What would revive the UT franchise?
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Whilst the lack of options is definately the biggest problem with UT3's UI, there's no two ways about that, it's not the only thing wrong with it, and there would still be complaints even if it had all of 2k4's options, it would still be annoying, infact it would be more so if they just put in more options but did nothing to change the layout and flow, as there would be even more you had to scroll past, and even more menu's to go though.
Just having the options would have greatly boosted the game's appeal, absolutely, and i still do not understand why Epic didn't do it, it would have been pretty easy patching thouse things in, and it would have had a much bigger positive impact on the game than making the Titan pack (atleast that's my belief).
But it would not remove all cause for critisism of the UI, there would still have been complaints, it would still have bad flow, and be wastefull of on-screen information, and people would still say "it feels clunky".
It's just not a good UI layout for a PC game of this type, the way it's set up it would only work effectively if it had very few options, it would have worked if this was a Tomb Raider port, but UT needs more than that, and when you have a lot of options, you do not want to waste screen real-estate like this.
This is where the 2k4 UI beats it over the head, it may not have been a pretty UI, but it delt with the reality of needing many options per screen, most of it's menu's made good use of it's screen real-estate, and you could do what you needed to do on one screen, no scrolling, no need to open sub-menu's (at most you just need to tab between subsections of a small part of the menu, and only for setup stuff you didn't need to access very often), it wasen't perfect, but it had the needed utillity.
UT3's UI just doesen't do that well, there is lots of scrolling, and lots of going back and forth between sub menu's, and this despite it offering much fewer options, it is cumbersome in comparison.
And saying "the 2k4 UI breaks with normal UI design conventions" is missing the point, UT is not a standard game, it needs more options and thus a different kind of UI to work well, go launch a good flightsim and look at thouse UI's, they are set up quite different from your standard FPS game menu, and with good reason, they offer 50x or maybe even 100x the amount of options, so they need to be a different kind of beast to work effectively, and UT needs that aswell, just on a smaller scale.
Exactly, there are some vital differences between a Console and a PC, the most noticable of which beeing the default input devices, and in a fast paced FPS game, it would have quite an effect!
The console players would either be at a huge disatvantage to the speed and precision of the mouse, or any attemps of correcting this artificially, such as employing auto-aim for consoles, would put the PC player at a big disadvantage (and you can easilly imagine all the "stupid console hax aimbotting!" whines), and in the end, i'll bet you'd find all the players on servers marked "PC ONLY!!" and "PS3 ONLY!!".
The only way around it would be to force PC players to play with a gamepad, but how many PC gamers do you think would buy an UT game with no KB/M support? it sure as hell woulden't, or to force PS3 players to play with KB/M, but that feature has never really taken off on the PS3, it seems the vast majority of it's gamers have no desire to make us of it, so why would they for UT3?
And even that is not the full story, as you may recall, to make maps play on the PS3, you have to lower their poly-count by flagging some meshes as "only render on the PC", and you can imagine how that could become very problematic.. "how did he see me!? i was behind this statue!" "what statue?"
Yes, I already said this earlier. I wouldn't call any UT menu that good, but I think the nature of the UT menu pretty much guarantees that the menu WON'T be that good. Even the MapMixer menu, while good enough, is messy and convoluted compared to most menu systems.
Still, the point is that if a menu provides what you need, you have little reason to complain about it. People surely would have mentioned the performance problems with the original UI even if it had plenty of options, but nobody would have been trying to blame it for killing the game.
Is there any game like that? I would play any game with this..
Play with a bunch of console kids and feel like a god..
But it would get boring..
Hahaha, crossplatform online play. Good idea.
No, really. Gamepad can't compete with PC so this is pointless. Console kiddies wouldn't stand a chance. Unless they would have insane autoaim which would ruin it for the PC players.
No, really. Gamepad can't compete with PC so this is pointless. Console kiddies wouldn't stand a chance. Unless they would have insane autoaim which would ruin it for the PC players.
Sure one side or the other would be gimped with crossplatform multiplayer, but as long as the gimping seemed fairish, and a decent browser system let you avoid gimping servers, it might have appealed to average players. With team game types the gimping could even be somewhat balanced, with a mix of platforms on both sides.
It would have been nice for UT3 to have been ground-breaking at something to do with multiplayer.
It would have been nice for UT3 to have been ground-breaking at something to do with multiplayer.
What would revive the UT franchise? Time is probably the only thing. A couple years from now when Unreal engine 4 is released, they should do a single-player remake of Unreal combined with UT's multiplayer.
The PS3 has kb/m, so it doesn't require autoaim. Some PC gamers also use gamepad or joystick. Oh, and cross-platform could be PS3 vs XBox360.Bi()ha2arD said:
If they wouldn't stand a change, they wouldn't play on mixed servers in the first place. Besides, you don't know the age of PS3 gamers, neither is up to you to decide if someone else wants to play with console kiddies or not.
Nobody would force you to play on mixed servers, and nothing would stop admins to set up PC-only servers either
The age of the console gamer is irrelevant. They are all largely 'console kiddies'.
