What would revive the UT franchise?

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

This thread is pointless, I don't bother even reading most of the posts, it is still about the same...I said my opinion lots of times, to me UT2004 was gameplay wise worse than UT2003 with all bonuspacks. UT2003 was fun at dm at times.

And UT3 is much better to me than these two anyway.

 

[Interbellum]

UT2004 Superior mod support for sure, superior menu's i'd agree with that too (especially the initial UT3 menu's) As far as superior soundtrack your grasping at straws with that one.

Love it or hate it, but UT2K4 had an original soundtrack that went well with the general feel of the game. Big pompous maps, big pompous orchestral music. UT3's sountrack consists mostly of remixed UT99 tracks, iirc. Basically that's the main problem: UT2K4 was proudly its own game while still being recognizable as a 'UT', while UT3 is an uninspired, sloppily made UT99 wannabe.

Franchise killer .... not hardly

Well it doesn't look like there'll be another UT anytime soon, if ever, and this is largely due to UT3's (relatively) poor reception and sales. Had it been a better, more successful game, we'd almost certainly have an UT3.5/4 by now. So yeah, technically it did kill the franchise, though it looks like Epic may have lost interest long before its release, which made its failure more or less inevitable.

more like a diamond in the rough.

Yeah, but thanks to Epic's incompetence and indifference, that's all it'll ever be.

 

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

I absolutelly hated the UT2004 soundtrack except for the ONS tracks by Will Nevins and the old ones from UT2003, especially by Starsky Partridge. (the rankin and other themes really got annoying)
The UT3 music is kickass.

 

[UBerserker]

UT2k4 music is one of the really terrible things I remember from that game. Kevin's small work on UT3 is good instead. KR-Industrial is single-handedly better than any UT2k4 track (and it didn't appear in UT3, wack).

 

[1x.]

You don't need to cook anything on the PC.

I've extensively tested this in a medium sized network environment; on a number of machines - there are regular crashes on maps that aren't cooked with certain configurations, when connecting to servers running uncooked maps. (IMO, relic's suggested un-proven advice not to cook BR maps for the sake of their possible future upgrades is an un-tested no no; authors can update their maps as well if they want better reliability - BTW not to take anything away from their great works with the BR mod, even though i prefer Kilter BR as its more authentic and true to the original, for me at least)

Cooking drastically increases the loading times, however.

Load times are the least of it it IMO, what about download times? seriously take an uncooked map at 218 MB then zip it and see how far you can shrink it down, maybe 20% where as the cooking process will reduce the size typically on average of as much as 65-80%.

There's a good reason for the cooking process. (such as more of Epics secret proprietary compression for starters)

One last thing for consideration is that if anyone / any group wanted to steal everyone's custom content they'd ask everyone to upload uncooked materials. - Just to make a point. - The cooking process makes this possibility that much harder, sort like a lock - thieves can still get past it, but it helps to keep the honest; honest, and perhaps to reduce temptation.

While many authors may choose to release their custom content at some point, still others still choose not to - its a nice option for them to have the added protection.

 

[1x.]

--SNIP--

Console envy? if i wanted to, i could go pick up all 3 current gen Consoles first thing tomorrow morning, and a barrel full of games for them, i'm not a kid living on dole from my parents, i'm pushing 30 and i have money in the bank, so no, i am not envious, if i was i'd just go buy one, end of storry.

Uhu, and what exactly would make us upgrade?

Don't get me wrong, i see now that it is your style to make thorough responses and detailed replies.

Also as far as upgrading, while i wasn't referring to you specifically let me at least suggest consider upgrading your video card perhaps? i'll be brutally honest here about this, when i first loaded UT3 2 or more years ago i wanted nothing to do with it, part of what upset me was performance, i had a 9800GT at that point and it couldn't cut it, i finally went with a GeForce GTX 260 and things started to rock and roll, in fact had i not made that transition i wouldn't of bothered to get back into mapping again.

