BU Reviews: UT3 Bonus Pack 1

[hal]

Epic Games dropped the Unreal Tournament 3 Bonus Pack 1 on us a couple of weeks ago. We've all been busy playing it and have put together a few thoughts in our review about each individual level as well as the package as a whole.

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[Poker]

Nice write-up as usual.

direct from my little soapbox: For the paltry amount of content that was released, it's true that there's much to be impressed with. Searchlight especially stands out as a rounded success, both visually and architecturally. Face's visual transformation is simply breathtaking, even though nothing save a helmet was added to the design. Morbias, like all its dome-ish ilk, is a half-map at best, has so uninspired a design that it barely deserves notice IMO, and honestly it shouldn't have wasted the attention of professional level designers.

This is a decent offering so far as it goes; it just doesn't go very far. So thanks Epic ... I guess.

 

[Six Ways]

Yeah, very nice review. Unbiased and fair and expressed pretty much all the points I would have!

 

[nELsOn]

Also, Portal's GLaDOS seems to have moved in as a warbly female robotic voice sporadically chimes in on an unseen loudspeaker about various unrelated events.

i'm pretty sure this female robotic voice is the same voice we heard in the first level of the original unreal.

Yeah, very nice review. Unbiased and fair and expressed pretty much all the points I would have!

what he says

 

[Chandler]

i'm pretty sure this female robotic voice is the same voice we heard in the first level of the original unreal.

This is correct.
^_^

 

[Tecman]

...Face 2 from the Unreal Tournament bonus pack and Face 3 from Unreal Tournament 3 were both radical...

Don't you mean 2003?

 

[RennyManJr]

Face 3 from Unreal Tournament 3

Face 3 was in UT2k3

Nice article btw, I still don't think that morbias was a right choice but i'm glad to see they focused on ctf. At least they recognized that putting only 6 ctf maps in the game is not enough.

My only fear about a future bonus pack is the doubt that we received this bp only to serve as a free beta test for those 3 maps 'cause they want to include them on the 360 version of ut3. So when the game will finally ship they don't have to build additional levels only to release them for free and we won't have any more bonus content.

Damn, i so want to be proved i'm wrong.

 

[srø]

My fear is that they feel CTF got enough attention now and will be neglecting it future bonus packs.

 

[Sk.7]

Epic SHOULD indeed keep concentrating on CTF for bonus packs!

Mappers in the community are already wreaking havoc with the amount of DM and vehicle-based maps (which is a damn good thing anyway ) yet good "NormalCTF" maps are relatively rare

 

[Sirius]

Good review as always. I agree with the amount of content vs. the amount of time it takes to do a quality map in the new engine. Quality > Quantity.

 

[hal]

Don't you mean 2003?

Yeah, typo. Fixed.

 

[UBerserker]

Yep, good one from Epic by adding more CTF maps.

I like the review :tup:

 

[D3@thChild]

+1 on the review.

Great review! indeed creating a map for this game is complex if trying for something good, same happens with new characters, would be great to see a more mixed pack, 1 map of each gametype and 2 or 3 new characters, but maybe that would be asking for too much , thanks again Epic.

 

[Alhanalem]

Hal, you misused "begs the question" in your review.

"Begging the question" is a form of logical fallacy in which an argument is assumed to be true without evidence other than the argument itself. When one begs the question, the initial assumption of a statement is treated as already proven without any logic to show why the statement is true in the first place.

A simple example would be "I think he is unattractive because he is ugly." The adjective "ugly" does not explain why the subject is "unattractive" -- they virtually amount to the same subjective meaning, and the proof is merely a restatement of the premise. The sentence has begged the question.

See www.begthequestion.info for more information

 

[hal]

Yeah, I'm not that worried about it.

 

[Kharnellius]

What is it Not?
To beg the question does not mean "to raise the question." (e.g. "It begs the question, why is he so dumb?") This is a common error of usage made by those who mistake the word "question" in the phrase to refer to a literal question. Sadly, the error has grown more and more common with time, such that even journalists, advertisers, and major mass media entities have fallen prey to "BTQ Abuse."

One could argue that if enough people use it "wrong" it no longer is wrong but becomes the new meaning. If I call a pencil a snarflaker and enough people begin to do the same, eventually Webster will add it to the dictionary defines as a "...writing instrument...". See "rollerblade".​

Just saying.
​

EDIT: Kinda interesting reading about the phrase's roots. I almost get the feeling you could use it either way since it IS a phrase and from it's history it almost has a slang (perhaps a different word?) origin to it.​

Take, for example, if I were to say "He bit the dust". It could either mean, he literally bit some dust (which is odd but possible) or he was killed/hurt.
​

Whatever. I have no idea why I just typed all of that. ​

 

[virgo47]

Nice review. ;-)

 

[GUPraeToriaN]

i thought the bonus pack was good buuuuut... no game mode. if they make another bonus pack, i hope they will include a few game modes like assualt and invasion...or something like that.

 

[StreetPreacher]

Agree with the review on most points. Any official content is certainly welcomed with open arms. Epic has always been unmatched in post-release support and additional content.

I'm not usually one to look a gift horse in the mouth, buuuuut... If I were going to note any deficiencies on these maps, it'd be the lack of QA/polish. Within minutes of booting it up, at least 3 bugs were painfully obvious to me:

1.) The aforementioned invisible ledge in Morbias
2.) The "black box of nothingness" atop the roof on either end of Searchlight, and
3.) The utter lack of any screenshots in the map selection screens (all 3 maps)

Seriously though - who checks this stuff before it goes out the door?

 

[Anuban]

If I were going to note any deficiencies on these maps, it'd be the lack of QA/polish. Within minutes of booting it up, at least 3 bugs were painfully obvious to me:

1.) The aforementioned invisible ledge in Morbias
2.) The "black box of nothingness" atop the roof on either end of Searchlight, and
3.) The utter lack of any screenshots in the map selection screens (all 3 maps)

Seriously though - who checks this stuff before it goes out the door?

Apparently no one who should be receiving a paycheck ... that's for sure. Hell Epic knows they could hire me and I would do a much better job doing QA ... its what I know better than anything since I was a SQA/Network Test Engineer for many years working with top tier companies like Nortel Networks, Oracle, Novell, and many other tech firms located in the Silicon Valley area.

I have to be honest and say that I was not impressed ... one good totally brand new CTF level is just not enough ... sorry. After a week of playing these I am really disappointed. I do like Searchlight but damn ONE new level??? I don't care how much more complex UE3 is ... all I heard a couple years ago was how the new tools would allow people to actually create complex levels more easily or just as easily as in UT2K4. Now though I hear a different tune.

Sorry but this was not a good first effort ... I would rather they have just waited a couple more months and given us a pack with at least 7 levels in it ... of which at least 5 were brand new additions. Its not like Epic didn't know from the very first days of planning UT3 that they would be releasing a Bonus Pack. This effort may be acceptable from other companies but as a long time UT gamer you come to expect more from Epic.