Graphics and Performance

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UT2K3 is the finest looking shooter out on the market. It’s not realistic, the models aren’t to scale or natural and they wield caricature guns, but damn us if it’s not a sweet looking game. The Unreal engine has clearly moved forward by leaps and bounds since we last saw it in Rune. There is absolutely no comparison, it’s like comparing StarCraft to Homeworld. Characters are more expressive and have a far greater variety of motions. Weapon effects are on a new level and players show damage they take by leaving trails of sparks/flames.

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More of the same

Levels are similarly beautiful. The textures used on maps must be gigantic; they evidence more detail than we were able to encompass our first time through. In true Unreal fashion, lighting is abundant and fancy – love it or hate it, that’s up to you. After Earth and Beyond, any other game’s lighting seems timid and benign.

Models have taken a clear cue from Quake III. They’re oversized, with bulky, exaggerated in proportion and limbs. Warhammer 40K fans need only think of Space Marines to get an idea. There are more than just male/female models now too. There are slim and uh… packing versions of the females, there are robots and an alien race. Of course, there are a few return appearances from the original UT, but again they don’t have the normal proportions at all. Despite our disappointment with the variety of models in the original, we didn’t mind the fact that there were normal looking characters. This change feels like it’s taken away some of the UT identity.

In a strange twist of fate…

The review system happens to have exactly the ‘recommended’ requirements listed by Infogrames. After spending days with the game, we can safely say based on this circumstantial evidence that whatever the development, marketing and testing teams were smoking, it hit them pretty hard. The ‘recommended’ system requirements should be listed as the minimum specs, and even then that would be borderline criminal lying. The 1GHz Athlon with 512MB of RAM and 32MB GF2 GTS was chugging along at barely playable framerates that this author hasn’t experienced since trying 640x480 software mode Quake on a Pentium 133, or Ultima 9. This is at 800x600 resolution with all the goodies turned to the minimum. On small maps with few players, we can almost see getting by on this setup. Unfortunately, UT2K3 is chock-full of those panoramic, grand gestures which the creator deigned to call a ‘map’. If you intend to play UT2K3 for a long time, kiss your upgrade budget goodbye.

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Like a mortar, but not

It is only in extreme cases of poorly performing games where we go to the effort of making our dismay clear. While the review system is hardly a shining beacon of l33t hardware, we’re pretty sure it represents at least the average gaming platform for a FPS fan. To make matters worse for UT2K3, it clearly misleads buyers with the deceptively low system requirements on the box.