Lastly PC gaming isn't hardly dead; its alive and well for those in my immediate circle, and the unique capabilities far exceed anything possible on any console system, many choose to overlook this or ignore it for what ever reason, to each is own, here is a little insight; what started the whole PC gaming being dead thing was (maybe young) console fanboys tooting their horns and saying that their stuff is the better than anyone elses.

Between bravado and the compensation because of the limitations of consoles, you'll hear & continue to hear this, its simply untrue.

Keep your eye out for Colonial Marines coming soon to a PC near you.

 

[UBerserker]

I have to wait a ton of minutes to load a "The Ball" map, and any other map which makes use of mods; I almost took a sleep during a load. But then my machine isn't really good.
At least when I download something I'm not stuck with a loading screen and I'm free to do other stuff D:

 

[1x.]

UT2k4 music is one of the really terrible things I remember from that game. Kevin's small work on UT3 is good instead. KR-Industrial is single-handedly better than any UT2k4 track (and it didn't appear in UT3, wack).

I tend to agree.

UT99 had the truly superior sound track to all of it though.

I've remixed SkywardFire for my upcoming CTF-Maelstrom release, its neither the original nor the UT3 version. - helps to keep me motivated while building and testing the map.

Also my CTF-AndAction_2K9 map has a kickass remix of Superfist (done by Sneh)

The sound track of UT99 was truly memorable and part of the ambient atmosphere that made the game notches above anything else at the time.

I remember playing clan matches and scrims and my team mates on Battlecom voice saying to turn the music down.... and i thought man Firebr is helping to motivate me to get these instagib monster kills on Coret.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

What, you guys don't LOVE Techno-Egyptian?????

 

[1x.]

Love it or hate it, but UT2K4 had an original soundtrack that went well with the general feel of the game. Big pompous maps, big pompous orchestral music. UT3's sountrack consists mostly of remixed UT99 tracks, iirc. Basically that's the main problem: UT2K4 was proudly its own game while still being recognizable as a 'UT', while UT3 is an uninspired, sloppily made UT99 wannabe.



Well it doesn't look like there'll be another UT anytime soon, if ever, and this is largely due to UT3's (relatively) poor reception and sales. Had it been a better, more successful game, we'd almost certainly have an UT3.5/4 by now. So yeah, technically it did kill the franchise, though it looks like Epic may have lost interest long before its release, which made its failure more or less inevitable.



Yeah, but thanks to Epic's incompetence and indifference, that's all it'll ever be.

OK good response, all reasonable. I appreciate that.

Here is the thing with the the UT series that you should be aware of; typically each new installment of it boasts and showcases the latest engine, Epic realizes they have lots and lots of millage left with the UT3 engine, look at Mass Effect for example, beautiful game that demonstrates much of the potential of the engine capabilities, they're releasing Mass Effect 2 on the same engine and simply polishing it.

As long as Epic continues to develop the Unreal engine and they will you can expect to see a new UT title with each new version of it. The next one is simple a long way out.

I do agree that they botched the game up in its initial release with the consolization and .. (poor voice acting, resource hog, somewhat poor level design overly busy and improperly meshed to death, etc.) and its poor reception and sales were primary because of this. Luckily for them there was / is a huge cult following. Although we did get lucky with 2004 after 2003 it was really like a titan pack or majorly patched version of 2003 to include the additional game types and additional content, something tells me we won't be so lucky with seeing a UT2010 but i could be wrong, the next one we'll likely see is for the Unreal Engine 4 they are developing for DirectX 11 and 8th Gen consoles.

P.S. I'm actually considering remaking CTF-Maul and a couple other 2004 maps. As far as CTF remakes i'm open to suggestions, or to see if there is any interest.

 

[UBerserker]

Honestly I prefer UT3 OST over the UT one, I am never been a big fan of the music of the latter. Original Mech8 is still the king though, and Nether is a beast. FireBR on the other hand is awful, and Skyward makes me go asleep.
The trophy still goes to the Unreal 1 music anyway.

