I've been playing a LOT of both of these games in the past weeks (well, I've only played a lot of Quake 3 in the past day or so, but I've been playing Quake3demotest and Quake3test). For a little background, I've been playing FPS games since Wolf 3D and am one of those people that gets twice as many frags as everyone else or, at worse, ends up in the top 3. In UT, I was ranked second in Assault last week. None of that matters though, because being a "good" player in these games basically only requires good hardware, knowledge of the maps, and reflexes (about in that order). Also, I know there are many better players than I, but the point is... I'm trying to appeal to both the hardcore gamers and the general gaming populace. Here's what I think:
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS - UT is a *much* more polished game than Quake 3. Period. It has all the options -- maps, mutators, mods -- you would ever want in an FPS except Team Fortress. Quake 3's CTF feels unfinished, mainly because you can't tell who has the flags and captures and the like -- they aren't prominently displayed like in UT. UT's CTF, Domination, Assault and other gametypes all have all the proper information displayed onscreen and it's obvious that Epic's spent major time on each of these game modes.
1. DEATHMATCH - This is what matters to people that read these forums. To be absolutely honest, I am addicted to Quake's rocket launcher and railgun. Nothing is as satisfying as getting multiple "excellents" or "impressives" in a row. Also, UT's RL feels very slow and weak compared to Quake's. Come to think of it, I do think the Quake RL is overpowered but who cares... it's a damn fun weapon to play with. UT's secondary attacks are cute and do add an extra dimension to combat in the game, but I personally prefer the fast paced action of Quake. Also, UT's RL is very weird to use after playing Quake for a while because I think the UT rocket's bounding box is much larger than in Quake, so it explodes when you fire near your feet much sooner than in Quake. I still haven't adjusted to this difference so it's a major issue for me. To be fair, UT's gameplay is basically comparable to the Quake series - it's pretty fast, very fun, and has enhancements that make the game more fun for high ping people (like the rocket spread shot, easy-to-aim flak cannon, etc.).
2. TEAMPLAY - UT absolutely kicks in this area... and Quake's teamplay modes feel like an afterthought. Many companies would've packaged Assault, Domination, etc. as separate games and UT has it all in one very nice package. If you want teamplay, go straight to UT.
3. GRAPHICS/MODELS/SKINS/MAPS - UT. Quake's models look from ugly to uglier. UT's models are very nice and varied. In general, Quake still is stuck on the dark orange/brown dungeon feel of previous Quakes and UT follows Unreal's tradition of colorful and vibrant maps. UT also features some very beautiful maps like their mountaintop monastery map, speeding train map, ship map, etc. Some of these maps aren't quite as playable as others, but they are varied and interesting. Quake is still twisted dungeons -- but they're still very fun and very playable dungeons.
CONCLUSION - I really, really like UT. It's a fantastic game and many, many times better than Unreal ever was. In spite of this, I think Quake 3 is (still) my game of choice. I personally prefer its faster pacing and, like I said before, I have fallen in love with the Quake RL and railgun. I think I would recommend UT to anyone new to people new to FPS games, people that are into teamplay, or people who prefer a more tactical game. I think 70% of people that are interested in playing FPS fall into this category. For the 30% of us who want an immediate adrenaline rush via deathmatch (including myself), I would recommend Quake 3.
SUMMARY - UT is the marginally superior game, but continue playing Quake 3 if you enjoy the Quake feel, pace, and weapon balance. I like Q3 better but I'm going to recommend UT to people that are undecided.
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Badmojo
[This message has been edited by Badmojo (edited 12-05-1999).]