Well lets be honest here UT has never been a massive seller, its never been the totally in thing except for way back and even then it was competing with the likes of quake. Lets also be honest and say TF2 is hardly innovative, while it does bring a few new dribs and drabs its still largely the TF of ole, so I dont see people choosing TF2 over UT3 because its "newer" so to speak. Its probably a pure cost and system requirements thing, me I actually bought and play both online from time to time.
TF2 seems to be quieting down alot now compared to initial release but there was alot of people involved in the beta so it probably just wore out, also servers seem to be thinning out a touch. No where near on the scale of UT3, well servers are still going but its hard to find a match when you want to play, peak times is fine.
But anyways, Im reminded of a time not so long ago I was asked if UT3 had team based modes or not, serious question as well even if I did laugh. There is an obvious answer there for any fan of the series but perhaps Epic didnt do enough to actually advertise the gameplay itself instead of the branding. It was a majority warfare so people might have though oh UT2k4 with better graphics and not even bothered, when the DM portions for me play more like the original UT which alot of people wouldnt have touched. UT has never been the 10million copy seller so assuming everyone even knows what DM or CTF is might have been alittle wrong. It also has very little in common with gears from a gameplay perspective so hyping the studio who brought you was alittle bit of a wrong move. Some people might buy games from companies they like but you are going to be dissapointed if you are expecting it to be a very similar title. That might even have an impact on 360 sales when people actually try it, not that Unreal is new to xbox so some people know what to expect but even the championship series is huge. I do blame halo alittle for that especially in regards to UC2 because I heard they were released in similar timeframes.
UT3 might not be doing so well online but I dont think we should guage its lifespan based soley on that, pings make it hard to be competitive even for just for fun games so it could get more attention in a lan setting. I have heard people had problems getting it setup and whatnot. Its probably just a compounded affect of all these little things which are hurting the game.
I think some people are expecting too much from patches though naming things like a complete UI overhaul as something they want to see. As you say though the gameplay doesnt have much to be complained about, most of the bugs Ive seen are more of a graphical nature myself like dissapearing stuff n whatnot.
I just hope Epic doesnt take the online player counts as the total number of people playing the game in their descisions for support. Id love to see this game continue to be patched and more content provided as we have been getting, people who arnt playing the game obviously dont like it but there are people still playing it and have been doing so since the beta demo.
I did see Epic playing against gears of war players on live, did they actually do anything like that for UT3?
TF2 seems to be quieting down alot now compared to initial release but there was alot of people involved in the beta so it probably just wore out, also servers seem to be thinning out a touch. No where near on the scale of UT3, well servers are still going but its hard to find a match when you want to play, peak times is fine.
But anyways, Im reminded of a time not so long ago I was asked if UT3 had team based modes or not, serious question as well even if I did laugh. There is an obvious answer there for any fan of the series but perhaps Epic didnt do enough to actually advertise the gameplay itself instead of the branding. It was a majority warfare so people might have though oh UT2k4 with better graphics and not even bothered, when the DM portions for me play more like the original UT which alot of people wouldnt have touched. UT has never been the 10million copy seller so assuming everyone even knows what DM or CTF is might have been alittle wrong. It also has very little in common with gears from a gameplay perspective so hyping the studio who brought you was alittle bit of a wrong move. Some people might buy games from companies they like but you are going to be dissapointed if you are expecting it to be a very similar title. That might even have an impact on 360 sales when people actually try it, not that Unreal is new to xbox so some people know what to expect but even the championship series is huge. I do blame halo alittle for that especially in regards to UC2 because I heard they were released in similar timeframes.
UT3 might not be doing so well online but I dont think we should guage its lifespan based soley on that, pings make it hard to be competitive even for just for fun games so it could get more attention in a lan setting. I have heard people had problems getting it setup and whatnot. Its probably just a compounded affect of all these little things which are hurting the game.
I think some people are expecting too much from patches though naming things like a complete UI overhaul as something they want to see. As you say though the gameplay doesnt have much to be complained about, most of the bugs Ive seen are more of a graphical nature myself like dissapearing stuff n whatnot.
I just hope Epic doesnt take the online player counts as the total number of people playing the game in their descisions for support. Id love to see this game continue to be patched and more content provided as we have been getting, people who arnt playing the game obviously dont like it but there are people still playing it and have been doing so since the beta demo.
I did see Epic playing against gears of war players on live, did they actually do anything like that for UT3?
