even basic stuff all over again, having to admit you're not all that good yet and cant "pwn" everyone in sight -- others on the other hand have put in the hours and adjusted their gameplay and all of them that I've talked to believe UT2k3 is a better, richer game. Like most of them, I've come to realize that (FOR ME) the game is better now in almost every respect and I enjoy it more than ever before. <br><br>I happen to think Epic has ADDED dimensions to gameplay, making it more nuanced, richer and less easily mastered. After a period of intensive practice and adjustment, I've found that I play better at UT2k3 than I ever did at UT -- my shot is more accurate, i move better, etc. I chalk that up to the fact that the new elements of UT2k3 required me to get out of my 'lazy' ruts that i'd fallen into with UT and thus adapt, grow, and change and that process has improved my game immensely. An example of this would be the "cluttered" tight indoor maps of UT2k3. They are filled with tons of static meshes (columns, small pipes, ropes, protuberances, etc.) that you can hang up on, bump into, etc. Many people complain about this stuff, but navigating around it quickly and accurately is a key skill that once mastered gives the good player a distinct advantage. UT maps, in contrast, are blocky, open, with straight, flat walls and very few things to get caught on. Surely, UT maps are easier to navigate through cleanly (noob-friendly!), but being able to move fast, backwards, without getting stuck, in UT2k3 becomes a skill one has to work at, not something you can do right away. I guess I see that as a positive thing -- it requires more skill and an intimate knowledge of each map and consequently, rewards that skill and knowledge more decisively. It's an addition that I find very valuable now and hardly constitutes a 'flaw' in gameplay for me. The same could be said for the wonderful outdoor terrains in ut2k3 -- they are without doubt more difficult to navigate and aim on than the old outdoor maps for UT, but I can only say that's a good thing: playing CTF-Maul is just a fabulous experience and there wasn't a single outdoor map in UT that could even begin to touch how much fun that map is to play! Not only is it gorgeous in detail and look, but it rewards intimate knowledge of the map, its terrain, and skillful use of ALL the various features on the map. And to top it off, it's fun as hell to play!<br><br>Many of the things you seem to miss most in UT (skins of skaarj, cows, war machines) were things that didn't ship with UT retail and were only added over time -- in that sense, you're comparing UT after several years of intensive modding and community input and development to the out-of-the-box retail UT2k3. I suspect the same thing will occur with UT2k3 as well: it will acquire more customizable content as time goes on and the gaming community adds maps, skins, voicepacks, textures, mods, mutators, etc., etc. <br><br>Of course, from your perspective, there is far less hope that things will improve as far as basic "gameplay" -- if you don't like it, there's probably little hope that things like the scale, movement rates, special moves, etc. are gonna change in any fundamental way. As you seem very decided in your opinion ("I really hate this game"), I'm quite sure that there's nothing I could say to change your conclusion/impression that the gameplay is poor -- as they say: "there's no accounting for taste". (Actually, there *IS* accounting for taste, but it's a handy rule of thumb when dealing with individuals and their preferences.) If you don't like it, no one will force you to play it and i'm sure there will always be a few stray UT servers out there for years and years and years to come. Personally, I find that while a few parts of gameplay have indeed changed for the worse, almost all the changes have been for the better: the result is a game that is richer, has more nuances, takes more skill, more practice to master, and thus is a more fulfilling gaming experience. A key example is the new moves that were added (some admittedly stolen from Quake): double jumps, wall dodges, ramp jumps, etc. They add a whole dimension of new skill and open up possibilities for people to grow and improve that simply weren't there in UT. Again, for me, it makes UT2k3 deeper, more challenging and thus, more fun as I master these new elements and nuances. Another notable addition is Bombing Run -- a whole new game type that is just incredibly fun to play and requires loads of teamwork as well. Simply a brilliant idea that's a blast to play! <br><br>I guess i had almost a totally opposite reaction to the skins as you did, although perhaps for the very first day or so I too moaned over the loss of the "clean" lines (almost like an old-style Marvel Comicbook) of UT skins. But that passed very quickly for me, and I fast grew to like the skins in 2k3, for they too make it a richer, deeper, more interesting game. They are distinctive in many ways, unlike the cookie-cutter UT ones. By "cookie cutter", i mean all the guys really looked the same and the women too, except for the colors and a few details: in proportion, movement, size, they were all pretty much "cookie-cutter" to each other. Not so any more. The skins now are individuals and vary in all sorts of ways -- they even have distinctive animations that make them VERY different to aim at, unlike UT where all the animations were the same. (The exception were the stupid cows, which weren't included in the retail game and were not even correlated with their hitboxes at all -- headshots had to be aimed off the skin entirely!!!!) Now the skins move differently and some are decidedly harder to hit because of their animations ... others are less deceptive in their motion animations (and hence simpler to see which way they're moving or going to move), but smaller and thus harder to see. When I encounter someone playing with an unpopular skin, I usually find myself struggling for awhile until I master how that particular skin moves in different situations. I think this is a GREAT feature. Not only is the end result balanced, but it allows each player to choose which attributes they want: do you want to be more visible but harder to hit at close-range, or less visible but easier to hit close up? All sorts of decisions and adjustments are now required. It makes the game as a whole that much more richer and more challenging to master. As for the war machine? The new robot skins beat those old war machine ones hands down in terms of detail, sophistication, movement... in my eyes anyway. (Only things lacking on the new robots are the sexy firm breasts of the female war machines ... otherwise, there's no comparison for me since the UT war machines looked just like all the other models only with metallic skin and a robotish face). <br><br>You're right about the annoying announcer, and as you note, you can turn it off. But there's no reason to miss any of the the 'important' messages since they show up on your console as text (and now you can set how long you want those text messages to stay up on your screen and the size of the font even): no reason at all to suffer through that voice or do without information. Furthermore, the epic bonus pack will be adding some new announcers, including a sexy female voice if the reports are true. <br><br>I won't comment on the 'weapons' situation much because I don't play normal weapons except on very rare occasions. I will say this, however, that almost all the weapons were made less deadly in one way or another ... that includes the shock rifle (the combo is harder to pull off now as it requires even greater accuracy and the explosion of the combo is smaller in area than it was in UT -- many doorways and the like cannot be completely covered in a blast from the shock combo).<br><br>Anyway, I'll stop here so I don't sound like a total fanatic <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> I played UT for years. I loved UT as it was the very first FPS game I ever played -- and I played it religiously, every day, for over 2 years. But when I made the switch to UT2k3 I told myself there was no going back and there were moments of nostalgia for the old game, but as I stuck with UT2k3 and went through the period of adjustment necessary I've discovered that underneath that "quakish" exterior is a game that is better in almost every respect than the old UT. <p></p><i></i>
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