Developer: Epic Games
Release Date: Oct. 1st, 2002
Avg. Price: $49.99 £24.99

Unreal Tournament, what a game that was, I remember the day then it first came out, this was the time of the big battle. The battle of the multiplayer deathmatch, Unreal Tournament verses Quake III Arena. In my view Unreal Tournament came out a clear winner, as it had far more variety. Now god knows how many years down the line, I think its about three, along come the new generation deathmatch that is Unreal Tournament 2003! And it looks good!

The main difference between Unreal Tournament and its 2003 younger sibling apart from the graphics are the new game modes. In the original Unreal Tournament domination and assault, although good never hit off very well. So, in 2003 Epic Games scrapped those two modes and brought in double domination and bomber run.

Double Domination

Double domination is just an extension of the original domination but this time there are two points to capture and each team has to hold both points for 8 seconds to gain a point, then the game resets.

Bombing run

Bombing run is almost a game of rugby, where the ball/bomb is in the middle of the caught and each time has to get it and score in the other teams goal. When you have the ball/bomb you can’t use any of your weapons but you can through it from player to player, with you army of fellow teammates protecting you from you opponent. There are also two ways of scoring, you can through it in and score 2 points and the ball returns to its starting position, or you can jump through he goal yourself and score 7 points, but this also kills you and resets the game. Another little addition to the new game is adrenalin that you build up during play and when it reaches 100 you get a selection of special power ups.

System Tested On	Verdict
Pentium 4 2.2GHz 512mb DDR Geforce 4 ti4400	Runs like an absolute dream at full detail... And looks just brilliant
AMD XP2000+ 256mb DDR Geforce 4 MX440	Performs well after toning down the graphics, and often jerky when first loaded, but still runs fine no need to worry about upgrading yet
Pentium 3 933MHz 384MB PC133 Geforce 2 GTS 32MB	Plays ok after toning down a lot of the graphics and lowering the resolution to 800x600
Pentium 2 400MHz 192MB PC100 ATI Rage Pro 8MB	Speak to the hand

The sound in the new game is good, the music is very atmospheric and new voice for the commentator is good, but he does say al little too much, and can get a little annoying at times. The sound effects are very realistic, for example when you fall of a cliff to you death you can hear very clearly you bones cracking as you crash down the chasm. The roar of a rocket as it zooms by you head and hurtles into its helpless victim with a bang. Also the new taunts that they have added are quite funny, along with he new taunt selection system, where you press “V” and then you get a number selection instead of having to use the mouse.

The Single player mode of the game is very good, better than the original, but the games still doesn’t shine until you play it multiplayer, there is nothing like playing against another human opponent. The concept of the games are very easy to grasp, you literally go round and kill people, but once you have mastered it and you skill level increases, this is when you fall in love with it.

If you have never played a 1st person shooter before, you aren’t really a PC gamer, but for those of you who don’t know, the controls are fairly easy to use. Using the mouse to look around, up and down, and the arrow keys to move, and other keys of your choice to jump and crouch.