I know a number of people who insist on using a gamepad over a keyboard and mouse, and insist that you can be just as fast and accurate. It is of course, completely untrue. They currently try playing Quake Live with a gamepad, and get their arses repeatedly handed to them.
The fact of the matter, is that FPS games revolve around the ability to point and click - not entirely unlike in a windows environment, save that your cursor is in the middle of the screen, and the perspective moves with it.
The mouse is a tried and tested device that is specifically a pointing device - it's not going to be beaten for accuracy and speed any time soon.
The gamepad on the other hand, consists of buttons and joysticks, and is designed after arcade game principles - and aside from the Wii, every console iteration has stuck with this same design style.
Arcade controls are designed to be tricky to use - that's what makes arcade games challenging, and that's how arcade games can make more money, as if the game is made a little more difficult by it's input, people will have shorter play times on average for every game they buy.
The design pattern there is obvious. Generally, control (consider the placement of the D-pad) still resides in the left hand, where in the majority of people, their motor skills are weaker. The FPS games now however also employ joysticks, so your viewing is in the right hand once more - as it usually is with a keyboard and mouse (unless you're a lefty).
Long story short, mice are perfect for an FPS style game because they are designed for it. Gamepads are not.
I know a number of people who insist on using a gamepad over a keyboard and mouse, and insist that you can be just as fast and accurate. It is of course, completely untrue. They currently try playing Quake Live with a gamepad, and get their arses repeatedly handed to them.
The fact of the matter, is that FPS games revolve around the ability to point and click - not entirely unlike in a windows environment, save that your cursor is in the middle of the screen, and the perspective moves with it.
The mouse is a tried and tested device that is specifically a pointing device - it's not going to be beaten for accuracy and speed any time soon.
The gamepad on the other hand, consists of buttons and joysticks, and is designed after arcade game principles - and aside from the Wii, every console iteration has stuck with this same design style.
Arcade controls are designed to be tricky to use - that's what makes arcade games challenging, and that's how arcade games can make more money, as if the game is made a little more difficult by it's input, people will have shorter play times on average for every game they buy.
The design pattern there is obvious. Generally, control (consider the placement of the D-pad) still resides in the left hand, where in the majority of people, their motor skills are weaker. The FPS games now however also employ joysticks, so your viewing is in the right hand once more - as it usually is with a keyboard and mouse (unless you're a lefty).
Long story short, mice are perfect for an FPS style game because they are designed for it. Gamepads are not.
Well, UT2004's community's stronger than UT3's, iirc. That's where my contributions are at this point. Although there are plenty of other games based on the UE2/UE3 engine (whatever the heck 3D Realms is using now) that may outdo the UT franchise (I'm looking at you, Broussard, get DNF done already!).
So?
I used an xbox controller in UT2004 once on a LAN and won a deathmatch match against four people, one of whom is about as good as I am in shooters. In CoD-likes he is even better than me. Just not in UT. The other three weren't too far behind us either. That's not to say I wouldn't have faired better with m/kb, but it was good enough to have fun and ultimately that's what it's all about.
Obviously, the farther you move up the skill-ladder the less gamepad players you'll encounter (and I sure wouldn't want to play insta-gib with one), but that doesn't mean the newb-masses can't control the game well enough with their gamepads to have fun.
If the next UT could be played by everyone on every platform it's going to be out on and if mods could be shared across all platforms, I think it would do the community a lot of good. If the gamepad crowd can't keep up, let them fall behind. Who cares? Not much of a difference to me if someone stays a newb because he doesn't grasp the game or because he can't control it well. Five servers full of newbs is better than five empty servers with bots on them.
Platform-only servers for those who care (but shouldn't, imo) would still exist and work fine.
I don't see a problem other than license issues and maybe technical hurdles, but that's for Epic to figure out.
Cross platform play is a great idea.
1. Triple your player base.
2. Sell keyboards and mice to console users after they get owned left and right.
They could probably make a server option for controllers only, as a back up plan.
UT3 has slower weapon switching, and more single weapon lethality so it wouldn't be crazy impossible with a controller like high level 2kx is. Dodges would be the only trick part.
Still don't know why MW2 isn't cross platform. That's probably the one thing that would have made me buy a copy.
1. Triple your player base.
2. Sell keyboards and mice to console users after they get owned left and right.
They could probably make a server option for controllers only, as a back up plan.
UT3 has slower weapon switching, and more single weapon lethality so it wouldn't be crazy impossible with a controller like high level 2kx is. Dodges would be the only trick part.
Still don't know why MW2 isn't cross platform. That's probably the one thing that would have made me buy a copy.
I'll have to disagree, because if Cross-platform was to become a reality for UT, it would mean all UT's from then on would have to be "consolized".
In my opinion, it's just not worth it, i want UT to return to its PC roots, not move even further away from them.
Got that right...games like these need to have PC as its primary platform, so that way mappers and modders can create new arenas to fight in, so they don't get bored with the same old junk all the time. Of course, the PS3 version has it that you can link up maps you build on the PC to the console, but I have yet to figure out how that works.
ROTFL to funnyas for the Trekkie it is far from dead jim
just because people don't play online doesn't mean something is dead. I quite enjoy the lan matches I have on the weekends. At least there is real interaction there. Not just some noob kid with a bad attitude