History of Rants
- 07/09/00
- 09/09/00
- 10/09/00

14/09/00

P9 says...

The great debate eh?

Well, the chances are that if your reading this, your mind is already made up about which you prefer, Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 Arena. Your either reading this to desperately deny the facts, or heartily agree with my argument, either way...enjoy!

Well, Lets start off by saying that we think Quake 3 is better. You probably expected that from a website dedicated to 4 Quake fanatics, but we do have our reasons. Read on...

Unreal Tournament (UT) was released slightly before Quake 3 (Q3) and so was able to gain a little leverage in the sales. People sung it's praises while Activision struggled to pump out Q3 onto the shelves, losing sales all the time. But we all know that how GOOD a game is has frequently got little to do with it's sales... Quake, for example, is not the best selling game of all time, I suspect it isn't even in the top 10, yet many consider it the greatest game of all time.

UT boasts a variety of gameplay options, as well as a slick interface and many customizable attributes. This pleased many players, those not accustomed to Quakes classic 'keep it simple' menus and setup found UT refreshingly easy to use. This attracted a certain newbie audience which distanced the game even further from the elitist attitude of most of the Quake community. Quake 1 players found most favour with Q3, its fast action gameplay reminiscent of Quake 1's style of play. The fast pace of the game, however, was unpopular with Quake 2 players whom where used slower, generally less gun oriented deathmatch, demonstrated by the popularity of Quake 2 CTF. This is where Q3 started to lose ground...

Quake 2 players, as well as others, found UT's different game styles interesting and varied. The fact was, UT shipped with game styles previously only found in mods. Q3 contained Teamplay and CTF, but neither (especially CTF) were really suited to the speedy Q3 gameplay. Even today, mods are released which try to slow the game down and generally improve the poor Q3 CTF. So UT without a doubt won outright on game styles, Domination, Teamplay, CTF, Assault (an inspired idea) all contribute to the feel of a game packed with variety. 1-0 to UT.

As mentioned before, UT was remarked as being much more user friendly, the menus, in-game and out, were easier to grasp, the setup was easy, and customization was possible. Quake 3 by comparison had sparse menus, people complained that the server browser had to be re-loaded after each game and the in-game menus were less comprehensive. 2-0 to UT? well yes and no, the problem is that UT's console is crap. It is obvious that UT never intended to have much of a console, it is hard to bring up and difficult to find commands to use in it. Q3 however, following a tradition of console orientated customization, produced a uniquely powerful system to use. The console in Q3 remains the most important tool of Q3 players everywhere, and it's power is far greater than that of UT's menus. Console swings one for Q3! 2-1 to UT.

Graphics, this is where Q3 starts to dominate. UT was pretty impressive to most people, growing slightly on the original Unreal engine, but Q3 broke the mould. Depending on your graphics card Q3 can go from blurry mess to Picture perfect. But when it is good, it's amazing. On an ATI rage pro, the quality of graphics will be similar, UT might even have the edge, but stick anything decent in, and the Q3 graphics are nothing short of astounding. This is where Q3 really did the business, ID always forge new standards with their games and Q3 was no exception, people noticed! It became obvious that Q3 was the engine to use in future games, minor glitches and lack of polish overall were (and still are to a degree) shadowed by the sheer quality of the graphics. 2-2.

So the decider falls to gameplay. And the decision can never be resolved. This is the problem with this argument, and the reason it is so widely disputed, the games are very similar in standard, each with pros and cons, but gameplay varies enormously. Some prefer the slow, strategic gameplay of UT, with it's widely varying levels. Others like the all action, seat-of-your-pants reaction thrill of Q3, where levels are designed mainly for maximum gameplay value. The stark contrast is defined even in the guns; UT has varying weapons with unique traits, each defined for certain situations. Q3 basically allows you to pick up weapons that either shoot faster or are more powerful, with a little variation for interest. The differences are huge, and most people have their own reasons for liking either, many like both.

At FNF though, we obviously love Q3, why? because the speed and thrill is unique, there is just the right balance of skill and strategy, meaning the best man will always win. The graphics are amazing and the models are brilliantly individual. But most of all, you can tell it has the little spark of ID magic, which makes it all come together into the ultimate deathmatch experience. 

09/09/00

I'm certain I'll get much feedback on this one so I'll set up a reply section for it. This rant will be filled by arguing with replies, so reply if you love UT or Q3!

I do not hate Unreal Tournament, I do hate people who claim it is better than Quake 3. I do not hate people who think that it the best game ever, these people haven't played Quake 3 yet. Let's face it UT is one of the best games around, but Q3 is so much better, in fact Q1 is better in my mind for gameplay. Let me explain my main points:

UT gameplay is wank. The bots are stupid, they shoot walls, they get stuck in walls occasionally and they all look exactly the same, well almost exactly the same. Have you ever looked at the way a bot holds a weapon in UT, have you yet noticed how the gun will keep slicing through the bot's body? Have you noticed the way that most of weapon models are made of 2d surfaces? This is what bugs me about the bots, they are so clearly not finished. The UT guys could not have made it more obvious in my mind that they rushed UT to bring it out before Q3.

* * * *

UT graphics are not miles ahead of Q3. Firstly UT uses old graphics technology but rather than using 6 sided brushes for cylinders they use 32 sided brushes, on the other hand Quake 3 represents new graphics technology, curves mainly. For this reason UT looks slightly better 'cos it uses old methods, methods that are faster for running and easier to use, Q3 is more realistic in its graphics and hence suffers because curves are difficult to manipulate, especially in q3r which isn't a great map editor. To finish off this point the difference in appearance between UT and Q3 is tiny and future games based on the Q3 engine will look much better than any based on the UT engine because in Q3A the engine wasn't even fully exploited.

* * * *

The skill levels are ridiculously easy, as far as I can make out bots don't even move on the first one...

There will be more added here, it is a really hot topic and I want some response from you when I set up the reply page. In the mean time just mail me stuff.

FNF

Do you like UT more than Q3 for gameplay and graphics.

Then I would recommend that you play Quake 3 before making your decision.