 

[iounas]

Its gonna be hard to make UT4..
I played quake live much more than UT3 and the more I play it the more I feel its as good as this genre can get..
Graphics are crisp and colorful and the visibility is essential in a fast paced game..
Then the stafe jumping which makes the game so much fun and adds another dimension.. And the ability to customize everything to your liking..
Now when I fire up UT3 it feels slower and clunky with brown and gray graphics and "better graphics" hurts the gameplay.. You cant see your opponents as easily..

Realistic and crysis like graphics isnt what this genre needs.. You want to spot opponents fast and not stand and watch if anythings moving on screen..This isnt a tactical shooter where you hide in the bushes with a sniper.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Unlike Quake, though, UT has always focused on a wider range of skills than "see moving color, shoot". For the most part, you could reduce Quake Live to solid colors and lots of people would still play it and enjoy it.

Visual acuity was something that was always focused on in UT. While the skins weren't ridiculously dark in UT compared to later versions of the game, they also weren't ridiculously bright. Being able to spot someone was more than just the ability to see a shifting blue blob and fire at it.

Ultimately, you're right as far as the series thriving, but, frankly, up and coming gamers just aren't into fast-paced arcade shooters anymore, especially not multiplayer only ones. Sure, some new blood joins into the Quake Live fold, but there is a reason for that and it start with a big old $.

 

[Bi()ha2arD]

UT2k4 music is one of the really terrible things I remember from that game. Kevin's small work on UT3 is good instead. KR-Industrial is single-handedly better than any UT2k4 track (and it didn't appear in UT3, wack).

I heard if you are really really pro you disable ingame music, ambient sounds, voice and only leave on announcer on low level and effect sounds so you have audio-wallhax with your pr0 7.1 ultra 1337 system.

 

[p3rplex3d]

I decided to reinstall UT99 (had not played it in two years, three?) and 2K4 (been at least a year) over the weekend to see how they felt compared to UT3 considering I play UT3 quite a bit.

Conclusion? How in the world can anyone compare them? UT3 is so far superior in every way. Maybe there are some nuances here and there that I like better. Subtle things that were real cool in UT99 that brought back memories. But overall, good grief, UT3 is sooooooo much better.

So, all I can say is what a shame it is. I think a lot of disappointment is overstated, I think some of the complaints (game is broken) stuff is overblown. Did epic make some mistakes, sure. Did their focus on consoles kind of ruin some aspects of the game for PC'rs, yeah.

But I think epic did their best to try and bring back what made UT great and at the same time update and make it new and exciting. Shame it didn't work out. But I can't help but think that a part of it is just the fickelness of the PC gamer and specifically the hardcore UT fan.

 

[Defeat]

It always seemed like I was literally the only person who liked the 2k3/4 music :{

 

[m00naY]

It always seemed like I was literally the only person who liked the 2k3/4 music :{

Your not the only one Defeat

 

[N1ghtmare]

It always seemed like I was literally the only person who liked the 2k3/4 music :{

ONS-08 amirite?

 

[Sir_Brizz]

It always seemed like I was literally the only person who liked the 2k3/4 music :{

Some of the music was good and "unreal"-ish. But, come on. Techno-Egyptian?

 

[Northrawn]

Some of the music was good and "unreal"-ish. But, come on. Techno-Egyptian?

Indeed. Especially there is nothing known about egyptian music (talking about the ancient culture here with it's pyramids etc which UT's egypt/anuban/nakhti levels are based upon).

But I still remember after I played UT excessively for years and then UT2003 a bit with its totally different look and feel that I opened the UT2004 demo and played Rankin* against a bot.
I saw the colors and textures and theme in the map, heard the music and saw (a well visible) Annika standing away from me. And I said to myself: "Yes, that's the right direction".


*) No, it wasn't overplayed yet a few minutes after the demo was released.