Let's Talk About Unreal Tournament 3

Whoa, it's been a while since I have wrote (or written, both are kind of correct) something. Been through some ups and downs (mostly downs), had some grammar rules forgotten, and also (and most importantly!), played a bunch of great games since the last time I posted here. I'll talk about them later if I feel like it, but for now, let's talk about Unreal Tournament 3, which I've been playing quite a lot for the past few days.

It's one of those UT3 seasons again for me; that period of time during which at least 20 minutes a day is spent stealing flags and collecting skulls in this damn fun of a shooter. These "seasons" typically don't last long, but while they do, they are intense and that's the thing that I like about UT3: the intensity. It's unlike most other first-person shooters I ever played. Except maybe Serious Sam. But that's just the single-player. Serious Sam isn't as chaotic as Unreal Tournament when it comes to multiplayer.

But have you ever played UT3 under double speed? I have. And if you have, you'd know what it's like. That was back in 2013 when I first got my hands on it. My college roomate back then (this was in another university I went to) saw me played and he'd be saying stuff like, "What the fuck is going on here?!", "Holy shit, just watching you play gets me dizzy!". Everything was moving so fast. It was as if I was watching a playback, fast-forwarded it and pretended to play it like a real game. But I was playing the real game.

Double the speed, double the fun!

Heck, when I first started, I barely knew what was going on on-screen. All I knew were where I headed and on whom my crosshair had its aim. It was crazy! I mean you have this fast-paced shooter here and you double the speed. I consider myself as averagely skillful in the shooter department but I had so much fun that it didn't take long for me to adjust to the speed. I was playing with bots, sure they are bots but damn they are fucking decent. The next thing I knew, I was racking up heads. Double kill, triple kill, godlike. And the streaks ended as quick as they started. I still couldn't see where the shots were coming from though, but it didn't matter. Somebody tagged me; okay great, whatever; I respawned and carried on. Everything was automatic. I saw a moving cluster of pixels, I chased and fired. After a while, I decided to go back to normal speed, it felt really awkward. Like I was playing under slow-mo. And that was back then. These days I'm playing under the normal speed again.

Facing World is probably one of my favorite multiplayer maps of all time. I particularly like playing the Greed mode there. Shit gets particularly insane in that one simple map. Chaos starts from the get-go. You spawn, grab your guns and you know where you're supposed to head to already: forward. The opposing team also have the same thing in mind, basically everybody will just clash into each other. Those who shoot first and aim better get to move on to grab the flag (or their rewards, if you're playing Greed). Those who don't, get thrown back and have to start anew. Meanwhile, my favorite deathmatch map is Rising Sun. Needless to say, 90% of my deathmatches are played there.

People want what's rare, people want what they can't get, especially if it's a superweapon that sends everyone to oblivion with a single click.

And the weapons, oh boy, don't even let me start on the weapons. Aside from the superfast character movement speed, the rapid-firing weapons are also another ingredient that makes UT3 crisply speedy. Just like the aforementioned fast-paced, old school shooter Serious Sam, the Unreal Tournament series also uses the same formula. Take reloading out of the equation, and you're one step closer to being a fast-paced shooter. But unlike Serious Sam however, Unreal Tournament adds alt-fire mode to its weapons. Sure, lots of games do this these days but it works extremely well in UT3 and its chaotic nature. Also, Unreal Tournament is a perfect game for short breaks! Lately, I've been quite reluctant to commit too much time and effort to any specific games (except Dark Souls!) as I've got shitloads of other stuff to do. But then again, I want to actually enjoy a game and be good at it. UT3 is perfect for that. 20 minutes of fast-paced matches per day, and then it's time to hit the books again.

Now that I mentioned that, if you'll excuse me, I have a book to read and study. But before that, I'm just going to send a bunch of bots to oblivion (because it's either I'm too cool to play online or the fact that nobody's playing UT3 anymore). See you in Facing World.