Epic should just leave the PC crowd alone and move solely to consoles. Unless their morals change on how they port their console games, every game they port to PC will continue to Sink.
I hope they don't. I like their games.
Many console to PC ports are not done well. I have some from other companies including Microsoft that were just hacked onto the PC, so I tend to stay away from ports. The GoW PC port I have other feelings on that matter which I won't discuss publicly.
By consolized, I think what many people mean is ...
They also plugged the game into an online ...
... before they released this unfinished ...
I'm almost sorry if I sound bitter, but I bought a new rig mainly to play UT3 ...
I'll leave this on my PC in hopes for a fix, but I'm not holding my breath. I seriously doubt Epic even acknowledges this game exists anymore.
iirc Epic stated a long time ago in early UT2007 comments that they were moving from the UT2004 to UT99 style of play and making things easier for newbies. Personally, I don't find anything "consolized" about the maps or gameplay, and the menu system is more than fine with me since I always run everything to the maximum and have no need for the "tweaker" stuff that people are complaining about. Even with UT2004 I ran all settings to max.
For those people who like to play with settings instead of actually playing the game, those with the mindset that they need to tweak their computer to overclock so that they get 50 more points on 3DMark (with no actual performance difference in real-world applications), then perhaps the menus are not enough. I will agree that they could have split some of the video settings down a bit, but I don't find it a "problem" with the game.
I've never had any issues with online play, although I do mostly LAN and single. I also have other games by other developers/publishers that use GameSpy and I've not had issues with them either.
I will agree to some degree that a few areas felt unfinished, or perhaps some of the features that we've come to know in UT2004 were left out so we only felt that way. But the same can be said of many other games. At least Epic tends to be good at patching things quickly. Many other companies take many months to release patches.
And I doubt that any shortcomings are easily blamed on Epic. More goes on behind the scenes of releasing a title than that. Pressure from publishers, decisions to release at specific times of year, the unfortunate timing of other hot releases that show up on the store shelves at the same times, etc.
Another thing to keep in mind is that current generation and next generation titles take considerably more work to create. The number of man-hours to create all of the assets (textures and meshes) is staggering for a title like UT3.
I understand your frustration, however, I don't feel it is entirely accurate or properly placed. UT3 is not as bad as what most of the nay-sayers are making it sound like.
I don't believe this of Epic at all. I cannot speak for them regarding how much future time and resources they will put into upcoming UT3 content, however, many gamers are comparing UT3 to UT99 and UT2004 -- unfortunately, Epic as a company has changed in that they are a large middle-ware company now, the world of gaming has changed, computers have changed, popular game styles have changed, we are into a new generation of youth with different attitudes (I want it all and I want it now), etc.
All good points.
They should have just left UT on pc and do another UC for consoles!
I'm glad they didn't.
That would mean dividing up their in-house resources even more, so even fewer people working on UT3. Plus by providing UT3 cross-platform, the console gamers get to benefit from the community created content.
Theres only about 400 people worldwide playing UT3 right now. In a year, my guess is this game will be completely dead.
Its just that UT3 left a bad taste in most people's mouths, so there is really no reason to come back to it.
I doubt it will be dead. There will be a number of people who will prefer to play UT3 over going back to UT2004 or previous titles. UT3 will keep going for a number of years. Compare it to other games that have actually been
cancelled such as IG/Vivendi's 'Tribes Vengeance', which still has a small but thriving community.
I feel that only some people had this "bad taste", probably because they were expecting something else or because they were expecting the world. In either case, that would be their own fault for assuming the game was going to be something it isn't. I'm not stating that as bad or a flame, just that we shouldn't think the game should be something it's not.
Personally, I really like UT3 and I prefer playing it over UT2004, online and in LAN parties here. When UT99 was out, we played that game to death. In our UT2004 LAN parties I often enabled Low-Grav etc. since if your player can unrealistically leap 20 feet in the air, you may as well make it 100 feet... We eventually stopped playing UT2004 for the most part about a year before UT3's release, and went onto Q3A, FEAR, BF2142, ET:QW, etc. because the floatiness of UT2004 and its hitscan dominance does detract from the gameplay. UT3 has brought back a solidity to the game that is more like UT99 and Q3A, making the overall game experience more fun. I usually have to pry the guys off of the PCs here to get them to leave...
They should have just left UT on pc and do another UC for consoles! Dammit why EPIC!! WHY!!!!
You're probably right, while I hope for it, I honestly doubt they will make a UT3.5 mostly due to the complications with consoles which really REALLY sucks. Plus now they have their GOW2 project to finish. It just seems like no matter what they do, they will anger someone. Like a snowball of pissed off people, lol.
